Scaredlife

I am considering Brown as a college option, and I know it is a tremendously hard school to get into, and rather than waste my fee I want to see if it does truly appeal to me. So what made or makes Brown special to you, and personal experiences are great. Thank you!

i_wanna_be_Brown

not sure which of your two essentially identical posts to respond to. I think you need to spend a little bit of time on the brown website and reading around here. General questions like this have been answered ad nauseum.

If you're really stuck, I recommend you start with looking up the New (also known as Open) Curriculum.

Scaredlife

Thank you! I'll search around more in the website.

jjjjllllc

I'm a senior applying for admission this year, so I obviously don't have very great insight... But I'm a huge fan of Brown's Open Curriculum (Eugene Lang, Amherst, Smith, and Grinnell are the only other schools with a similar curriculum). The campus is gorgeous, the size of the school is perfect, the people are friendly and quite interesting, and Providence is a great city. I hope you end up liking it!

HogwartsOrBust

Brown is very much the experience you want it to be. If you want to study hard and double or even triple major, you can probably do it here. If you want to branch out more and explore your interests, you can do that as well. I've found that this applies not only to academics, but to everything--if you want to party hard, there will be avenues for that, as well as options for those who don't want to drink. The downside of this is that if you're not a very self-motivated person, Brown's freedom can be overwhelming.

I guess what I love most about Brown is that it truly feels like the best of both worlds. The undergrad size feels perfect--I have a nice mix of some lecture classes with around 100 students, and much smaller classes with 10 or 15 students. It's big enough you're constantly meeting new people, but small enough you'll see friends walking to class every day.

cougar23

At Brown there are (quite literally) no rules. The rule book may state violations and penalties for certain behaviors, but never once have I seen them enforced. There are absolutely no limits placed on your academic or social life, and you are free to explore anything that you decide is best for your growth and development.

For this reason, I think the stereotype of Brown being the most "liberal" school in America is inherently incorrect. From my experience, Brown's philosophy is more libertarian than anything, as it allows students to study/consume/do whatever the h*ll they desire. This is the most "hands-off" environment on Earth, and I mean that honestly. Never in your life will you experience the amount of freedom that Brown bestows upon its student body. Why Brown is viewed as a leftist, liberal institution baffles me. (Despite the political leanings of the student body.)

My opinion is biased, but I find it hard to believe that anyone could dislike the combination of Brown's offerings:
- Prestige (Doesn't always matter, obviously. But don't let anyone tell you it doesn't help)
- Absolute freedom (Academically, socially)
- Wonderful professors (Academic elite, accessible)
- Selective student body (Allows for engaging, intelligent discourse)

I understand that Brown may not be for everyone, but I would argue that the Brown experience is so versatile that it can be adjusted to the lifestyle of ANY person; hippie, jock, or neither.

Apply here. You'll never get the chance to live so freely again.

*Disclaimer: Not a hippie/pothead/hipster, no political leaning. Just spreadin' truth.

browngrad

its harder to fail at than the other colleges since you can do to their P/NP policies.

LoremIpsum

The freedom to stick one's neck out and push the limits can sometimes backfire. For my son, a risk-taker, Brown is ideal: He was advised not to take four calculation-intensive courses at once (math/physics/CS). He was also advised not to take a 5th class in his first semester, while he's getting acclimated. So naturally, in his first semester, he's taking four calculation-intensive courses and a 5th class with multiple long writing assignments.

I don't expect worse than the occasional hiccup when he has to stay up to 2 a.m. to finish all his work -- and I did convince him to take the writing class S/NC so he would feel comfortable limiting his research (which can become a black hole of time as one explores tangents to tangents trying to write the "perfect" paper). But he really doesn't care if he finishes his four years with a 4.0; he's there to explore.

There are many, many students who tried so hard to get into elite colleges that they stopped taking risks, because that lone B might take away valedictorian status and a 3 or 4 on an AP test might show indication that you are not the best of the best.

Brown is especially well suited for risk-takers, the independent travelers. But there are lots of people who want to take the package tour (aka core curriculum) because it's safe and predictable.