About a year ago James Miller '73, Brown's dean of admission, met with
the father of a prospective student. The man had lost most of his
savings during the recession. With some of his investments now
worthless, he was looking for a more secure place to put his money.
"I might as well put it into his head," he told Miller, referring to
his son. "That's about the most secure investment I can make."
Apparently a lot of other parents feel the same way. Miller believes
the brutal economy of the last few years accounts for much of this
year's national spike in college applications. Brown's applicant pool
rose 20 percent to more than 30,000—all of them looking to fill 1,500
first-year slots. The trend is actually a continuation from last year,
when applications also rose by 20 percent.
"In uncertain times," Miller says, "people want to invest in education.
I've been doing this for thirty years and I've truly never seen an
applicant pool with this depth of talent."
Similarly, Princeton's applications rose by 19 percent, Harvard's by 5
percent, and the University of Pennsylvania's by 17 percent. The
University of Chicago's applicant pool increased by 42 percent, boosted
by that school's intensified recruitment and improved campus services.
Brown has also intensified its recruitment efforts, but in a more
targeted way. Miller says the result was a significant increase in
minority-student applications. The number of African American
applicants rose 48 percent and Latinos went up 42 percent. There was
also a spike in applicants hoping to become the first member of their
family to go to college, a group that, thanks to strong financial-aid
gifts from the late Sidney Frank '42 and others, Brown has worked hard
to attract in recent years.
Then there's the viral factor. Miller believes that Facebook and
other Internet social networking sites have helped to spread the word
about Brown among high schoolers. At Brown, students are the best
marketers. "Students get information from so many sources now and the
information that is coming across about Brown is very positive," Miller
says. "Students have a very good experience here."
Illustration by Timothy Cook.
