<p>I really, really, really love Brown as a college for me. I love the open curriculum the campus, teachers, and everything about it.</p>
<p>But, i am hearing that Brown is the “Hiypee” school, How is that?
Can you get a Job as a graduate as easily as a Princeton, Harvard Graduate (Undergraduate)?</p>
<p>If you were an employer, and had to applicants to a leadership position, would you choose the Brown, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, or Cornell Graduate? </p>
<p>As someone who has done recruiting at the Ivies, I can tell you we don’t actually distinguish between them. We don’t sit there and say “oh wow this student is amazing, but he only went to Cornell. Guess we can’t take him.”</p>
<p>Brown doesn’t have the same prestige as HYP for the same reason that Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth and Cornell don’t. They simply don’t have their history or their money.</p>
<p>I’m at Brown right now, and I can tell you that no one is a hippie, a tree hugger, or pot-head. Yes, someone just set off the alarm in Keeney a few nights ago by smoking weed, but there’s no more substance abuse here than at any other college.</p>
<p>@Picasso, if you live in Keeney and haven’t smelled weed seeking out of EVERY door, I’m shocked. I can say that there are definitely hipsters and potheads. My friend got lost on her way up to Brown, saw some hipsters and the direction they came from and it took her right up to Brown haha.</p>
<p>Brown is a great school, but not academically as strong as HYP, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, etc. Furthermore, Brown has a lower per capita endowment than these other top undergraduate schools. That said, a student who has a productive time at any of these institutions will be well served.</p>
<p>Uh, okay DAD2. Really, and what school did you attend? One of the 12 you listed as being stronger than Brown? They are all great schools and you will do well with grad schools apps.</p>
<p>Are you serious? Brown is a far stronger undergraduate experience than Swarthmore, Williams, Princeton, Stanford, or Harvard. The only two schools on par with Brown for strength of “undergraduate” education are Dartmouth and Yale. That’s it. As for prestige, it really depends on your cohort. For some, Brown is more prestigious than Harvard, and far more prestigious than Princeton. Why? Truly bright people are autodidacts. Institutions like Columbia, Chicago, or Harvard are for bright people that need structure. Brown provides incredible resources for undergraduates, and allows one to pursue their intellectual passions with relish. Very, very, few schools with Brown’s resources permit this. As for antiquity, remember, Brown’s the 7th oldest continually operating college in the country, and one of the oldest in North and South America. Believe me, it’s prestigious enough.</p>
<p>I actually don’t see how it would be difficult to find others who share that point of view. Brown puts emphasis on their undergraduate focus and this is evident in their unique grading systems and how undergraduate students feel about the university. And furthermore, although Princeton, Stanford, and Harvard undergrad programs are amongst the most prestigious, there is a growing sentiment that these three “top notch” colleges aren’t necessarily the best for undergrad. </p>
<p>When I visited Harvard, I found that they were constantly talking about the graduate research going on here and going on there - but when I visited Brown I felt what it’s like to be a student there and not just someone looking forward to graduate school.</p>
<p>It all depends on the feel of the person, and I think Galanter’s opinion is shared by many others - maybe not a plurality but a growing number.</p>
<p>^Then you must be cultivating opinions that are both uneducated and brash, which, judging by the quality of your posts, is exactly what you’ve done. Unless you are qualifying “undergraduate experience” through some truly subjective means, the strength of Brown’s academic programs (which many people, including myself, love) simply cannot compare to that of Harvard or Princeton. The schools you are comparing Brown to have upwards of 12 times the endowment of Brown.</p>
<p>^ I would love you to point to the low-quality posts that I’ve made that lead you to make that claim. I’m not sure what exactly one does to cultivate opinions that are “uneducated and brash.” Does that mean I choose to only talk to stupid people? And spit in their face?</p>
<p>I’d also love to understand what you think that gross endowment size has to do with undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Beyond a certain point, endowment has very little to do with undergraduate quality. There was a Brown student named Ryan Roark who transferred to Harvard, thinking that because Harvard had(at that time) a 36 Billion dollar endowment, she would have unparalled resources at her disposal as an undergraduate. Here’s what she found. Much of the university’s resources were off limits to undergrads. The ability to study in a cross-disciplinary fashion was constrained. The students in the classrooms were no better prepared or smarter than they were at Brown. The professors were not nearly as accessible as they were at Brown. Her recourse? She transferred “back” to Brown. This may be the first time in Harvard’s history that someone did that. Kudos to her for not allowing Harvard’s supposed “mystique” from allowing her to see Brown’s superior undergraduate focus and experience. As for Princeton, it is noted as a decidedly anti-intellectual place at the undergrad level, much like Stanford. The focus is more on connections than truely following an intellectual passion. I stand by what I said. The most intelligent people I’ve interfaced with have been from Brown. The least impressive(Among the elite schools) have been from Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s because it is in Rhode Island. :D</p>
<p>No, but seriously, past a certain point, this whole prestige game gets kind of silly. IRL, a lot of hiring authorities in Texas really think UT is better than any of those schools, and in Chicago, there are plenty who would take a notre dame grad over every last one of those schools, as well.</p>
<p>Academic Prestige IRL is not quite what they make it out to be in high school.</p>
<p>Poetgirl, I largely agree with your point. The question is, which degrees play well in the other’s “home court”. UT grads may be the bomb in Dallas, and Notre Dame grads might be oh wow in Indianapolis, but neither play well in New York. An Ivy grad with good grades “will” find a market in Dallas or Indianapolis for his or her “wares” in the elite circles of those cities. I guarantee it. Read C.W. Mills “The Power Elite”. Many of the tenets of the book are as valid today as they were in the early 50s. People of influence, prestige, and money have interlocking connections among the major cities and regions of this country. It starts at a boarding school like, for instance, St. Paul’s. Extends to attendance to an Ivy or Ivy-like college, and then extends to social clubs and marriages around the country. Don’t fool yourself. Harvard or Brown or any of the Ivies, plays well in the right circles in those cities.</p>
<p>I went to Northwestern, H went to UNC-Chapel Hill. Our degrees play well everywhere we go. </p>
<p>A degree from brown will, also.</p>
<p>A useful way for kids to look at college in this generation is to keep in mind that the same number of people now graduate from college as graduated from high school after wwII. So, an Ivy degree is worth what an exeter degree was worth back then. A grad degree from an Ivy is now worth what an udergrad was worth back then. Pay accordingly. Be careful of your debt.</p>
<p>If prestige is the main attraction of the degree, just be aware of the relative value of the BA or BS, and what it will take to go further.</p>