<p>I’m a HS senior applying to Brown U this admission season. I’ve been getting confused about Brown’s reputation lately. Some people tell me that Brown is the best school on earth, with its Open Curriculum and unique grading scale – I kinda believe in this because I went to Brown’s Summer program. However, there are also people who tell me Brown is not very good. For example, these people usually point to Brown’s relatively low endowment (it does have the lowest one of all Ivies at $2.8 billion), low research activity (~$100 million), and rankings (16th on USNWR). They also point to how each speciality in Brown isn’t all that great either (e.g. Brown’s engineering is ranked 38th and econ is ranked 21st). </p>
<p>What is the true story about Brown? Does it really have a good reputation (DON’T TALK ABOUT RANKINGS!) that matches up with the other Ivies? How do graduates from Brown fare in the real world – do they get hired or attend top graduate schools? </p>
<p>Thanks! I just want to find out to help me on my college search.
-ab2013</p>
<p>If you want to look at reputation why not look at reputation based or prestige based rankings?</p>
<p>What is reputation to you? Why does it matter to you? What are your concerns?</p>
<p>If it's whether you'll get into good graduate or professional programs, well there are quite a few stats around this site and the Brown site about law school, business school, and medical school admissions that are down right impressive.</p>
<p>If it's whether you'll get a job, I can only answer anecdotally, but really-- Brown students do not have a problem finding jobs they want after they graduate. It's really that simple.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you want to know here. In fact, I'm not sure you know what you want to know...</p>
<p>Look, it's an Ivy, but it's not Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. As such, it has a great reputation, similar to Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth and Cornell. It also depends- where do you want to go/live after college? If it's New England, you're completely fine. If you want to go somewhere far away, you may want to try to get into one of the first three I mentioned.</p>
<p>I suppose that my question was a little ambiguous. I wanted to know about Brown's reputation in front of the eyes of **employers and graduate schools.<a href="so%20I%20said%20don't%20talk%20about%20rankings">/B</a> Is the educational quality good enough that there is a demand for Brown grads? </p>
<p>Thanks alot ... I hope that this clarifies my question.</p>
<p>Colonization-- not entirely true. Certainly not within the US amongst people who matter (i.e. those doing the hiring/admissions). Possibly true abroad if your intentions are to go directly from undergrad.</p>
<p>Graduate School: Brown is incredibly well represented at top graduate schools, almost always among the top 10 or so schools along with HYPSM, Dartmouth, Amherst, Duke, Columbia, Williams, etc.</p>
<p>Recruiting: Not as strong as the strongest business feeder Ivies, but most definitely a strong school.</p>
<p>But also at the end of the day, the Ivy League is an athletics conference.
Ironically, it's mostly the Ivy League students who are the only ones aware of this.</p>
<p>Yes, but the Ivy League still has a reputation for being amongst the best schools in the Nation and the World. Regardless of how good Brown or any other Ivy is, at the end of the day, it's still thought of in the same category as Harvard and Yale and Princeton. No, it may not be seen as equal, but it is still seen in the same group, and IMO, the differences in the quality of education between the Ivies are so small when you compare it with that of 95% of the rest of the schools in the US, that it really doesn't even matter.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it's still an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>brown has an awesome reputation everywhere i go for out of the box thinking. my career has taken me from medicine to grad school to politics to business. when you tell people you went to brown, they automatically assume you are very intelligent and creative, but also cool and fun. it's great. furthermore, everyone who goes to brown loves it. harvard alums (a group i also belong to) are less excited to meet other people from harvard. brunonians love reaching out to other people from brown and get super excited about meeting other students/alums.</p>
<p>The message from ModestMelody is obviously written by staff at brown. As a caveat, many of these sites are read by college professors and staff. Yes, they care about their reputation and they know that these sites will give them an idea of what HS seniors are thinking about. [search: consumer generated media]</p>
<p>Re: reputation, Brown does in fact have a low endowment. Research? a joke. engineering? don’t go here for engineering. econ? not a bad deal for econ. history? pretty good teaching? good chemistry? no </p>
<p>Who goes to brown? nerds, hippies, athletes, and trust fund babies. Brown is a pre-professional school. Everything you do is for your resume-- classes, activities, internships. To be included in the brown culture, you have to play the game: act as if you don’t care about grades, act as if everyone is so laid back, act as if no one cares about their resumes… but this is not how it is. </p>
<p>Re: ranking lists: treat them with a grain of salt. E.g., college rankings change from year to year. you can’t help but feel that these lists have been doctored.</p>
<p>First, Brown will never match up to HYPS. Neither will UPenn, Dartmouth, Cornell, Northwestern, Duke, or any other school for that matter. You have to accept that.</p>
<p>Second, Brown is especially an undergraduate school - like Dartmouth - that focuses more on undergraduate education than it does on graduate research. This explains why Brown University researchers are not significantly in the news all the time, because their graduate program is hardly as extensive or well-known as other top schools. It’s also a good indicator of why their endowment ends up being lower than many of the other top schools.</p>
<p>Brown has an excellent reputation, and although it will never be as well known as HYPS, it definitely gives you an opening to great post-undergraduate and employment opportunities.</p>
<p>If you look through modestmelody’s posts you’ll see he gives his name. I can certainly vouch that he was in fact a student.</p>
<p>I think you are confusing ambition and competition. Students at brown are no less ambitious than similar caliber schools. They are definitely less competitive.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Modest was a student, and he has revealed identifying details a number of times. So have I, and so have many of the other students/alums on here. We spend time here because we care enough about Brown to help high school students make the choice about whether or not to attend. You’ll find that a lot of students and alums from Brown genuinely love the place; I can say with confidence that I know of no other school for which that is more true.</p></li>
<li><p>It is delusional to think that significant numbers of professors from elite colleges spend their time on college admissions forums, playing up the undergraduate education at their institution. You (linker) are profoundly naive.</p></li>
<li><p>Brown’s endowment per student is in the middle of the Ivy League. Using a raw, absolute endowment figure is completely useless.</p></li>
<li><p>Brown is the opposite of a pre-professional school. I have absolutely no idea where this impression came from. If anything, people come on here worried that there’s too little focus on future profession.</p></li>
<li><p>Other than some people involved in student government, I don’t know anyone who was involved in extracurricular activities for resume purposes. That stands in shocking contrast to the undergrads scurrying around my new, far superior home institution.</p></li>
<li><p>There are people at Brown for whom the laid-back-ness is an act. These people are unhappy, and they probably never should have gone to Brown. They are a tiny minority.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>“First, Brown will never match up to HYPS. Neither will UPenn, Dartmouth, Cornell, Northwestern, Duke, or any other school for that matter. You have to accept that.” Are you kidding??? Know the fact before spread … Here is the link — [50</a> Top Colleges](<a href=“http://50topcolleges.com/Rankings.html]50”>http://50topcolleges.com/Rankings.html), It does include all the factors. </p>
<p>Where is the Duke, Northwestern, Upen, Dartmouth, or Cornell’s rank, go figure.</p>