@iwannabe_Brown do you think Brown makes exceptions for those first-gen kids that have like 1400 SAT and a unique story just like those kids that have super rich families with a 1200 SAT score? I feel like Brown would just because they want the $$ and the percentage of first gen kids, urms and so forth.
Also I can’t believe Blueno will leave soon, he was probably one of the reasons I applied ED to brown LOL. But then again, this is the “everything you hate about brown” thread.
@jellyjam123 I mentioned Blueno in my “Why Brown” essay.
@sciencenerd I guess i can say i hate brown because they are taking him away 
And I am so nervous for ED results because nothing about Brown is making me second my choice (except fr selectivity of course)
@iwannabe_Brown I don’t think I phrased that well and I do apologize. What I mean is that I have encountered events at Brown where only students with well connected parents were invited. I’ve encountered a culture where I feel slightly secondary to those with important or wealthy parents which is something I don’t entirely love.
@jellyjam123 not really sure I understand your question.
@bluekou23 indeed that’s quite different. Can’t comment on that.
I am counting the days for that blue bear to vanish. I think he’s hideous!
Colleges have different definitions of merit. To them, merit is not just high grades and SAT scores.
@fireandrain what did blueno ever do to you
Freshman here, there’s very little to complain about but I’ll try my hardest to come up with some negative aspects of Brown!
The freshman housing questionnaire sucks, it barely asks any questions and misses a lot of important ones, so you might end up with someone who needs to listen to music out loud in the dorm all the time or sleep with lights on.
Honestly, whoever says Brown isn’t a tough school is insane because you can hardly slack off even with the S/NC system and classes are very difficult. Lots of readings, I never expected to be spending this much time doing work especially when I have barely any extracurriculars. That said, it isn’t overly stressful and I have definitely been able to manage my workload. One of my friends even said she had more work in HS, so it’s all relative.
I don’t like how the two freshman dorm ares, Keeney and Pembroke, are on the opposite sides of campus. I hardly know anyone in Pembroke because I live in Keeney and basically all my friends are here. It does help make Brown feel like a smaller community, which I appreciate, but it would be nice if the two campuses were closer so we could mix more easily.
While I truly have no complaints about the food itself here (I really like it, at every eatery/dining hall, and the variety and diversity blows my mind) I will say the open hours for dining halls and eateries are a pain the butt. The ratty closes at 7:30 but starts putting food away even before then, on Sundays it doesn’t open until 10:30 am, and they’re constantly taking away food from breakfast way before lunch hours. Also, really long lines at the ratty sometimes especially 12 for lunch. Ivy Room only takes points for lunch and it doesn’t open until 7:30 for dinner, which is also really annoying. Andrews basically always has huge lines whenever there are specials like the pasta bar and curry.
I also have loads of great things to say about Brown if anyone is interested to hear!
@ricka8 Thanks! You can say the nice things if we get in lol
I’m going to preface this with saying that I absolutely love Brown and have overall greatly enjoyed my first semester here so far. Even though I live in one of the least aesthetically pleasing freshman dorms on campus (Emery-Woolley), the recent renovations they made over the summer really fosters such an amazing community in the hall that other dorms don’t really have. I’m close to half of the people in my hall and although it’s absolutely terrible for my productivity, I lucked out so hard with my housing. That being said, there are definitely things that I don’t like about brown:
- Most parties are, to be frank, too white. I personally enjoy fratty, club-style parties where there's a lot of people and lots of dancing and you can grind and twerk to the music. But you can't twerk to the Chainsmokers and mr. brightside (though others seem to really turn up to it, which I find weird), so when I find latino parties or parties thrown by the black student union, I make it a point to go and go all out. parties also tend to end a bit early (except for the international house, but their music also tends to be too white and they get anal about what's being played). I don't think this is just a Brown thing though, I think this might just be a PWI/elite school thing after having talked to friends from other ivy+ schools. -----while on the topic of parties, Brown upperclassmen can get elitist and anal about having freshman at their parties.
- The food honestly isn't that bad, but sometimes it can feel like you have few options because they basically serve the same food every week.
