2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Rhodies have edge getting into Brown
Alex Seitz-Wald
Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Campus News
On Monday, more than 2,000 students from across the county and the world were accepted to Brown. But when the class of 2012 arrives in Rhode Island this fall, they may be surprised by how many of their fellow first-years were already here.
The state is the 43rd most populous in the country, but the fifth most common home-state for the class of 2011. About 4 to 6 percent of Brown students hail from the Ocean State, despite the state accounting for only one-third of 1 percent of the country's population, according to the Office of Institutional Research and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Do Rhode Island applicants have a home-field advantage?
"All other things being equal," Dean of Admissions James Miller '73 said, "being from Rhode Island will tip the balance towards that applicant."
Miller, who said there is no policy, formula or quota concerning Ocean State applicants, compared the advantage of being a local resident to that of a top legacy applicant. "We feel an obligation to the state, and students and families from the state," he said.
"We want to be good citizens of the state, to educate the best students from the state," he added.
The dean mentioned that college-bound students nationally often choose schools within 100 miles of their homes. Brown is no different, he said.
Indeed, 22 percent of Brown's class of 2011 comes from New England, while an additional 30 percent call mid-Atlantic states home, according to the OIR.
Proximity was a selling point for Jeff Knowles '10, a Middletown native, when he was applying to colleges. "I just didn't feel like going on a long college tour," he said.
He was also attracted to Brown's strong sailing team, he said via telephone from the Edgewood Yacht Club in Cranston, where the team practices. Knowles said he has been sailing on the Narragansett Bay "all my life," and that he liked the prospect of continuing to sail on the bay.
For Malay Khamsyvoravong '09, however, location played the opposite role. The Barrington High School alum said she "partly didn't want to go to Brown" because she had spent so much time in Providence and around Brown's campus that she thought about trying something new. Ultimately, she decided to stay in Rhode Island, but for reasons unrelated to location.
The state is the 43rd most populous in the country, but the fifth most common home-state for the class of 2011. About 4 to 6 percent of Brown students hail from the Ocean State, despite the state accounting for only one-third of 1 percent of the country's population, according to the Office of Institutional Research and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Do Rhode Island applicants have a home-field advantage?
"All other things being equal," Dean of Admissions James Miller '73 said, "being from Rhode Island will tip the balance towards that applicant."
Miller, who said there is no policy, formula or quota concerning Ocean State applicants, compared the advantage of being a local resident to that of a top legacy applicant. "We feel an obligation to the state, and students and families from the state," he said.
"We want to be good citizens of the state, to educate the best students from the state," he added.
The dean mentioned that college-bound students nationally often choose schools within 100 miles of their homes. Brown is no different, he said.
Indeed, 22 percent of Brown's class of 2011 comes from New England, while an additional 30 percent call mid-Atlantic states home, according to the OIR.
Proximity was a selling point for Jeff Knowles '10, a Middletown native, when he was applying to colleges. "I just didn't feel like going on a long college tour," he said.
He was also attracted to Brown's strong sailing team, he said via telephone from the Edgewood Yacht Club in Cranston, where the team practices. Knowles said he has been sailing on the Narragansett Bay "all my life," and that he liked the prospect of continuing to sail on the bay.
For Malay Khamsyvoravong '09, however, location played the opposite role. The Barrington High School alum said she "partly didn't want to go to Brown" because she had spent so much time in Providence and around Brown's campus that she thought about trying something new. Ultimately, she decided to stay in Rhode Island, but for reasons unrelated to location.