<p>I’d like to major in Physics/Mathematics at the moment.</p>
<p>When I visited Brown, I loved the community feel. But, I’m not sure the quality of their physics department.</p>
<p>Cornell is known for having an amazing Physics program, correct? But how is the community/campus? I haven’t visited there yet.</p>
<p>And how do Brown and Cornell compare to a couple others I’m looking at: Swarthmore, Colgate, and UChicago to name a few.</p>
<p>For Math and Physics, Chicago and Cornell are global powerhouses, but Brown, Colgate and Swarthmore are also excellent. You should go for fit as all 5 universities and colleges you are considering are excellent academically. Brown and Cornell both have awesome communities. Cornell is more campus-focused, Brown is more town-focused. Colgate is a little world on its own. Chicago and Swarthmore are part of major cities, but they are far more serious academically.</p>
<p>UChicago is right in the middle of downtown Chicago, while Swat is more suburban ~ 12 miles from Philadelphia. UChicago & Colgate couldn’t be more different. One is urban, the other rural; one more well known for its grad schools, the other has no grad schools; one very academically intense, the other academically laid back. Both are considered good schools, so it would depend on fit. Colgate, Cornell & Swarthmore all have very nice campuses. Brown is OK too, but just feels like the city is encroaching on it, at least, a little bit. Never been to UChicago. I get the impression that it’s in a not-so-great area that is becoming gentrified, but others certainly could comment more accurately than I.</p>
<p>Here are few differences between Brown and Cornell. Some may matter a great deal to you; others may be irrelevant.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>At Brown, most people live on campus for at least three of their four years. At Cornell, most people other than freshmen live off-campus. </p></li>
<li><p>Brown can reasonably be described as an overgrown liberal arts college, and it attracts the sort of people who like that atmosphere. Cornell has a more pre-professional feel; there are far more pre-meds and pre-vets and people majoring in such things as engineering, architecture, or hotel administration than true liberal arts types.</p></li>
<li><p>Brown has its distinctive open curriculum, with no specific course requirements outside your major. Cornell (assuming that you are a physics major in the College of Arts and Sciences) has a fairly conventional system of required freshman seminars and distribution requirements, as well as one requirement that may be a deal-breaker for some people: you’re going to have to take more foreign language, even if you have AP credit. (The requirement, basically, is one semester more than whatever you already have.)</p></li>
<li><p>Brown is more focused on undergraduates; Cornell is more of a research university.</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell has more than 60 fraternities and sororities, and about one-third of the students belong to Greek houses. Brown’s Greek system is much smaller and plays a less significant role on its campus.</p></li>
<li><p>Ithaca is a nice college town, with all of the ordinary amenities (a downtown, a mall, a multiplex cinema, numerous restaurants, etc.) and good public transportation to get you to wherever you want to go within the Ithaca area. And because it’s home to two colleges (Ithaca College is the other one), Ithaca is geared to young people, and the two campuses attract a wide variety of speakers and special events. But Ithaca is nowhere near a major city, and public transportation in and out of Ithaca is not very good. Providence is a substantial city in its own right and within easy reach of Boston. And transportation is excellent (among other things, you can walk from the Brown campus to the Amtrak station).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’d go to Brown if you loved it- Its physics dept will get you into the grad school of your choice. This is UNDERGRAD, not grad school - don’t choose on departments for non “vocational” majors.</p>