<p>Just to add to the discussion, brownieboy don’t forget that you still have to complete a concentration (aka a major), so this doesn’t mean that you have 8 semesters of all courses you selected (then again you can always make your own concentration). To me, the Open Curriculum, Pass/Fail Option, and other similar policies create a great environment of intellectualism where students learn for the sake of learning. Brown puts your education in their students’ hands giving each student the chance to explore their academic interests even if these interests may be completely unrelated to their concentration or prospective career. With a small grad student population, Brown is truly one of the most undergrad-focused research universities and this means that research is readily available to undergraduates (when I visited Brown my friend took me into the chemistry building to meet 3 of his other undergrad friends who were doing p-chem research, they all had publications which is amazing!)</p>
<p>In the spring I was in a somewhat similar situation as you as I had to choose between JHU and Brown, in the end I chose Brown for a variety of reasons. Other than the reasons posted above, Brown’s location was a major plus for me because in the spectrum of my top 3 choices: Brown, JHU, and Umich, I had Baltimore, a major city, Ann Arbor, a typical collegetown, and Providence seemed like the intermediate, a type of place that you can make into both a college town and a city. Secondly, it seemed to me that JHU and Umich seemed to really flaunt their research opps as a way to compensate for a lack of undergrad focus (which I suspect might also correspond to Penn, another major research u). In the end, I chose the university that provided me with the best undergraduate education and experience!</p>
<p>To end this long post/ramble, of my friends that were accepted to Penn all were accepted to Wharton but when someone asks them where they go they usually say Wharton (but maybe that’s to escape the UPenn, Penn State confusion). It just seems to me like the separate schools creates disunity within the school because when I tend to think of Wharton as the sort of Honors College of UPenn in the sense that it attracts the best students. But realize I’m basing this off my Upenn friends’ stories and experiences, so this is just my thoughts.</p>
<p>js416256- thanks a lot for your input. You swayed me a little bit for Brown with the whole bit about emphasizing the undergrad education as opposed to a preprofessional school like Penn. as I think about it, maybe Brown might be better for a kid like me, who is interested in the social sciences (apply to the college at Penn) because I don’t have a career picked out yet.</p>
<p>I think Brown and Upenn both are very well-balanced schools that are strong in most typical college topics (math, science, humanities) which is good for people who are undecided in their course of study. Of course each school has its own unique programs, with Upenn there are schools/programs like Wharton, Nursing (which I’ve heard a lot about), Vagelos, etc. and at Brown there are some rare departments like Egyptology, History of Mathematics, etc. So since you are undecided you need to make sure that you pick a college that can suit your diverse academic interests (that’s what especially turned me off of somewhat one-sided schools like JHU).</p>
<p>I brought up Chicago, but only in saying that my son loved Brown just as much, and for a lot of the same reasons.</p>
<p>45Percenter, you’ve made me come around on Penn.</p>
<p>bb, don’t buy into that “preprofessional school like Penn” myth. Remember, there are over 6,000 kids in Penn’s College or Arts and Sciences, and they are, for the most part, just as uncertain of their future career plans as the kids at Brown. But one advantage they have is that they can, e.g., sample a few courses at Wharton to see how they like Management, or Finance, or whatever, while still pursuing their liberal arts program with many outstanding departments in the College (from colonial US history to economics to anthropology–PHENOMENAL archaeology/anthropology museum, by the way–to psychology–Cognitive Therapy was developed at Penn–these and many other liberal arts departments at Penn are among the best rated in the US).</p>
<p>Both Brown and Penn are terrific schools with lots to offer, but don’t assume that Penn is all about Wharton and preprofessionalism. It’s not, and you should really try to get in touch with some kids in the College to find out what it’s like for them. Maybe you can arrange to visit both Brown and Penn again in the Fall to do just that.</p>
<p>thanks a LOT- i really appreciate all of your comments and i feel like i have a better understanding of how each school relates to me</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision! You really can’t go wrong either way.</p>