Would I get into Brown University in 2017?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a high school Junior in NY and I am from Hong Kong, studying as a international student in a private school

I took the November SAT and the score came out yesterday,
It was my first time taking SAT and WITHOUT any preparations
I got 1810, which breaks down into:
Reading 540 Math 710 Writing 560 Essay 8
I am gonna take one more on January and potentially I would get around 2000 hopefully 2100 with my tutor’s help
I am also gonna take the New SAT before summer and after summer

My dream school is Brown University,
Just wondering if there is any possibility for me to get in.

Here is some information about me

  • Toefl 103
  • Sophomore GPA 3.5 (My first year in US), Junior GPA till now 4.0 and I would work assiduously to make it last (Maximum GPA is 4.0 in our school since it doesn't offer any AP or Honor courses)
  • Taking AP Micro & Macro Econ and AP Statistics by my own (My school DOES NOT offer any APs) and I took AP Psychology and got a 5
  • Have taken an SAT subject test Math I and I got 750
  • Captain of Varsity soccer team this year and probably next year as well, captain of my own team in Hong Kong, and we won many cups and titles
  • Won the "Academic Star of the County League" (For students who play well and consistently on the field and exceed in classrooms at the same time, 20 players out of 800 players)
  • Proficient saxophone skills, have perforemend several times publically
  • Chinese National Second Level Swim athlete (50m Free Style 26.76s), and won several medals
  • Chinese National First level Water polo athlete, Player of Guangdong (Province level) water polo team
  • Top 4 FIFA 15 players in NY state and I have been getting a lot of rewards (Yes, it is a video game)
  • Member of Math Olympia and Jazz Band and Vice president of School newspaper
  • Member of MENSA International (Organization for top 2% IQ group) since this september And I am still developing, everybody around me says that I have got great potentials, hopefully thats true and I can fully develop my potentials

Is it possible for me to get in at the end of next year??

Thanks for responding, feel free to express your opinions!

2

See if you might be a recruited athlete at any of the colleges you’re looking at (including Brown).

If not, I’d have to put your chances at 1% or thereabouts, given your SAT score and a GPA that’ll likely be on the low end of 3.8 (or in the high 3.7s) when you apply.

3

Thank you for responding! But did u fully go through what I wrote?

4

Anybody?? :wink:

5

yes, see if you can be an athlete for brown. if you can then admission is guaranteed. if not, then I’d say you have a shot, although it’ll still be a reach. the Mensa and the musical ability will definitely stand out to them. apply! luck!

6

and you know what. there are plenty of great colleges that will probably admit you. I used to want to go to an Ivy but the reality is that if you don’t submit to the SJW rhetoric they have, you won’t like it there very much (i.e. if you’re not a teenager up your own ass and don’t blindly follow what they believe). the environment there is extremely elitist and ideologically liberal. not that there’s much wrong with having radical beliefs (I’m a libertarian socialist myself, though not exactly “liberal”), but you get what I’m saying. apply to more balanced and rational atmospheres.

7

@ryanzhang9 Yes, I went through your post in full.

Even if you maintain a 4.0 all year, unless there’s more to the story (freshman GPA), you’re likely to end up with a 3.7 or 3.8 when you apply - in fall/early winter of your senior year - which is below-average for Brown.

With your SAT score, your chances at any Ivy are low. I’m not saying it can’t improve, but as it stands now that score will handicap your application - even more so given the number of Asian applicants at many top schools.

I would advise against putting MENSA on your application (see below).

Your extracurriculars, condensed, look like this:

-Soccer captain
-Swimming
-Water polo
-FIFA
-Saxophone player
-VP of school newspaper
-Member of some clubs (being a member rarely makes a difference - colleges want to see leadership/accomplishments)

You’ve obviously had some success in your sports, but they’ll be treated like any other club unless you’re recruited. Your saxophone playing (and other clubs) can’t hurt, but there are more than a few applicants to Ivy League schools who’ve performed at Carnegie Hall or who have similar accolades.
FIFA 15 is certainly an unusual extracurricular for Brown applicants, so it’ll make you seem a little less “cookie-cutter.” That’s good! Even so, it won’t serve as a hook.

These extracurriculars aren’t shabby by any means, but they aren’t close to what most students admitted to Brown with sub-2000 SAT scores would have. The only part of your application that seems like a potential hook is your athletic angle. Contact the coaches at Brown if you think you could be a recruited athlete.

Unless that’s the case, however, with the SAT scores you have right now Brown is a high reach (very low chance), as it is for 99% of the population.

@okon2122 Mensa will not help a college application (see threads below).

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/460850-mensa.html

Here, an MIT admissions officer confirms this: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/1478418-is-being-a-mensa-member-a-reward-extracurricular.html

8

Thank you for responding! If I get a 2000-2100 in January and 1450-1500 out of 1600 in the new SAT next year would it help on my application?

9

Well, I don’t understand. Why don’t they consider standardized tests as “just being good at taking tests” like they do MENSA? conceptually they’re both similar in what they’re criticizing. SAT is even more of a “how good are you at taking tests” than MENSA. I’d argue that scoring highly on an IQ test really doesn’t mean you’re just a good test taker, it takes a certain kind of brain to find the answer.

10

Honestly I am very surprised after seeing the comments. I thought I was pretty excellent among the people around me, but realistically I am still far from the standard of Brown of the Ivys :wink:

11

Brown’s SAT midranges for CR and M last year: 660-770 and 670-780, respectively.

http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/institutional-research/sites/brown.edu.about.administration.institutional-research/files/uploads/CDS_2014-2015.pdf

The average SAT score was about 2150, but below-average scores are usually “hooked” admits - URM, legacy, recruited athletes, first-generation college students, low-income. Other hooks (less common) include being someone with a special talent (e.g. Emma Watson, Brown class of '14), having exceptional achievements (such as International Physics Olympiad medals), having parents who are close friends of the dean of admissions, or being Malia Obama.

In the absence of a hook, you want to aim for the 75th percentile to have a good chance - and these universities are even more competitive for Asian applicants, as they’re an ORM (over-represented minority). So unfortunately, it’ll take a 2200+ or a score in the vicinity of 1500 to have something approximating a good chance (which, at Ivies, still means 10% or so for most applicants).

@okon2122 Standardized tests are only the tip of the iceberg. One can make a good case that half the hooks I listed above really don’t say anything about a student’s academic abilities - especially the last two - but the college admissions process is nonsensical in the extreme in more ways than I could list in an hour.

Although it should be noted that nobody gets into Brown thanks to high standardized test scores - those just save you from immediate rejection.

12

@ryanzhang9 how did you get ranked like that for FIFA? Do they have a statewide tournaments in NY or something?

13

Yes they do and actually internationally. The FIFA 15 cup last year was in Münich