Updated April 2 at 10:28 p.m.
The University admitted 2,027 students to the class of 2021 through regular decision Thursday, said Dean of Admission Logan Powell.
The regular decision acceptance rate was 6.5 percent, setting a record-low 8.3 percent acceptance rate for the class of 2021. The previous record of 8.5 percent was set for the class of 2019. The students accepted regular decision join the 695 students accepted through early decision. Of those deferred from early decision, 5.4 percent were admitted regular decision. Approximately 1,000 students were placed on the active waitlist. All admitted students were selected from a record-high pool of 32,724 applications, according to Powell.
The admitted students come from all 50 states and 77 countries, with 12 percent of admitted students coming from outside of the United States.
Fourteen percent of the admitted students are first generation students, a slightly higher percentage than last year, Powell said. Forty-seven percent of admitted students self-identify as students of color, the same percentage admitted for the class of 2020. Additionally, sixty-two percent of admitted students come from public high schools, an increase from last year, according to Powell.
The University also admitted a slightly higher percentage of students who indicated they would apply for financial aid — 64 percent of students compared to 61 percent last year.
The University has worked on strengthening financial aid awards for middle income students in hopes “that by strengthening those financial aid awards to all families who demonstrate financial need, Brown will be as affordable or more affordable than any of their other options,” Powell said.
“Overall we’re absolutely thrilled with the talent and wide range of perspectives represented in this admitted student group,” Powell said. “They continue to be enormously talented (and) they continue to be increasingly diverse.”
In addition to the diversity of the class, Powell emphasized that the class of 2021, “academically, by all objective measures, is as strong as any in Brown history.”
Powell said that the admits “demonstrated strong interest in Brown, they connected with their alumni interviewers, they’re incredibly academically talented, and those students we think will yield at a very good rate.”
“Brown cares about my success and my undergraduate life,” Setty said. “They care about … seeing what I can contribute.”
After admitted students make their college decision by May 1, additional students may be admitted off the waitlist to reach the University’s goal of 1,665 students in the class of 2021, Powell said.
The University also admitted 95 students admitted through Brown’s Program in Liberal Medical Education and 21 students admitted through the Brown-RISD Dual Degree Program.
Some of the newly admitted students felt shock and disbelief mixed in with gratitude upon receiving their decision letters.
“It was kind of hard to believe for a while,” said Melissa Machado of Miami. “(When) it started sinking in, I was like, ‘Wow, this really happened.’”
“I’ve been dreaming about attending Brown for years,” said Aakash Setty of Vernon Hills, Illinois, who was accepted through PLME. Setty is excited to attend Brown because “its freedom, its opportunities and all of the options it provides its students,” he said.
Brown’s program for admitted students, A Day on College Hill, begins April 18.
