<p>I felt ADOCH was very well organized. But I really think that's besides the point because, as a college student (especially as a Brown student) you'll be creating your own daily schedule. People won't plan events for you and expect you to skip in and skip out.</p>
<p>But anyway, I felt a LOT of enthusiasm. My hostess told me over and over again how much she loved Brown, and all the other students I met said they couldn't imagine going to college anywhere else. =)</p>
<p>Did anyone else only get a so-so feeling after ADOCH? I agree with everyone else that it was well planned and the students were extremely helpful and friendly, but Brown didn't really feel right. It's so...out there and liberal, which I knew before going, but I guess I never fully understood. </p>
<p>Although both of my hosts were really nice, one of them didn't like Brown <em>that</em> much and commented on the lack of real idealists (?). The two of them joked sarcastically "Yeah, we're at Brown...we're so relaxed." Overall, everyone seemed to be very enthusiastic about Brown, but I don't know. </p>
<p>Is Brown really not the place for you if you're not super laid-back?</p>
<p>im not super laid back, and I like it fine! </p>
<p>To everybody, I wouldn't base everything solely off of ADOCH. If you loved it, great, if you didn't, fine as well-- it was only one day and it doesn't mean everything. </p>
<p>There are very few things I could complain about for Brown, and Im sure wherever you choose you'll probably end up loving it.</p>
<p>asterstar, what do you mean "out there and liberal?" what did you see that made you feel this way?</p>
<p>I went with my D, and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Full disclosure: she was sold on Brown since last summer. The only constructive comment I have is that they did not anticipate the parental turnout for some of the sessions, so they were overcrowded. However, I felt the content of the ones I went to were fine, in particular the one at the Arts Buiilding entitled Easing the Transition for Parents. The kids on the panel were impressive and clearly happy at Brown.</p>
<p>I also appreciated the personal touch by the school. Darryl Uy, an admissions officer, greeted my daughter by name on day one, and when she saw Darryl and Michael Goldberger together on day 2, Goldberger extended a warm welcome to D and expressed hope that she would participate in some of the ECs at Brown that she had put in her application. No doubt Darryl briefed him, but still a nice touch.</p>
<p>It is my personal opinion that I could have gone to ADOCH ten times and gotten ten completely different experiences. There was tons of stuff to do and you really had to plan out what you were interested in. Depending on the hosts you got you would be introduced to different units and people. There was no one who said they disliked Brown(I tried), and many attempted to convince me to come. I went ED, but many kids I talked to were deciding between many high quality schools and felt Brown made a strong presentation. </p>
<p>All and all, just like real college, there were many options and I was sorry I couldn't experience everything. My biggest regret was sleeping in too late.</p>
<p>I just got back home from about two weeks of visiting schools to which I've been accepted. ADOCH was the last stop. For the most part, Brown is amazing! Really smart students, attractive campus, etc. I thought some of the activities were a little too crowded, but everyone was making an effort to make us feel excited. I have to say, though, that on this visit, the place seemed a lot more preppy to me than I remember from my first visit. I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing. My hosts were nice enough and were happy to be there, but like Asterstar's, they were a bit cynical about Brown's trendiness and mentioned that they thought some students use the flexibility of the place to slide by. I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing either. I did appreciate my hosts' honesty about the place and their willingness to discuss Brown's strengths and weaknesses relative to my interests and other options for college. They even suggested that I might be better off at another school. Part of me wanted to just fall in love with the place, to feel that "yup, this is it" feeling. That didn't happen, but I guess I understand why others would fall head-over-heels for the place.</p>
<p>Well, I think you all should come to Brown, but, if ADOCH didn't do it for you, it's possible that Brown isn't the school for you. Of course, it's possible that Brown is the perfect school for you but it just feels like being secretive right now. </p>
<p>Anyway, I think the ADOCH experience really depends on your host, whom you meet, what activities you do, etc, and that's different for everyone. I admit, I got lucky, and so I thoroughly enjoyed ADOCH. But I can understand someone having an unenthusiastic host or meeting ostentatiously [insert bad trait here] people and therefore not really enjoying ADOCH. </p>
<p>If you did like ADOCH, you should definitely come to Brown. If you didn't, and you're still undecided about schools, then do a little more research and thinking, and look into a crystal glass to see where your future lies (actually, I wouldn't recommend that. Your future has probably laid out 654,720 paths in front of you at this point.) and then hopefully you'll decide on Brown! Brown's definitely not the school for everyone, so I understand if you decide not to go. If you got into Brown, you probably have a bunch of other great options in front of you, so you really can't make a bad choice. :D</p>
<p>One of the main reasons that I applied to Brown was the atmosphere of friendliness and cooperation that was supposedly absent from other universities of similar caliber. However, was it just me or did anyone else find it a little TOO laid-back? I love Brown but I was a little nervous about the fact that finals are looming and no one seemed to be studying. There was a huge number of people just laying out on the lawn with no apparent care in the world. </p>
<p>Anyway, I loved Brown so much before my visit that I hope I'm wrong. I just want to know whether the "chaos" can be attributed to ADOCH weekend or the BEAUTIFUL summer weather rather than some laziness on the part of Brown students. </p>
