<p>My daughter is interested in Brown and Boston University. I would appreciate your opinions regarding these two choices.</p>
<p>Could you share a bit more about her interests? What type of profile does she present? We could be more helpful if you tell us what she is looking for in a college experience.</p>
<p>Triguena is right ... an opinion offered in the absence of context is of dubious value, and the diametric opposite of what College Confidential stands for.</p>
<p>She is interested in Math, but hasn't decided on a major. She is a 4.0 student, but Brown is a bit of a streach because her SAT scores are a little lower than the it . I'm not sure what else would be useful info. Thanks.</p>
<p>These two schools are nowhere near in the same league and REALLY different. Is she confusing Boston University and Boston College? What does she want to study?</p>
<p>Boston University is an urban campus, pretty big school, building a bunch of new dorms...</p>
<p>Boston University</p>
<p>Boston University is a good school, but in my opinion, I would go to Brown in an instant. Not even a question for me. </p>
<p>BU, though it is centrally located in, IMHO, the best college town you could ever ask for, is known for lacking in intellectual students. Not that they aren't smart: merely that they're not really intellectuals. Obviously, with a freshman class of 4000 or so, there's some brilliant, ambitious minds in there, but on the whole, it has a reputation for being the school for people whose parents have loose pursestrings, not for truly studious people. My brother just told me today that he got a B+ on a research paper he wrote in one night; that might be a product of his superlative writing skills, however, and not really a reflection on the difficulty of the classes. Overall, it's a good school, and your daughter will get an excellent education there, but if she doesn't like urban environments or would prefer a more "campus-y" feel, she might not enjoy the non-academic aspects of her life.</p>
<p>Brown, on the other hand, is an Ivy. However, it is known as the "granola Ivy" due to the save-the-world-figuratively-and-ecologically mentality of many of its students. If your daughter is smart, ambitious, and independent--Brown's Open Curriculum dispenses with required classes--Brown would properly suit her well. Plus, with Brown's new FA policy, it might even be cheaper to go there: my mother is convinced that BU has a reputation for lowering FA every year that you go there. As my brother is a frosh, I'm not sure if that's true, but the rumor exists.</p>
<p>Something is weird here. Please be more forthright. I find it hard to believe that your daughter would choose BU over Brown unless there are financial considerations. As stated in previous post they are in completely different leagues (literally and figuratively). </p>
<p>If she gets into both could you please explain the dilemma in why she would not go to Brown? Did she apply RD to both? Did she get a "likely" letter for swimming?</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I find it hard to believe that your daughter would choose BU over Brown unless there are financial considerations>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>Both schools cost about the same amount total cost of attendance each year. Brown meets full need but does not give merit aid. BU does not meet full need, but does give merit aid.</p>
<p>I have to tell you...Boston is a terrific town and personally I would choose living there over living in Providence RI. </p>
<p>You will find bright and interesting students at both schools.</p>
<p>It is not a dilemma for me. I just trying to provide guidance. She did apply RD to both. She hasn't done a lot of research and is going more on "feel". Also, I'm not sure if she fully understands the difference in the two schools. That is why I am doing some research to help her make an informed decision. Brown is her first choice, but hasn't absolutely commited yet.</p>
<p>Before she makes any sort of decision, she should wait until she hears her fate from admissions. She may not get in to either place.</p>
<p>BU is a much bigger school, in a very urban setting with no defined campus. Brown has a defined campus, but the campus also interacts with the neighborhood. Brown has no distribution requirements or core curriculum; I don't know much about BU but I would assume it does have requirements.</p>
<p>Students at Brown are pretty diverse, but known to be somewhat quirky, creative, activist, liberal, laid back, non competitive. Again, I don't know much about BU, but I don't think its students are described in quite that way.</p>
<p>Math is not one of Brown's strongest departments; I know nothing about BU's math department.</p>
<p>While Brown promises to meet 100% of need, it defines your need. I knew a student last year who got into both schools, received no financial aid from Brown and a full scholarship from BU -- and so attends BU. The student has to maintain a 3.5 GPA, and BU is known for its grade deflation.</p>
<p>If your daughter gets into both schools, she'll need to do the research. She needs to visit both schools, talk to students, investigate the math departments (she can look at them on online). </p>
<p>It might help if you asked some specific questions and told us more about your daughter's interests.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>don't know much about BU but I would assume it does have requirements.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>BU has core course requirements for all majors, with some variation (but not much). DS who was a music major had to take 8 Core courses (not music courses) as part of his graduation requirements across a number of disciplines. I know that two semesters of English (one required writing course and another of the student's choice) and two history courses were absolutely required. Beyond that, I don't know what the core requirements were.</p>
<p>Sly, Brown's Applied Math department (known as "Apple Math" back in the day) is considered very strong; I don't know about the more theoretical department. Many students do an interdisciplinary major involving Math and other things they are interested in, and the department attracts both stellar math students and a stellar faculty interested in teaching undergrads.</p>
<p>To the OP- the schools "feel" very different; she can get an excellent education in either place depending on her level of motivation. It is easy to get lost in the shuffle at BU; less so at Brown. Many students at BU move off-campus after Freshman year so the social life revolves around apartments near Kenmore Square; although some students move out of dorms at Brown the core of their social life still revolves around campus activities, lectures, volunteer organizations, etc.</p>
<p>Providence has experienced a tremendous renaissance in the last 5 years. It was a dumpy, run-down industrial city back in the '70's but it is a fantastic place to live now with experimental theater, music, jazz, all sorts of ethnic restaurants, etc. I would love a "do-over" of my college years now that Providence is such a fun place to live. I loved every minute of my years at Brown, but Providence wasn't the best part of it for sure.</p>
<p>Brown is unquestionably a great university. It has great students, some of whom choose it over places like Harvard or Stanford without financial reasons to do that. (I know some of such students.) Because of its unique requirements-free curriculum, it attracts the kind of people who don't like requirements, either because they have strong, idiosyncratic focus, or because they are generally free-spirited. As blossom says, Providence has had a real renaissance over the past 15 years of so, and is a pretty spiffy place right now (although still relatively small potatoes compared to Boston). Brown is in a great location there -- on a hill overlooking the central area, close enough to walk but not really part of it, and with RISD right next door to ensure an interesting mix of students.</p>
<p>Boston University is a large, private urban university. Academically, it clearly ranks a tier (or two, depending on how you measure tiers) below Brown. In a way, it's similar to some other relatively large, urban, private universities like NYU or USC, but it doesn't quite have the academic reputation of either of those. That said, in part because of its location, it has quite a number of superb faculty, and it offers some great opportunities. It has an honors program and makes aggressive use of merit scholarships to attract good students. So while its average student is not at the level of Brown's students, it has a decent cadre of students who may be, and there's no question that a student who wants to work hard and to get intellectual stimulation can find a lot of opportunities there. As another poster said, it does not have a defined campus, and there are big streets running through it (not unlike NYU, but more industrial, not as cute). So you have to be comfortable with big-city life. As far as I remember (and talking to other parents), it may be a tick more expensive than Brown (before financial aid) when all the hidden costs are added in.</p>
<p>BU would have been both of my kids' choice of a safety if they had not already had an acceptance they liked more in hand by mid December. (Because it's so large, it has relatively predictable admissions based on grades and test scores.) My daughter has a friend there who is a senior in the business program. The friend was not enthusiastic about going (it was a financial decision and broke her heart a bit), but loved it from Day One. My son visited and was confident it would be a great school for him, although he thought it would be somewhat like his high school with wide disparities among students' ability and interest levels.</p>