bigpacifisteyes

I am a senior who only recently researched Brown and realized that it seems pretty perfect, academically. I was mainly planning to apply to in-state schools but Brown seems to offer everything that I'm interested in and I think I would really make the best of the open curriculum. The thing is that I am definitely not a kid who has been primed for Ivy league admission. I'm not super disadvantaged or anything, but I've always gone to public schools, don't have family or friends who've gone to Ivy league schools, didn't take SAT prep classes, etc.

I am, however, really self-motivated, do tons of volunteer/activist work as well as a part-time restaurant job, write well (which means statewide awards for writing as well as having pretty good college essays), and am graduating a semester early and spending the second semester doing grassroots volunteer work with indigenous communities in southern Mexico. But my GPA is only 3.7 (4.1 weighted) with a dip in grades in junior year (due to laziness/depression/parents' divorce- terrible excuses, I know). Plus I transferred this year to a really unprestigious, independent study school. This was my only option to graduate early, and I also take community college classes, but nevertheless the school is essentially a dropout prevention program. We get pizza parties for turning in all our work and most assignments include questions about "How did the reading make you feel?"

I am not so much asking what my chances are, as I am if Brown pays a lot of attention to things like essays and general "pizazz" and how well the student would fit with the school (I'm really independent and self-motivated). Are these aspects considered for all applicants or really only used for "tiebreakers" between the kids with the top grades? I'm not sure if I should apply because I'm afraid I'd be flat out rejected as soon as they saw my transcript. I know it's impossible to know these things for sure-- getting into top colleges is mysterious, a crap shoot, etc. But does anyone have any idea about this?

daveb

Brown prides itself on looking at applicants in a holistic manner. That means everything, from character to grades to talent, counts. You will never know what kind of student they seek for a particular year, as it varies (to the point that they seem incredibly random for admissions choices) based on needs for specific students, as decided on by the administration.

They do promise to read through your entire application at least twice, though. If you have something they like, you could make the cut. You just never know.

ClaySoul

Essays clearly matter, pizazz probably does too.

But as far as fit? It's too hard to determine from a college application, I think, to factor into admissions decisions.

p.s. I am the master of all that is pizazz (I'll explain if you want) but got rejected two times before getting accepted as a transfer. I think it has an effect, but a little one. And a lot of people have pizazz, and different admis officers have different ideas of what pizazz is.

onegoodgirl

Don't get discouraged. I'm just a lowly ED-applicant myself, but you sound like a really interesting individual. I've heard that Brown likes non-traditional, off-the-beaten-track types (as a matter of fact, I am one myself), so I'd say go for it. Who knows? You sound like you have a good chance to me.