I got waitlisted from Brown. What should I do now?

Brown received 42,765 applications for the Class of 2029 and admitted 2,418, an acceptance rate of approximately 5.65%. Of those, 907 were admitted through Early Decision and 1,511 through Regular Decision. Brown's yield rate for the Class of 2029 was 73%, a significant jump from the 65% yield for the Class of 2028, which directly impacts how much the waitlist moves in any given year.

Brown's waitlist data over the last decade shows one of the more active waitlists in the Ivy League in terms of raw numbers, but with enormous year-to-year volatility. For the Class of 2028, Brown admitted 118 students from the waitlist, the second-highest figure in the Ivy League that year behind Cornell. For the Class of 2026, only 15 were admitted. For the Class of 2024, 194 were admitted in a pandemic-influenced cycle. On average, Brown has admitted approximately 100 students per year from the waitlist over the last decade, which places it well ahead of Yale, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Penn in terms of raw numbers. But the 73% yield for the Class of 2029, up sharply from 65% the prior year, suggests that the Class of 2029 waitlist may have moved significantly less than the year before. When yield spikes, the list contracts. When it dips, the list expands.
Confirm your interest in remaining on the waitlist through the Brown Applicant Portal by the deadline Brown provides. If you do not accept your spot, you will not be considered for admission if space opens. The waitlist is unranked. You will not be penalized for not responding the same day you receive the offer, but do not delay.

Commit to another school before May 1. Brown's waitlist activity begins after the national reply deadline and can continue through mid-summer. Do not leave yourself without a seat in a first-year class.

Write a letter of continued interest and upload it directly through the Brown Applicant Portal. Brown does not accept LOCIs or updates by email, so the portal is the only official channel for submitting additional materials. Write up to 650 words. Make it a love letter to Brown. Not a brag sheet. Not a resume update. Not a list of other schools that admitted you. A letter that makes the reader understand exactly who you will be in the Brown community and why this specific university, with its specific academic philosophy and culture, is where you belong.

Brown's identity is built on several distinctive pillars, and your letter should engage with them directly. The first and most defining is the Open Curriculum. Brown has no core requirements, no distribution requirements, and no mandatory courses of any kind. Students design their own academic paths entirely, choosing from more than 80 concentrations across the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and engineering. Every course can be taken for a grade or on a satisfactory/no credit basis, and students can take courses purely for intellectual exploration without risk to their GPA. The Open Curriculum is not the absence of a curriculum. It is a philosophical commitment to the idea that students learn best when they have the freedom and responsibility to direct their own education. The student who can articulate why the Open Curriculum is philosophically essential to how they learn, not just convenient or flexible, is the student Brown was built for. Name the specific courses, departments, and interdisciplinary pathways that excite you. Explain what you would do with that freedom and why that particular combination of intellectual directions is something only Brown's structure makes possible.

The second is the Brown-RISD dual degree program. Brown's partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design, located adjacent to Brown's campus in Providence, allows a small number of students to pursue a five-year dual degree earning both a Brown A.B. and a RISD B.F.A. Even students not in the dual degree program can cross-register for RISD courses. If you are an artist, designer, or creative thinker whose intellectual interests span both the liberal arts and the studio arts, the Brown-RISD connection is a genuinely unique LOCI anchor.

The third is the research infrastructure. Brown is a top research university and AAU member with particular strengths in public health, brain science through the Carney Institute for Brain Science, applied mathematics, literary arts, computer science, and engineering. The Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRAs) provide funding for students to work with faculty on research during the academic year and summer. Without distribution requirements consuming course slots, the Open Curriculum creates more room to pursue research-intensive independent study than at any other Ivy League institution. If specific labs, research centers, faculty, or interdisciplinary programs draw you to Brown, name them.

The fourth is Providence and the broader setting. Brown's campus sits on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, a city with a vibrant arts, food, and cultural scene. The city's creative economy, anchored in part by RISD and Brown's own programs, gives Providence a distinctive cultural identity. Boston is roughly an hour away. If Providence-specific opportunities or the relationship between the university and the city are part of your draw, connect them to your specific plans.

The fifth is the culture and community. Brown enrolls approximately 7,200 undergraduates and maintains a campus culture known for intellectual curiosity, social engagement, and genuine warmth. Over 500 student organizations and Ivy League Division I athletics across 34 varsity sports shape campus life. Brown's culture is shaped by the Open Curriculum: because students choose to be in every class, the energy in the classroom is distinctive. There is no resentment over mandatory courses. Every student in every seminar is there because they want to be. If that culture of chosen engagement, of intellectual community built on freedom rather than obligation, is part of what draws you, articulate what it means to you.
Do not brag. Do not list your accomplishments in the body of the letter. Upload it through the portal promptly after accepting your waitlist spot. The primacy effect matters.

After your letter is submitted, your guidance counselor should contact the admissions office to communicate that Brown is your top choice and that you will enroll if admitted. A brief, credible call reinforces the signal that your interest is genuine. Keep your grades up. Brown's acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was approximately 5.65%. Continue performing at the level that made you competitive. Updated transcripts can be submitted through the portal.