<p>I want to have an awesome time in college but I also want to make sure that I get an education worth 40-something thousand dollars. So, please tell me I'm wrong and that Brown students make plenty of time for work as well as play! Thanks</p>
<p>I noticed the chaos, but I definitely think it was due to ADOCH, 4/20 (for some people, at least), and mostly Spring Weekend, which starts tomorrow. Apparently everyone lets loose for Spring Weekend.</p>
<p>But with amazing grad school acceptance rates (like 85% for med, 92% for law, and 100% for business), they have to be studying to some extent. I think. Unless they're all super geniuses, in which case I'll never fit in. lol. Seriously though, I've heard that Brown students do study and even enjoy it sometimes!</p>
<p>people were relaxing because it's spring weekend--the last weekend of fun before everyone has to buckle down. reading period (when classes end so you have time to read for finals) is still a few weeks away</p>
<p>some people definitely slide by, and do the bare minimum. most work very hard. and a select few use the open curriculum to accomplish super-human feats (the last several Brown Rhodes Scholars were triple concentrators, for instance).</p>
<p>Haha... I guarantee that my hosts were pretty big slackers, and I learned a bit from them. Between ADOCH, the spring weekend, and the weather many kids were taking a break this week. There was some sort of thing attached to wednesday... Um Earth Day. They said that this week was not a good indication of the more serious aspects of the the academics.</p>
<p>really? That's very encouraging to hear. After thinking about it, I did start to feel that ADOCH and the Brown atmosphere at the time couldn't possibly be representative of the school at normal times.</p>
<p>ADOCH, in my opinion, wasn't great. I like Brown a lot and will go, but I think that it is better to visit during normal times. ADOCH gives a strange impression of the school, but I think this is true for all admittted student weekends. </p>
<p>To the parent that was complaining: ADOCH is designed for students, not parents. Parents are a part of the decision process, but the students will be attending the college, not the parents.</p>
<p>Believe me, the kids work hard at Brown. The ADOCH day was not typical. For instance, last year and this year, it was like the first hot day of the year and thus everyone was out and about. Secondly, it was ADOCH and the place was jumpin' so the current students came out and mingled and just a fun atmosphere. It was not like a normal day. Further, as soon as the ADOCH kids have left, it is the spring weekend. I spoke to my D at Brown today and she was at an outdoor barbeque on one green that had all sorts of stuff, including free Ben and Jerry's pops. There is a big concert tonight with a rapper (sorry forget the name, I'm just a mom) and The Shins and another big one tomorrow or Saturday, and many other fun events. It is like a big break before they get to finals which are not for a couple weeks and there is still reading period to come. I can guarantee you that my own kid works very hard. She is someone who never slacks off (and I gather this is true of her friends there), has maintained straight A's (not easy to do at a challenging school), yet also has fit in numerous social things and will be going to all the concerts and events this weekend. In fact, she did not hang at the barbeque party this afternoon that long because she wanted to work on plans for a paper cause she knew that the weekend was pretty jam packed with the spring weekend events. She even fit in tennis today too. </p>
<p>Just to give you an idea of kids who play hard but also work hard...she is on a varsity team that went away every weekend of this semester until recently. In fact, her team missed one week of school to go to National Championships. I was at the National Championships and I can tell you that after practice each day, the team went back to their condo and STUDIED....they brought all their books on this trip to a magnificent place/resort....it was like "study hall" in the condo after practices and races. They had a great time but they squeezed in much study. I saw an organic chem book on the kitchen table in the condo on the team trip even. </p>
<p>They are serious students but also those who manage their studies and time.<br>
Susan</p>
<p>I'm astonished at some of these responses. Everyone I met (and there were many) was completely bowled over by Brown. I loved it. Lawyerdad, if you want your son to be preened at some disgustingly elitest preppy university, send him somewhere else. Maybe "nothing popped'' for him because you were looming over his shoulder whining about messy bathrooms. It's a school with 5000 kids, of course there will be messy bathrooms. I'm very sorry you had to stand, it must have been awful. And people are right, ADOCH was for kids. I'm glad my parents have enough sense to understand that. I'm glad Ruth Simmons decided not to pander to people like you. God, I seriously have to go puke.</p>
<p>ADOCH this year was great. unlike other open houses i was able to interact primarily with the Brown pre-frosh and current undergrads which gave me a more realistic college experience.. admittedly, because of this i wasn't able to see the academic side of brown and definitely saw the social atmosphere. i cant say ADOCH is the deciding factor for me in my choice (since i'm not even sure i'm going to go to brown) but it definitely made me more interested in the school. </p>
<p>i guess some parents would not have liked brown since there were a lot of party-goers and drunk/high students. some were trying to get the pre-frosh to join them and i saw more than a couple angry parents. but oh well.. thats a part of college too.</p>
<p>I went to a total of two official adoch activity (the opening speeches+tallent show) spending the rest of my time at that bad party, hanging out with people and just getting an outside perspective on life. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the impression left on me by ADOCH itself was great as they didnt treat you like a baby or rather... like lawyerdad's baby should have been treated; rather they supplemented my experience at brown. I thought it was great and it convinced me to commit while i was there, even though prior to adoch i was 50/50 between another school.</p>
<p>Was the bad party at Brooks Street? I went to that too, for a few minutes, but it was not that much fun, so I left.</p>