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.
Pawtucket native and La Salle Academy graduate Kate Ganim '08 expressed a similar sentiment, saying she "wished that (Brown) was farther away" when she was applying to college and refused to apply to any other school in the state. But after a year at Trinity College, in Connecticut, she transferred to Brown, unable to turn down the "quality of the school."
Yifan Luo '09, from Charlestown, said that most of her classmates at Chariho Regional High School who applied to Ivy League schools applied to Brown. She said she knew many friends or family members who had attended Brown, but at first "kind of wanted to get away." In the end she changed her mind.
"I really love Providence," she said, adding that her parents encouraged her to apply so she would remain close to home.
Kate Goldstein '08, who grew up "literally on the Brown campus" on George Street and attended the all-girls Lincoln School, said location didn't play a role in her college search at first, noting that she visited 17 schools on the East Coast. Goldstein, who conducted astrophysics research at Brown during her senior year of high school, said her experience on campus made her feel the Brown offered "opportunities and openness" that other schools lacked.
These Brunonians are not alone. At The Wheeler School, a private school on the East Side with about 335 students in the ninth to 12th grades, 16 members of the class of 2007 moved down the street to Brown. This was by far the most common choice among Wheeler seniors, according to its Web site, followed by Boston University and the University of Connecticut, which matriculated nine each.
At Moses Brown, a private school located across the street from the Olney Margolies Athletic Center, Brown was the second most common college choice among its class of 2007. And at Lincoln, Brown tied for first with Boston College among last year's graduates.
None of those interviewed thought that being from the state was much of an advantage, but some felt their college counselors encouraged them more strongly to apply to Brown than to other schools. The Office of Admission makes special efforts to reach out to Rhode Island's college counselors through special breakfasts and events, Miller said.
A preference for locals is not unique to Brown. The Yale Daily News reported in a Feb. 15 article that applicants from New Haven had a slight advantage in being accepted because of their residency. In addition to special treatment from the admissions office, the article reported that the local applicants' odds of acceptance were improved because they tended to know more faculty and alumni, and were more familiar with the school than students from more distant locales.
Miller said he did not think these factors were particularly influential for Brown hopefuls. While it is "hard to quantify," Miller said, "I didn't think that knowing faculty or having familiarity with the school is much of an advantage."
The News also found that local athletic recruits to the university had an edge over others because coaches could easily visit those athletes. Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger, formerly Brown's director of admission, said he did not think this preference existed at Brown. "We think it's great when students from Rhode Island come and succeed," he said, "but I don't really see it as an advantage."
Advantage or no, Brown may simply be more popular among Rhode Islanders than comparable schools. "I think people from Rhode Island have a higher impression of Brown than people not from" the state, Ganim said.
