I’m an international student, and I feel like I’m the perfect fit for Brown, which is why I’m applying ED. My sister is graduating this year. If I mention her in my essays, will it improve my chances of getting in?
It seems like it would be almost irresistible for an adcom to look up the sibling’s performance, though
I have a child at Brown, and it certainly appears that there are a lot of siblings on campus. Whether that anecdotal evidence means anything is anyone’s guess; it could just be evidence that larger proportions of students apply to schools attended by their sibling, and the actual acceptance rate of siblings is the same as the general pool. I have a feeling that international students will get even less bang out of the sibling connection, but it certainly can’t hurt to mention.
Isn’t there a place to put it in your application, or is it just your essay? If Brown doesn’t even have a check box for it, that probably tells you a lot about how little value they place in it.
You wouldn’t need to mention it in an essay- and I’m not sure how relevant it would be there, anyway. There is a section on the Common App where you list siblings, their level of education. For your sister, that will include Brown. They may also still have a “Why Us?” or something similar.
Anecdotally, my younger sibling was a strong candidate for Brown, but was not admitted. It’s not going to give you much of an extra pull - you’re admitted on your own merits.
Brown used to consider sibling connection legacy, but that apparently changed a few years ago. If one of the reasons you’re applying is because of her experience, mention it in your why Brown essay.
Look at post #2. If an applicant were on the fence, the fact that another sib is already enrolled could either be a plus or minus – here’s what I mean. Let’s say the older sib was admitted from a previously unknown school, i.e. the admit factors were a little hazy but still enough to offer admit. Older sib comes to Yale and is failing miserably. Younger sib’s transcript/scores/rest of file – looks the same. Yale may not be as willing to take a 2nd chance – because indications are that the HS preparation isn’t enough, despite high grades. The opposite is true too. Maybe older sib is performing beyond all expectations. This will then give confidence to the veracity of younger sib’s HS achievements
Is it fair? Not really. But sometimes the committee members are looking for any sort of confirmatory info to decide tough cases.
I would be surprised if Brown admissions has time to go back and investigate how the sibling turned out among the thousands of other Brown students. In fact, I doubt they would have access to the pertinent facts, e.g., the sibling’s grades at Brown. It’s not going hurt the sibling applicant unless the older sibling got kicked out or arrested or something really egregious that would come to the attention of admissions.
@ninimini16 Wondering how ED went for the OP at Brown.