Target colleges similar to Brown or Columbia

College Search & Lists
1

What are some target colleges that are similar to these in terms of academics and culture? Casual question

The main things I like about them are the diversity, financial aid, politically active culture, northeast location, and encourages students to explore so many different areas of study (whether its through the Open Curriculum or Core Curriculum, its the same principle), plus a crazy amount of student groups and stuff. neat places to be

Stats:
Junior in VA public school, gets maybe one student into a top ten every 2-3 years. However, dual enrolled in a magnet program (core classes only) that gets one out of 30 students every year. (if any of that matters)

GPA: 4.6 Weighted, 3.97 Unweighted
Rank: Top 1-2% out of 300
Stats: took 2 APs freshman year (scores 5 and 3), 3 APs sophomore year (scores 5, 5, and 4), currently taking 4 APs, next year taking 7 APs
770 on SAT II Subject–Bio
have not taken SAT yet

Super involved in extracurriculars and avid artist/painter. No sports. Extracurriculars are pretty much all in the activism and politics bubbles, including founding multiple community advocacy organizations (one is soon to be a nonprofit), internship with congresswoman, work for huge orgs like Women’s March at the national level (i get to travel for free and stuff idk), etc. and a crap ton more. So a political/activist college would be cool.

Other identity stuff:
income like 40k or something (so a college with good need based aid please), both parents went to college (outside the US), indian male, sikh religion, and might be lgbt who knows

Not releasing too much because this isn’t really a super serious question, just looking for more colleges to look into other than the top few that are shoved down my throat on this website. just please dont say uva or william and mary (please).

thanks friends

2

Brown and Columbia are at opposite ends of the spectrum: Columbia having a rigid core curriculum and Brown having an open curriculum. If you are willing to go outside the Northeast, you should look at Rice. Rice has an excellent financial aid program, rates very high for race/class interaction, and is lgbtq friendly. At Rice you can take classes in any subject and major in anything except architecture and music which require portfolio/audition. Rice students take classes in a wide range of subjects to fulfill distribution requirements. Students do not have to declare a major until the end of sophomore year. Texas is a “red” state but Houston and Rice are “blue.” U Chicago has a core curriculum like Columbia.

3

@collegekrazy, If you are flexible on location and open to smaller schools (LACs) in or near urban areas with strong activist populations, I would recommend Macalester (match/low reach) and Swarthmore (reach). Your profile might also resonate at Oberlin, located in a small town but within striking distance of Cleveland (match/low reach).

4

Though also challenging admits, Wesleyan and Swarthmore match most of your general preferences.

5

What do you want to study? What’s wrong with UVA or W&M? Keep them as backups as the pool your in is very competitive

6

I agree with Wesleyan (also open curriculum) and Oberlin (very activist).

I would add Sarah Lawrence and Vassar, both also largely open curriculum and pretty activist and diversity friendly.

Best wishes to you in your search!

7

If you are a female applicant, then you should consider Smith College, Mount Holyoke & Bryn Mawr as well as Wellesley.

It would be helpful to know if you have an intended major area of study.

All of the schools recommended in the above posts seem to fit as well.

Macalester in Minnesota is very liberal.

8

I agree that the OP might benefit by including his (though tucked in the penultimate paragraph, note that the OP is male) tentative academic interests.

9

A lot of kids who like Brown also like Tufts.

10

None of the following are targets/matches, especially since RD admit rates are usually at least 1-2% lower than the overall rates.

Rice - 11% admitted
Swarthmore - 9.45% admitted
Tufts - 14.6% admitted
Wesleyan - 17.4% admitted

Vassar, Oberlin, Macalester, and Sarah Lawrence (in order of decreasing selectivity) can be considered matches. One could add Hampshire to the list, I think.

Brandeis checks many of OP’s boxes and is easier to get into than the Ivies and similarly selective top universities.

11

Intended or possible major would help others suggest colleges, since some of the various colleges have particular academic strengths and weaknesses that differ from each other.

For example, Sarah Lawrence has lots of offerings in arts, writing, literature, history, and psychology, but is rather limited in most other subjects.

12

Amherst College has the Open Curriculum and the added bonus is they are a part of the Five College Consortium.

13

I mis-read this as Target Colleges, and I was going to assume they wouldn’t be of the same quality as the Ivys, but then it occurred to me they were for-profits Brown College and Columbia Southern and it could be true. I may need to eat lunch.

14

Re #12, the OP appears to be seeking “target colleges” that offer attributes similar to those of Brown (R.I.) or Columbia (NYC), but which might be somewhat more accommodating with respect to admission.

15

Amherst and Brown have many similarities. And even if you don’t want to go there you should apply UVA and the others that excite, so please apply “safety” in state.