@arwarw - the question was not grad school, it was would a potential employer be “wowed” by someone who graduated from Brown in math, and out here in silicon valley, it would be no. But I think in more traditional jobs like consulting, finance (investment banking), it could be.
And if we’re talking computer science, Brown is not in the discussion, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, CMU would be the wow schools, maybe Harvard. Then Michigan, Illinois, Cornell…
@theloniusmonk Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like a good number of CS grads did move onto jobs with big tech companies as well
While Brown might not be the overall academic powerhouse that HYPSM, Chicago, Columbia and a few others are, it is still very good academically. I think Brown’s greatest strength is not its open curriculum or its happy/mellow atmosphere; its greatest strength is its undergraduate focus.
Curriculum type is a fit variable – different kids will benefit the most from different points on the “controlled-open” continuum. But I think all undergrads, or those who want personal attention, anyway, benefit from a school that places the most importance on its undergrads. Since Brown is about 70% undergrad, it must cater to its undergrads. That’s Brown’s biggest selling point, IMO.
" I’m just saying that when one thinks of Brown they don’t associate it with a prestigious reputation for STEM"
Let’s rephrase that. “I’m just saying that when CALSmom thinks of Brown, CALSmom doesn’t associate it with a prestigious reputation for STEM.”
Because employers and graduate schools DO associate Brown with a prestigious reputation for STEM. CALSmom is one person with one opinion.
Other posters have backed up their statements with facts – like where CS majors get jobs. Plenty of employers in Silicon Valley are wowed by Brown graduates, and hire them.
A little dated, but…
Source http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/12/17/the-top-10-colleges-that-fuel-the.html
Source: https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/2-investors-give-35-million-to-brown/?_r=0
According to this survey (a bit outdated), Brown is very highly regarded by business leaders:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/10/20/education/20iht-SReducEmploy20-graphic.html
The advice and statements from Theloniousmonk are so far from true that I feel compelled to respond. I am concerned that he/she is giving very bad and inaccurate information to high school students.
As I have said, I have 3 children in 3 different Ivy schools. I am very familiar with Brown and other “more prestigious”
Ivy schools.
Brown is amazing. For undergraduates it is in a totally different league than large state schools like Berkeley, UCLA and Michigan. Brown is more like a LAC with
some small graduate programs.
In the Ivy League, Brown stands out as
one of the best undergraduate colleges.
If you want to go to grad school at HYPMS than you will not have a problem coming from Brown.
You should not choose your undergraduate school based on US News
rankings of graduate departments. If you did that, then you would say that colleges such as Williams and Amherst, Brown, Dartmouth and Swarthmore are " not
prestigious.
To say the comp sic or math department at Brown does not provide as good an education as other schools is so wrong.
To say that a math or comp sic graduate of Brown does not impress as much as
“top” universities is also very wrong. Why do you think so many Brown comp sic and math grads get into HYPSM for grad school?
Theloneousmonk, who are you and why
do you feel the need to give high school students such bad advice.
Please stop!
I mostly agree with dochouse. Brown is a wonderful institution. Together with Williams, Middlebury, and Dartmouth, Brown was on our shortlist. The common thread – all four schools have a reputation for excellence in UNDERGRADUATE teaching.
First off, there have been posters who have said worse things about Brown, like low or mid-tier Ivy, which I don’t agree with. Let me clarify something, Brown is an excellent institution, and you can not go wrong in going there. It’s an accomplishment getting in, no doubt, and I congratulate all who did.
Again, though, what is the original question - would a hiring manager be “wowed” by a Brown undergrad in math, and the answer I still contend is no. Hiring managers here in silicon valley (and I have been one on and off) are not wowed by the Ivies in general especially for undergrad. Companies out here gravitate to a school once they see grads do well in the companies, so a place like Michigan (where Google co-founder went for undergrad) will have a lot of alums at Google, as well as Microsoft (where I worked and saw lots of UM grads). Yes UM has a lot more grads than Brown, so you have to adjust for that, I agree. My advice is not to attend an ivy because it’s an ivy, especially for something like Math. It is very likely that large public schools are better than ivies in certain subjects - and Math, Computer Science and Engineering are some of them.
