<p>I am considering applying/visiting Brown soon and I was wondering what the city of Providence is like. It seems like a big city (it is the capital of RHode Island after all) and I do not really like big cities because a lot of crime and poverty exists there. I’m hoping that this is not the case for Providence… any opinions?</p>
<p>As a resident of the neighborhood who has many ties to Brown, I can assure you that the area is very safe and pleasant. Providence has its unsavory parts, but Brown students have little reason to venture into these neighborhoods. As cities go, Providence is actually very cozy and livable; it combines a relatively small, walkable scale with some features (restaurants, cultural activities, historical significance, architecturally interesting buildings) that make it a bit more interesting than the average medium-sized town.</p>
<p>Is the campus and the neighborhood around the campus safe?</p>
<p>Very.</p>
<p>ten chars</p>
<p>Providence is the best city. Seriously. Having spent six weeks living there on the RISD campus (adjacent to Brown), there was always a menagerie of things to do. The mall is only a 10-15 minute walk from RISD and a 20 minute walk from Brown and has a huge Imax movie theatre as well as all your basic shopping places (Apple Store, Nordstrom, Barnes and Noble, etc.). There’s a CPK and a Cheesecake Factory there as well. A two minute walk from Brown will get you to Thayer Street which is the main “college hangout” area in Prov. At Thayer there are TONS of cheap, good restaurants as well as a couple more expensive. There’s the Brown bookstore as well as a really awesome movie theatre that plays art house films. Every monday and thursday my friends and I went to this cute yogurt place called Juniper which had the BEST smoothies. Besides thayer and the mall every other Friday night there is Waterfire, which takes place on the Providence River (dunno what its called), and its a huge festival with music and street vendors. It’s really fun. Also, Providence is by NO means a frightening big city: honestly it’s pretty quiet most of the time and after a week or two it was fairly easy to navigate.</p>
<p>It’s like the fresh green grass after a gentle summer rainstorm.</p>
<p>The Brown campus itself is amazing … though I got the feeling that there were parts of Providence that weren’t so safe, I didn’t try that much to leave campus during <a href=“mailto:Summer@Brown”>Summer@Brown</a>. But I will say that I once tried to leave campus to go to the Whole Foods store about a mile away because I started getting sick of dorm food, but I got kinda lost and ended up on the edge of downtown, and then I was followed by a group of really wierd emo-like people who followed me for like 15 minutes (ok it wasn’t that long but it seems like forever when you don’t feel safe) and I had my cell phone in my hand with 911 already punched in, because I’m not terribly strong and would almost definitely lose against 7 people in a fight. Good thing is that I found a street that got me back to the Brown campus. </p>
<p>That’s one of my “big” and not as pleasant stories about my experience at Brown … but I must say that Brown is absolutely amazing and they have very caring people on the Brown police team.</p>
<p>I loved Providence when I was for summer@Brown camps; the atmosphere is amazing. Sure, they are unsafe parts, but those exist in every city. I felt comfortable, and I come from a small town down South. I hope that this helps!! :)</p>
<p>Are off-campus housing easy to find and safety is OK? My s may attend this school.</p>
<p>ab2013, this story reminded me that this is a forum predominately posted in by suburban-dwelling 17 year olds. As a soon-arriving 23-year old Brown graduate student who spent his college career traveling across the globe and living in several cities, it was like a splash of cold water in the face. I cannot lurk in this forum anymore. Thank you.</p>
<p>LOL @albion.</p>
<p>Wen-- off-campus housing supply is plentiful, but students generally don’t live off campus until senior year and nearly 0 students live off-campus sophomore year (freshman year it is mandatory to be on campus).</p>
<p>My son lived off campus in his junior year and he loves the house he is in-will be staying there in his senior year as well. If I remember correctly, he had to petition to live off campus but he said housing never turns down people. There are tons of off campus houses/rooms to rent. I am paying close to what I would for on campus housing-the main difference is I am paying for parking for him to have a car there. But, here he has a living room, big kitchen and a private bedroom.</p>
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<p>I’m quite sorry! (But I will note that there is another section on CC for grad students: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/professional-graduate-school/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/professional-graduate-school/</a>)</p>
<p>Your perception of Providence will vary a lot depending upon your background and flexibility. </p>
<p>I find it alright. I don’t want to stay beyond graduation, but I’ve stayed summers and I don’t feel scared walking around campus. I’m a lot more cautious here than I am back home–but I grew up in very low crime land.</p>
<p>there’s always saferide, which I’m surprised ab2013 didn’t use. when I was at summer@brown, someone always asked “can we please just call saferide?” whenever they got tired of walking up college hill, and we had to be like, “no, stop being lazy.”</p>
<p>saferide doesn’t go to whole foods lol</p>
<p>I have noticed some people act like abused kittens around here. I understand being cautious but being afraid of emo kids or of going to the Walmart on Silver Spring is a bit silly. It does, I suppose depend on where you grew up and what you’re comfortable with. I spent my childhood as a white kid amongst Mexican child gangbangers in a project in the “bad” part of town. I guess I have a little ghetto in me that doesn’t mind being in less desirable looking areas of town.</p>
<p>Not only do I find the “non-savory” areas of Providence to be less of a big deal then say, all of New Haven, but I also think it’s worth noting that it’s highly unlikely you’ll walk anywhere into those areas as a student at Brown because they’re quite far on foot from Brown.</p>
<p>minus Doyle St area. not good over there (by that mean I wouldn’t walk around at night alone without weaponry)</p>
<p>I guess. Up around Hope St. Doyle is very nice, closer to Main I’ve heard of some trouble. Then again, I don’t really find that area around Main to be all that unsavory or scary…</p>
<p>it’s not too bad on N. Main, I used to walk there a lot. but if you venture to the area between Main and Hope there are many abandoned houses (as I found out walking one day at dusk). I typed in “camp street providence” and found a thread featuring this:</p>
<p>"I’ll give a few facts and you decide:</p>
<p>1). I worked on the corner of Cypress and Hope St for over 10 years. Countless break in’s both on the street and in the parking lot which had a security guard. People would wait till the security guard went in the building and would “smash and grab” in the lot.
Frequent damage to cars parked on the street.</p>
<p>2). Countless thefts occurring in the building. People would walk in like they were being seen there, and would look for an empty office and grab whatever. Laptops, handbags, money, etc. It got so bad that doors had to be key paded and I never left my office without locking it… even to get patients or go to the bathroom.</p>
<p>3). Co-workers who live between Camp and North Main have had problems. I don’t think they dislike the East Side but I doubt they would ever buy there again.</p>
<p>4). Ironically, there are more of these problems there than when I worked in South Providence next to RI hospital (which is actually a worse area) so go figure."</p>