<p>Brown is a fantastic school. Its undergraduate alumni do as well as any of the other schools ranked among the top 20 (except, arguably, HYP/MIT/Caltech and some of the very top LACs). In terms of resources, however, the simplest measure out there is endowment per student. Brown has much, much less money available than many of its peer universities. That means less for faculty, less for research per student, less for fellowships, advising, etc. That probably explains why it doesn’t crack the top fifty in many rankings, even though many/most of its traditional peers do. </p>
<p>Obviously, if you’re smart about picking a school, you’ll look beyond rankings like that: ideally by visiting colleges for 2-3 days each and talking with as many students/faculty as possible… but you’ll do your research carefully and in doing so, try to consider the possible effects on your experience at a school when compared to other places that have a lot more money available. </p>
<p>In other words, the “best” school out there is always what’s best for you i.e. the environment where you can most succeed, but you definitely shouldn’t rush to judgment about where that might be, especially when resources can differ in quality to such a large extent.</p>