It's still hard to get into Brown. But it's still a little easier to do it through early decision.
On Thursday the University sent good news to 555 of its 2,461 early decision applicants to the Class of 2012, accepting 22.6 percent.
The Office of Admission mailed decision letters Thursday, and students were able to see their decisions online at 5 p.m.
The early acceptance rate fell .1 percent from last year, though the number of early applicants rose about 6 percent, from 2,307 to 2,461. Dean of Admission James Miller '73 said it was coincidental that admission officers accepted about the same percentage of students as last year. "We didn't mean to do it," he said.
The majority of students not accepted were deferred, Miller said, though he didn't know the exact number of students who were rejected. Last year, only 12.7 percent of applicants were rejected, while most were deferred.
In 2006, Brown was the most selective in the Ivy League for binding early decision, though non-binding programs at Harvard and Yale universities were more selective. Miller said it was unclear if the elimination of early admission programs at Harvard and Princeton universities affected the number of students who applied early to Brown. But the absence of those programs may have affected early applications to Yale.
"Yale saw a big upswing," in its early applications, Miller said. Other schools, like Stanford University, didn't see a large change in their number of applicants, he said. He said he didn't find that the elimination of early admission programs created a national pattern of ups or downs in application rates.
