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<p>I’m pretty sure you’re wrong.</p>
<p>1) The campus is somewhat small. About .7 miles by .7miles. I can walk clear across campus in about 15mins. I happen to love the Brown campus, but I think that the nicer parts tend to be a bit tucked away relative to the general campus tour (I was a guide, I think we miss probably 3 of the 5 most beautiful places on campus).</p>
<p>2) There are a group of hipsters at Brown… I’ve never really interacting with people who think they’re elite or hip though. Maybe it’s because those types aren’t science students or didn’t live in my freshman unit or aren’t friends with the friends I made through my activities here… but I think the one thing that best describes Brown students is individually driven. We all do what we do because we love it. We don’t do anything to compare ourselves to student B or C around us-- it just doesn’t make sense to do that at Brown. People who get involved in service projects do it for the genuine joy and fulfillment they gain out of it. Those of us doing research are doing it for the love of learning and delving into our subject areas. We take the classes we take because of our interest and desire to fill that gap in our knowledge. We go out to some party because we think it’ll be fun. It’s not about looking cool, impressing professors, or getting into grad school (well sometimes the last thing, but mostly because the things we’d have to do to get there are things we love which is why it makes sense to go in the first place). We tend to have a lot of students work for TFA/Americore or other non-profit/service like jobs right out of college and many students who do research fellowships (Fullbrights, yes, but other less prestigious ones as well) directly out of Brown, too. 80% of us have a degree post-bachelor’s within 10 years and about 35% are going directly to graduate school of some kind.</p>
<p>I think the non-competitive atmosphere spreads out across the university. Perhaps the sense you got was from Brown student’s reputation for fashion (which is silly in my opinion)? I think that we were once voted like the most fashion-conscious or most fashionable, or something like that, but when you read the fine print, it’s because Brown students were incredibly individualistic and intentional-- it wasn’t that we wore designer stuff, it was that we chose to wear what we wear consciously more than other places. I know I certainly don’t put any thought into my clothes and don’t feel weird about that at all, however, I do think this is a logic extension of the “self-driven” nature of Brown students. We do what we do because we’re compelled to do it as individuals and we do it for no one else, and I think we really take charge and ownership over different aspects of our lives.</p>
<p>To quote a recent hire in the Education department:
</p>
<p>“Havard students want to rule the world…Brown students want to SAVE the world”</p>
<p>Melody, would you agree with this quote?</p>
<p>I want to rule the world haha</p>
<p>I would say it’s more, “Many more Harvard students want to rule the world than Brown students, and many more Brown students want to save the world than Harvard students.”</p>
<p>We definitely have some folks here who are seeking out world domination, but far more often I find that people even entering fields that are notorious for that kind of thing are going there for way different motivations than I would expect.</p>
<p>Actually, one of those kids going to UChicago for grad school is one of two people I’ve met who have said that making money (and in this case, maintaining the lavish lifestyle he grew up with) was a major factor in his initial entering of the field, even if now he loves it. That being said, he’s the fourth or fifth math concentrator in two generations of his family and is a mathematical genius, so he just decided to apply that to econ instead of sticking with pure math because it would double his salary while working the same job.</p>
<p>That being said, yeah, I think a lot of us are pretty concerned with doing something which leaves the world a significantly better place rather than being motivated by some goal for ourselves. Yeah, actually, almost everyone I know is like that, if you include those who are just total nerds about what it is they study in the former category rather than the latter.</p>
<p>modest, do classes ever fill up at Brown or can you basically register for whatever you want whenever you want? Also, how are the dorms?</p>
<p>I would suggest going to youtube, search: “theurocks” + Brown and “theurocks” + Cornell
I love these videos!</p>
<p>Dorms are medium-- better than most places in the country, slightly worse than our peers to equal to peers depending on your number. Most people go off-campus senior year because of the huge and cheap market right around campus (within .5 miles).</p>
<p>Classes rarely fill, most classes are not limited enrollment. Even those that are, there’s an unwritten rule at Brown-- show up three times and you’re in the class. The exception is sometimes some of the writing seminars, but in my experience, if you stick around someone always drops and you can grab their spot. Also, because of shopping period (unlimited add/drop for the first two weeks of class), pre-registration is entirely unreliable and many people leave or join classes in that time span.</p>
<p>There are select few classes that people ever get locked out of here at Brown, and mostly those are literary arts seminars (which again, i got into first semester freshman year, barely trying) and VA10 (intro to visual arts, which has a lottery system).</p>
<p>FWIW, I don’t think theU stuff is all that good. They oversimplify and caricaturize a lot of stuff. I also find that the people they interview are really weird – their opinions are not really representative, both when they’re positive and negative.</p>
<p>okay, so it’s a lot like a LAC in that you’re guaranteed good housing and the classes you want as a transfer…</p>
<p>this decision is eating me. logistically, ceteris paribus, i’d go with cornell; I identify more with Cornell’s image (bigger, diverse, beautiful natural setting, school spirit), but the housing, class registration, open curriculum, tuition break, and convenience of brown’s indoor tennis facility make it unnervingly enticing, especially since both are such top notch schools.</p>
<p>June 1st, you are both the bane and savior of my summer break.</p>
<p>on a more concrete note, is it true that Brown is the most preferred Ivy after HYP?</p>
<p>I would go to Brown.</p>
<p>In 2005 or something like that, that’s what NBER found:
Data from high school seniors in 2000 (revealed preferences ranking)</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>California Institute of Tech.</li>
<li>Massachusetts Institute of Tech.</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Wellesley</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Georgetown</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>University of Virgin</li>
</ol>
<p>how is job recruiting comparatively at these two schools?</p>
<p>Cornell appears to be better for job recruiting</p>
<p>what is your basis for believing that? do you have any links you can share?</p>
<p>I have no way to compare the two-- and I’m not sure that anyone really could do that accurately (on job recruiting). While I expect these numbers to go down this year, in the 2006 senior survey, 65% responded they were employed, 23% were going to graduate school, 5% were seeking employment, 4% were listed as “Service, Travel, etc”, and 3% were “seeking education”.</p>
<p>I honestly just think that Brown is better for academics. If you are thinking Pre-med I would say a Brown undergrad degree will get you farther.</p>
<p>modest, do you know of a link to a pdf showing graduation plans / those numbers / etc.?</p>
<p><a href=“Office of Institutional Research | Brown University”>Office of Institutional Research | Brown University;
<p>I have no basis other than the fact that Cornell has been in The Princeton Review Career/Job Placement Ranking Category for 3 years straight, but it’s very close between the two schools.</p>