<p>I want to consider applying to brown university, and I want to hear former experiences of students who attended Brown. I want to go to a university where they have an exceptional academic background, but also has a laid back, friendly atmosphere, so does Brown fall under that category? Plus does anyone have any advice to get into top universities, or any recommendations for what university I'm looking for?</p>
<p>I didn’t go to or apply to Brown, but I did tour/visit when I was looking at applying to schools and have talked with about 10 friends who are currently attending Brown.</p>
<p>Personally, I found the atmosphere very laid back. Everyone I met was friendly and people seemed a lot more collaborative (and less snobby) than those I met at other top tier schools. </p>
<p>Everyone I know there loves it. They say it’s laid back and filled with “smart people who don’t act obnoxious about it.” Which is a nice environment in my opinion. </p>
<p>People there were very welcoming and down to earth. I sent an email off less than a day before I visited to the head of a department asking if I could meet and talk about that department with him. I not only got an instant reply, but also was invited to (and did) attend a class, had an over hour long discussion with him, got a follow up email afterwards offering to answer any questions, and was told to send him directly my supplement if I applied. It was a great experience. </p>
<p>While obviously not indicative of all experiences, my time at Princeton was a pretty different experience. To give you an example of a different comparison, at Princeton I set up a meeting weeks ahead of time and the guy showed up an hour late and had to leave in 5 minutes for something else. He was (in my opinion) fairly rude to students and didnt seem to really care about them. In the class I sat in on he didn’t even know most people’s names. I also went on a tour there. The only “accepted” student in our tour group was an arrogant guy who loved telling everyone about all of his amazing accomplishments. </p>
<p>Obviously there’s no concrete facts to really answer you with, and I’m sure people have had bad experiences at Brown (like I did at Princeton) and vice versa. Everyone I’ve talked to who is at Brown loves it. I loved my visit and definitely Brown was my #2 school afterwards.</p>
<p>Lagging: what was your number one choice?</p>
<p>Stanford. Applied EA so I didn’t bother applying to any other schools afterwards. But I did visit a lot of schools and Brown was definitely a great experience.</p>
<p>Do you mind posting your transcript, and do you have any advice to get into a top university?</p>
<p>I think brown is pretty laid back</p>
<p>Well, I wouldn’t know anything more about getting in than anyone else, but I could tell you what they said they liked in my acceptance letter. Which is less objective than my opinion I guess. </p>
<p>They liked my essays and extra-curriculars. I guess on the essay it was my (sort of risky?) take on what matters based on my personal experiences. They also mentioned my common app essay, which took a sort of cliche topic and made it “unique.” As far as ECs, that was probably the biggest part of my app. Four years varsity sport (not nearly good enough to be recruited!), CEO of a company making decent profits, teach at a local school for after school stuff, taekwondo teacher and won a few competitions, bunch of volunteering, several jobs, self taught a few languages, started a pretty major local environmental thing, and some other stuff. Can’t remember what I put on my app. Also did an arts supplement.</p>
<p>But everyone I know admitted is quite a bit different! There’s no clear cut formula or anything. I have no idea why I got in, but what they said was dedication to passions and essays. </p>
<p>I’m not really in a place to give advice I guess, but essays are a lot more important than I thought when I applied. My English teacher would read a few essays every day of school that were good examples. Read some good sample essays (from some college essay books) if you want. “Adventures as Donut Boy” or something like that was one of my favorites. Took a common topic (and possible character flaw/concern the school could have) and countered it. Also was a fun read.</p>
<p>Also important to note that Brown has a very liberal atmosphere, in both political and social terms. This may or may not be a concern to you, or you might even prefer such atmosphere.</p>