ED: Columbia or Brown? or other schools

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>my profile:
female, from Beijing, China
TOEFL 112
SATI CR720+WR660+M800 1st time. taking it again in Oct., expect to get 2250+
SATII taking Math2 and Physics in Jun., expect to get 1600</p>

<p>EC: (nothing very special)
vice president of student union
chief editor of the school literary magazine, in charge of the literature club
in charge of the theater club, have directed/acted in plays
president and founder of the debate club
president and founder of Model UN association
PARIS—exchange student
intended majors: psychology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, literature,(humanities)</p>

<p>My perfect school would be a vibrant, artistic, diverse and academically prestigious one, just like Columbia and Brown. Though I chose two ivy schools, I’m really not an advocate of elitism and the ivy bubbles don’t really bother me. </p>

<p>Columbia: (i was first interested in it because of Kerouac)
pros: biggest selling point is NYC (at least for me), the most bubbling city in the<br>
world! A great school for almost all humanities. The core curriculum is also
appealing since I’d like to get a more comprehensive education.
cons: too hard for international students to get satisfactory FA
might get sickened of living in metropolitans (i’ve lived in BJ for 17ys)
(is NYC is expensive to live in?)</p>

<p>Brown:
pros: i love Brown’s philosophy: liberal and self-selecting. RISD is a great pool of<br>
creativity. the open curriculum might allow me delve into double majors.(since
these is no compulsory I can take whatever i like?) Brown seems to be a better
balance compared with Columbia
cons: though Providence seems to be lively it still can’t match NYC in some ways. i’ve
never lived in small cities.</p>

<p>Other Schools i’m considering:
Smith
Wesleyan
Amherst(mostly in daydreams)
…</p>

<p>I’d love to hear everyone’s idea and suggestion!
(i mean no offense to anyone or any school)</p>

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<p>Do you need financial aid? If yes, you should look at schools that are need-blind for internationals. Brown is not.</p>

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<p><a href=“is%20NYC%20is%20expensive%20to%20live%20in?”>quote</a>

[/quote]

It can be. But it is also a fun city to live in, and once you find your way around the priciest places, there are also plenty of less expensive and also free things to do in NYC. The area where Columbia is, uptown, is full of great things to do. Providence, Brown’s city, is much smaller, don’t know the cost of living, but you need to decide if a very big city or a comparatively small city is more to your liking. </p>

<p>Perhaps more to the point is that the two schools themselves are very different. You should read up on each one (all of them!) and see how your personality fits the schools. They are not at all interchangeable. Good luck!</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/721724-brown-vs-columbia.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/721724-brown-vs-columbia.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>This thread gives some information on the pluses and minuses of Brown compared to Columbia (as much as I could knowing little about Columbia). The lack of a core may seem daunting, but one can easily just look at the core of another college and take courses like that at Brown if one feels uncomfortable.</p>

<p>I don’t know anything about the financial policies for international students at either, unfortunately.</p>

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<p>^ Both are equally hard to wrangle money from, if you aren’t American</p>