<p>I honestly don’t think it’s that selective–being able to pay is probably the biggest factor. When I was on campus this past summer (not for Summer@Brown), several of my friends were RAs for the Summer@Brown high school students. Often times, the high schoolers would eat/hang out with the RAs for the first few days and then they’d eventually find a group of friends that they clicked with and would start to associate with those people. It wasn’t uncommon for people to walk to downtown providence (it’s literally down the hill from campus), go to the beach, or just hang-out on campus. I wouldn’t worry too much about the “wandering around”—I hardly ever saw high schoolers walking around by themselves at night. The RAs do a pretty good job of encouraging students to stay safe by staying in groups when wandering about. Plus, high schoolers are required to wear these (hideous) red lanyards and tags at all times—surprisingly, most people abide by the rule! As long as your daughter maintains proper judgement, doesn’t wander alone at night by herself, and is back in her dorm before curfew* (which is HUGE), she’ll be fine.</p>
<p>*It’s important she doesn’t miss curfew. Public safety will get called, RAs will be freaking out, and she could get kicked out. RISD actually has a zero tolerance policy and it was pretty sad to hear of kids being sent home after day one for skipping curfew–albeit, some of those kids also partook in illegal drug use, but I’m sure missing curfew didn’t help either.</p>