<p>1) Their undergrad Theatre/Art History/Classics Dept.
2) Social life - not a smoker, quite a drinker, love to go out and dance, very gay
3) how recognized a uni is INTERNATIONALLY (you’d be surprised how little European people care for Stanford, obviously)</p>
<p>Any advice? </p>
<p>My thoughts now:</p>
<p>Brown - seems nice, but is the weakest academics-wise. I’ve heard it’s “very liberal”. What does that mean?
Columbia - not sure of its academic rep compared to Stanford and Harvard, NYC seems too huge to handle
Stanford - noone told me anything unique about stanford why I should go there and not anywhere else. everyone simply says “it’s an great school”.
Harvard - obviously best academics-wise, and the only one <em>everyone</em> knows of, but I’m scared that it’s socially dull and that it’s a lot harder to handly (studying and all) than the remaining three.</p>
<p>I hope this doesn’t seem like showing off, I sincerely need help deciding. Gimme your best, folks!</p>
<p>Brown’s classics department has gotten rave reviews from a number of my friends who majored in it. In fact, their experience would make me consider it one of their finest departments at Brown. I know the name of one esp esteemed Classics Prof which I had heard from no less than 5 classics majors describe as being <em>amazing</em> and, in general, they have really enjoyed the department. It’s not my department but I know there is a Classics, Classics-Latin and, potentially a Latin-Greek track of concentration for majors. </p>
<p>Can’t help you with points two and three other than to say - Brown is very liberal [there’s that phrase again!] - a real live and let live atmosphere. I know there is a large theater/art crowd at Brown and, I have no doubt that you’d be able to find your niche comfortably at Brown after adjusting to college life.</p>
<p>I encourage you to visit each school and see where you feel most comfortable but, it also seems Brown would fit you well.</p>
<p>Providence is very gay friendly. The mayor is gay. But if you want to find out about dance clubs in Providence I’m sure you could easily Google your way into that one. I will say that I don’t think that Harvard is the best academics wise. You seem to be falling into the pit of name-brand recognition. Yes, Hahvud does have but that does not mean it’s the best place to do your undergraduate career. IMO the best undergrad choices are liberal arts colleges, Brown, Dartmouth, and Yale.</p>
<p>Can’t blame me for falling into that pit -when overseas, it’s hard not to be out of the loop with the goings-on with colleges. basically, I know what I know from TV. Hence the stereotypes. :(</p>
<p>I would say either Brown or Stanford. You do not seem to interested in Columbia or Harvard, and you are very lucky to choose from these colleges, so you should choose the best one based on fit.</p>
<p>I keep hearing the same things about Harvard. Grad school = awesome, undergrad=not as awesome.</p>
<p>I can’t say for sure but I doubt Harvard is any harder than Brown. Professors move around from elite school to elite school. One prof who is writing me a recommendation right now formerly taught at Harvard. It has less to do with the school and more to do with the professor.</p>
<p>funny side story, he told me he has to write more recommendations at Brown because Harvard students were “weenies” and wouldn’t ask him for anything…while “versatile” Brown students will ask him for ANYTHING. So I asked him to move my grill Saturday night at 11pm. :)</p>
<p>Quite honestly, I agree with the above. Brown as a better undergrad experience all things considered than Stanford or Harvard. The last two have excellent graduate programs. I can’t comment about Columbia but you seem disinterested in it anyway.</p>
<p>I did my medical residency at Stanford, easily the best school I interviewed at for what I wanted to learn at that level but looking in on the undergrad experience there, asking around etc, it’s really not the priority for Stanford, and I’d hesitate to go there for undergrad.</p>
<p>yes, he did say yes, in jest. since i said it in jest. but i did look at his car (since most Brown students and profs know next to nothing about automotive mechanics) once so maybe he owes me :)</p>
<p>I really wish more people at Brown had a tad more applicable knowledge about everyday things. It’s painful to watch 500 people squeeze out of one door of a building since the other won’t open, and not one person lifts the lock and opens it… I always wondered if I had a group gathered and pulled the lock if everyone watching would resemble a group of cavemen watching someone create fire. “OOOOOOooooohhh!!”</p>
