<p>^^ If you’re worried about getting into Brown, Yale is the wrong direction to move.</p>
<p>And I don’t understand why anyone would consider the Open Curriculum or the grading options incidental. I would have though those are exactly the features that attract so many smart-but-“chill” students. But maybe as guitarclassical suggests the atmosphere is more a matter of admission policies, or of kids seeking like-minded people in where they choose to apply.</p>
<p>In any case, this gets back to deciding what aspects of Brown you’d most like to replicate. So far we have a list of schools (including Chicago, WUSTL, Colorado College, Yale, Vassar) that is all over the map in terms of location, size, atmosphere, and curriculum. The one specific thing that seems to matter to the OP is medium size (3k-10k), in an excellent “liberal arts school”. Rice University might fit, although it does have professional schools (it is not a LAC). Wake Forest is another excellent, medium size university (~4K UG, ~2KGrads). It has professional programs … but it also has an Open Curriculum option. US News ranks it 25th overall but 12th for undergraduate teaching quality. More warm weather, less liberal politics than Brown.</p>
<p>guitarclassical- hm, I didn’t realize that about WashU. I was just attracted to the size and excellent academics, but if its focus is preprofessional that’s definitely not something I’m looking for. Thanks for making me aware of that, I’ll take it off my list. </p>
<p>Yale is definitely another school I’m considering, but it is just as if not more competitive than Brown, and I think it is wiser for me right now to have some solid safety and match schools since I already know that Brown is my dream reach.</p>
<p>Yes, I didn’t really feel an affinity with the atmosphere at Amherst (from what I’ve read and heard; I haven’t visited), and while some of the other LACs look awesome to me in both academics and atmosphere, the small size is the key factor that’s turning me off. Maybe 2000 would be okay for me, but even that’s a stretch. So I’m not even considering all these excellent LACs with <2000 undergrads just because they’re too small for me, and I think that’s a very important factor in choosing schools.</p>
<p>soozievt- Vassar does seem like something I should consider. I was initially turned off by the fact that it was an all women’s college fairly recently but as long as it’s not influenced by that presently, it seems like a good possible target/reach. I actually went on a tour of Tufts and didn’t really like it- don’t get me wrong, the academics are stellar and the school overall seems excellent. However, I just didn’t feel too comfortable on campus and that’s everything. I felt like in general the student body was very politically motivated and while international affairs and politics do interest me, I don’t think I’m as into it as students at Tufts are. </p>
<p>tk21769- Yes, that was exactly my line of thinking with Yale. It is absolutely a great school to consider, but it is just as much of a reach as Brown, and I need some safeties and targets. As for Chicago, I don’t really that recommendation considering I love Brown. It seems like the atmosphere and student type at UChicago is much different, and not something I’m looking for. Wake Forest seems good, but one thing I was worried about is that it doesn’t seem to have an excellent reputation the way other schools I’m considering do. I know that shouldn’t be the key factor, but it’s in the back of my head that it is not a very “known” school (at least among people I’ve talked to.)</p>
<p>It’s interesting that you didn’t feel comfortable on campus at Tufts, but liked Brown. I’ll say this from a personal perspective…</p>
<p>Back in the day (I’m a parent, by the way), when I was looking at colleges, I had an older brother who attended Brown. I went to look at Tufts and one thing (of many) that struck me about Tufts was how the campus had similarities to Brown. The size is similar and there is the New England campus but it is not isolated and shops, restaurants, and off campus housing was meshed with the campus and the city center was nearby. I ended up falling in love with Tufts and I went there in fact. </p>
<p>Fast forward to when my oldest daughter was selecting colleges. It turns out that Brown and Tufts were two of her three favorite colleges. She chose to attend Brown and loved it. But she truly loved Tufts as well and considered going when she narrowed it to her final decision making process of all her acceptances. My D was not as into the prestige factor, as you may be it seems. She actually knocked her acceptance to Penn off her list when making her final choices and preferred Tufts to Penn. In any case, Tufts was appealing to someone who loved Brown, and to my knowledge there are cross admits with these schools.</p>
<p>By the way, Vassar has been coed for a long while and is one you should explore. My D did not apply there as it did not meet her other selection criteria which are not selection criteria that you have and so that’s a moot point.</p>
<p>One more thing in regard to Tufts…it is NOT NEARLY all about politics and international affairs! Yes, they have a strong major in International Studies but they are strong in so many areas. I majored in Child Study there. My D was going to major in Architectural Studies if she attended. For that matter, many at Brown are just as politically motivated as those at Tufts. There really is no difference between these two schools on this one factor. </p>
<p>(Tufts has a lot of pre-med students and engineering students too)</p>
<p>Tufts came to my mind too. I was very impressed with the place when we visited this summer. I liked its campus quite a bit.
D1 applied to Brown, her other applications were all LACs though (including Vassar & Oberlin).</p>
<p>Very few schools have the national prestige and brand recognition as the Ivies. Try to come to terms with that in case you don’t get into Brown (or Yale). The odds are against you and nearly everyone else who applies.</p>
<p>WF may or may not be right for you (I have no connection to it and am not really pushing it) but reputation really shouldn’t be a factor at all. It is well known and respected in the SE. According to payscale.com data for graduates with only a bachelors degree, at mid-career WF graduates earn more on average than graduates of Boston College, Tufts, Wesleyan, Northwestern, UCLA, WUSTL, or JHU (among others). So name recognition does not seem to be holding them back.</p>
<p>[Yale is similar to Brown in the sort of students they look for and they have a large number of cross-admits. ]</p>
<p>Maybe in the types of students admitted from HS records/scores, but from what I’ve heard from high school classmates and colleagues who attended those schools, the atmosphere couldn’t be more different. </p>
<p>Brown has a more artsy/creative feel that several Brown graduates said came close to that of Oberlin or similar type schools after visiting the latter. </p>
<p>On the other hand, nearly every student I’ve talked with from Yale gave off the impression that Yale has a much more East-Coast establishment strait-laced vibe than Brown…and far more so than Oberlin. Incidentally, this was the main reason why an artsy/creative dormmate at my undergrad turned down admission to Yale after taking a tour for admitted students there in her senior year of high school. </p>
<p>Also, everyone I knew from Brown loved the campus and Providence, RI whereas most Yalies I’ve known had serious issues with New Haven, Connecticut with some being quite jealous of those who attended schools in areas with “better” college towns/cities…even non-Ivy ones.</p>