The Common Application requires each student to affirm that their application provides an accurate representation of their personal narrative, accomplishments, academic and extracurricular work. The statement students are asked to acknowledge is as follows:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process — including this application and any other supporting materials — is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented, and that these documents will become the property of the institution to which I am applying and will not be returned to me. I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree should the information I have certified be false.

In the spirit of this statement, and as part of our ongoing effort to deter application fraud, the Office of College Admission verifies a small number of credentials each year for a randomly selected sample of admitted students who have chosen to matriculate at Brown. The verification process is straightforward, with school counselors being asked to confirm a few selected factors as reported on the application for each student included in the sample group. Requests are sent to counselors in May with a response deadline no later than July 1.

While only a small percentage of students are considered in the verification process each year, it is important to note that those who are designated need not worry. There is no particular concern regarding honesty in these randomly selected cases. This process is intended to ensure the continued integrity of the admission process through proactive verification to deter admission fraud. You may also find it helpful to review the Common App's policy on application fraud.

Artificial Intelligence in the Application Process

As per the Common App's policy linked above, their definition of application fraud includes: "submitting plagiarized essays or other written or oral material, or intentionally misrepresenting as one’s own original work: (1) another person’s thoughts, language, ideas, expressions, or experiences or (2) the substantive content or output of an artificial intelligence platform, technology, or algorithm."

Brown affirms this definition and reiterates our own independent policy that the use of artificial intelligence by an applicant is not permitted under any circumstances in conjunction with application content. While an applicant may use artificial intelligence to assist with spelling and grammar review, in the same way as any other platform that supports basic proofreading, the content of all essays, short-answer questions and any other material submitted by an applicant must be the work of that individual.

Criminal History Question

During our initial round of admission application reviews, Brown will suppress student responses to the criminal history question.

Only after selecting a pool of admitted candidates will we review responses to this question. With this approach, information on criminal history can inform, but not determine, admission decisions. This ensures that applicants are evaluated on their academic profile, extracurricular pursuits and potential fit, while also enabling us to continue to review this potentially important information.