In the past, Brown University and the Program in Liberal Medical Education, PLME, has had an early decision (ED) option for students applying. Students liked the option because they thought that applying ED to PLME gave them a higher chance of acceptance into the program. This option also provided that if you were not accepted into PLME early decision it was not binding for Brown undergrad.
Brown has now announced that they have eliminated the ED option for PLME that isn’t binding on Brown undergrad. You can still apply to Brown ED but it is binding even if you aren’t admitted to PLME. This basically eliminates the ED option for PLME since most students want to see if they are admitted to a BS/MD program rather than do a standard ED program that, if accepted, would preclude other BS/MD options.
Personally, I don’t think this is a big deal because what most students didn’t realize was that applying ED to PLME did NOT give them the bump that they expected. Brown has released stats in the past that showed the the acceptance rate for ED to PLME in most years was at most a percentage point or two higher than regular decision and in many years ED actually had a lower acceptance rate.
Brown’s actions make their ED program more consistent with other ED programs at most colleges and that is a good thing because hopefully people will now understand how the ED process works.
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