<p>How’s the RIPTA bus service? Do people venture out into the city?</p>
<p>Venturing out into the city is not something which requires using RIPTA and happens with varying frequency. My friends and are are city people, other people are more hill people.</p>
<p>Where are some other places of interest in Providence? </p>
<p>Which is actually probably my only “but…” about Brown. Which is a big one. </p>
<p>And how is it compared to, say, Boston?</p>
<p>It’s not as cool as Boston, but there are tons of great restaurants in walking or short driving distances around here that are exceptional, especially compared to what you’d expect in Providence but really compared to anywhere, and most are within reach of a student’s budget for at least the occasional trip. We have several great concert venues and most bands do stop through here on their big tours, although friends have occasionally gone to Boston for a concert. It’s only about a 1hr train ride for seven bucks to get to Boston.</p>
<p>Providence Performing Arts Center and Trinity Rep are both awesome places to go downtown. AS220 has all independent bands playing and local artist’s work all over alongside a bar and great Mexican place attached.</p>
<p>Federal Hill has a ton of nice, excellent Italian food though I only think a couple of places are actually affordable for Italian down there.</p>
<p>Providence Place Mall is your typical, albeit extremely large mall and I’m definitely happy to have it in walking distance.</p>
<p>Nothing I do on a regular basis no matter where I would be living anywhere in the country is out of walking distance here in Providence.</p>
<p>Having a car has really opened up a ton of options, but I never found myself “wanting” for anything when I didn’t have a car. The only thing that’s a pain on foot is food shopping if you’re off meal plan, only because a week’s worth of groceries are too heavy to walk 15-20mins with, so you’d have to take the trolley or drive. No big deal.</p>
<p>How strong of a party atmosphere does Brown have? Like on weekends is the entire campus like, party central?</p>
<p>How do the more…hmm…how should I say this, “eccentric” fare? Like, those who would rather engage others in a certain obsession of choice than drink alcohol and party? </p>
<p>I’ve probably asked this before, but is there a somewhat strong bike culture? Like are there ever any social rides on the weekends (of course during warmer months) where groups of cyclists ride through the streets?</p>
<p>The party atmosphere is there if you want one, but there are plenty of alternatives for those who want something different for the weekend. I’m not a huge fan of parties and I often have several appealing options of things to do to choose from each weekend. </p>
<p>I haven’t ridden a bike since I was 9, so I have no idea what the answer to the latter is. There might be…but I don’t pay attention to such things. There aren’t really all that many warmer months, though…</p>
<p>Um, there are lots of bike riders and an excellent bike path along the water all the way out to Barrington and so people who are serious into riding aren’t out on the streets as much as they’re on that path, in my experience. The hills in Providence make riding around the city itself a bit tough though I use a bike on campus.</p>
<p>Eccentric fair is extremely common. At Brown, my experience is that there is always something going on for anybody. In general, there’s never really one place you gotta be because that’s what everyone’s doing on Saturday-- we tend to be full of far smaller get-togethers. Parties, except for several major events on campus, are more commonly 40 people or less. Lots of them going on, but most are smaller. There are also a billion non-party things going on each night as well.</p>
<p>There’s a very accepting culture for those who drink and party and a very accepting culture of those who don’t. Of course, there’s no pressure to drink or anything like that at any party no matter what-- that’s not the way things are here.</p>
<p>Could you be slightly more direct? I can’t tell if you’re asking if you could find a party worth going to or if you’re asking if you will be ok socially at Brown if you’re not into partying. The answer is you’ll be fine either way, but I can address things more specifically for either case if you’re more up-front.</p>
<p>The latter. </p>
<p>Like I’m more of a fan of getting together in a group of 4-6 and having a long discussion about various issues compared to going to a party with many people I may or may not care to remember.
Or going out to a play or a string quartet performing.
