PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — At 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, Brown University officially invited 558 early-decision applicants to become members of the Class of 2017. Applicants could log on to a secure website to find out the status of their applications. The students chosen for early-decision admission were selected from a pool of 3,010 applicants, a record number in the University’s history.

“We are delighted to welcome the first members of the Class of 2017 to Brown,” said James Miller, dean of admissions. “Selected from the largest and most competitive early-decision pool in Brown’s history, the 558 new members of the Brown community bring extraordinary achievements, diversity, and potential to College Hill.”

By applying for early decision, prospective students indicated that Brown was their first choice for college and agreed to accept an offer of admission if they were accepted.

More than half of the accepted students applied to receive financial aid. For students who receive financial aid, Brown meets 100 percent of their demonstrated financial need. Forty-three percent of the Brown undergraduate student body currently receives need-based financial aid. Since the matriculation of the class of 2007, all domestic undergraduates admitted as freshmen have been admitted under the University’s need-blind admission policy.

The students that were accepted from the early decision applicant pool will come to Brown from 26 nations and 42 states. The accepted students represent all regions of the United States, with 22 percent hailing from New England, and 68 percent coming from other parts of the country.

Ten percent of accepted students come from countries outside of the United States. The top countries represented outside the United States are the People’s Republic of China, Canada, Korea, and Turkey. 

Twelve percent of accepted students represent the first-generation in their family to attend college.

The top five concentrations that accepted students intend to pursue are engineering, biology, economics, history, and English. Of the accepted students, 295 are female and 263 are male.

The deadline for regular decision applications is January 2, 2013. Typically, students admitted through the early decision application represent around 20 percent of the complete admitted class. 

Upon receiving notification of their acceptance, several students took to Twitter to share their excitement with the social media world. (Read a few.)