<p>It’s unbelievable when I give science tours and walk into the CIT. If I don’t specifically mention that there are three tours and that we should use all of them, I watch 50 people try to cram into a single door-- students and parents alike.</p>
<p>It’s not just Brown, it’s people in general. You should have seen the look on people’s faces when I just walked around the short bookcase they were blocking the non-revolving doors with (as a show that we should use revolving doors to not waste heat) as opposed to waiting behind a line of people trying to get out of the building. “Oh you can step around it?”</p>
<p>I can understand leading people or people in a place they don’t know doing that but people who enter and exit the same building for 4 years are doing it lol. Idk I know a lot of particularly spacey people here.</p>
<p>I’m surprised you think Stanford is not received well in Europe. It’s certainly well respected in the UK.</p>
<p>
All four have superb Classics programs. Brown is definitely the strongest, but Columbia is not far behind. Stanford and Harvard have very respectable departments as well.</p>
<p>Columbia has a strong edge for art history. The faculty is amazing, and the ties to the Met and NYU make Columbia one of the two or three best places in the country to study art history. Harvard is a fairly close second; it also has a great faculty with ties to several outstanding museums both on (e.g. Fogg) and off (e.g. MFA) campus. Brown’s art history department is slightly stronger than Stanford’s, and if you’ve visited Brown, you know how great the RISD museum is.</p>
<p>BROWN
the atmosphere there is incredible…its progressive and edgey
you can sense this about the student body i dont know if i can say this about the other schools
ive heard columbia students come off as standoffish i dont know if this is true or not
i cant say much about harvard than well…its HARVARD and i do agree with you tho…there is kinda that vibe of it just being socially dead…prob not true but i dont see the harvard student body as exciting as the brown
dont know much about stanford but i just dont feel that pull towards there…nothing that really hooks you to stanford</p>
<p>Ok, so this is my opinion (somewhat fact-based, but mostly projected through the lens of my own limited experience): </p>
<p>The environments at Harvard and Columbia have both been described as “frenetic”, and having been on both campuses (Columbia three times, Harvard many times b/c it’s right near my house), I can agree with that assessment. My own impression of Brown (from being on-campus several times, including one overnight) is that the adjective “frenetic” would never likely be applied to the environment at Brown. It struck me as much more calm and balanced. And more like a LAC campus than the other two, if that is what you want. </p>
<p>Here is my completely unscientific opinion (based on what I have read on CC and to some extent what I have glimpsed myself):
Choose Harvard if you are a driven, type-A person who is able and willing to chase down the right people to get that internship on Wall Street for the summer between your soph and junior years. Some people get off on this level of activity, and you may be one of them. Also, choose Harvard if you don’t mind being reminded often that many (possibly most) of your classmates are genetic mutations of immense intelligence and abilities that may dwarf yours, and who have big plans already laid out well beyond their four years at Harvard.</p>
<p>Choose Brown if you’re focus is a little more sighted in the here and now, and what you are currently mostly wondering, and interested in, is what will be covered in your Egyptology class tomorrow. And you’re ok with that because you already sense, without being reminded, that most of your classmates are equally as intelligent and able as students at Harvard, but their mutation and personal drive is not so obvious. And maybe your plans beyond Brown will gel as you enter soph and junior years and move into adulthood.</p>
<p>Again, I’m ok if anyone wants to shoot holes in my opinions above, because I am basing them on only what I have personally seen, heard, and read.</p>
<p>By the way, I have zero opinion on Stanford, except the viewbook they sent made the campus look WAY too sunny for my Northern eyes to stand 365-a-year.</p>
<p>1.Stanford and Harvard are very rigorous with a larger workload than Brown and Columbia but are socially dead, very conservative, and not what you are looking for.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Brown and Columbia are very good academic wise, more liberal, and more exciting.</p></li>
<li><p>Brown is the best in my opinion.</p></li>
<li><p>You should have applied to Dartmouth. They are an ivy that knows how to party!</p></li>
</ol>
No time to get a tourist visa for the US. Heh!</p>