Or going to see a movie or a nice concert with a few friends.</p>
<p>Mostly smaller occasions than the bigger, often less personal fare.</p>
<p>Which reminds me of a few things I really enjoyed when I visited Carleton:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>At Carleton, the have a house, the Dacie Moses house, that is open to anyone, and 24/7 they can come in and bake fresh cookies. Do they have anything similar like that at Brown?</p></li>
<li><p>Do they have practice rooms open to any students where they can practice playing instruments, such as drums, guitar, piano, etc.?</p></li>
<li><p>How are the class sizes? Do you have any specific examples of very small and very big?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>
</p>
<p>All of the dorms have at least one kitchen in them open to everyone, many of them have more than one kitchen.
Yes, and they’re sound proof, although I’m not 100% sure about a drum kit being around, guitar stuff and piano definitely is around. I never found guys at Brown I wanted to jam with, so I just don’t know about the drum stuff but we have a ton of informal combos and they manage to rehearse so it must be around.
</p>
<p>70% or so of our classes are 20 students or less.</p>
<p>CH156 for me had 3 undergrads and 2 graduate students. JS2 had 7 students. UC170 had 6 students when I took it. CH145 and CH242 and CH243 all had 10-12 students. My Hebrew class right now has like 14 students. Etc, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Chem33 has three sections of about 200 students, all sections taught by professors, with problem sessions offered pretty much every day of the week, lab sections of 15 or less, and office hours available to get more personal attention.</p>
<p>FWIW-- what you describe is very similar to my own social life here at Brown, although I do sometimes go out and do the college party thing (never a party bigger than that 40 person number).</p>
<p>I’m an international applicant to U.S. university and I’ve recently recieved offers of Brown, WashingtonU in St. Louis and RiceU. How can I compare these schools and make a final decision?</p>
<p>How convenient is it taking a bike on the commuter rail train to Boston? Boston’s got a very active cycling scene.</p>
<p>Also, how much of home equity is taken into account? Say your family makes 32k, but they have about $250,000 in home equity. Will they take all that into account or a certain percentage?</p>
<p>There’s a percentage, I don’t know what it is, but I recently read an article about how those numbers are changing at most schools because of the economic crisis. Home equity is definitely not the major component of what you’re expected to pay, at all, and some schools don’t count home equity until it exceeds 500k. I have no idea if that information is public at Brown.</p>
<p>I’ve never taken a bike on the train, never thought to. It’s a normal train, so I don’t know that I’d say it’s convenient, but could be possible. Many, many professors ride 10-15 miles each way to Brown along the path I mentioned so there’s a huge group of cyclists using that path, but urban Providence has extremely high graded hills, especially around Brown…</p>
<p>Are there any good music stores nearby on Thayer or in the mall? </p>
<p>Have you taken any Creative Writing classes? I remember reading about a writers club. </p>
<p>What are prospects like for writers/journalists? </p>
<p>Also, a very vague question: Are there any certain changes in the planning stages or already plan on being implemented for the class of 2014? Any in general.</p>
<p>There are always things being done… a question so vague can only have such a vague answer.</p>
<p>I’ve taken LR11, the intro to fiction class. It was fantastic. There are many ways to get involved with writing on campus.</p>
<p>Writers/journalists? Same as anyone else going into a field with dwindling job prospects. I’m not specifically into careers in writing so I can’t help you much there.</p>
<p>Newbury Comics is a pretty solid store for music in the mall.</p>
<p>What do you mean by music store? You can get CDs at the mall, but if you want music supplies, there aren’t any nearby, and it’s a pain in the ass.</p>
<p>P.S. Prospective writer/journalist? Write for the Spectator. They need your help.</p>
<p>Not so much music supplies, just CDs. I’ve heard good things about Newbury Comics. </p>
<p>Entirely subjective question, but in your opinion, at least compared to other schools you’ve seen, do people at Brown self-segregate by race or socioeconomic status, or is it more by interest? I remember reading about the Third World thing a few days before campus, and many of the students who go to that generally go off in their own section. Is it all like that?</p>
<p>It depends. There are definitely some people who self-segregate, but my personal experience has been that freshman unit + interests (co-curricular and curricular) are the primary means by which social groups form.</p>
<p>Hi, I have a question. I don’t know if you know anything about Hillell/Chabad on campus, but if you do could you tell me about it? Do many students go for Friday night dinners?</p>
<p>I think they are pretty active and have their own building which is very nice looking. I’m jealous.</p>