<p>Brown has been my dream since I was born. It is everything I want in a school. I love the people and the overall spirit of the students and professors. They have an awesome development studies program that works with an IR program, helping me with exactly what I want to do (possibly working for an international non-profit at some point). EXCEPT my mom is a professor there, and I basically have grown up on the campus. Part of me feels like I've outgrown Providence. I'e been hanging out on Thayer Street (a central student hang out) since I was 12. Ad yet there is an appeal to being close to home...</p>
<p>I visited Georgetown last year and FELL IN LOVE with the city and the campus. DC is a dream for me and I would be close to my grandmother who I have been making an effort to visit more because we really don't know how much longer she'll be with us. I got into the School of Foreign Service which would propel my (I hope) future career in international relations. No better city for IR! The freaking White House is there! However, the students are generally more conservative than myself. I know I could find my niche (a friend of mine went to Gtown as a raging liberal and has fit right into her own group, lol), and there is something appealing about being around people who think differently than myself. I'd have to force myself to know what I'm talking about, to be able to defend my beliefs. And yet, the thought is disconcerting.</p>
<p>Washington, DC is the center of the world for I/R. Where other places study I/R or discuss it, Georgetown SFS is where people live it. Try to visit the SFS campus in the next few weeks and see the plethora of acitivities for yourself. Open the course book and see the list of courses. Visit the various area strudies and development programs that are attached to SFS. SFS has an atmosphere that is like no other place anywhere in the world and resources that are not matched anywhere else as well.</p>
<p>There are people at Georgetown from all parts of the nation and dozens of countries and their politics run the full gamut of views, so I would not worry about finding your niche either.</p>
<p>If you’re into I/R then you would be stupid to pass up on Georgetown with one of if not the strongest international program in the world. Don’t hold onto Brown just because you were attracted to it at a younger age/your mother works there. I say Georgetown all the way! Amazing education? Check. Center for international politics? Check. Mind-blowing political internships/jobs? Check mate.</p>
<p>“If you’re into I/R then you would be stupid to pass up on Georgetown with one of if not the strongest international program in the world. Don’t hold onto Brown just because you were attracted to it at a younger age/your mother works there. I say Georgetown all the way! Amazing education? Check. Center for international politics? Check. Mind-blowing political internships/jobs? Check mate.”</p>
<p>Not really. College is not merely an internship, and Brown is the better university.</p>
<p>Debateable. And it sounds like Georgetown allows you more room to grow, which isn’t to be undervalued in a college. I’m sure your Brown experience would be different from the one you’ve had thus far, but there’s something to be said for spreading your wings.</p>
<p>for what it’s worth, brown is considerably harder to get into, has more resources, has one of the strongest IR program’s in the country (with plenty of connections to opportunities in D.C., and plenty of undergrad fellowships to go abroad).</p>
<p>that being said, there are plenty of reasons to go elsewhere</p>
<p>I would not dispute that Georgetown is stronger in IR, but it is ‘hit and miss’ in other disciplines (which will likely account for over half of the OP’s total course load). Brown has broader academic strength. Moreover, the OP expressed concerns about fit. Brown has a reputation as a very collegial academic environment, and reviews of Georgetown on this count are decidedly mixed. The fact that Brown is among the ‘happiest’ of campuses (in terms of reported student satisfaction) is something worth thinking about, imo.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation with SFS and Penn. I chose Penn (similar to Brown in your case) because it offered a lot more outside of IR that I really wanted to explore, while still offering a great IR program.</p>
<p>while brown may be a little more prestigious than georgetown, the difference is really not that large. college is about going somewhere and trying new things, and i beleive that you would have an excellent time attending georgetown. I didn’t know that georgetown was considered to have a conservative campus, but washington as a whole is a verrrrrry liberal city and i’m sure you would feel at home. i live in DC, and I plan to go somewhere else for college, but it is really an excellent place to live and i strongly reccomend you attend georgetown come fall</p>
<p>There’s no question here. Go to Georgetown.</p>
<p>From someone who has tons of relatives who are alumni, I can tell you that an SFS is far more respected than a Brown degree in any field in which you would be interested.</p>
<p>“From someone who has tons of relatives who are alumni, I can tell you that an SFS is far more respected than a Brown degree in any field in which you would be interested.”</p>
<p>What nonsense. You really should get out more.</p>
<p>I think you are stuck in the CC bubble. With half of my family living in D.C., I can tell you that I know exactly about what I am talking. Georgetown SFS has cachet in the IR field and general public that Brown does not.</p>
<p>I never denied that Georgetown was stronger than Brown in IR, or that a Georgetown degree carries considerable weight in D.C. However, if the OP decides to spend his life outside the “D.C. bubble” (entering freshmen have been known to change their minds about career choices), a Brown degree is likely to serve him better, imo- for reasons enumerated previously. Also, although I have no connection to Brown, I have heard nothing but good things about the student experience there.</p>
<p>That is fair enough. My post was assuming that she were only going to be interested in IR/politics (“anything you might be interested in” was a reference to that). </p>
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<p>Agreed.</p>
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<p>Agreed.</p>
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<p>I would caution against metrics like these. Brown is self-selecting to some degree. I, for example, would never be happy there because I am very conservative, especially in how I live in my life. The fact that Brown students in general are happy does not mean that any student would be.</p>
<p>Speaking as someone who also grew up on a college campus (U of Chicago) that would have been a great fit for me if I hadn’t grown up there: I think it’s important to move away from home and get a fresh start in college. Honestly, that would be enough for me in this situation to make Georgetown an easy call.</p>
<p>“I would caution against metrics like these. Brown is self-selecting to some degree. I, for example, would never be happy there because I am very conservative, especially in how I live in my life. The fact that Brown students in general are happy does not mean that any student would be.”</p>
<p>Sure, there are no guarantees, but I think these metrics - however imperfect - convey some information. The fact that very few students seem to complain about the student experience at Brown (relative to students at peer institutions) is useful information, in my view. In contrast, Georgetown seems to have more of a love/hate relationship with its students (many students are extremely enthusiastic, whereas a good number of others seem to be put off by the social atmosphere).</p>
<p>I think that Brown is the better and safer bet given the OP’s parameters and the inevitable “uncertainty factor” regarding career choices. Just my $0.02.</p>
<p>That’s true, if you establish it as relevant at all. Evergreen College’s satisfaction rating is not applicable to me because that student body is also very self-selective, and I do not fit with that group. If the OP thinks she could be happy at Brown, then the metric is indeed important. But first that threshold needs to be established.</p>