Brown is the “creative Ivy.” The other Ivy League schools might protest that label, but Brown’s open curriculum, location in Providence, Rhode Island, and interest in nurturing the creative sides of their students has made it a top choice for exceptional students who see the world through an artistic (although not necessarily artsy) lens. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was under 6%.
Like all colleges and universities interested in maintaining an impressive spot on the all-important rankings, Brown seeks to maximize “yield” in their admissions process while depressing the acceptance rate. This means that they want as low of an acceptance rate as they can get — and for as many of those they accept to say yes. That’s the yield: the percentage of accepted students who commit to attend. The waitlist serves as a buffer. If they let in too few students to fill the class after the yield shakes out, they can turn to the waitlist to make sure all seats are taken.
Over time, many schools have taken, however, to using the waitlists as a bit of a marketing tool as well. Having a competitive waitlist raises perceived exclusivity, and has contributed to colleges waitlisting far more students than they could ever in any universe need to pull off of the waitlist. There is no defensible purpose for delaying a final decision on all those applications, and yet it’s become a widespread practice.
It is not, however, a practice Brown follows. Instead of advertising the length of the waitlist, they keep it private.
Brown does not release the number of students offered a place on the waitlist, and they don’t say how many people accept a spot either. The only precise number that they give related to the waitlist each year is the number who are eventually offered admitted off of the waitlist. For the fall of 2024, that was 118. The year before it was 73. Before that, only 15. The pattern continues, spiking at times to just over 100 and dipping in other years to below 20.
This tells us that Brown doesn’t reliably let a steady number of applicants in off of the waitlist, and that they really don’t want you (or us) to know what the actual chance is of getting off of the waitlist. They have given away a little, though. In a 2021 piece for the Brown Daily Herald, it was reported that the Dean of Admission said the waitlist typically has 900-1,000 students on it.
If you were waitlisted by Brown, you need to know what to do next. Below, we’ll break down the steps you need to take to increase your chance of receiving an offer of admission.
We help driven students get off of the waitlist. Contact us to learn how.
STEP 1: PICK A SCHOOL
First, you need to accept that waitlist odds are very long. It is unlikely that you will get off of the Brown waitlist. Possible, but unlikely. So, you need a back-up plan. Confirm your spot at a college you were accepted by. It may feel frustrating, but this actually gives you the room to pursue getting off of the waitlist without the fear that you may not have somewhere to go in the fall.
STEP 2: JOIN THE WAITLIST
Next, you need to join the Brown waitlist. Do not assume that by being offered a spot on the waitlist you are now actually on the waitlist. Confirming your spot is the only way that you will be considered should a place in the first-year class open up.
STEP 3: REINFORCE YOUR INTEREST AND UPDATE ADMISSIONS
The third step is what can really unlock Brown for you. It can be easy to decide to stop trying. The college process is stressful, being waitlisted is a bummer, and you’re on it now. That’s enough, right? Wrong. If you want to get into Brown, you need to directly remind them of why you are such a strong fit.
We recommend doing this through a Letter of Continued Interest, or LOCI.
Each year, we help waitlisted students make their case for admission through a compelling LOCI. Despite the odds, it often works. That isn’t a fluke, it’s a system. A strong LOCI needs to be direct and concise, but have enough ‘you’ in it for them to feel your enthusiasm and dedication to Brown.
When working with students, we always start with a formal greeting. This is a letter, so it should be structured like one. Follow the formal greeting with a clear opening that restates who you are and what you want to study, reaffirms that Brown is your first choice, and leaves no doubt that you will attend if accepted. Saying that you will attend is not binding, but it is important. Brown will only accept a student off of the waitlist if they have zero doubt that the student will attend.
In the meat of the letter, you are going to update them on your academics and extracurriculars since they last heard from you. This should be about one paragraph for each: academics and extracurriculars. What really will guide how much you write here, though, is length on the page. The LOCI must be no more than one page in length with normal margins and size 12 font.
Close your LOCI with a formal closing. Write two sentences reinforcing again that Brown remains your first choice and end with a “Sincerely,” “Best,” or something similar.
Ultimately, writing a LOCI isn’t rocket science. However, pulling together an exceptional LOCI that leads to an improbable acceptance off of a length waitlist sort of is. We help students make it happen.
Getting in doesn’t just happen. It’s strategy. Email us to get yours.