BTW, I detest rankings, they’re the worst thing to happen to higher education.
And yet, @theloniusmonk, the list of post-graduate work placements is long and prestigious. Reviewable data presented by a few people on this thread does not seem to back up your statements about hiring managers “here in silicon valley” (yourself excepted) not being wowed by the Ivies. I’m curious whether you have followed any of the links presented. If so, I’m curious that you persist in your over-broad statements.
I’d just like to give a massive thank you to all the posters on this thread, especially those who posted sourced comments as those where very, very helpful. CC, with all it’s problems, is a great resource when utilized correctly.
Fair enough on the sourcing, here’s a business insider article that has the top-20 schools that Google recruits from:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-best-schools-for-getting-a-job-at-google-2014-10
You’ll see some ivies there - Cornell, Harvard, Penn, that’s it. The top schools they hire from are the top schools for engineering and science - Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, UCLA , CMU, Michigan. Now again, I will grant the bias in Google because one of their co-founders went to Michigan for undergrad and both went to Stanford for grad.
Apple is actually a lot more diverse - they have no ivies in their top 20, and there’s some thinking that they do much better than their counterparts with consumers because they have alums from San Jose State and Arizona State.
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-schools-to-get-a-job-at-apple-2014-10
@listenmissy - on the over-broad statements, agree I did generalize on some points, but this entire thread is predicated on the generalization that hiring managers should be wowed by anyone with an ivy degree, and that also is not the case.
So theloniusmonk, according to your logic Princeton is not viewed strongly by “hiring managers” either.
Please, give me a break. You are a troll and you probably have never visited Brown or any other Ivy League universities.
You don’t know what you are talking about and you are misleading young people.
Why are you stalking the Brown forum? What is your point?
@theloniusmonk is referring to new grads that large companies target because they are eager to find a job right after graduation and will work for low wages just to gain experience. They are drawn in by big name companies. Most of these jobs have limited potential. Many Ivy grads have other options, so they are not interested in boring, low paying jobs with little upside and opportunity. They want to pursue more interesting opportunities .
I think @theloniusmonk is getting some hate that’s not warranted. It’s obvious the defenders of Brown are parents of Brown students or students/alumni of Brown. That’s ok I totally understand…school pride and all.
Again, the OP was asking for honest perceptions of Brown’s reputation from employers. OP wasn’t asking for ‘brown’ nosing if I may 
I don’t think opinions on this thread that differ from the Brown supporters will not be detrimental to any HS students who may read them. If anything, it’s good to hear all sides and all opinions from insiders and outsiders. It’s what helps young people hone their critical thinking skills and separate the wheat from the chaff.
@dochouse, I never said anything about Princeton, just Brown, and yes I have been to Brown and a few Ivys, and shockingly I was accepted to two of them.
@Gourmetmom - your descriptions of jobs at Apple and Google are so far off, I don’t know where to start. First you should realize that Brown brags about it’s graduates going to those places along with Microsoft, Facebook etc… Second, Google and Apple are routinely considered much better places to work than typical Ivy league destinations - consulting and financial services. Third, look at Google’s stock price before saying anything about low paying jobs. I’ll do it for you it’s $840 and with grads getting 1000 shares over four years, that’s an extra $210,000 in stock these people are getting.
And are you saying that being a junior hedge fund manager on wall street is more interesting than being on the user interface team for the iphone or xbox or android apps? lol, come out to the real world…
No hate intended. @thelioniusmonk is putting himself out there as a Silicon Valley insider and portraying Brown’s undergrad math department and job recruitment as inferior. Which is fine. I would just encourage the OP and any high school student interested in studying Math at Brown to look at Brown’s published post-graduate placements for Math, Comp Sci and other related concentrations. https://www.brown.edu/campus-life/support/careerlab/index.php?q=post_grad_data/list
I agree that if you want to be perceived by the general public as a math wizard (have a “wow” factor) based on the name of your undergraduate college, Brown is not the right place.
Hey @ManaManaWegi just for fun…the 2017 QS World University Rankings by Subject came out! Brown mathematics came in at #38
https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2017/mathematics
^ in the top 20 among USA universities. That ranking, however, probably doesn’t cover the Applied Math dept.