I’m a junior w/ a 3.72 UW/32 ACT and a very strong emphasis on humanities. I go to a very competitive, well regarded high school and have taken plenty of APs w/ great ECs and LOTS of work experience. I can go into depth later about stats but here is what I’m looking for…
A friendly, collaborate environment w/ a strong community
Opportunities for theatre/improv
Strong humanities department
Open curriculumn or flexibility
Good night life/interesting area
Then some other factors that aren’t important but are also nice
Beautiful campus/school
Access to urban amenities
Warm weather
Those last three are by no means necessary but some schools with those aspects would be great. Thank you everyone in advance!
Before you jump in with both feet on an open curriculum school, check the prerequisites for classes in your intended major. In some areas of study like Economics, it may not be as open as you think.
But in answer to your question, Bates, Bowdoin, Middlebury and Hamilton have a lot in common with Brown apart from the lack of open curriculum in the first three.
It doesn’t have to open curriculumn but I would like to avoid a very binding and intense core (like UChicago). @OnTheBubble@Otterma
In terms of financial restrictions, I’ve narrowed out all OOS public schools and am only applying to schools where a.) I would most likely get merit aid or b.) once I got in, I know my full need would be met (so probably more prestigious schools w/ larger endowments). @mountaingoats
Wesleyan and Connecticut College match some of your criteria.
Carleton, a very fine school, does, however, have January temperatures (January low: 2.6) that are over ten degrees colder than most of the other schools mentioned so far (compare to Rochester at 17.6). (Warm weather was stated as a secondary factor.)
Brown and Wesleyan are often mentioned together; they both occupy a kind of maverick status within their respective athletic leagues (Ivy and NESCAC) that probably derives from their liberal (by New England standards) Protestant founders. Both were severely effected by the Civil War which caused major schisms within their churches that, in turn, propelled both colleges toward greater secularism. Brown’s first non-Baptist president was a Wesleyan graduate. Both were early adaptors of curricular reform in the 1960s. Both were early proponents of affirmative action. Wesleyan is generally considered the LAC that comes closest in feel to a university while Dartmouth and Brown are the Ivy League universities that come closest to feeling like LACs. Even the campuses have a vague, eclectic, similarity: http://alumni.brown.edu/clubs/rmbc/images/clip_image002_000.jpg http://static2.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1756345.1397523525!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_1200/wesleyan-fdp001.jpg
Agree that Wesleyan and Brown are pretty similar, though the undergraduate focus at Wesleyan would likely be stronger. Wes has immediate access to some natural areas as well, which could be another advantage of that school.
D applied last year ED, wait-listed, then denied. Another poster shared these links with me when we were looking for similar but less selective schools. I hereby bequeath them to you:
