<p>I’m stuck at the moment and I need some help. I was accepted EA to Yale and then in January I was contacted by the Brown U. softball coach. Softball is a huge part of my life and I’ve always wanted to play in college, but for the time between my call from Brown and my Yale acceptance I was so excited about going to Yale. I’m trying to figure out if my softball is enought to get me to go to Brown. Don’t get me wrong, I was applying to Brown anyway, and the two schools were kinda even, but I just wanted to get some insight on the differences. </p>
<p>If you really want to play on a competitive level and have a spot at Brown and not Yale, just go to Brown. Yeah Yale is marginally more prestigious, but it's not like you're going to have a net loss of several million dollars during your lifetime by going to Brown instead. Plus Providence and Brown > New Haven and Yale</p>
<p>Providence is much better than New Haven, and the Brown kids are less uptight/competitive than the Yale kids. One reason I chose Brown over Yale.</p>
<p>i don't know...i think brown and yale share a large overlap pool among applicants because they are actually quite similar. this topic seems to come up several times a year on these boards</p>
<p>i don't think the students are more uptight at yale. part of the mutual appeal of the schools is that they share similar cultures--including a friendly learning environment that encourages exploration and cooperation over cut throat competition</p>
<p>ultimately, i chose brown over yale for the open curriculum. the autonomy to choose all of my classes was very compelling over yale's distribution requirements. at brown i managed to take interesting classes across many disciplines but also pursued my main area of interest at a high level (in the lab of a nobel laureate)</p>
<p>i'm sure there are many reason to go to one school or the other (including the opportunity to play softball), but considering the open curriculum vs. distribution requirements thing might help you make the decision</p>
<p>I totally agree with dcircle - there is large overlap pool between the two. I also applied to both and ultimately chose Brown. If you have time before May 1, I think visits to both might help you decide. Also, if there is a specific area of study you are interested in, maybe one school is stronger. But it is a tough decision - lucky you!</p>
<p>One of my kids just graduated from Brown, the other just started Yale-- I think there is a very big difference between the cultures of the schools, the kids that go, and the attitudes of the students towards their environment and each other, and the relative strengths of different academic pursuits. Taking the sport choice into account, I seriously recommend that you spend a weekend at each school, and base your decision accordingly.I predict that you will be able to "feel" which is the right one for you.</p>
<p>That's definitely good advice. In addition to your sport, take into account:
--differences in the feel of the student body
--differences in curriculum
--differences in location
--differences in quality and structure of academic departments that interest you</p>
<p>Wow, thanks everybody for all the great advice. </p>
<p>I have visited Brown overnight and stayed with a girl on the softball team. I spent a lot of time with the team and went to a couple of classes. I really like the girls a lot and the experience was fantastic. It sounds shallow, but the only real reasons that I've been really still considering Yale are A) the architecture and B) a slight difference in prestige (it seems anyway).
I'm from a really rural area and a lot of people know the name "Yale" and not "Brown" as often. Are those really unimportant details? </p>
<p>I like Providence better than New Haven, I don't like the idea of the residences at Yale, and the open curriculum at Brown seems to be something I'd really enjoy. </p>
<p>My other problem is that I haven't actually visited Yale overnight, and I don't have time before May 1. Could I really be missing some huge detail that would change my mind? </p>
<p>Oh, and does anyone know if one school is more generous with FinAid than the other? It's a concern for my family and it might end up making my decision if the two offers are too far apart. </p>
<p>I know that's a lot of questions but you guys are giving great advice. Thanks.</p>
<p>The archictecture is pretty nifty at Yale, but that's definitely not a reason to go to a school. Yes, "Yale" has a little bit more name recognition to the general public, but in terms of grad school / med school / law school / jobs, it'll matter more what you get your degree in and not what school you went to, since different departments at different schools have different reputations.</p>
<p>Yes, you should do everything possible to visit Yale overnight. It'll be a lot easier for you to compare your experiences.</p>
<p>And I think Yale has a reputation of being a little bit more generous with financial aid, but if you get the two packages and Brown's is lower, you can call Brown and tell them what you got from Yale, and they'll probably negotiate with you. I've heard that they match other Ivies, but I'm not sure how that works.</p>
<p>Yeah, I've heard the same thing about Brown's FinAid matching other Ivies and was wondering if it was true.</p>
<p>The problem about comparing departments is that I really have no idea what I'm going to start with, let alone end up in. So, it seems useless to me to compare departments because it would really be shooting in the dark. Are there really strong departments at Brown I should take a look at? </p>
