Brown Goes Paperless - Almost

Starting this year, Brown University is no longer including a printed copy of its application form in the viewbook it sends to prospective applicants.

Admissions officers told the campus paper that the decision was made for reasons of effectiveness and economy. Only a quarter of 2006 applicants used paper applications, and most of them downloaded the form from Brown's website rather than using the printed copy included in the viewbook.

Brown Dean of Admission Jim Miller told the Brown Daily Herald that although his office printed 85,000 viewbooks for the 2005-2006 application season, only around 1,500 applicants used the printed form it included.

This year's viewbook will include a postcard that applicants can mail to Brown to request a printed application. Brown will use the money saved by omitting the application to help pay for a larger print run of viewbooks.

The BDH polled other Ivy League universities on their use of printed applications and found that at least two, Princeton and Dartmouth, will continue including a paper application in their viewbooks.

Source: "Admissions Office Scraps Paper Apps with Viewbooks," by Zachary McCune - the Brown Daily Herald, September 14, 2006