For the fall 2017 admission cycle, undocumented applicants and students who qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will be considered as domestic applicants, meaning that they will be admitted via a need-blind admission policy, the University announced in a press release today.
This decision follows the release of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, which the University unveiled in February. The plan responded to a demonstration of demands read aloud by students, some of which were drafted by a group of Latinx students and focused on legal services they wanted the University to provide for undocumented students.
“We seek to ensure that undocumented and DACA-status students who have been raised and educated in this country and apply for admission to Brown are treated fairly and equitably,” said Provost Richard Locke P'17 in the press release.
While the University’s admission process has been open to undocumented and DACA-status students for several years, they were admitted on a need-aware basis — the same standard used for international and transfer students. This change in the admission policy comes as a number of institutions, including Oberlin College and Wesleyan University, choose to eliminate the distinction between undocumented and domestic applicants.
Though undocumented students are ineligible for federal financial aid, the University plans to meet the full demonstrated need of undocumented and DACA-status students through University-funded financial aid.
The University plans to bolster on-campus academic and social support for undocumented and DACA-status students through the First-Generation and Low-Income Student Center, as well as the through the Offices of the Dean of the College and Campus Life and Student Services.
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