<p>AWESOME posts ILoveBrown and fred!</p>
<p>FWIW, I know three kids who just recently graduated from Brown, and I wouldn't describe any of them as "quirky." Rather, they are very smart, down-to-earth, interesting kids, each has a different academic passion (medicine, international affairs, art history). They loved their experiences at Brown.</p>
<p>I love brown, the tunnels are from the Wrsiton Quad Agreement. They were built so fraternities could get to their private dining rooms in the ratty. (actually, maybe they were originally built for your reason, then later used for mine)</p>
<p>I enjoy hearing stories from one of my professors about his experiences pledging a frat at MIT (I am pledging a frat here now)</p>
<p>Going to Miko's (i'll leave it to you guys to find out what that is) with 3 of my friends, and just checking stuff out there.</p>
<p>Getting into debates at 2am with my roommate about who was better: The Greeks or The Romans</p>
<p>There are some other things I have done relating to my frat and my varsity team that I can't really discuss, but they have been awesome.</p>
<p>I can tell you my most "college" moment though: Waking up with only about 15mins untill I needed to be at the frat house to paint, so for breakfast I had handfuls of potato chips, popcorn, and a beer.</p>
<p>Also, staying up untill 6am during realy for life with my pledge and frat bros, that was pretty sweet.</p>
<p>I<em>wanna</em>be_Brown -- I wasn't talking about the Wriston tunnels -- those were originally built for fraternities and are much later than the ones I was talking about, which were built to smuggle arms into the colonies during the Revolution.</p>
<p>Haha... Miko's... nice.</p>
<p>Hey fred, really weird question. i'm quaker (if you didnt guess from the screen name) and would like to attend meeting in providence when i'm at brown. what was ur sense of the meeting there, when you went with your friend? what was it like / what were the people there like? thanks :-)</p>
<p>I went to Quaker meeting on campus there was a very small but persistent meeting group of undergrads. There is a small but incrementally larger Quaker presence on the broader campus. </p>
<p>Honestly, by population, Quakers are concentrated in the Boston-Providence, Philadelphia, California areas. </p>
<p>I can't comment on the Quaker community of broader Providence except to say that in that one case I was treated respectfully. The meeting house was close enough to be walkable from the campus though. If you want, I can do some sleuthing for you. The people who I interacted with last year at meetings seemed to be passioniate without being holier than thou but I may be coming from a different vantage than you since you are after all a Quaker.</p>
<p>sorry I love brown, i didn't realize there were more than one set of tunnels here.</p>
<p>I am an alum and love to hear how great Brown continues to be, and how much people are enjoying it now! I loved Brown utterly, for many of the same reasons voiced above... </p>
<p>Here are a few other reasons/memories of mine:</p>
<p>-Brown is a place where you will hear YES. This is more than access; they all want to say yes. Whatever the situation-- starting a new club, picking a thesis topic, getting an extension, fixing a disaster-- the assumption is, your request is legitimate and should be honored. Basically, if you get a prof or a Dean on board with you, you are golden... and this is not hard to do. They basically let you in to let you fly...</p>
<p>-The fact that for four years you are in a place where every single person you meet has something superlative inside that is worth discovering.</p>
<p>-The fact that for the rest of your life you could basically travel anywhere in the world and have people you know from Brown living there. And even a friend-of-a-friend called cold would embrace you.</p>
<p>-My best friend and I decided, senior year, that we wanted to invite the President of Brown and his wife over for cocktails, to thank them for how great an experience we had had for four years... So we did-- and they came! Along with about ten other friends, we all had a ball hanging with the President over martinis in our tenement.</p>
<p>-The setting is beautiful. At about 4pm, the entire East Side of Providence looks like an Edward Hopper painting in that sharp golden light. </p>
<p>-The campus has a center, the green, and it is easy to run into people and find fun by just hanging out at an opportune time. The green in spring = bliss.</p>
<ul>
<li>The great great athletic facilities that are so available to average non team people.</li>
</ul>
<p>-Thayer Street-- sooooo convenient.</p>
<p>-The flexible meal plan where you can spend your unused meals at night at a variety of snack places.</p>
<p>-Spring Weekend!! (They import bands and fun and you spend a few days just being happy to be alive.) Campus Dance!! You do the same with a zillion alumni back for their reunions.</p>
