Brown University’s Class of 2029 Early Decision

For the class of 2029, Brown University, from a pool of 5,048 applicants, admitted 906 students, which is an admit rate of 18%. Interestingly, this is the highest that Brown has admitted in the last 6 years. This is in contrast to the 2028 statistics when Brown University had received 6,244 applications in the Early Decision round, and they admitted 898 students, which was an admit rate of 14.38%. https://www.ivycentral.com/a-comprehensive-analysis-of-browns-class-of-2028/

Testing Policy

Brown has reinstated the standardized testing. Hence, students had to submit their test scores for the year 2029. According to Browndailyherald.com, the university reinstated the test requirement in part because “some students from less advantaged backgrounds are choosing not to submit scores under the test-optional policy when doing so would increase their chances of being admitted,” according to an advisory committee on admissions practices.

Need Blind Review

Additionally, this year’s application pool saw a 22% increase in international students who benefitted from the need-blind review of their application for the first time in Brown’s history. President Christina Paxson commented that it was Brown’s mission to make education affordable for extraordinarily talented students from every income level. Needless to say, this is indeed transformational for students.

The shift to a need-blind policy for international students is a result of the changes to the admissions and financial aid policy at Brown. Importantly, the top countries represented by the admitted students are Canada, China, the United Kingdom, and India. Furthermore, 90 students accepted were via QuestBridge, a separate application that provides low-income students with a full-ride scholarship to highly selective universities.

A total of 22 students were accepted into the eight-year Program in Liberal Medical Education, a combined undergraduate and medical school program.

To get a context of the type of schooling the admitted students received, the University released the data, which mentions that 51.9% attended public schools, 35% attended private schools, and 12.58% attended religious schools. This is similar to the distribution of the class of 2028.

Brown has denied admission to 61.8%, and 17.8% were deferred to the regular decision pool.

With the first batch of the 2029 incoming batch in place, Brown’s admissions office is expected to review tens of thousands of regular decision applications submitted by the Jan. 3 deadline.