College Panel With RAs

The highlight of today was the college panel with the residential assistants. The students who attended this event got to listen to the RAs talk about their experiences with the admission process, positive aspects about Brown University,  and ask the RAs any questions regarding admissions, academics, and campus life. Each RA had a very different background and story. Similar to the Harvard and Yale students my cohorts and I talked to during the college tours, the Brown RAs didn't expect getting admitted to Brown either. They all agreed that standardized tests aren't the most important part of the application and that being honest and true to oneself in the essays is very essential. The RAs could not emphasize that enough. Almost half of the time was spent on the RAs sharing their stories about their personal statements, all of which were very unique and interesting.

The general information that the RAs shared during the panel was more or less covered by previous college tours, but hearing personal stories from a much larger and diverse group of students emphasized the information much more, leaving a more indelible impression of how important it is to be oneself and really show the admissions officers what kind of person one really is. Oftentimes, such as with the RAs, the essays act as the deciding factor for admittance rather than grades and high test scores. I'm glad I attended this event.