<p>How do the two compare academically? Social life? Campus and dorms? Faculty? Science department?</p>
<p>they seem to offer pretty different experiences and attract different types of applicants. there is less overlap between students that apply to both brown and princeton compared to brown and harvard or brown and yale. by contrast, for some reason, dartmouth and princeton share applicants more frequently.</p>
<p>big differences in academic approach and philosophy: brown has an open curriculum, encourages intellectual freedom, broad exploration and doesn't strongly emphasize grades. princeton has more structure, requires more formal cultivation of a traditional track, has required junior and senior theses, and much more emphasis on grades (awards are given based on gpa, distribution of A's is limited, etc.)</p>
<p>princeton has extremely strong math and theoretical physics departments, brown is probably better for biological sciences (particularly neuroscience). i'm not sure this part matters a whole lot as an undergraduate unless theoretical physics is really your thing.</p>
<p>princeton is really into their traditions, many of which would seem unappealing if not silly to most brown students. i also think the brown social scene is more varied, whereas princeton's is based largely at the eating clubs.</p>
<p>princeton gets the edge for the campus--it is gorgeous and most of the facilities are top-notch and in perfect shape. brown is beautiful too, but some of the facilities are hit or miss. a few of the dorms at princeton are much more impressive from the outside, but on the whole they are pretty comparable to brown's on the inside.</p>
<p>dcircle's description sounds pretty complete and accurate to me.</p>
<p>I'd also emphasize that Brown attracts a less "traditional" (and we'd like to think less pretentious, but who knows?) student body.</p>
<p>Another big difference is the city environment. That's why I didn't even consider Princeton -- I wanted to be in at least a moderately sized city. That doesn't necessarily make one better than the other. It's all in what you're looking for.</p>
<p>Princeton is more pretigious, but Brown is harder to get into.</p>
<p>The difference? Brown sent me an application and viewbook...princeton did not</p>
<p>or maybe just brown > princeton</p>
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or maybe just brown > princeton
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<p>Haha, I agree!</p>
<p>Princeton is harder to get into.</p>