Stressed junior looking for advice on how to get into brown

fireandrain
Sat, 10 Sep 2016 01:00:39 +0000

lilinitique: As of this moment (with only 2 years of HS under your belt) you are doing everything humanly possible to gt into a selective school. Your grades and test scores are stellar, your courses rigorous, your ECs solid. I understand that things have gotten so competitive that many students like you are stressing out – which I think is a sorry comment on college admissions.

Your junior year is very important. It’s also when courses get harder. I’ve known students like you who suddenly saw their grades drop because classes got more difficult. That could happen to you. I’ve also known students like you who suddenly decided that they wanted to start having some fun and the impact on their grades affected their application decisions.

My point is that junior year is still a little early to get really focused on one school because so much can happen, and so much can change.

Given that, here’s my advice:

1. Stop thinking so much about college. Stop writing your essay in your head. Don't do something because it might help you get into college. Do things because you love them, because you care, because you want to learn, because you want to improve yourself and your community.

2. Pick one or two ECs and really focus on them. Go deep instead of going broad. You're spreading yourself too thin. For the ECs you decide to focus on -- dive in. Make them better. Improve your community. Make a difference. Brown doesn't want to see a laundry list of clubs. It wants to know how you are going to make the Brown community better, and it gauges that by seeing the impact you had on your community (which can be defined as your school, your church, your neighborhood, your state -- however you want to define it).

3. Get close to a couple of teachers so they'll write truly wonderful recommendations for you.

4. Don't spend too much time on College Confidential -- it'll only stress you out more.

5. Have the financial discussion with your parents. If you get into Brown, can they afford to send you? Make sure to fill out the net price calculator for all the colleges you are interested in.

Good luck.