Brown versus Northwestern ED?

EverAfter
Thu, 25 Oct 2018 17:25:44 +0000

Having toured both Northwestern and Brown twice, I’ll chime in!

Both campuses are beautiful–I’ll set that aside.

Northwestern
We were also looking at math, and found the math department here relatively underwhelming, but we were comparing to some powerhouse places. It seemed geared mostly towards non-majors, at least on paper. It also seemed like a nice, small department, though, where one could get personal attention. The performing arts at NU are amazing. Because of the conservatory, it’s a little harder to do music causally here than at some other places, but I’m not sure if the same is true of acting. There was a Shakespeare play the night we were visiting (we almost went–I wish we had!) and there were at least four other big shows advertised in the theatre. Seemed very serious. There’s a theatre major, but also many student groups (nine of them, I think?) that do shows throughout the year. Those groups might be more broadly accessible. I don’t know about political science, physics, or Spanish, sorry! Some other random stuff: NU has more undergrad students than Brown by a few thousand…and way more grad students! Maybe five times as many grad students. It also has more emphasis on sports, from what I could gather. The football team seems like a big deal. Also, the quarter academic schedule allows for more classes to be taken within any given year, which seems great for somebody who wants to explore and try lots of new things. There’s less pressure on any given class, and double majors would be easy (I suspect). The breaks don’t seem as long, though (?). Lake Michigan is glorious, Evanston is great–safe, affluent, accessible, lots of amenities. I found it hard to get to Evanston from the airports, though. Chicago is right there (you can see it!) but it takes about 50 minutes to ride a bus in. And it does get intensely cold and windy in the winter, especially by the water. I agree that applying early is probably a big boost here and the acceptance rate is ever-so-slightly higher than Brown’s overall.

Brown
The applied math at Brown is close to the best in the country and the major seems intense. I don’t know first-hand, though. There are a lot of math kids on campus. The performing arts are also highly valued at Brown and there are many official and student-run groups. There’s a variety of theatre on campus from bigger faculty-run productions to small student-run organizations. Some student writers produce their own shows. They were doing West Side Story when we visited and there was a student play being advertised. Overall, the arts scene felt more casual than at NU, but again–highly valued. The shows were sold out. Political science is very good at Brown and the language departments are well-liked. Not sure about physics. We thought the open curriculum sounded good both for those who know what they want to do (they can specialize right away) and those who don’t (they can explore). Brown does not have a huge cultural emphasis on sports. It’s also smaller than NU in terms of enrollment, but the campus felt bigger to me. Providence gets very cold, but probably not as windy as Evanston. There’s a street of shops right next to campus, several high-end shop/restaurant areas nearby, and a mall in Providence within (long) walking distance. Not quite as cute/compact as Evanston, but nice. It struck me that the student body at Brown was very happy, and quite diverse in terms of ethnicity and the gender spectrum. I don’t mean to imply that NU isn’t, I just didn’t notice it as much on that campus. Applying early is a boost here, but probably not as big as with NU.

I love both schools. Of the two, I’d have picked Brown for my math kid, if math were the only criterion.