<p>I had to chose between Uchicago and Brown last year (I never looked at Pomona so I can’t comment there). I visited both schools twice (once before applying and once after getting in). Before applying, I liked Uchicago better but ended up falling in love with Brown after visiting the second time. I met a lot of fellow admits who were choosing between the two and I think most ended up at Brown. You can probably search through both Uchicago and Brown’s threads to find previous discussions as it is a common cross-admit. I also highly encourage that as my response is skewed towards Brown because that is where I ended up. Please take all of this with a grain of salt as it is just my opinion based on my experiences.</p>
<p>Brown has an open curriculum which gives students the freedom to learn what they want. I have kindof made my own core but in subjects I love and am interested in (first semester I took intro computer science, genetics, german, intro engineering, and a polisci seminar). Everyone in my classes was there because they wanted to and not because they had to. Also, I can sacrifice a ‘core’ class and instead take another polisci class (I am a science student) just because a certain class sounds interesting.</p>
<p>Uchicago has a core which gives students a strong multidiscipline education. There are choices in classes to take but nowhere as much freedom as at Brown.</p>
<p>Anecdote: Sat in a similar polisci class at Uchicago and saw students disengaged (to be fair, it was during midterms and they had an essay due that day). At Brown, everyone was interested and engaged in the discussions (a little less after essays were due but still better than Uchicago in my opinion). Explanation: students at Brown chose to take the class and were not forced.</p>
<p>Professors: pretty even. UChicago has highest nobel laureate per capita (I think) but that doesn’t necessarily translate to being good professors. They also have a large graduate school which may detract some from undergrad. Brown is all about the undergrad (6k students) and not grad (2k students). Pretty much Brown has the full resources or a research university but is filled by undergrad students.</p>
<p>Prestige- pretty even. Uchicago is ranked higher in some rankings. Possibly due to grad schools. Brown is ranked highly as well and is an Ivy. Both are regarded as top schools by everyone.</p>
<p>Student Life- I feel like Brown is much less stressful. Brown has semesters vs. quarter system at UChicago. This means students take fewer classes at a time at Uchicago but have midterms and finals more often. Brown is stereotyped as being happy and laid back while Uchicago has the motto ‘where fun goes to die.’</p>
<p>Housing- I liked Uchicago’s house style of housing. However, I feel like they have a greater spectrum of housing options (everything from new nice dorms to old ones far away with completely different personalities in each). Brown is wrapping up renovations on freshman dorms to make them more like a community. At Brown, housing is random for first years which I liked whereas at Uchicago you request where you would like to live and as a result they have distinct personalities. Once at Brown you can find those personalities in groups but they are not as secluded and separated.</p>
<p>Brown is in Providence and 10 mins walking from downtown. Providence has a good sized downtown with concert venues and cultural stuff but it is not huge like Chicago or Boston. Hop on a train and you are in Boston in an hour. UChicago is like 20 mins train from downtown chicago but Hyde Park (uchicago’s neighborhood) is sketchier.</p>
<p>Uchicago is a lot more career focused while Brown is liberal artsy and has a large percentage of student who go to grad school. They have services in place for career advising but you need to seek them out.</p>
<p>Med school- no idea.</p>
<p>Overall, I feel like Brown is a much happier welcoming place. Uchicago felt more stressful and intense. I liked that at Brown you could be intense and take a rigorous load and be as stressed as people at Uchicago but you would still be around happy people which is contagious.</p>
<p>Brown has an excellent Neuroscience department. Intro neuro is a very popular class that students with no interest take because it is amazing. Some take it for fun and then end up majoring in it. I have no idea how Uchicago’s neuro department is but I assume it is good.</p>
<p>My overall thoughts: At Brown you can literally have whatever college experience you want while at UChicago it is more concrete and generally more stressful. So you can make Brown into UChicago but not the other way around. In order to do well at Brown you have to be a certain type of person who can handle this responsibility to truly design their education. If you are not, then Uchicago is better.</p>
<p>Hope this helps! Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.</p>