<p>Directly from admissions ppl at Brown over the years:
Want to see:
- Taken classes at the highest level offered by that student’s school.
- relatively well rounded: English at highest level all years, 3 years of a language, science every year (level will depend on school. for instance at my students prep, almost none take AP level until senior year, but have “honors” level in chem,bio,physics before that, and rare to have 2 AP sciences.) Brown does expect calculus at schools highest level if applying in a concentration likely to have any math. (and have seen this be the reason for “borderline” student not getting in). These are the only “requirements” that ad coms have quoted to me as reasons for “not getting in” deficiencies. I have seen students with Stats as their “math” sr year, and no calculus, who were outstanding arts etc students get in, but that is a rare exception.
- Having a “go beyond” academic experience, which is not part of “well rounded” , but shows self motivation can be more “valuable” than any one “missing” well rounded course. ie the student who didn’t take all their usual high school science track because they were in a program doing a mentorship in a lab at the local university, or the arts student at a half day magnet school who only had 2 years of a language due to that time conflict. (these are the exception students and don’t worry if you haven’t done these things, it’s NOT expected!)</p>