Brown and upenn decision

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
1

<p>I have been preoccupied about my decision for the past three weeks, as this upenn-brown decision is truly a dilemma! I have chosen brown, but i feel like i made the wrong choice and am considering withdrawing my spot at brown. Please give me your feedback, guys. That would be awesome.</p>

<p>I did not apply to wharton. I applied to the college as an anthropology major but will change that to a cognitive science at upenn. (At UCLA I was doing psychobiology and the accounting minor). I am also interested in business, which is what draws me to upenn. However, i don’t think you can receive a degree at Wharton as a transfer, which was one of the reasons i did not pick penn. i believe you would only be able to take classes at wharton and/or get an interschool minor, which is what I would be doing. This is what I’ve been told, so if you have heard otherwise, let me know. Furthermore, as a junior transfer, i doubt I would have the time to take a significant amount of wharton classes, given that I have only two years to complete my cognitive science major plus whatever GE’s I am missing.</p>

<p>I never got the chance to visit both schools this quarter, as i was completely bombarded with school, finals, etc. So location was never an issue for me. However, my friends at penn have told me that the student body there is more rigorous and harsh, which i felt was not conducive for a transfer. I was mainly scared that i wouldn’t be able to fit in at upenn, and brown just seems more accommodating in that respect.</p>

<p>My main issue with brown is its lack of national and international prestige, as well as it being the ivy with the least endowment, which says something I suppose? My parents are extremely asian, so they would rather spend the 40k on upenn, which they believe has a stronger prestige presence. Furthermore, brown’s unorthodox curriculum, i feel, might be looked down upon by employers especially in business or other professions as a diploma that wouldn’t carry significant weight to it. Ideally, I would like a job at a consulting firm and recruiters are always at penn. On the flip side, though, it seems like I could be put at a disadvantage given the immense numbers of Wharton people competing for the same jobs.</p>

<p>i really liked brown for its open curriculum, and i would be able to double major in a shorter period of time- cog neuroscience and the commerce, organizations, and entrepreneurship program. </p>

<p>again, i am still very conflicted and do have occasional thoughts of withdrawing from brown and attending penn instead. Could this be cold feet? Maybe. Prestige/image of the school is a huge factor. so is social life. id be happy at upenn, but imagine id be even happier at brown. but the happiness difference is minimal, so I can see why penn would give me a good combination of prestige and happiness. Please tell me your concerns about both schools as well as your take on my situation. I’d love to hear them.</p>

2

<p>There is a wonderful thread here started by Modestmelody:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/385841-brown-curriculum-university-college-explained.html?highlight=modestmelody%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/385841-brown-curriculum-university-college-explained.html?highlight=modestmelody&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Please read through this. Many of your normal questions will be answered here. I don't know Penn; my D just finished her first year at Brown. She absolutely loved the school in every way. It was a very tough year, also in many ways, but it is definitely the right place for her. Anecdotally, my brother is an investment banker, as is his wife, and they both said that when they are in a position to hire someone, they always know that a Brown graduate is self-motivated, self-disciplined, curious, bright, intellectual person. They have said that they would hire a Brown grad in a minute. In my opinion, prestige is way down the list compared to being happy with what you are doing. Especially since the inherent prestige of Ivy League, for whatever that means, is there, with Brown. But you need to visit both schools and, if there is still time, think hard about it. You may actually be a little late with this decision. Maybe it's just cold feet....</p>

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<p>furthermore, i care about the prestige of my school because employers are the ones that will be hiring me when i graduate. employers aggressively come to Penn to recruit students for internships and full-time jobs. Citigroup only recruits on-campus at 6 schools across the United States. Penn, not brown is one of these 6 schools. If you don't go to one of the 6 schools, you go through the main selection pool online, which makes it very difficult to land an interview. Furthermore, going to Penn would carry a lot more weight and open up more opportunities than Brown, since the school is larger and it has Wharton as one of the schools so the employers put Penn on their radar.</p>

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<p>As I said in your other thread, Wharton MBA may be more important than Wharton undergrad.</p>

5

<p>Amongst future employers and grad schools you'll find that neither Penn or Brown have an advantage in terms of prestige. That's a general misconception created largely amongst high school students who read US News.</p>

<p>Brown's Cog Sci program is excellent, fwiw, though I have no idea about Penn.</p>

<p>For every Citigroup there's another company that prefers Brown, fwiw.</p>

<p>I think you're letting your parents push you towards a different school due to their uninformed misconception which is beginning to grate on you, personally, but that may be overstepping based upon the information given.</p>

<p>Honestly, as a junior transfer I'm a bit surprised you have these questions and concerns as these sort of things are typically dispelled significantly once you're actually in college...</p>

6

<p>thought i'd chime in here...</p>

<p>if you're concerned about finance stuff and brown not having enough prestige, you're probably mistaken. at Penn you won't be at Wharton, which is a huge disadvantage...not to mention you will be competing with a lot more people. also, every single company, whether or not they actively recruit on-campus at Brown, will definitely give your resume a good look because everyone respects Brown since it still is one of the top schools in the country/an ivy.</p>

<p>finally, i'll leave you with an anecdote:
I just finished my freshman year at Brown and during winter break I was looking for finance internships for this summer. As you know, it's extremely difficult to get anything that good in this industry as a freshman. However, I got extremely lucky and I'll tell you how. I ended up getting an interview from a boutique investment bank and the interviewer told me flat out that he wanted me on-board because of the fact that I went to Brown and that he liked students from "pedigree" schools. He even went so far as to say that he had other kids interviewing but was willing to offer me the spot just because of my school (the interview turned out to be more him selling me the position than me really answering any questions). And, FWIW, interns are typically in their summer after junior year for this place.</p>

<p>Now, I'm not one to live and die off of prestige or care too much about it, but in my experience, I only have this internship because of Brown's prestige, so take that for what you will.</p>

<p>So if there are other, better reasons for you to change your mind, then go for it. But I wouldn't base such a decision on prestige...you'll be just fine either way.</p>

7

<p>I live on the west coast and maybe this is different back east but from my own experiences people here don't even realize that Penn is an Ivy League or different from Penn State. Of course business should know the difference but the prestige factor isn't a significant difference for business concentrators unless you are in Wharton...............</p>