<p>Brown seems interesting to me, but if I am more of a conservative person, will I be a complete minority?</p>
<p>There are more liberal people than conservative people at Brown, so yes, you’d be in the minority. However, this doesn’t mean you’d be alone. There’s a conservative newspaper that prints occasionally, a Republican club, and even outside of this, not everyone is liberal. I’m (by Brown standards) conservative, but I find it easier to just not talk about my political views. If you’re looking for a massive number of conservatives, you’d probably have trouble, but I’ve only felt particularly uncomfortable with politically-charged conversation once, and that was in a conversation with people whose views are radically liberal even by Brown standards.</p>
<p>This assumes, of course, that you’re comfortable with many others having moderate to strong liberal views. But then…that’d be the case at most comparable colleges. I wouldn’t describe Brown as the sole bastion of liberal thought compared to its peers, but it certainly has a very liberal bent…</p>
<p>I seem to remember this board being more moderate/conservative than the average Brown student, so I’m sure others will give their views.</p>
<p>That’s about what I thought. Thanks! I’ve also heard that at Brown that the academics are a bit more relaxed than at the other Ivies (not in quality, just in atmosphere). Is that true at all?</p>
<p>I haven’t really noticed much competition in academics, if that’s what you’re referring to. People work together, even in (especially in?) curved courses/premed courses. Things are generally collaborative. There’s still a decent amount of stress, but this is mitigated somewhat by a variety of factors. The ability to take any course pass/fail really helps reduce the grade-based pressure for some. The high average grades (not something that S/NC can entirely account for) help as well, compared to Princeton, where the active deflation stresses out students. Of course, a higher average GPA (which is technically not calculated) and the lack of pluses and minuses mean that some people get upset more easily about a single B or C (see Spotted @ Brown around finals period to see people stressing massively about grades). Finally, because of the Open Curriculum, Brown attracts the sort of student who wants to learn for learning’s sake and a reasonable number of students who don’t care much about grades at all.</p>
<p>Agree 100% with Uroogla</p>