<p>-RISD!! A huge bonus, to have the turbo-charged creativity right next door, like the RISD museum, and the RISD Halloween Party and its mind-boggling costumes. In the late '70's, RISD gave us the Talking Heads. :) Many of my to-this-day great friends went to RISD, and much of the revitalization of Providence is thanks to the artsy people who settle there after RISD.</p>
<p>-My next door neighbor in my freshman dorm was an italian-american Providence native who'd take our whole unit home to his mama's kitchen for Sunday Supper. Literally about 30 of us digging in to the ziti.</p>
<p>-The Brown Band, with the X rated formations and the mismatched uniforms-- and the buttons they used to make to trash the other teams before big football games (Harvard's: VERI TASTY)</p>
<ul>
<li>Leaving college with ZERO notion of what I would do for a job and ABSOLUTE 100% certainty that I would find my way to something wonderful and love it. (And I did.)</li>
</ul>
<p>PS I loved that one of my profs marched every single Friday in front of the RI State House to protest US involvement in El Salvador. Rain or shine. Every Friday, for years. He also got Brown to divest from South Africa.</p>
<p>Hi - well first, I go to Harvard (and I hate it but we won't get into that at the moment). I got into Brown, and really regret not going. So to anyone who is choosing btwn the two, I say get your butt to Brown! Don't even second guess yourself! </p>
<p>But I just wanted to address this little point </p>
<p>"it's undeniable that a harvard education is a great education, but it is not as strong in the undergraduate sense. would you rather have a class taught by the professor only the first week and the last week, or a class where the professor teaches every class." made by letsgetin05 - I have never been in a class where the professor only showed up the first and last week. Every class I've had is taught by the professor EVERY lecture (and the same goes for everyone I know). Now, there are sections, which are for the larger classes, that are taught by the TFs (TAs for normal college speak lol) but sections ALWAYS are a supplement to the lectures, and TFs do not replace professors in any way shape or form. Just wanted to clear that up :)</p>
<p>Aside from that, I still say to thequaker...go to Brown! =P</p>
<p>Hey harvard2007, thanks for the clarification and the advice. I dont know if it sounds like u want to go into it, but why is it you don't like harvard? no pressure if u dont feel like discussing it.</p>
<p>also - fred: regarding the quaker stuff - thanks for the info! don't worry about snooping about too much for more info - im just happy to know theres a meeting i can go to if i want.</p>
<p>Actually I don't mind going into it, I just didn't want to bog down the thread with too much Harvard hate haha. </p>
<p>OK so here's the thing. I like the education. I find the classes and professors interesting AS LONG AS I want to take the class. Now, that becomes a problem with our Core Curriculum. Yes, I knew it existed when I applied, however, I didn't realize it sucked so hard. For one there are what? 7 out of 11 areas you have to fulfill, depending on your major. Usually it's something like 3 you're exempt from, 4 that you must take and then you can choose 3 out of 4 of the remaining ones. Sounds more complicated than it is. Even though there are choices within each area, I find the choices to ... quite frankly ...suck. Not for every area, but for (example) Science A (not to be confused with Science B mind you! I hate every single option. I am required to fulfill the SciA req as a psychology major, but I really don't like anything that they're offering. There's a good chance that when I take a class, I'm just not going to do all that well on it for sheer lack of interest. I understand the purpose of core curriculum but I think that as long as you are not completely flaky, open curriculums really are awesome. As someone said in the Brown forum already (not sure which thread), even if you're up all night doing a major paper, the open curriculum pretty much guarantees that you'll at least be busting your chops on something you're truly interested in, not something you felt forced to take. OK so that's Gripe #1.</p>
<p>Gripe #2: I find this place to be too elitist sometimes. Not the students so much. They're fine, and friendlier I think than given credit for. But for example, as already stated, I'm a psych major. Now we have a nice little Psych website. On this website, there's a list of degrees that you might want to consider if you choose to continue in grad school. A Masters and PsyD (which most people have never heard of) are listed BUT no information is provided other than, these are not considered the best degrees you can get so basically don't bother. Huh?! OK, when I was considering a career in Psych I was thinking about doing a PsyD in lieu of a PhD because I wasn't interested in the research side of psychology AT ALL. I wanted to treat patients. PsyD basically cuts out all the research and is more focused on training you to be a clinical psychologist. Does it have its cons? Definitely. So does the PhD though. To just dismiss the PsyD as if it is meaningless and provide NO information on it because <em>they</em> don't consider it to be the best is unfair and to me implies that the school expects you to take paths that only they consider worthy. A PhD is not the right option for everyone and people should be provided with as much info as possible, not shot down for not wanting to do something. Maybe this is just a problem with the psych department? I'm not sure but I found it really discouraging and disappointing.</p>
