If you recently found that that you were rejected from Brown in the Early Decision round, you’re allowed to be really frustrated, sad, and confused. You worked hard. You did all the things you felt you had to do to be a competitive applicant. And yet, it didn’t work. You aren’t alone, though. The overall Class of 2029 first year acceptance rate for Brown was only 5.65%. The ED acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 can feel sky high at 17.9%, which was the highest ED acceptance rate in over 5 years, but you need to take that number with a massive handful of salt. Let us explain why 17.9% isn’t actually 17.9%, and help you take your best next steps.
It is true that past trends can inform present realities, but what’s happened before aren’t actually rules that Brown has to follow into the future (nor in the ‘right now’ you are experiencing in this moment).
For the 2025-2026 application cycle, we expect that the Brown ED acceptance rate will be between 15% and 19%. However, you need to remember that the ED cycle that you were a part of included a bunch of applicants who are quite a bit, well, different. There are athletes, children of Brown employees, faculty, and donors, and other who knew that, as long as they applied ED, they had a pretty good chance of being accepted. There is also a (statistically) large cohort of Questbridge students admitted ED by Brown annually. This means that the elevated acceptance rate is real, but it’s really not as high as it looks for most applicants.
Knowing the real acceptance rate was lower isn’t super helpful when the rejection still stings. You may be wondering, instead, “but why?!” Unfortunately, you can’t know exactly why you didn’t get into Brown. But there are a few common possibilities. Most students admitted for the Class of 2029 had an SAT well above 1500. Most admitted students also had an ACT above 32, and 95% were in the top 10% of their graduating class. If you don’t measure up to any of these stats, that could help explain the rejection. If you did check those boxes, though, there is something else that made them feel that you weren’t a fit for Brown.
There is nothing we can do to fix that now, of course, but we can move forward from this moment with a set of tools and a plan of action that will ensure that subsequent colleges don’t make that same mistake. Below, we break down your next steps for your best possible college application outcomes from this point forward.
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Step One: Take a Break
First, you need to give yourself a moment to grieve. Something unpleasant happened, and it’s important that you process that before you rush to move on. By letting yourself be bummed, you also speed up the timeline for doing even better work on the rest of your applications. So, watch a guilty-pleasure movie, eat a bowl of ice cream, go for a few long walks with a good friend, and get a really good night of sleep (or two).
Being kind to yourself with help you write stronger essays and tell deeper stories, so recharging is a super important step that absolutely should not be skipped.
Step Two: Strategize
Once you feel rested, even if not relaxed, it’s time to create a new strategy for your college application process. If you were accepted to a school (or more than one) Early Action, you may not have to rethink your college list too much. You have options, and so you can use the next round of applications to take some big swings. Being rejected from one Ivy caliber school does not mean that you cannot get into another — if you have the grades and scores, of course.
If you do not have an EA acceptance in your pocket, though, you need to move forward a bit more carefully. You have one more go of this, and you need to have options in the spring that you’d be excited, or at least happy, to attend. That means having 2 or 3 foundation, or safety, schools that you are very unlikely to be rejected from based on past data, not only a gut ‘feeling’. Then you need 4-5 schools that are a strong fit, but that you can’t assume that you’ll get into. For these schools, your grades and scores align with previously accepted students, and your area of demonstrated interest speaks to something that they emphasize. For example, if you are applying to a strong research university it really helps if you have previous research experience that you can talk up in your application.
But what about the big dream schools that are a bit out of reach? There is no reason to give up on a reach school yet. We advise students in this position to focus on 2-3 reach schools that they can invest time into the applications for. Even better if one of these is a close reach and offers an Early Decision II option.
Applying Early Decision II is the most powerful tool you have right now in your tool kit. We don’t advise students to pick a first-choice school solely based on the EDII option, but if a school that you are excited about has EDII it’s worth seriously considering.
As you assess what schools to keep on your list, and which to add, try to be open to different places and even different types of schools than you previously considered. Don’t apply to anywhere that you feel really wouldn’t work for you, but take the time to consider some new cities, vibes, and structures.
Step Three: Essays
If you have the grades and scores for Brown, it is possible that the reason you were rejected is that the stories that you told didn’t resonate with the application readers. And even if your grades and scores are slightly lower than the Brown targets, your essays definitely didn’t convince the application readers otherwise.
Either way, it’s time for a rewrite. Yes, we mean everything. We work with students who were rejected ED to start their applications over from scratch, leading to exceptional outcomes in the Regular Decision round — including acceptances to Brown and other Ivies. How do we do this? We work with students to write essays that make it hard for application readers to say no, and easy to say yes.
A great essay tells a personal story that is focused, that uses compelling storytelling tools like dialog, imagery, and dynamic structure, and that communicates who you are and what you value. A strong college essay is not a narrative resume. It connects to the reader on a personal level, and makes them feel invested in who you are. Trying to pack a ton in with some sort of cheesy “this is what I learned”-type ending does not work. Those type of essays hurt an applicant’s chances of getting in rather than helping.
When we are working with students, it’s all about making each piece of the application a useful addition that pushes the readers toward an enthusiastic acceptance. This is possible even on a tight timeline, so don’t throw in the towel and work with what you have because of impending due dates. Give each application the time it needs to get the best possible outcomes.
Step Four: Ask For Help
Perhaps unsurprisingly, step four is to ask for help. We can help, obviously, but if you don’t have access to an expert counselor, you should be speaking with your most trusted teachers, mentors, or a grown-up in your life who tells stories in some way as part of their career. Doing college essays in a vacuum is not a good idea, and your parents and siblings are extremely biased. Getting an outside eye can be critical to achieving your best possible outcomes.
We work with strong students to create impressive applications that lead to outstanding outcomes — even after an early rejection. A dream school is still possible, but you need to take bold moves to make it happen.
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