<p>It’s been a while since I’ve been here…but now that I’m back, I’m here to help out future applicants to Brown =) So let me direct this thread toward you, especially to those with chance threads! Believe me, I’ve gone through the same process as you and was constantly chancing myself internally and looking for some opinions externally as well. But having emerged from the process successfully, there are several points about the application process I would like to make for all future applicants to Brown. Personally, I had the “minimum” stats as you would call them: SATs, SAT IIs, a strong courseload, and strong grades; however, what was in my resume wasn’t particularly mind blowing or stellar. A lot of you applicants have very, very impressive awards and experiences from renowned institutions. While this is a great asset to your application, you have to know the admissions officers you are marketing yourself to know absolutely nothing about you (in all likelihood) or your achievements aside from what you tell them. I recommend putting a (very) short section of your resume that details what skills you have learned from the activities you listed. And by short I mean no more than a sentence long. At the very least, the admissions officers will have a better idea of what the activity was and what it meant to you. Now for the essays–I cannot stress enough the importance of the essays, especially for a school like Brown with clearly defined principles and qualities. You need to not only bring out the best of your activities, experiences, observations, or whatever, in your essays- you need to show how these experiences will make you a successful college student within the framework of Brown’s open curriculum and within its social atmosphere. Imagine if you were a five-time Olympic gold medalist in rowing applying to, say, a job in banking (bear with me). It may be great that you have such great accomplishments…but what do they mean for the place you are applying to? They’re not even relevant! In terms of applying to colleges, it may seem most colleges have the same principles and opinions about what makes a great applicant. However, it is more subtle; each college likes to think they’re unique for whatever reason, and this will become more and more evident as you research it. Knowing this, research Brown and any other colleges you may apply to in and out, and voice to the admissions officers, through your essays, why you feel you are a fit for their school. If you keep this in mind, rather than getting overly preoccupied with the numerical aspect of the application, you will have a more productive, and likely, more successful college application process.
I’m here for questions, by the way, So don’t think this chunky paragraph is the last you’ve seen of me!</p>
<p>What did you write your essays about? In what style did you write them (was it more show than tell)?</p>
<p>yes please tell</p>
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<p>That’s what you want to be doing for any essay (showing rather than telling), not just Brown’s.</p>
<p>where do you attach a “resume”? or are you speaking of the Activities list?</p>
<p>Where can I start to research the different feels of each school?</p>
<p>(Some more from Brown '15)</p>
<p>I’ll be honest, I’ve forgotten what I wrote my essays about, and I lost the files about 3 days after I had applied. What I do remember is that my main essay described how I came to be interested in my field, and it was formatted like a story. It was a short autobiography whose scope was limited to my most important interests and exploits and their relation to each other.</p>
<p>I don’t see this piece of advice offered here enough, but I suppose that’s a product of the type of person who would be drawn to this board (moderately obsessive Type A people): Don’t overdo it. Relax a little. To be completely honest, admission anywhere is contingent on you winning a mini-lottery even if you’re the most qualified person in the application pool, so spend your time being human. If your essays to admissions flesh you out as a well-rounded human being with passions and interests (particularly in whatever you’re planning on pursuing), you’ll be as well off as you can possibly hope to be.</p>
<p>The OP in this thread made several insightful comments, and there are two things in particular I’d like to rehash:</p>
<p>First, I don’t think a list- or traditionally-formatted resume (even a short one) is a particularly good way to go. Find a way to work those activities and experiences into your essay anyway. If they don’t fit in anywhere, it’s unlikely that they’re really applicable to the rest of your story anyway. The weekend you spent at kick-boxing camp where you learned about discipline and eastern philosophy isn’t important to your discovery of mathematics or Shakespeare if you can’t explain it in a sentence, and have that sentence woven into your essay in a non-awkward way.</p>
<p>Second, making it clear how your experiences will make you a successful BROWN STUDENT is, well… the point. The other advice in this post is essential for your applications in general, but when applying to Brown, tell them why you like Brown! In case the following is not obvious, I’ll point it out anyway: simply “It’s an Ivy League school” is a bad reason. If that’s the only reason you’re applying, go apply to HYP with the other people doing nothing but resume building. You aren’t what Brown is looking for. Brown wants divergent thinkers with broad interests and the passion, motivation, and raw talent to excel at all the things they love. Be that person, explain why Brown will help you grow as such, and you’re golden.</p>
<p>Hopefully, some of that is invaluable advice… I’ll stick around for questions.</p>
<p>I spent 3 months on my essays, that’s why they’re the best part of my application hehe… I’ll be glad to answer questions too~</p>
<p>Why did you need to spend three months on your essays? Was it just editing, or did the idea really take that long to formulate?</p>
<p>By contrast, I wrote all the essays for the five schools I applied to in the two days immediately before the application deadline. Do as I say, not as I do…</p>
<p>I suppose it would have been nice to have some time to go back and edit them while I wasn’t so close, but I’ve never been big on editing. I’m sure it didn’t take AmazingOnline that time to formulate the ideas. That time was spent on little tweaks and changes to ensure that they expressed exactly what they wanted to submit.</p>
<p>Hey I was accepted to Brown this year too and I’m going there this fall =) As far as essays go I spent a few months on my main common app one, but most of that time was just me going about my normal activities waiting for ideas to come to me. I wrote my main essay about how I’m inspired by Lady Gaga (it was actually really good haha) and I think I wrote my other one about taking an online college class even though everybody told me I’d fail. Basically you don’t have to have done a ton of crazy awesome things to write an essay about…just write about what you love and it will be a great essay =)</p>
<p>Formulating the idea took a great deal of time more than actually writing the essays, but it definitely made writing them feel less forced. Therefore, I’d definitely want to start at least thinking about what to write right now rather than waiting. But if you’re the type of writer who 1. Does not need much time to create effective writing and 2. Most importantly knows what the point of the essay is, which is to relate why you would fit in at Brown (which I mentioned repeatedly because it is an obvious point that many, many lose sight of in the midst of the hysteria of applying), then you probably won’t need more than a month to figure it all out.</p>
<p>As far as writing essays goes for college applications in general, you need to know, whether you’re applying to 15 schools or 1 school, admissions officers aren’t just looking at you as someone who will enter their college and just attend classes. They’re looking for distinct ways someone with your principles, motives, and accomplishments could both fit in and impact the school. As you’ve probably heard before, don’t feel forced to write about a particular idea; stick with something that seems natural. A good measure of this would be the amount of time it actually takes to write your essay; my actual common app essay took me less than an hour to actually write, as opposed to my other common app essay, which took me days. I wrote about my love for heavy metal and how it showed my open-mindedness. I also placed in other aspects of my life, such as my personal conflict between religion and science and being a first generation student with Indian parents, that I’ve learned to accept and be open to. Editing made the transition between these seemingly scattered topics flow more.</p>
<p>I, like many others, once used to be obsessed with small differentials in test scores and how they would impact my chances of acceptance. But after discussions with my counselor and a true realization of why I was filling all this information out, it became clear what was truly important–adding a human face to the application and being able to most effectively MARKET yourself. This may sound like advice you’ve heard time and time again, but trust me, in the midst of applying, it’s easy to lose sight of it and let it adversely impact the quality of your app.</p>