<p>how is brown different from other ivies? aside from the open curriculum and increased attention to undergrads</p>
<p>ability to take (all) classes pass/fail, PLME, if you’re into that thing, Neuro, Egyptology, Classics (well at least it makes it different from Yale, which has a <em>terrible</em> classics dept.) Providence, RISD that’s all i can think of at the moment.</p>
<p>And it’s cool to ask why is brown unique, but from your question, maybe i’m misinterpreting it, but it sounds like you’re applying to a slew of ivies for the fact that they’re ivies, and are simply trying to choose the best ivy fit for you. Don’t do that, apply to Brown because you want to be here, not because it is simply the ivy you like the most.</p>
<p>What makes Brown different from other ivies is an egalitarian approach, giving accessibility to the universities top resources to all students. </p>
<p>Unlike Dartmouth, the Brown faculty boasts Nobel prize winners, Pulitzer prize winners, former Presidents, MacArthur Genius Award winners, etc. </p>
<p>Unlike, Columbia, undergraduates not only take their classes but often work closely with them in their labs, on senior projects, and in writing theses. </p>
<p>Unlike Princeton, these professors are accessible to you whether you’re concentrating in their discipline or not. </p>
<p>Unlike any other school, you have complete intellectual freedom to create your curriculum, and as a result every student is doing something unique. It makes for an incredibly stimulating environment.</p>
<p>thank you both for your help - many good points made.</p>
<p>
What??? Yale’s Classics (and Egyptology) program is at least as good as Brown’s. </p>
<p>Brown also makes it really easy to study abroad, and it has unbelievable SA offerings- a major attraction for me, at least.</p>
<p>umm, Yale’s “Egyptology Dept” is part of the Middle Eastern Studies one, Brown is the only ivy with a dept devoted to Egyptology.</p>
<p>Maybe if your latin background is not so good, you would find Yale’s classics dept to be ok, but if you are serious about classical studies yale is not the place to be. In fact, a kid who graduated 04 from my high school during his yale interview told the interviewer about how he wanted to study classics, and the interviewer actually told him he should probably look else where. My Latin/Greek teacher was always complaining about how the dept is in shambles, and they don’t have very many advanced latin classes compared to other ivies like Princeton and Brown.</p>
<p>Oh yes, I guess i should mention something to put things into perspective regarding my high school latin training. My teacher wrote the textbook we used. My class was the second class to finish the book. Many Ivies have turned down my tecaher’s book saying that the book is way to difficult for undergraduate introductory latin (princeton) and that how could she expect students to understand the concepts of latin syntax without an extensive review of english grammar (yale). I should also mention that every student who took latin through high school with her has placed into at least junior year latin at his respective college (Ivies and their equivalents).</p>
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<p>I’ll concede on Latin because I know nothing about it, and that’s definitely not my interest area (Egyptology, however, is). Brown does have a ton of other languages that the other Ivies (and most schools) lack- Phoenician, Sanskrit, and a ton of others.</p>
<p>Another thing that sets Brown apart from the rest of the Ivies is it has a truly laid-back, LAC-like feel that I personally did not feel at many of the other Ivies.</p>
<p>in not so many words…Borwn is the greatest! :D</p>
<p>Agree with Lakshmi.</p>
<p>Brown’s strengths isn’t really in Sciences and Economics which is why Brown isn’t on my list. However- Providence was nice!</p>
<p>kjoodles, engineering? correct, pure sciences? I beg to differ.</p>
<p>Speaking of which, what is Brown’s weak departments? Just curious :-P.</p>
<p>Math, at least at the introductory level.</p>
<p>in what way are they weak? pls tell me i<em>wanna</em>be_Brown.</p>
<p>what makes you think the math department is weak? as someone who took many courses in that department, i can attest that is not true</p>
<p>thank you dcircle for clearing that up(although I admit everyone is free to have his own opinion)…I want to major in math…and I’m applying ED…that’s why I was asking… it would have been strange to learn Brown has a weak math department when I’m about to mail my app. :p</p>
<p>sure, check out these pages
<a href=“http://www.math.brown.edu/[/url]”>http://www.math.brown.edu/</a>
<a href=“http://www.dam.brown.edu/[/url]”>http://www.dam.brown.edu/</a></p>
<p>Both Math and Applied Math are housed in some of the nicest department buildings on campus</p>
<p>Take a look at the course offerings and faculty list (both of which are very impressive)–those are really the most important things</p>
<p>yeah…I have already done that…:)…but thanks…-people’s opinions are sometimes more important that the ones they state themselves…so…
but you reassured me…now all I have to do is get in! :D</p>
<p>dcircle, sorry I should have made it more clear, I feel like the math instruction in say 9 and 10 are weak, not necessarily the more advanced classes, I bet since you are a math major, you didnt even take 9 or 10. I placed out of 9, and can assure you that the teachers I had in high school are of a much better quality than the one I have now. Also, the Math Resource Center was a complete waste of time for me, when I went with questions. We were doing arclength, and surface area of rotation problems, one of which required a trig substitution, which I was doing, however, the tutor at MRC told me that trig substitution would not work, and that I had to find an integral from the tables in the back of the book, another problem I was using the wrong formula, however the tutor never realized it, I finally said, oh wait a second, maybe I should be using this formula.</p>
<p>Idk, maybe my high school’s math dept was really strong (which I doubt, because it is general concensus at the school that it is awful, and no one from my school ever does well on math competitions or majors in math.) but I feel like at the introductory level, the dept just isnt that strong, at least compared to the other depts I’m taking classes in.</p>
<p>that’s a fair complaint–intro courses in math can be hit or miss, it completely depends on the instructor.</p>
<p>this is a common issue though and doesn’t say much about the quality of the department</p>