Anything specific you want to share that might be of interest to the College Confidential community, or that people can help you with?
Otherwise, your posts that seem attacking will start to get flagged.
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I think you already have, but share the facts and evidence if you feel it would be helpful to others.
I think you have made your point, but since you were at Brown 20 years ago, it might not be relevant for current or prospective students. At the time you were at Brown, it is possible that you misunderstood the function of career services, which was not to pick up a phone and get a student a job. I believe they provided resources for the students’ own initiatives.
Some top schools still don’t have business or anything “practical.” Community colleges are great for vocational programs. Students interested in business at some top schools, tend to study economics but English majors can also get recruited. Of course there are also schools like Babson, Bentley, Wharton at UPenn and so on.
Higher Education is changing. I am reading a book titled “From Upheaval to Action: what works in changing higher ed.” In 2026 there is indeed a change brewing for more focus on career at colleges, partly to increase enrollment with changing demographics. One example is Brandeis, which gained students by changing the curriculum to have more practical experience, as I understand it. Northeastern with its coop program has soared in popularity and is now very selective.
But that was not the trend in the early 2000’s and the idea of preparing the life of the mind for whatever opportunities might present themselves after college was still prevalent.
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Thank you for your heartfelt response.
I actually proposed those things right after year 2000, and the Brown University CCC sabotaged 6 months of my work. They could not even spell or pronounce the titles of my proposals correctly, meaning they did not read them at all.
I knew this change was coming, but got mistreated.
Sadly, I knew Career Services were vital in helping members. But, as you see, I got nothing.
My story is not exaggerated or unique, as I personally know dozens who felt this way.
I was hoping to bring this topic up, as I feel prospective and current students need to know. The Center for Career Exploration is still quite weak. Students will need extra help from outside.
Liberal arts colleges have gotten much better in this category. I believe they are still not as good as the career machines “some” more specialized schools have on campus. For example, when I visited Bowdoin with my son recently, I was quite impressed.
There are many that likely don’t think their career services did much …at any school.
Did Brown educate you ?
If you’re an alum and have gotten three people jobs, then you are an example of a strong Brown alumni base.
Congrats to you. I’m sorry you don’t think Brown career services are strong. There is likely someone with your perspective at most every college in America, from top to bottom.
Best of luck.
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I’m hoping someone will chime in with more current information, since that would be more valuable for prospective students. Otherwise, we’ll either close or move to the cafe and rename the thread to something more generic for reminiscing purposes
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I appreciate your answer. It seems quite balanced. I just know that Brown promised so much about being “open curriculum,” “design your own classes,” “we will help you be successful, I promise.”
Honestly, I thought community college did a better job than Brown University. One senior mentor famously tells that “You should be so grateful to attend Brown. You could be at community college or flipping burgers.”
I actually tell him the truth: community college (and low level jobs like flipping burgers) were far more formative than a Brown degree.
If I could live life over again, I would just do community college, jobs like Starbucks or Bank of America with tuition reimbursement, and something like Texas Tech, Louisiana Tech, or wherever I lived or was stationed.
Based on the subsequent post from the OP, I’ve moved the thread to the cafe and changed its name opening up the discussion to career services centres at any college or university
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Don’t be like me.
Look ahead - or life will be long and sucky.
If you’ve picked up the phone and gotten 3 people jobs, then you must be doing ok.
There’s no college out there that has universal love.
Move to something positive - and you’ll have a better day today.
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If you want to learn to weld, Brown clearly was a sub-optimal choice for your education. I’m not sure where you are getting your information on Brown’s ROTC program– but whatever.
Best of luck to you. It’s hard going through life looking in the rear view mirror and still grinding away about someone who mispronounced something in a proposal you wrote in 2001. I hope life turns around for you soon.
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Going to move the discussion to be more broad. My daughter graduated Northeastern in 2016 (so my information is 10 years old). The career services office was wonderful in helping her land her first job out of college. The head of the department, when my daughter emailed her, took the time to meet with my daughter in person. She was very reassuring and said just give it a little more time, you are doing everything right. My daughter did get a job that she started days after graduation so it worked out well.
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Hi Blossom,
Good point.
My current strategy is just to be a very vocal critic.
Because at the age of 45 or so this is doing what for you by rehashing slights from your college days?
There is PLENTY to criticize about Brown (and indeed, every other college in America). This particular complaint- something that someone said to you back in 2001– seems like an odd one to me.
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I’m closing this thread.
- There have been multiple deleted posts due to ToS violations, despite warnings to the OP.
- I fail to see how the information shared is of any help to the current students and families the site endeavors to support.
- There are sites where it is acceptable to repeatedly air personal grievances from 20 years ago. This is not one of those.
Thank you for understanding.
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