<p>HI!
I really love the concept of Brown's open curriculum. I have always struggled a little bit in school because i am very into maths and sciences but not so much into humanities. Because of this, my gpa is low for Brown:( For this reason, I will apply to Brown ED. </p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.5, weighted GPA: 3.9
SAT I: 800 math, 680 reading, 760 writing, 2240 total, one sitting.
SAT II: 800 math II, 800 spanish.
AP spanish test: 5</p>
<p>High level public school in Massachusetts/</p>
<p>Extra Curricular:
Club Soccer 10 years
Varsity soccer 3 years, captain senior year.
Guitar lessons 7 years, play flamenco and classical :)
Camp CIT at overnight camp for young kids.
Chess Club
Paid intern at local teen center to build website.
Cradles to Crayons Teen leader.
Paid tutor for SAT math and spanish.
Black belt in tae kwon do.</p>
<p>Ethnicity: Latino/hispanic (Mexican).
Gender: Male.
State: Massachusetts.
Major: Computer Science</p>
<p>Schools to chance:</p>
<p>Brown ED :)
Wesleyan
NYU
Brandeis
HYP
U mich
Umass Amherst
Swarthmore
Penn
Cornell
U rochester
Emory U</p>
<p>Thanks SOOOO MUCH!!</p>
<p>Im also gonna apply ED to brown! i love it too. i think u have a good shot bc of ur URM but ur gpa is a little low. still a low-mid reach for that reason ED. Chance me back for brown? </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=1513629”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=1513629</a></p>
<p>A 3.5 UW GPA is really, really low for Brown and being Hispanic might help a bit, but it’s no golden ticket for admission. What’s your class rank? Only about 2.7% of students below the top 10% of their class get accepted; you can assume that most of these admits either had significant awards at the state or national level or had unusual stories (recent immigrant from a war-torn country) or fulfilled other specialized institutional needs (top athlete in obscure sport, best applicant from an under-represented state).</p>
<p>I don’t think that applying to Brown ED is going to work for you. My guess is that you would just be deferred: you may have a chance, but I’d expect that Brown would want to look the entire applicant pool of academically-lopsided Hispanic computer science majors before making a final decision in your case; it also doesn’t help that you hail from an overrepresented state.</p>
<p>Amherst and Oberlin also have open curriculums, btw.</p>
<p>Hi LoremIpsum,
My school does not rank, and I am really not sure what percentile I am. Something that may help that i forgot to mention is that my sophomore year UW gpa was 3.2, and junior year ended at 3.8. This improvement is supposed to be good right?</p>
<p>Remember that every college has, by the numbers, what the average student looks like. They also explain what they look for in their holistic review.</p>
<p>Your GPA is low but your scores are pretty good- if you can get that reading score up over 700 you’ll be even better off. Your ECs are good but they could show even more leadership, and there isn’t a whole lot of comp sci-related stuff for someone looking to major in computer science. Your website-building internship is great, maybe you could expand more on those lines and work on other projects similar to that? If you do these things I think it could help overcome your low GPA and give you a better shot at getting into Brown. Good luck!</p>
<p>Chance me back?
[Chance</a> for Brown + other top schools?](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1514229-chance-brown-other-top-schools.html]Chance”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1514229-chance-brown-other-top-schools.html)</p>
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<p>Yes, it is. And your SAT and SAT II shows your strength in math. The problem is not that you are poor candidate to be dismissed outright. The problem is that, within the 30,000 competing applications, there are likely to be enough candidates stronger than you to make it tough for you to get in unless you have something unusual and distinctive in your portfolio of achievements. It’s not really the 9% acceptance rate that’s daunting – it’s that there are enough applicants to fill the school from the top one half of one percent of the nation’s students. </p>
<p>Schools like Brown don’t want all the smartest academics, however; they want athletes and musicians and poets, students from all backgrounds, from urban and rural areas, and from all states in the union plus many from overseas. Do you stand out in your ECs in a way that would offset your low GPA? Or do you have the same ECs that 10,000 other candidates have? There are, after all, 30,000 high schools, each with clubs and student government and sports teams and you can bet that everyone who applies to Brown will have participated in some of these.</p>
<p>Think like a member of the admissions committee for a second. If you have more than enough applicants in CS who have all-around high grades, why pick one (i.e., you) with a lopsided strength only in math and science? If you had a choice of dates, one smart and friendly and the other smart, friendly and extremely attractive, which would you choose, if you could only choose one?</p>
<p>Perhaps you can think of a “kicker” or create one this summer that will make you stand out from the crowd? Perhaps something showing leadership and an independent streak in community service? Brown likes self-directed learners and those that can thrive with minimal direction – such students can benefit from the open curriculum; others sometimes flounder from indecision when first presented with too much choice.</p>
<p>LoremIpsum,
I’d choose the extremely attractive one;)))
Anyway, thanks. I will look for something to set me apart. Something that I feel I have done to prove potential success in an open curriculum is that my senior year courses are:
AP calculus BC
AP computer science
AP physics C
AP statistics
economics
public speaking (english)</p>
<p>This must show that I would know what to do in an open curriculum, considering my courses are heavily math and science orientated.</p>
<p>The trick if your skill-set is lopsided is to load all the classes you are good at into your junior year and leave the challenging classes until senior year. That will raise your GPA during the critical period when your application is being evaluated. And the last semester of senior year, after you’ve been accepted, doesn’t matter much as long as you avoid Ds and Fs and get no more than a single C.</p>
<p>Xavihernandez, your senior schedule is strong. If you expect to get A’s in all these classes, maybe you should apply RD, so that the adcoms will be able to see your first half-year grades during the review process.</p>
<p>LoremIpsum, do you think that the boost from early decision is less significant than what the adcoms will see, given that i receive all As next year? Shouldn’t i just apply early decision and if deferred they will see my grades anyway. If not i’d be in so no harm right>?</p>
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<p>It might be more comforting to have a non-binding early acceptance in the bag from another school as you go into the long wait for RD results. You would have more time to upgrade ECs and community service leadership roles. There is also the possibility that Brown will deny you outright during ED rather than defer you and wait to see your grades in your best subjects.</p>
<p>No harm in trying . . . </p>
<p>Brown is a reach for almost everyone: Browns said no to ~84% of applicants with an 800 Math SAT</p>
<p>So be sure to apply to a school to two where you are a clear match and where they might even give you merit money to attend . . . which of your schools fit that category?</p>
<p>good luck!</p>