I'm considering applying ED to Brown and I'd like to know my chances. I want to become a financial engineer so I'm applying as an applied math-economics with a concentration in financial math (I'll apply RD if I don't apply ED).
I finished my senior year in HS and I'm taking a gap year this year. During my gap year, I'll be pursuing two internships, one in economics and one in finance. If you want more details on my plans for the year, I can send them to you by a PM.
Also, I won’t be posting my entire application on this thread. If you would like to chance me, please send me a PM so I can give you the rest of the information.
Objective:
SAT I: 2320
SAT II: 800's on two tests, including Math II
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): Between 3.75 and 3.8 - My GPA really sucks, but I have a decent upward trend and a really rigorous course-load. In fact, my GPA is a 3.85 if you don't count freshman year.
AP: Took 14 AP exams, none of which were self-studied (this should give you some idea of my course-load). I took 8 exams in junior year alone.
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): My school doesn't rank, but probably in top 10 to 15%
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist, US Physics Olympiad Semifinalist, many state-level awards in physics and econ
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): member of a few math and business clubs (with some leadership positions), national honor society, orchestra pit, organized a concert that raised over $9000 for charity.
Job/Work Experience: I've had three internships so far in computer science and finance, and one of them was paid.
I’ll send details by PM of my EC’s, internships, summer activities, additional recs, and volunteer experience.
Other:
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: M
High School Type: Public
Last edited by FateGoneAwry16; 09-09-2012 at 10:25 PM.
I took 12 AP classes including Econ and Physics C. At my school, Econ covers Macro and Micro and Physics C covers Mechanics and E&M so I was able to take 14 exams.
To be honest though, I'm starting to doubt if ED confers a significant advantage at Brown. Last year, Brown had the lowest ED acceptance of any Ivy-League school that offers ED. In addition, the Brown daily herald stated that 150 of the ED applicants were recruiting athletes, 99% of whom are guaranteed admission.
If you remove recruited athletes from the ED pool, the overall acceptance rate drops to 15% based on the numbers reported by the Herald. Also, I'm sure that ED attracts MANY highly qualified applicants who are trying to get into PLME.
Based on these points, it seems like ED isn't that big of a boost at Brown. I really like the university, but I'm starting to wonder if it should be my ED choice. Is there something I'm missing here, or is my analysis correct?
You are right (and some of us having been saying this for years) -- ED is not as much of a boost as everyone thinks. It's mainly due to athletes and legacies -- I don't think PLME would be the reason.
However, this will be the case at every school which recruits athletes, which is a lot of schools. You can run this analysis at the other Ivies that have ED (I've actually seen it done for Dartmouth).
Your ED choice, by the way, should be the school that is your number one choice.
@fireandrain, the same could be said of other Ivies, but I think its especially important at Brown because the ED acceptance rate is only 19%. UPenn, Cornell, and Dartmouth accept over 25% ED, so the ED bump is still significant at those colleges (especially Cornell).
UPenn and Cornell's RD acceptance rate is higher than Brown's, so the fact that their ED acceptance rate is higher than Brown's is meaningless in terms of a "bump." I don't know anything about Cornell, but you should look into the UPenn ED acceptance rate, because it is heavily skewed by legacy acceptances. And there are stats about Dartmouth's ED acceptances that would also indicate there's not much advantage to applying ED if you're not legacy, development or recruited
After decades of interviewing students and being involved in Brown admissions, I know that there is absolutely positively no way to "chance" someone anonymously on the internet. The only person who could chance you accurately is a Brown admissions officer, and the only way that will happen is if you apply.
How did you take 14 AP classes?