<p>Gripe #3: hmm I definitely had a 3rd gripe but got so upset over the 2nd one that I have now forgotten. Oh wait, I remember now. OK. The fact that you have to declare by the end of freshman year. Yes, you are able to change concentrations (don't you just love our fancy-smancy words for stuff? <em>rollseyes</em>), but I think demanding that a person know what they want to do in freshman year is a bit much. I wasn't worried when I applied because I was pretty dead set on psychology, but my best friend, was not as sure what she wanted to do. In the end she chose sociology, which she says is okay but perhaps if she had more time she would have made a different decision. Certainly, she doesn't seem to be loving it and wants no real part of it after college. College is supposed to be about exploring your options and I feel that too often Harvard demands that its students know exactly what they want out of life and does not look particularly kindly on those who are unsure or who don't want to go to Med, Business, or Law school.</p>
<p>Now, I am sure not every Harvard student feels this way. In fact, for a long time I thought I was the only one. But my friends feel similarly, especially about the first and last points I made. And I've heard other students make similar complaints so at least I'm not alone. But it sure feels like it sometimes because I don't think a lot of us want to admit that we're not happy. You know, because we're "Harvard" students and we're supposed to be able to handle anything. Riiiight :| Anyway, I hope that helps a bit. If you have specific questions feel free to ask. I don't know much about the party scene because I'm not much of a partier myself, so I wouldn't be able to tell you if it's good or bad haha but you can ask other stuff :)</p>
<p>(oh yes, and I know this isn't the Harvard forum but since I'm a wannabe-Brownie I hope it's okay =P)</p>
<p>Harvard, is it to the point of considering a transfer?</p>
<p>Well, since I am now at the end of my Junior year, no! Haha. But it might have been worth it at the end of Freshman year. I didn't really hate it at the end of Freshman year though. It was more Sophomore year that I realized how unhappy I was and (in my mind) it was too late to transfer.</p>
<p>Oh, I thought when you said "wannabe-Brownie" that's what you meant. </p>
<p>I hope your senior year will be better for you!</p>
<p>ahh yes, I see how that would be confusing! haha. Sorry about that :) And thank you, I hope so too.</p>
<p>OK, It may be your department. I was about to question your assertions about Psych at Harvard until I came across this about the mandatory sophomore tutorial (excerpted to save space)</p>
<p>"Can I pick which tutorial I take?
Generally, no. Although everyone will sign up for Psychology 970, tutorials are house-based and are run by different instructors. You will be assigned to a tutorial based on your house affiliation, not based on your interests or schedule"</p>
<p>"Additionally, students may find that the topics covered in their tutorial are not topics they feel they would be interested in, and wish to switch tutorial sections based on their interests. Because it is impossible to take everyones interests into account when scheduling, the department does not assign students to tutorials based on interest."</p>
<p>Well that about says it all. Bending over backwards to accomodate students schedules and interest.</p>
<p>Hahaha yeah. I personally loved my Sophomore Tutorial because I had an awesome instructor who is now also my advisor (though she's leaving at the end of this year <em>sniff</em>). But it was assigned according to House, which is really strange. I can't say for sure, but I don't know of any other tutorial that's like that. The thing I didn't like about the tutorial, and this was less the instructor's fault, and I think more the department's fault for not clarifying, was I couldn't understand its purpose. I've still yet to figure it out. Each instructor teaches what they're most familiar with and best at, then we have a 20-25 page paper due at the end of the year, which I guess is supposed to prepare you if you want to write a thesis but I don't think it does at all since a thesis in psychology requires you to actually conduct an experiment, not just do a literature review. <em>shrugs</em> The mysteries of this department continue to confound me =P</p>
<p>I just mailed my commitment card to Brown! Thank you to everyone for your advice and help!</p>
<p>YES, QUAKER!!!!</p>
<p>Welcome to the Brown Community!</p>