<p>I don’t know why CayugaRed thinks so, but I personally don’t like Brown because they seem to practice a form of academic bribery to get students to attend. “Hey, come to our school, and we’ll make sure that you can do whatever the **** you want. No requirements, grades higher than everest, pass/fail whenever you feel like it… did we mention that you will never ever have to do anything you wouldn’t want to do? JOIN US!” </p>
<p>It’s an exaggeration, of course, but I really think that the open curriculum thing seems like a ploy to attract more $$$. I mean, Cornell’s college scholars program is similar, but you have to really earn it rather than have it advertised and served on a platter. Just my 2 cents though.</p>
<p>Plus, they sent me a brochure basically telling me that any college that has requirements is crap. The amount of sheer arrogance in that thing made the Harvard mail seem humble.</p>
<p>It was very much tongue in cheek – the only was a sports conference could be considered ‘prestigious’ is by having good sports teams. In hindsight though, Brown actually didn’t have a half-bad year in football and lacrosse. So maybe I should have used Columbia instead.</p>
<p>OP: Your parents are ill-informed and have probably never been to Cornell. If they had, they would know that students from contract and non-contract schools take the same classes (and in CAS/CALS, many of them have the same majors) live in the same dorms, and have the same experience with one essential difference: the NYS contract students pay about $11,000 less per year for it. If your parents think the NYS students are unintelligent because they opted to have a top-notch IVY education for $11,000 less per year than they could have had it anywhere else, then your parents need to get off whatever their equivalent of CC is and back into the real academic/economic world.</p>
<p>Many of the best NYS students turned down HYPSM to come to Cornell and graduate with an IVY LEAGUE education without being $50,000 further in debt. I’m one of them.</p>
<p>Good post Kara^ This whole thread is ridiculous. It is like asking whether Hawaii is part of the USA even though it is not contiguous. (Although some people believe so. Some people also do not think New Mexico or Alaska are part of the USA)</p>
<p>As far as the whole athletic conference thing–come on guys! You literalist KNOW that when the Ivy league is referred to, in news, entertainment, educational publications or just plain conversation, a group of highly prestigious elite colleges comes to mind–NOT an athletic conference.</p>