Cornell or Brown?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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Obviously there aren’t many days left to decide haha, so I’d really appreciate any thoughts.

I love both schools, but am leaning towards Cornell right now. Some factors I’m struggling with:

  • Atmosphere/Student body - I know I can't typecast a whole school, but in general how would you guys describe the atmosphere? I guess I'm looking for a place where people are intellectually engaged and have fun with what they're learning, but at the same time I can't stand when conversations get pretentious or combative, and personally I'm fairly reserved and not as intense as lots of people seem to paint Brown students.

OH also I know this is probably one of the worst ways to judge a school haha, but I scrolled through Brown’s facebook confessions page and all of the posts I saw were about socioeconomic differences between the students–lower-income kids feeling out of place or resenting the insensitivity of higher-income kids, higher-income kids worrying about offending people… In no way do I think this reflects some giant conflict at Brown LOL, but I was just curious as to how prevalent this issue is?

  • Cornell's greater variety of courses vs Brown's open curriculum - Do you think the open curriculum makes much of a difference? Not exactly sure yet what I want to study; interested in English/History/Comparative Lit/Religion/all that good stuff haha. Some Brown students I've asked think that though Cornell has more courses, Brown's open curriculum would ultimately allow me to take a greater variety; but Cornell's course requirements will really only amount to a semester's worth of courses I might not have taken otherwise, but will still enjoy (PE/science - the 1 required math course is causing me agony LOL but I don't think one class will impact my decision much).
  • Setting - I seem to be in the minority, but I prefer Ithaca to Providence - the city sometimes feels a bit stifling, and I feel like I need to have some private place in nature to escape to once in a while. This sounds pretty weird lol, but is there anywhere like that near Brown?
  • Religion - My faith in Christianity is really important to me. I definitely won't be shoving my beliefs on anyone, but I've seen someone brag that Brown was one of the least religious schools and the way they said it like religion was a bad thing made me a bit uncomfortable.

So sorry for the long post. I’d be so so grateful for any comments! BTW, financial aid is the same for both, and I was leaning towards Cornell because I know 5 people going there (and no one going to Brown haha) and I’m unimaginably awkward at talking to strangers, I prefer Ithaca, and I was interested in Cornell’s variety of courses.

Thank you so much for your time!

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First of all, I think you’re looking at the Brown University class confessions page, not the regular confessions page. The class confessions page’s purpose is to discuss socioeconomic disparity which will be present at either of the two colleges.

I visited Brown for ADOCH and I love it. Everybody seemed warm, friendly, and easy to talk to. Also, this is the first time I’m hearing somebody prefer Ithaca to anything.

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“Also, this is the first time I’m hearing somebody prefer Ithaca to anything.”

Hate to have it be the first , so I’ll just add. I love Ithaca. We went up there twice last year.
If there was some way we could live in Ithaca and make a living, i would do it.

