Quirky academic

thefunnything
Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:26:04 +0000

You get the full range at Brown, just as you will at any top school. I’ve met published authors, kids who have won international math olympiads, and nationally-acclaimed musicians. Hundreds of them apply; some get in.

I’ve also met many more people who were great students at normal high schools and who did a handful of ECs, but nothing out of the ordinary. Some of them are from unusual backgrounds, and some are fairly standard applicants. The adcom knows that we typically apply to college when we’re seventeen or eighteen years old; most kids won’t have racked up life-changing experiences, landed jobs usually given to applicants five years out of grad school, or won the Nobel prize. Some people have, and that’s awesome, but no college is going to accept a class composed entirely of those applicants.