I chose Brown over Harvard.

Applying to College
41

<p>regarding Post#32:..."looking tremendously happy"</p>

<p>happiness is where you find it and what you make of it. do not
let someone elses sense of happiness influence your choice (albeit
you shouldseriousy reconsider if you see genuine unhappiness- for
example any survey conducted by graduating college seniors saying they
would rather have studied somewhere else).</p>

<p>Hope you spent a couple of nights living on campus? the tremendously
happy people I met at Princeton and Stanford were quite different
in private when I stayed with them.</p>

<p>There is sometimes pressure to "be happy". take for example MITs CPW
Everyone looks tremendously happy. But then you have to factor in
why M has a suicide prevention day, high pressure stress release mechanisms
readily available and a schedule that looks like months on end of fun with
so many breaks. Being truly happy in a place like MIT is not going to
be universal- just reading between the lines...?</p>

<p>The point? Simply that college preferences are personal. Prestiege-wise
there are certain programs at Brown that are best in the world, some that
are not (like everywhere else). you should spend enough time amongst
alternative options once you get admitted to pick your college.</p>

42

<p>

by the same standard, UC Davis med school is extremely more selective. Their average GPA and MCAT are higher than Brown.<br>
If you look at what Brown is strong at, there are about 30 schools ahead of Brown. So, if they don't have anything ranked at the top, how is it a good school?</p>

43

<p>"how is it a good school?"</p>

<p>honestly, you probably have very different standards for measuring a school, than others or more specifically those who attend schools like brown. what makes a school good to you is probably much more statistically based and ranking, while some other people look at the atmosphere, the overall happiness of students, and the diversity in intellectual exploration. and brown is still consistently top notch in academics, although it is not hyp. it is the sixth most selective school in the country to get into.</p>

44

<p>no, its not the sixth most selective school...</p>

45

<p>Brown</a> hits 14th in U.S. News but drops happiness title - Campus Watch</p>

<p>sure its only a statistic. but hey it seems credible.</p>

46

<p>Brown med school sucks.
What is Brown known for besides being in the Ivy League?</p>

<p>so bitter, you must have been rejected by Brown...</p>

47

<p>with a name like "middsmith" it seems quite possible...</p>

48

<p>It all depends on what you're looking for. And as for happiness... you make your own. If you go to Harvard because of the name and don't want to work, then that's your fault. If you don't make the best of your experience and make yourself happy, then that's all you, too.</p>

<p>(I am an incoming senior and have not applied/been accepted/attended/visited either school. However, from everything I'd read/heard/seen I would choose Harvard over Brown... I'm just not a Brown person).</p>

49

<p>I'm the mother of a rising senior and I would chose Brown ... so would DD.</p>

50

<p>

Infantile response can only affirm my assertion.

People possibly picked a CC name before they applied to college, no? With the kind of critical thinking you have <em>sigh</em>. You think you're so smart, don't you?</p>

51

<p>So middsmith don't go to Brown or Brown Med. We don't really care.</p>

52

<p>I would choose Brown over Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford.</p>

<p>Brown embodies everything I want in a school.</p>

53

<p>^ I feel like people say that, but then when they are actually faced with the option, they travel down the more prestigious route...</p>

<p>lucky for me i can't be accused of being a hypocrite! because my top choice is one of the infamous HYP. yayayay!</p>

54

<p>I have a kid who turned down MIT for UChicago and would have turned down Harvard for Chicago as well. He had some excellent reasons (and they weren't financial).</p>

55

<p>Come on, middsmith. I don't go around these boards telling people Columbia sucks.
Oh, wait, I do. And, indeed, it does! =D</p>

56

<p>MQD, seven people were admitted from my class this year.</p>

<p>Three chose to attend Yale, Princeton, and Georgetown instead, and of the four that are enrolling, at least two are doing so for the "prestige" factor, since both were admitted to Williams and Amherst as well. Accusing people of choosing a school due to superficial reasons may flare up tensions, I've found.</p>

<p>Brown does offer a better undergraduate education than Harvard does, though its alumni networking opportunities and name factor pale in comparison to Harvard. It's perfectly understandable why one would choose Brown over Harvard.</p>

57

<p>Honestly, how can someone say that one school offers a better education than another? Can you please clarify that statement? I mean, have you truly surveyed every person that comes out of the schools and measured their levels of education? Or is this just an opinion because Brown has the reputation of being more undergraduate-focused?</p>

58

<p>I am not as black and white as I seem but I do get a bid tired of the genuflecting ...</p>

59

<p>Brown students are currently rated 2nd Happiest in the nation by Princeton Review.</p>

60

<p>One of the things that impressed me about the two Brown students I
came to know was their readiness to hands-on explore the world-like
literally drop a year and take off for Europe or somewhere;</p>

<p>Takes a lot of self assuredness to do that!</p>

<p>The famous revealed preference ranking paper** does identify H at #1 and
Brown at #7 in terms of head-on-competition wins for matricualtion:
1: Harvard, 2: (very close) Yale, 3: (very close) Caltech
4: Stanford, 5: MIT (close), 6: Princeton, 7: Brown</p>

<p>** A revealed preference ranking of U.S. colleges and universities,
Avery, Glickman, Hoxby, Metrick 12/2005</p>