| Full-time Undergraduate Program |
The details of the admissions process are the same for any elite
University. No surprise information is requested on the basic form for
the application. No unexpected exams are asked of the applicant. The
predictability ends there.
Brown lives up to its reputation for being the odd-man out among the
Ivies from day one of the application process. Last I checked they still
make students hand-write the essay. During my four years at the school I
never figured out why we do this. The essay itself is a general, open-
ended question. I think my essay question asked me to describe something
I loved. No one ever told me, but apparently Brown puts amazing emphasis
on people with passions-- and good handwriting.
Obviously it goes without saying that grades and test scores need to be
tops. They'd better be, because a lot of slots in the matriculating
class are reserved for athletes (don't let those sandals fool you, Brown
takes sports seriously) and legacy cases (legacies are twice as likely
to get in).
The interview was a pain, not because it was tough, but because no one
bothered to give me one. I had to call the school and find out what went
wrong. In literature classes, this is called foreshadowing. The
interview itself was wonderful. The woman with whom I met was courteous
and interested in what I had to say. Once again, I'd advise on
expressing a passion, but it has to be genuine.
Selectivity is amazing. Not only does Brown get the same applicants as
Harvard and Yale, but we throw a random factor into the equation. No one
really knows what turns our admissions officers' heads. There is
definitely a Brown quality, but I'm not sure what it is. Every student
at the school fits the broader Ivy-league, Ivy-plus stereotype, while
being on the fringe. We all just fit that stereotype. What does that
mean? No one knows, but a lot of students at Brown, whether it was their
first choice or not, later admit that they would not have fit in at any
other Ivy, and perhaps at any other school. Brown wasn't my first
choice, but it only took me a month to realize that in truth it was my
only choice.
The best advice for any student on getting in is to be yourself. That's
what Brown loves. What that also means is not trying to be what you
think the Brown stereotype is. It doesn't exist. Remember that for every
smelly kid with dreadlocks on our campus, there's a future investment
banker, and we all have that intangible something in common.
|
Brown University Admission & Application Surveys
