Colleges101

Hellish choice.

I'm looking to study Philosophy, economics and maybe psychology. I also want to take courses in History, Ecology and Geology. Basically, I think these are the factors I am looking at:

Relatively unknown LAC vs Ivy League. I know the saying that "people who don't know don't matter, people who matter, know". But I want to work in Europe after graduation, so I am not sure how that applies.

6000 students vs 1600 students.

Endowment/Student: Amherst $820800 vs Brown $285187

1000 acres vs 143 acres

Brown campus seems much more beautiful.

Brown has larger course offering

RISD

Amherst: rural(preferred) vs Brown: urban. (Does Brown have much outdoor opportunities?)

tetrisfan

I'll bump this up for you

shreya.iitk

i'd go to Amherst- but them i am biased- it was my number one choice.

scarsta

amherst definitely

Colleges101

This coming from a Brown forum? Hahaha...

Thanks for bumping.

dcircle

the brown outing club:
bottom slice 44real

the main advantages of brown are

1) more course offerings and research opportunities
http://research.brown.edu/index.php

2) marginally more prestige (and likely better name recognition in Europe)
Brown Club UK | Home

tetrisfan

I'd pick Brown for dcircle's first reason...

unregistered

I think that the course offerings point was covered in the Amherst forum.

While Brown may have better name recognition, I do not think it is s more prestigious institution.

jerzgrlmom

Different environments to consider. Brown has the city so more to do within walking distance, easy bus/train access to Boston and NYC, even Cape Cod.

piratemonkey

Brown FOR SURE.

Better location, more course offerings, the opportunity to take classes at RISD, slightly larger so you will meet more people..... amazing liberal, intellectual atmosphere, ivy league prestige.

That being said, Brown is the perfect school for some people (like me) but I guess others think it gives students too much independence in picking their courses, creating majors, etc. If you think you'd like to be considered independent and mature enough to design your own education and participate in a thriving intellectual and extremely diverse/eclectic environment, then Brown is for you.

Btw, I'm a Brown 2012er

alexis390

I am also choosing between Brown, Amherst, and Macalester and I agree..Hellish Choice indeed! I have no clue how to use this site, so could someone please tell me how to post a question please? Thank you!

cabeach001

They are two incredibly different environments, particularly with regard to size and social life. When I came to Brown I thought I would never be in a big class because I was paying all this money, but in reality, when a university is above a certain size, big classes are inevitable. I have been in more than a few large intro classes (>100) and I'm only half way through my career here. I imagine that is not the case at Amherst. So if professor attention is really important to you, consider that.

Also, Amherst is actually much more into sports despite being D3. They have a very jocky student body and the fratty nature of many of their jocks permeates the social scene. Here at Brown athletes are not necessarily looked down on, but they certainly don't rule the roost. I appreciate that but I also wish there were more school spirit sometimes as well as more organized intramurals.

wolfmanjack

alexis click the "new thread" button above in the main page for the brown forum

unregistered

Amherst has no frats, and the social scene could't really be called "fratty" by any reasonable stretch.

cabeach001

Doesn't take frats to make a social scene "fratty." Maybe they're just the exception but the few people I know who go there are almost perpetually drunk off cheap beer.