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Hi Kimchea. It is nice that you have a great choice like you do. It’s very hard to make choices based on anectodal/reputational iinformation, but, at the same time, what else can you go by? The good news is that you are making a decision regarding two great choices. My thoughts on your very specific questions: I think that ‘pretentiousness’ and college students probably, to some extent, go hand in hand for some students. That is not an insult, just an observation that the lack of life experience leads to some students seeing things as very cut and dry/absolute. However, Brown (can’t speak to Cornell) has a reputation as being very laid back/tolerant, so I don’t think that you would get much in the way of confrontation. And I think that Brown students, as a whole, are probably less pretentious than a lot of other schools. BTW, my background: I graduated Brown in '80 and have a daughter there now. One caveat: if you are vocally very conservative, you may find yourself in heated debates at many schools and Brown’s ‘liberal’ reputation is pretty accurate. Socioeconomic divide: I’ve never seen any evidence of this on campus. There are certainly a class of students that obviously have a lot of money – expensive clothes, trips on vacations, etc., and whether that causes some people discomfort, I don’t know, but I’ve never seen any tension in that respect evident. If, as one of the posters notes, you saw those kinds of concerns on a specific confession board dedicated to that subject, that would not be a surprise, but Brown, in practice, has no class system evident. More courses at Cornell: You are only going to take between 32 and 40 courses, so I would think that the quality of those small slice of available courses is a lot more important than the total number available, just for what it is worth. Setting: Providence is a small city. There is nature accessible, probably not walking distance. But, on the other hand, there are many places of solitude close by: India Point, Prospect Park, Waterplace Park, the riverwalk. All these are urban, but allow reflection and solitude. If you are a bicyclist, the East Bay Bike Path offers about a 15 mile ride, from very close to the Brown campus, through nature to Bristol, RI, including through Colt State Park. Farther afield, accessible by bus with a doable walk at the end, would be Fort Wetherill in Jamestown and much of Newport. To me, sitting by the ocean is one of life’s great pleasures and, though not within walking distance, you have the opportunity to get to those places. Also, beaches are accessible by bus and, off season, offer great opportunities for quiet reflection. Religion: the observant religious community at Brown is not, probably, large, but it is very active and I’ve never heard of any discomfort among those who are observant – as long as you are not judgmental in your religious observance, this should not pose a problem. Check out clubs/organizations and reach out the the campus ministry if you have questions – they would be glad to hear from you and answer your questions. Good luck wherever you end up.

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@CatMeow, I guess you haven’t heard that Ithaca was voted #1 college town last year: http://www.businessinsider.com/ithaca-is-the-best-college-town-in-america-2014-10#ithaca-is-gorges-1

People love it there.

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^^I guess Ann Arbor and Madison can’t win all of the time.

Did you decide?

I think if you were reading a FB page dedicated to discussing socio economic disparity, then that explains a lot. My daughter was on a large amount of aid and never had extra money and I didn’t hear her mention about it ever. So maybe she just was used to it from boarding school, or maybe her friends were not wealthy students, but having no mention of it means it wasn’t an issue. I wish I had asked to give some insight but I am certain she never felt out of place.

Brown has an enormous variety of classes. You will never be able to fit in what you want. Each semester was a struggle to fit in and you will be tempted to take too many. But there is shopping period at least and you can try some out.

I myself have ridden on the east bay bike trail, we were going to ride to Newport which is very beautiful by the sea but I turned back. My dd did that ride quite a few times with people more into long bike rides and you can take the bus back if you want, I don’t know if the Ferry runs anymore. But it is kind of nice going on a bike only trail through some little towns. I think Cornells wins for pure nature. But Brown does have an outdoor club. There is also BOLT and my dd went on a pre sophomore outing hiking in the White Mountains in NH. I think BOLT has ongoing outdoor events.

I would be surprised if Brown was less religious that other similar schools. Sure in college you will find people who are enjoying freedom from religion, and you might find some that hate religion, atheists who don’t care if you are religious and almost every college, including Brown does have about every religious group you can think of. My not religious child (I am an atheist) had a Catholic roommate freshman year.

Brown is a great experience, to me it has more of a sense of community and sharing the Brown experience. Really intimate classes and departments. However Cornell is a great school and you have some nice choices there I hope you can get an idea of what might suit you better. Remember that these are not homogenous student bodies.

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Ann Arbor and Madison were “small metros” on that list and thus in a different category than Ithaca. They had 4 different categories for city size. Ithaca was number 1 for the smallest size.

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Thank you everybody for your thoughtful and detailed replies! I’ve been switching back and forth over the past few days, but I’ve finally decided to go to Cornell, for a variety of factors. I still love Brown a lot (even more so after reading your guys’ comments) and I think I’ll always retain a great affection for it, but I feel like right now Cornell is the better fit for me.

Thank you again! (And who knows, maybe I’ll end up at Brown for grad school, in which case I’ll definitely be visiting the lovely spots bonenz and BrownParent shared)

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Sounds like you made right choice for you, kimchee97. Best of luck to you!