Brown is a prestigious university that has become immensely popular with international students for combining top-tier Ivy League academics with a creative community and open curriculum. Unsurprisingly, it’s also extremely difficult to get into. It is hard to gain admission to Brown for any student, but prospective international students face a particularly steep uphill battle. And yet, we regularly support international students from around the world in earning an acceptance letter. In this post, we’re going to give you a peek into our playbook — and how we pull it off.

If you are reading this, you were probably waitlisted by Brown. Receiving a waitlist decision is a bummer, but it’s also a situation you can make the most off. Whereas a rejection is a closed door, being offered a spot on a waiting list is more like being stopped right before the threshold. You aren’t through, and you may never get through, but the chance is still there. The key, of course, is to not leave it up to chance.

So, you want to transfer to the Ivy League? We aren’t going to lie—it takes a lot of work, but it isn’t impossible, and Brown is a great choice. The seventh-oldest college in America, Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Like most of the Ivy League, they are super selective when it comes to admissions.

Receiving a rejection from Brown can be a gut punch. Students who apply Early Decision to Brown tend to pick the university for very specific reasons, and there may not be another school of Brown’s caliber that fully fits the bill. But Brown isn’t the only strong school with a completely open curriculum, so there are options and we’re going to help you see them, pursue them, and receive an acceptance letter. First, let’s do a bit of an autopsy of your Brown rejection.