<p>I'm trying to decide between the two for my summer coming up in 2011, but I haven't been to either of the campuses and am having difficulty figuring out which would best provide a memorable, valuable college-setting experience. Who went to one or the other in summer 2010? How was the campus? academics? people?</p>
<p>note: for Brown, I'm considering the 7-week program. for Columbia, I'm looking into doing two sessions for a grand total of 8 weeks.</p>
<p>i would personal choose programs that are a bit more competitive</p>
<p>I hear summer@Brown was very laid back. I applied but I could not afford to go.</p>
<p>I did the columbia program this summer and I have to say it was amazing. I got soooo much out of it it was unbelievable and I got to know my professor so he wrote me a great recommendation. You are treated like you’re in college and plus the amount of free time you have to explore New York and even the Campus is incredible. I think I learned more in 3 weeks that I learned in a whole year! I recommend this program because not only were there many people to meet and the social atmosphere was great but the academics and learning experiences themselves really glorified the program. I loved it and would love to go back!</p>
<p>did brown, was very liberal, though i did the doctor one so I thought it was pretty nice; the doctor course is really the only one worth the money, being about twice as much class time. columbia I’ve heard has better courses, and brown had a heat wave, so I’d say I would have gone to columbia if I had another chance</p>
<p>anyways just looked at the above post… personally I think the brown accommodations for the program were below par, classes from and to the houses were about ten minutes, not very many sports, were many presentations but very few activities. residential advisors (undergraduates) were really cool, though, and it was all about being liberal. really nothing much to see in providence… movie theater that you can walk to, cvs, etc. normal university stuff. oh yeah and I thought the party was a joke</p>
<p>I participated in the Summer@Brown program, but I didn’t do the 7-week course. I found that, like someone else poster, the Brown program was pretty chill and laidback. </p>
<p>I also think you should consider location - do you want to be in a small city or a large city? Having been to both Providence and New York City, I can tell you the atmosphere is very different.</p>
<p>I did Summer@Brown this summer. Finances weren’t too much of an issue for me because I applied to a scholarship thing and received almost full to go. Really, the only reason I applied to Brown and not some of the others is because of the dates; nearly all the other places I was considering conflicted with something else I had going on. But I ended up enjoying it a lot (if you want to do the doctor program, apply EARLY. I couldn’t get a position because it filled up so quickly). It was really laid back, but I kind of liked the free time. And I felt like they had a lot of activities available and had trips on the weekends. The campus is really small so everything is within walking distance. Providence is also fairly small and uneventful, haha. I would recommend Brown, though. I’d definitely go back if I could. I still keep in close contact with people I met there.</p>
<p>who are you jman and wavegate?</p>
<p>yeah i did brown as well. super fun, best 3 weeks of my life. The people who i met who were doing 7 weekers werent having fun as they had too much work to have fun… Brown was good, because all the summer students were a community, and there wasnt that much to do, so everybody socialised. I fear that in columbia, new york is so vast, and there would be no sense of community, and it would be so hard to meet new people. </p>
<p>personally neither columbia or brown will help you very much for college, but theyre still amazing fun. If you want prestige, then go for stanford or harvard, but if youre simply looking for a summer where you can have fun, then brown and columbia would be good choices.</p>
<p>If you’re doing it to look good on your college app… neither.</p>
<p>However, if you’re doing it cause you like the school and the class and whatever, then go for it.</p>
<p>I did the Columbia summer program. I had a great time. </p>
<p>I got a letter of rec from my professor… normally this is nothing special, but mine was pretty nice since it explicitly stated that I was THE most active student in a class of over 100 kids.</p>
<p>I attended RISD precollege last summer (incredible) and with the extreme proximity of the two schools, i made a lot of friends that were at summer@brown and found out a lot about the program/schools, in addition to spending a lot of time on the campus…i can tell you that in reality, it’s kinda a joke…the classes have no homework (almost none, ever) and are only for a few hours a day (vs. endless assignments and full day classes every day at RISD). I’m not saying that they didn’t get anything out of it or that it’s a bad program, but not as intense as one might think looking at the website. if you’re looking for something more serious and not just a summer baby sitting service for rich preppy kids and european hipsters, look somewhere else.</p>
<p>Columbia!!! I hear the Brown program is too laid back and most people in it are not very motivated to work hard.</p>