- The majority of my problems with Brown come from the way they handle FLi (first-gen, low income) students. too often, they let people fall between the cracks. For example, I had no idea that there was math academic tutoring until after my first midterm. Being first-generation, I didn't know until about a month and a half into school that college is basically teaching yourself, and that classes are there just to facilitate the learning you're supposed to be doing on your own. I didn't know how to ask for a much needed extension on a paper, and as a result didn't get it. Brown will also section off some resource-specific information sessions throughout the year which is great and all, but too often people can't make it because of class/work conflicts; and they often say what to do, but not how to do it. I feel like the school falls short in helping the most vulnerable students build our already lacking resumes. I went to the CareerLAB to get help on what I can do to ask for help on building my resume and left more confused than before. I also feel like Brown prides itself on "leveling the playing field," and yet you have mostly low-income, POCs in the dining halls literally serving their richer peers while not gaining any valuable experience. I can go on and on about how Brown falls short on their promise to be accessible to FLi students. What makes all of this worse is that when you present these kinds of grievances and solutions to deans and people in charge, nothing really gets done. Essentially, if you want something done, you have to spearhead it yourself.
- There's no actual midterm "season." Midterms start sometime in October and then they kind of never stop, especially if you're taking half stem, half humanities classes.
- Brown is a bubble. Made worse by the fact that it's on top of a REALLY steep hill, it's so easy to forget that there's a whole world outside of campus.
- WIFI can be bad
That’s all I can think of right now. lol. brown is overall a great place, but like any other school, there’s room for improvement.
@sciencenerd123 I also mentioned Blueno in my “Why Brown” haha
“I just want to shatter that image that I have of Brown being a “perfect” school…”
Okay, since you asked for it, Brown’s football sucks big time. How’s that? ;
@TiggerDad lol I know. Ranked #8 in the ivy league I think it’s hilarious
Bump
Deferred and depressed so please tell me why Brown sucks.
Deferring 66% of their ED applicants is reason enough for Brown to suck.
They ask for an insane amount of (admittedly fun to write) supplements for them to be able to discern as complete a picture of each individual applicant as possible. People put as honest a representation of themselves as they can into those essays, but for two thirds of the applicants they still can’t decide what they want to do yet.
We’re left in limbo, the admission rate cut to a third of what it was, hope cut down even further.
You still want to believe that they’ll see what you think is the perfect match, but it gets a lot harder.
Brown is in Providence. The tour guides who spout that they do a gazillion ECs can’t really be doing all those things or at least doing them all well. (2)
@indianhopeful True.I just don’t get it. Why defer 2,300 students? These students made the choice to apply early decision to your school, which is not a small decision to make. They wrote 5 or more supplemental essays, poured their heart and soul into their applications, and you don’t even have the decency to give them a clear decision? Why–to lower your RD acceptance rate? To give them false hope? Because you don’t feel like doing the work? If going through more than 3,500 applications in less than 2 months is too much then don’t offer early decision. Follow the lead of schools like Stanford, who reject the majority of early applicants, that way a deferral actually means something.
Thank you, Brown. For breaking my heart.
Brown DOES defer a ton of ED applicants but they are not the only ones. MIT does the same thing. I don’t understand it but I really think, first, they only defer applicants who are qualified and would make great Brown students. And second, remember that they work very hard to get all sorts of balance in each entering class, including regional, intended concentration and extracurriculars. There is LOTS to balance and so they defer lots from ED because any one of them could easily fit into that complex puzzle of the balanced incoming class.
I understand being deferred sucks, but I think it’s hard to blame Brown (and other schools) for deferring the vast majority of applicants. The fact is that the vast majority of ED applicants to Brown are absolutely qualified to attend, but it is very hard for admissions to judge these students without knowing what the RD applicant pool will look like. For all the AOs know, Brown’s RD apps will fall by 50% this year and they will accept the majority of deferred applicants, or, they could have the most qualified applicant pool ever and not accept a single deferred student. A deferral gives Brown the flexibility they need when building a class, and it is obviously hard to build a class when you are only seeing a small sliver of the potential students (in the ED round). Therefore, ED admits are only the students that Brown is absolutely sure they want; these may be recruited athletes, legacy students, or just otherwise amazing candidates who offer something truly unique. For the other students with great grades/test scores and interesting ECs and essays, the university cannot be sure that there will not be even more qualified applicants applying later, and thus they are deferred.
Let’s say Brown knows they need a very skilled violinist in the class. Someone who is great at Violin applies ED, but they have a 3.8 GPA and a 33 ACT. This kid is certainly qualified, but Brown doesn’t know if they will get a violinist who has a 4.0 and a 36 ACT come regular decision, so the student is deferred until they can be compared against kids from the main applicant pool. From the university’s perspective, it makes complete sense.