<p>Um, no the ipod thing was exclusive to the class of '08; this year it will only be distributed to enrollees of select courses b/c there was (accurate) buzz that they were hardly ever used for educational purposes.<br>
That being said, isnet i thought my original response was serious, and here is one more reason i am choosing brown over duke: there is a certain energy and passion you feel at brown, for life, for learning, and for brown. No matter what one's pursuit, everyone seems to be simmering with love and entusiasm for whatever they are involved in, be it academics, extracurriculars, or just having fun. Dukies seemed a hair more apathetic, like, "i'm smart and i need to learn this to be successful and thats cool, but i am not passionate about this" sorta vibe.<br>
Also, I talked to some science students at both schools (being a prospective science major myself), and the science kids at Brown seem more well-rounded and integrated into the student body, wheras as Duke they seemed more like the nerdy minority in party-hard territory. Really nice and smart of course, but just seemed more isolated and out of place....just my observation...</p>
<p>The thing is, I can sort of get the sense that Duke is seriously invested in the sciences. I can't see that at Brown. There also seem to be lots of little things that Duke has an edge over Brown with. The first that comes to mind is food - in terms of quality, variety, and all that stuff, Brown doesn't come close to what Duke offers. When I went to ADOCH, I took a physics class and an econ class. I fell asleep in the econ class. Maybe it was just bad luck. Maybe it was that Brown only listed large lecture classes since there were so many prefrosh on campus. I don't know, but it seemed as though the professors that were teaching at Duke when I sat in on my classes (chemistry & compsci) seemed to be more passionate about what they were teaching, and tried their best to keep the lecture interesting. Additionally, in the last few years, Duke has had just as many, if not more, students get accepted to top notch grad/med/business/law schools. I also get the sense that Brown's network/intranet isn't very extensive as some of their websites seem to be very old school. Bruno0812 [whose post somehow disappeared] - do you guys even have online course selection and all that stuff? Perhaps you could IM me as I haven't yet spoken to a Brown student online.</p>
<p>In the end, I can easily convince myself to to Brown whereas its tougher for me to say to myself, "yeah, I want to go to Duke."</p>
<p>Dude. Wrong forum. Maybe you should go post in the Duke section.</p>
<p>I guess all I can say is that the people at Brown might be TOO chill.</p>
<p>Reasons not to go to Brown:</p>
<p>"I'm content with my level of happiness. I don't need Brown's amazing environment to make me smile."</p>
<p>"I hate music. Brown as about a dozen a cappella groups, plus the orchestra, bands, etc. Get me away from that."</p>
<p>"I hate fun. Any school that always has at least a handful of kids playing frisbee on any quad is not for me."</p>
<p>"The marching band ice skates at hockey games? Who has time for sports. Yuck."</p>
<p>"I hate things that are ridiculously cool such as pirates and ninjas. There's no way I'd want to see any of them on my college campus." (Brown has an "A Capirate" singing group called "ARRR!". All the members dress up like pirates and sing sea shanties. Also, I've heard there is a group of ninjas at Brown. They don't sing, but they like to do battle with the pirates.)</p>
<p>"Bears are for losers. I'd rather be something bland and unversatile like a Blue Devil."</p>
<p>"Centralized geography? Ew. Who needs to be only about an hour from Boston and a few hours from NYC?" (isnet, I see you are from NY. I'm on LI, and Brown is at LEAST a 4 hr drive. Far enough away that the 'rents won't just drop in, and close enough that it's easy to come home for the holidays)</p>
<p>I may add more to this list, but for now, those are some solid reasons to choose Duke over Brown.</p>
<p>I'm from LI also. The drive was only about 3 hours. </p>
<p>Oh, and my ADOCH host was the founder of the Ninja group.</p>
<p>Yeah, I hear you'll be walking on campus, and just see a ninja jump from a tall window or something and then run away. That's so freakin' cool!</p>
<p>Unless you hate things that are freakin' cool. Ew. Don't go to Brown.</p>
<p>I never heard of them doing that....just battles with the pirates.</p>
<p>Oh man Brown is just cool... it would be hard to say anything bad about such a wonderful institution. I did not choose it, however, because the open curriculum can be either a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. I preferred something that had a more rigid structure.</p>
<p>Ok all...thanks for all the help. It looks like I'll be going to Brown.</p>
<p>Awesome! I mean, ARRR! ;)</p>
<p>Ahhhh happiness lol</p>