If Brown has the reputation of being a “humanities” school, that is an outdated perception. It might have been true when I went there. But these days, the story is very very different.
For the just admitted class of 2019, according to a press release: “The top intended concentrations are engineering, biology, computer science, biochemistry, international relations, economics, political science, English, and history” – and English and history made the list again after being absent for a few years.
Last year’s graduating class – all of the top 10 concentrations were science or social sciences. Biology was the second largest concentration (188 grads), computer science the third (77), neuroscience the fourth (77). Ten years ago, a totally different story – English and Art History were all in the top 10, CS and engineering weren’t in the top 10.
Last year, 373 graduates majored in the humanities, down from 462 10 years ago. 757 had life or physical science concentrations and 771 had social science concentrations.
So if you think that by going to Brown you are going to be surrounded by hippy dippy kids majoring in English, literary arts, film studies and classics, think again.
And this, by the way, is a change I am very wary of.
(data came from http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/institutional-research/factbook/degrees-and-completions and https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/03/admission)