<p>What creates that impression?</p>
<p>The answer is most definitely NO, and without putting words in your mouth, the only people I’ve found who came to that conclusion did so through a combination of poor reasoning skills expanding on baseless assumptions.</p>
<p>^oh mostly from word of mouth. people who criticize brown say that the pass/fail option makes students slack</p>
<p>And those people don’t understand how the curriculum work and would likely flounder at Brown.</p>
<p>Has anybody on this thread actually mentioned anything substantive? This is the most incoherent, unintelligible, unsubstantiated discussion based on false causation assumptions that I have ever seen. The measure of whether a college is “good” or not is relative to what professors you get, roughly. Just because a university is loaded with dough, doesn’t mean their professors are any better necessarily. All the US news rankings are based entirely on money, which may or may not be helpful, depending on your major. Roughly speaking, an analysis of selectivity might be conclusive as to the type of students a college admits, but still says very little about the college’s strengths themselves.</p>
<p>All colleges are more or less the same if you work hard enough. There might be some minor differences based on whether or not the settings are urban and the curriculum is truly diverse; in that regard Brown is probably the only school with any distinction from the others. </p>
<p>Personally, what I look for in colleges is how they run things - administration, finaid, applications. In that regard, I think Columbia is the worst because they are just stupid for not putting themselves on the commonapp, not to mention the fact that the staff I’ve talked to gave me very conflicting testimonials as to how the admissions process worked. </p>
<p>Anyway…have fun</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Remember that admit rates do not a great university make. UChicago always has a high rate, while College of the Ozarks always has a very low admit rate.</p>
<p>It really depends on the structure, specialties, size, etc… of each school. I wouldn’t get too hung up on how many applicants are admitted as a correlation to the quality of education you’ll receive.</p>
<p>saltyballs - you have a great screen name.</p>
<p>Salty balls probably does not attend college. While there is some truth to what he/she said, there are equal parts nonsense and a whole lot of “response” to **** that wasn’t even said in this thread, which doesn’t help when you’re a condescending jerk.</p>
<p>Stupefy, may I ask you a question without offending?
Why are you applying to Brown. I am genuinely interested to learn why. It seems like every post you have made is rather degrading about every aspect of Brown. You seem to consider it the least of all the Ivies, and obviously consider it even below other schools like UPenn. You have repeatedly questioned the academic rigor, and have placed it as last on your choice lists. So really, why are you applying?</p>
<p>I don’t mean to interrogate, but I really am curious; and, perhaps, a little defensive of my beloved Brown :)</p>
<p>^hahah I’m not at all offended. well, first off, I’d very much like to attend a school in new england. secondly, I think you may have misinterpreted me a tad in that while I think brown is one of the “lesser” ivies I still have to acknowledge that it is a great school, to which a lot of great students apply. and if I dont get into my top choices, I would be satisfied going to brown. I also really like the commerce organizations and entrepreneurship major. its very different, no other school offers it</p>
<p>Well, I’m glad I’m not Stupefy’s alumni interviewer :D.</p>
<p>^I’m actually quite charming in person 
I talked with my yale interviewer, who was a partner in a law firm, for nearly 2 hours. of course that didnt seem to help my admissions at all :/</p>
<p>Not an issue of charming, but I think you know that …</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>^I’m always good at faking interest in the school? haha</p>
<p>I’m pretty good at figuring out you’re faking. It’s not had if you ask the right questions. :D.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think it’s pretty crazy to apply to Brown has a very good backup reach, but hey, it’s folks like you that are making our admit rate lower even though you don’t really want to be here.</p>
<p>Then again, it’s folks like you that potentially erode our culture because you show up day one having little interest or value placed on any of the elements of Brown that are unique.</p>
<p>::sigh::</p>
<p>Personal pet peeve. Don’t apply anywhere you wouldn’t love going for very good reasons-- it ends up hurting everyone. We get enough kids who actually want to come to Brown that one of them who won’t feel like they are settling should get your spot.</p>
<p>^I’m sorry I, um, hurt your feelings by insulting your precious brown. that’s what ED is for- students who really want to go to brown have that option. but who are you to tell me that I can’t apply to a school that I’m not crazy about. I mean, I’m only passionate about a few schools, and those schools have brutal acceptance rates. so why am I not allowed to apply to some schools that I have a better chance of getting into, but that aren’t necessarily my top choices. I think you’re pretty narrowminded to judge me for that, when that’s what most students do.</p>
<p>I have no doubt that most students do that, it’s a behavior I’m not a fan of. I said it was a pet peeve, implying that it’s something that particularly bothers me even though it’s not a big deal.</p>
<p>I have my own philosophies about the process just like everyone else does. I only applied to four schools, three of which I really liked and knew I would get considerable merit scholarship and one of which I loved and had to hope for financial aid. Since then the only things I would have changed is I’ve found a couple of more schools I would have loved that would have been worth applying to, but yeah…</p>
<p>Basically, I think the whole apply to 15 schools and hedge your bets thing is nonsense and stems from placing way more importance on prestige than quality, over anticipating the importance of prestige by quite a bit.</p>
<p>Believing that pass/fail leads to a lack of academic rigor is just totally missing the whole point.</p>
<p>well, the way I see it, I’m not arrogant enough to think that ill get into my top choice (yale). but I do want to go to college, and since money is not so much an issue for me, and since I am willing to put in the time to do all the apps, I think it’s better to apply to more schools and have too MANY options than apply to too few schools and have no options. college admissions is a crapshoot, and I’d like to have the most “shots” as possible</p>
<p>Brown is way different than Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford, which I am guessing you are probably applying to. modestmelody and I are peeved by this for a reason; if you would fit in great at Yale, there are other schools like Yale but have higher acceptance rates. Many students pick reaches, targets, and safeties that are generally alike, not shooting for reaches and very different “backup reaches” across the board. By the way, the idea of a “backup reach” is kind of lame IMO (emphasis on the IMO). </p>
<p>And I’m sure you personally will end up going somewhere great (I saw one of your whatchamacallits in the Yale SCEA thread and you look pretty bomb), but many of the other people on this site who applied to only Ivies got rejected from all of them and ended up having to go to places with rolling admission like Tulsa and other second-tier state schools. Applying to more than 2 or 3 Ivies just seems like bad luck, but maybe not.</p>
<p>EDIT: Did you post your stats in the Yale SCEA thread? That might have been someone else</p>
<p>^I’m applying to HYP not S but my next choices are columbia, upenn wharton, and duke. I haven’t considered brown all that much, of course its different, and if I am lucky enough to get in, I will research it further, talk more indepth with the profs/students, and see if I’d fit in there. for now, I don’t have the time to do that, so I’m going to apply. after april rolls in, I’ll look at my options more carefully</p>
<p>
Yeah I did. and I thought my app was pretty “bomb” too but apparently yale didnt think so. here’s my chance thread if you’re curious:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/767918-chance-me-please.html?highlight=chance[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/767918-chance-me-please.html?highlight=chance</a></p>
<p>^You’re from Philadelphia? Lucky…</p>