<p>Hello! My name is Lily and I need help deciding where to go.</p>
<p>Transferring from: Swarthmore College
Accepted: Columbia and Brown
Possible majors: History, Sociology</p>
<p>Brown Pros: I love the campus, I want a “hippie” and liberal school
Brown Cons: I want to get into a good grad school, not academic enough</p>
<p>Columbia Pros: Great reputation, known for being super intellectual
Columbia Cons: I want a college town (I live in ny also), too many preppies?</p>
<p>I only have a week to decide so please let me know your opinions!!! I want to know if my stereotyping is totally off and which school has better departments for my majors.</p>
<p>** I actually don’t care if there’s a core or not. I’m more concerned about the departments and the types of people at the schools
lilygee is online now</p>
<p>I’m curious where you got the impression that Brown would not permit you to attend a good grad school. Everything I’ve seen has suggested that Brown is very competitive when it comes to graduate school placement.</p>
<p>As far as not academic enough, what sort of things do you consider make a school “academic” enough? There are several interesting threads on the main Brown thread that show different perspectives on the grade inflation and standard courseload, which might be some of the reasons you think that way. I would argue, however, that neither of those necessarily imply that Brown is not academic enough, and one can always do more (take a harder courseload, for instance) should one find oneself not academically challenged enough.</p>
<p>I’d gladly answer any questions you have, whether here or through PM, although I would note that my interests lie in languages and computer science, so I can’t speak much about your areas of interest academically.</p>
<p>thanks so much for responding!</p>
<p>*I guess I’m just scared that Brown has a less good reputation (when it comes to getting into graduate school) than Columbia. Is this not true? (in your opinion)</p>
<p>*My other fear about brown may attract students that want an ivy league name but do not want to work that hard, due to the open curriculum.</p>
<p>*Do you know anything about my particular majors for either school?</p>
<p>regardless, I am still leaning towards brown when it comes to campus and social life.</p>
<p>I personally haven’t heard about Brown having such a reputation concerning graduate school. I haven’t specifically heard it’s better, though one thing to keep in mind is that Brown’s grade inflation (or, if that term is one you don’t want to use, its higher average grades) might look good for graduate schools (though honestly, the writing sample and recs should be most important, meaning that how renowned the faculty are would be the biggest difference. At schools of this (similar) calibur, it’s going to be more about what you do than anything else).</p>
<p>Theoretically, the admissions office should be accepting people who would thrive under the open curriculum and work hard. They can’t succeed 100% of the time, but the people I’ve met work hard and make an effort to enjoy themselves in the process. You’ll meet the occasional person like what you described, but chances are you’d get those anywhere, and it’s not a large enough amount to be significant, based on what I’ve seen. The Open Curriculum can, of course, be abused, and students likely do apply for the reason you mentioned. When used correctly, though, it can provide a very intellectually stimulating program, and many of the people I know are using it in such a way.</p>
<p>I personally didn’t look at Columbia because of location, so all I know about it is that I have some friends from high school there who are quite happy. I’ve heard about friends who have had trouble with the sociology statistics class, and I know Brown gives 1 AP credit for a 5 on an exam after you’ve successfully completed an advanced history course at Brown, but that’s all I really know about the departments without doing research (and I believe that you’d get more out of reading the course list and web sites than I would).</p>
<p>I’m not sure if Providence is the sort of college town you want, but that’s not really for me to say. I think I’d be miserable in NYC, as even Providence is large for me, but I’m an abnormality. “Hippie” is definitely Brown’s reputation; I don’t know what that means for you. I feel that much of the impression comes from a vocal minority and an accepting but not radical majority rather than a complete pervasiveness throughout campus. It does have a distinct feel, though, and that may be what you mean.</p>
<p>I think Brown being an Ivy is good enough for grad school.</p>
<p>Well, Brown is the better choice if you are doing something like medicine, literature, something like that. Columbia might be the better choice for you, because apparently the field you have chosen is not very renowned at Brown. But let me get one thing straight for ya buddy, Brown is a very academic school, that is why it is in the ivy league!! lol! It has even been rated better than harvard for undergrad, but i dunno about grad, so maybe you should fully complete your research before reaching the dyre (dire?) conclusion that brown is not an academic school.
You’re post kind of already tells which one you are leaning more towards, (columbia), and they are both great schools. I think you should go visit both campuses if you haven’t already, and then make your desision. Good Luck!!</p>
<p>and also,
*My other fear about brown may attract students that want an ivy league name but do not want to work that hard, due to the open curriculum.</p>
<p>okay…you really need to keep in mind that brown only has a 13% acceptance rate, so they are not going to have slackers and whatnot.
The open curriculum is better than other colleges which make you take required classes because it lets students major in what they want and also lets them take the classes they are interested in. Let’s say I really want to study Pre-med or something, i would be able to major in that while also pursuing my growing interest in literature and art or something.
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but i really don’t appreciate you calling brown the ivy league for slackers, and i strongly believe that you should go read some threads about how hard people work and how they still don’t get into brown!!!</p>
<p>^ 9.7% acceptance rate (or something like that) for class of 2014</p>