While most incoming first-year students confirmed their decisions to attend Brown by May 1, a growing share of the incoming class accepted offers of admission in the early summer after originally being waitlisted, according to data from The Herald’s First-Year Poll.
Waitlists allow schools to admit students after the national May 1 deadline. As college admissions become more selective, schools have generally increased the sizes of their waitlists to manage yield rates — the percentage of admitted students who accept their offers to attend — said Alecia Mahato, a college admissions counselor at IvyWise and a former admissions officer at Duke University.
According to Brown’s Common Data Sets, 118 students were admitted from the waitlist for admission in fall 2024 compared to just 73 for the first-years entering in fall 2023. The Common Data Set offers standardized admissions information released publicly by Brown and other institutions each year. Only 15 students were admitted from the waitlist for fall 2022, the report states.
Amanda McGregor, a University spokesperson, declined to share whether the University has increased the number of waitlisted applicants or the number of students admitted from the waitlist over the years.
Although official waitlist admissions data for students accepted for fall 2025 is not currently available via the Common Data Set, The Herald’s first-year poll indicated a relatively high proportion of enrolled students coming from the waitlist. The Common Data Set shares details about students admitted from the waitlist, which is separate from the number of students enrolling from the waitlist.
One in four students who were deferred from early decision or applied during the regular decision cycle were waitlisted, poll data shows. About 13% of overall poll respondents, or 95 students, indicated that they were admitted off the waitlist. If that metric holds true for the entire first-year class, about 230 incoming students would be coming from the waitlist.
Since there are always fewer enrolled students than admitted students, the poll data indicates a likely uptick in students admitted from the waitlist, assuming the poll proportions are representative of the whole first-year class.
In The Herald’s First-Year Poll, none of the respondents who enrolled from the waitlist indicated they received full financial aid. This may be because colleges tend to be more need-aware when selecting students from the waitlist, Mahato wrote.
The University did not respond to a request for comment about financial aid considerations when admitting students from the waitlist.
Poll data also shows that domestic applicants were far more likely to have accepted offers from the waitlist than international students, which may reflect the “uncertainty around student visas” this year, Mahato said.
McGregor wrote in an email to The Herald that Brown’s “enrollment goals vary from year to year,” and “no matter when they are admitted, these incoming students will make exceptional contributions to the Brown community.”
Many students admitted off the waitlist had plans to attend other universities before they received their offer of admission from Brown.
Henry Roden ’29 was indecisive when choosing where to attend college, but initially settled on the College of William and Mary, he wrote in an email to The Herald. He had already picked out a potential roommate at William and Mary when he received his offer to attend Brown on May 22.
Roden accepted his offer the same day, “exactly a week before I graduated high school,” he wrote. “The process was stressful.”
Eddie Ho ’29 was “unsurprised” when he was waitlisted at Brown, he wrote in an email to The Herald.
Ho did not have a top-choice school, but was heavily considering Brown. Once Ho received his offer from Brown, he withdrew his commitment to the University of Virginia, where he had initially planned to attend.
For Phoebe Sohlberg ’29, her reaction to getting placed on Brown’s waitlist was “one of cautious excitement.” Although Brown was Sohlberg’s top choice, she had been admitted to Penn and planned to attend.
Less than three weeks after Ivy Day — when the Ivy League schools release their regular admission decisions — Sohlberg found out she was accepted to Brown. The offer came in time for her to attend “A Day on College Hill,” Brown’s admitted student day, which she said helped her finalize her college decision.
Teddy Fisher is a senior staff writer who studies International and Public Affairs and is passionate about law, national security and sports. He enjoys playing basketball, running and reading in his free time.
