<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I half hate myself for posting on college confidential again, but I am really sort of seeking out help with a dilemma I've found myself relatively embroiled in right now.</p>
<p>I'm currently a freshman at Brown. I'd like to consider myself a pretty outdoorsy guy. I really enjoy running, hiking, skiing, and a lot of related activities that I did with regularity in high school that I can't honestly find at Brown. So recently I've been thinking of transferring, although I've been looking really earnestly for all options at Brown.</p>
<p>I'm looking seriously at Williams, and at a few other small schools. I am finding myself caught between a proverbial rock and hard place, as I feel so strange wanting to leave behind Brown. I love 90% of Brown. I just am having a lot of trouble living in such a strongly urban environment (some don't consider it urban, but being from a small rural town in the Northeast, it definitely feels like a huge change). </p>
<p>I am not honestly sure if I should just suffer for the four years without a really integral part of myself, the part that loves the outdoors and wants to run and hike every day, to live out the Brown experience. I love Brown, but I just don't know if I'd be able to make it the whole way feeling as I do now.</p>
<p>Any thoughts or advice would be great!</p>
<p>I don’t see any harm in applying and seeing what comes of it. You will have to make a decision if admitted but you have some time to sort that out over the next semester. What are your academic interests?</p>
<p>My son, Williams 07, liked Brown a lot, but responded negatively to Providence. It seemed to have all the negatives of an urban environment and none of the positives of vibrant cities like New York, Washington or Boston. (My son was amused to run into a Brown orientation group back packing in the Berkshires.)</p>
<p>At Williams he took full advantage of the accessibility of nature and for him, it was what best defined the experience, every day and overall. In fact, he liked it so much, he chose a rural graduate school.</p>
<p>Now, most of his college friends live and work in cities, but when they get together, they’re likely to do something involving nature as well. </p>
<p>I think there’s also a difference in the personality of the typical Williams and Brown students. Both are academically focused and intellectually driven, but Williams students tend to be more sporty and outdoorsy; Brown students more political and activist. These are generalities of course and you find a lot of overlap. </p>
<p>Williams’ distribution requirements vs Brown’s open curriculum are also points of differentiation.</p>
<p>Apply - you have nothing to lose. At best, you have an option; at worst, you are still at a great school.</p>