<p>How important are sports at Brown? I know that it's definitely not Texas or Michigan or UNC or whoever, but do students care at all? And do the athletes keep to themselves or mix with the population? I've had some experiences with cliquey sports teams, and I've met the team and they seem great, but I'm not sure about if being an athlete is a label at Brown. I've never defined myself as an athlete first, so I don't want that to happen. What's the student body's perception about athletes?</p>
<p>I guess what I was getting at was that if you don't know what departments interest you, then you should go for the overall academic and social experience, not the prestige of the school, especially at this level.</p>
<p>My daughter is an athlete at Brown. While the team does socialize with each other at periodic parties, she has a number of other groups she hangs out with. There doesn't seem to be any cachet or stigma to being on a team. She has told me that people are basically friendly no matter what your concentration and nonacademic activities.</p>
<p>Is Brown still seen as more "liberal" or "left" than Yale? Can you tell if there are a lot more Democrats than Republicans on campus? </p>
<p>ILoveBrown- I know that prestige is not exactly a good factor to use. I guess that I've been looking for a bit of support in the idea that Brown is not a "worse" school than Yale, it's really just different, right? It's hard to convince some people, especially those who went to college in the 1950s, etc.</p>
<p>Great, thanks DianeR, that's the answer I was looking for. </p>
<p>When I was on campus, there were a bunch of team functions that brought all the girls together, so it seemed like they always did things like that. I suppose that different teams are different, though. </p>
<p>Did your daughter have a good experience from arriving on campus and already having a "ready made" group of people with the same interests? Or was it not that important? That's really something they talk about as a bonus of being on a team and I was wondering if it was true.</p>
<p>the fin aid matching policy is true...it should not be an issue. </p>
<p>also, as of last year brown replaced all loans with grants for ~100 students in the entering class with the most need. fin aid in general has been a capital campaign priority so my guess is that you'll be in good shape here either way</p>
<p>I think it was nice for my daughter to have a ready made group of people with interest in the same sport. But she quickly made friends with many people in her dorm, her concentration, her classes, her other ECs, etc. Practices didn't even start for several weeks after classes began, so she had friendships established even before she met the team.</p>
<p>From what I can tell, the students at Brown aren't interested in prestige and really like the school because of the open curriculum. I don't know if many would have preferred Yale if given the chance to go. My daughter's preference was for Brown because of the open curriculum and having a stronger program in her field (she is one of those who definitely know what they want to study).</p>
<p>Maybe you can go to the bookstore and read through some of those "what these colleges are really like" books; also you can check out what folks say on <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com%5B/url%5D">www.studentsreview.com</a> and the assorted ratings on <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com%5B/url%5D">www.princetonreview.com</a>. This is what my daughter did when she was making a final decision between Brown and Chicago. It became quite clear to her that the schools were very different and she would be much happier at one of them. Whether Yale or Brown would be better for you is something only you can decide!</p>
<p>I disagree on the athletes thing. I feel like many of the athletes, at least that I know, hang out nearly exclusively with their teams with the exception being those who don't. Not that it's difficult to make friends with other students, but the athletes do stay together mostly because of similar schedules. One of my best friends runs track, this other guy in my hall plays football and you never see him. Same with a baseball player and wrestler. All nice guys that I am very friendly with, but they're always with their teams. Gymnasts too actually, in my hall, hang out together a lot. </p>
<p>Again, it's very easy and accepting to not do that, but there is a decent set of cliquey sport teams. Some people balance it with other friends, others don't.</p>
<p>And, FWIW, I came to Brown (only Ivy I applied to) for the open curriculum and the lack of competition and generally positive attitude of students on campus.</p>
<p>I think it might depend what season the sport is. I barely know the atheletes in my dorm who play fall sports, because they were practicing all during orientation with their teams instead of attending activities with the rest of my freshman unit. However, it's probably a little easier for winter and spring athletes to get to know other people because they're not practicing 24/7 in August and September.</p>
<p>However, I have a number of friends who are varsity athletes (gymanstics, crew, rugby), and they're all awesome people who socialize outside of their team. It probably depends what you're willing to put into it -- if you want to just hang out with your team and make that your exclusive social circle, you could, but it makes much more sense to make the effort to get to know other people through classes, other activities, hanging out in the dorm, etc.</p>