Students in the admitted Class of 2026 hail from all 50 U.S. states and from countries across the globe, with the most students from China, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Singapore and Ukraine, respectively. 

An expanding set of financial aid initiatives to support Brown students also played a role in the significant increase in applications, Powell said, and in encouraging students from an increasingly wide array of financial backgrounds to apply. Building on the work of the Brown Promise initiative, which replaced loans with scholarship funds in all University-packaged undergraduate financial aid awards four years ago, the University will cover the full cost of tuition for families earning $125,000 or less with typical assets starting in the 2022-23 academic year. This change — a result of eliminating consideration of home equity in Brown’s financial aid calculations — is expected to provide thousands of additional dollars in average annual scholarship for aided students and expand the number of families who will receive aid from Brown.

Separately, two years after extending its need-blind policy to military veterans with a goal to double veteran enrollment, Brown established this year a goal to expand need-blind consideration to international students. The University is growing its financial aid budget for international undergraduates, with the goal of becoming fully need-blind for international students who begin at Brown in Fall 2025. This would eliminate the ability or inability to pay the cost of tuition as a factor in the admission process, placing Brown in a very small group of colleges and universities nationally who are need-blind for international students.

Of Brown’s 2,546 admitted students, 96% are in the top 10% of their high school classes. Nineteen students were admitted to the Brown-RISD Dual Degree Program, and 84 students were admitted to the Program in Liberal Medical Education, an eight-year program leading to both a bachelor’s degree and an M.D. from Brown's Warren Alpert Medical School.

While all will have the opportunity to explore courses of study through Brown’s Open Curriculum, the students’ top 15 intended concentrations include: engineering/biomedical engineering; computer science; economics; political science; biology; biochemistry and molecular biology; international and public affairs; neuroscience; applied mathematics; public health; psychology; health and human biology; physics, English; and history.

Applicants began logging on to a secure website at 7 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, March 31, to learn the status of their applications. Following the release of admission decisions, Brown will host three admitted student programs on campus for the Class of 2026. A Day on College Hill (ADOCH) sessions will take place on April 8, 13 and 22 for students who choose to visit Providence in person. The University will also continue to support admitted students with virtual programming that provides opportunities to explore, learn, ask questions and connect to the campus while showcasing Brown’s vibrant community. 

Admitted students have until Monday, May 2, to accept the University’s offer of admission. Brown anticipates an incoming class of approximately 1,700 students, including 15 Brown/RISD Dual Degree admits.