<p>Are they using it to gauge interest in the school or merely for statistical purposes? </p>
<p>I was thinking about writing about my friend and his family…I’m really close with them (his mom calls me her “second daughter”) and since both his parents went to Brown, they have raved about it to me for years. My friend also got accepted ED so even more Brown talk from that family. </p>
<p>Sooooooo, pretty much all my info about Brown originated from them. Does this sound like an appropriate answer? I’d, of course, elaborate on the different things they’ve told me, etc.</p>
<p>yes I have the same question.
I've known about brown my entire life and I've known that I was going to apply there since I was like 10. I don't know how to answer this one</p>
<p>i was wondering the same thing.
i think it might be for their marketing strategies. i would just be honest with this question, i mean, what are they going to judge you on? your answer is certainly appropriate, imo.</p>
<p>I actually didn't do 2 sentences. I wrote a legit paragraph on how I found out about brown and attached it to why I wanted to go to brown based on what I found. Even though this overlaps with the prompt above it, I decided to focus on "Why Brown based on my academic interests" for that one and the more generic "Why brown based on what you know about the campus" for the 2nd prompt.</p>
<p>My interpretation is that the question is part of their attempt to gauge interest in the school. It's often discarded as typical or not particularly stand-out, but it can attract both negative and positive attention.</p>
<p>Ditto what modestmelody said (and what I've written here several times recently -- use the search function!).</p>
<p>Some applicants answer this in one or two words ("guidance counselor"). I've also seen pagelong answers. I think it can be used to express your level of interest, and that's how I would approach it.</p>
<p>I wouldn't get too concerned about the consequences of your answer to this question. Frankly, for an Ivy, Brown already knows that most applicants have had their eye on the school for quite some time, as posters above indicate, having known about the Ivy League for many years. However, I'd just take the question at face value and answer candidly. No big explanation necessary.</p>
<p>Be honest. But remember, you can choose what to be honest about. </p>
<p>After all, we've all had people tell us about it and all have visited the website. I personally made mine a little special. Never hurts to add some personality in it EVEN if it's used for marketing purposes.</p>
<p>If you can make the adcoms not skip over this question, you'd have done something good for yourself.</p>
Does this sound like an appropriate answer? I’d, of course, elaborate on the different things they’ve told me, etc.</p>