<p>Oh gosh. So what other schools have a similar feel to Brown?</p>
<p>There are multiple threads in the Brown subforum on this topic. </p>
<p>Schools with a similar artsy/activist feel, in order of increasing admit %: Wesleyan, Vassar, Macalester, Occidental, Lewis and Clark, Clark, Hampshire, Goucher.</p>
<p>What about women’s colleges such as Smith, Wellesley, and Mt. Holyoke?</p>
<p>Yesterday evening she posted she’d apply ED to JHU.<br>
This is why the entire idea of dream schools is flakey.</p>
<p>Brown and Wesleyan have a lot of overlap. One reason is because of the open curriculum. I think Vassar also has that. A lot of people who apply to Brown apply to Yale. My dd was looking for strong academics, intellectually curious students.</p>
<p>Isn’t it the case that most schools in the Ivy League experience significant application overlap even if their curricular requirements could not be more different (eg, Brown and Columbia)?</p>
<p>For sure. Witness the number of threads here that start with “chance me for all 8 Ivies!”</p>
<p>Plenty of colleges, including many outside the Ivy League, have strong academics and intellectually curious students.</p>
<p>If Brown is the “dream” school and you can cry over it, where does JHU come in? Or Columbia? It diminishes the notion there’s only one true fit. Especially among 3 such entirely different schools.</p>
<p>It seems that their “dream” is to be able to say, “I’m going to (prestigious name)”</p>
<ul>
<li>I think there’s a reason the word is “dream.” In the end, it doesn’t matter how much you “love” it or how much you want it. Or whether you had it in your sights since kindergarten. It’s about the mutual fit. If only kids would look beyond prestige or the superficials (“it’s the best, the kids are the smartest,”) for what that fit is really going to be. After you put the sticker in the rear window.</li>
</ul>