<p>Whitman is not in a big city – but kids here love it. Caution, however, a lot of the schools listed are still challenges for admission (Whitman included). You might even dial it back further a notch and look for a charming school with a program that is particularly strong in the student’s main interest.</p>
<p>I suppose at this point we’re looking for high match/low reach schools, as we have a good idea already about the safety/match schools. Most of the private schools give a significant bump to kids from his high school, so some that might ordinarily be out of his reach could be possible. And a problem is, he doesn’t know what he wants to major in. Definitely not any sort of cultural studies/foreign language/history/english major, but perhaps business/science or something in that direction.</p>
<p>^ How is Whitman like Brown? I’ve heard Whitman is also a wonderful school, I just had no idea they overlapped. Correct me if I’m wrong (and I’d like to be wrong because I really like both schools), but one is a university, the other is 1500 students; one has an open curriculum, the other does not; one is on the east coast, the other is on the westcoast; one is near city, the other is extreme isolated; regarding the cultures, my sense is one is much more preppy with a relatively big greek system, the other quite the opposite. And their ED acceptance rates are 24 vs. 72. </p>
<p>My sense is everyone is going to give the OP their favorite school, and there is one for each poster.</p>
<p>math/business/technical/science … urban, in the Northeast:</p>
<p>~ What about Johns Hopkins University? </p>
<p>Verdant campus; uptown, gracious old neighborhood inside my hometown City of Baltimore. Several blocks away, and elsewhere throughout the city, Baltimore has some extremely rough neighborhoods as well (think Newark). Baltimore ALSO has the vibrant Inner Harbor area, great museums, National Aquarium that bring tourists from the U.S. and around the globe, so fun to visit the city. </p>
<p>So JHU is not for the faint-of-heart if a real city, with ups and downs, gives you parental nightmares. It is famous for sciences and has a fine liberal arts college. In general, undergrad students need to initiate contacts with professors; be organized and resourceful; no coddling there. The very famous JHU medical school is downtown at a different campus.</p>
<p>Similarly urban, but easier to gain entry: Case Western University in Cleveland, OH or the University of Pittsburgh might have some appeal for those majors. I have a neice majoring in Business at UPitt. She’s tearing the place up ~ which is a good thing.</p>
<p>
[quote} preppy with a relatively big greek system,
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Does Brown have a big greek system?</p>
<p>Definitely looking into JHU, it is on the list. A concern was the area of town–as you addressed. Then again, USC is in a relatively rough area, but they have very low crime on campus, so it doesn’t always correlate to danger.</p>
<p>Case Western, we’d looked into a bit for our older son. I just read too many comments about it being a depressing place to attend. I’ll look into UPitt. It is in a great area, and his older brother goes to school right next door.</p>
<p>–correct on most of the differences between Brown and Whitman except for the isolation and the hippie category. Walla Walla has 30,000 residents, and Whitman is smack dab in the middle of town, 5 minutes walk to many charming restaurants, coffee shops and town jobs/internships. Very hippie student body, frats notwithstanding. Different frat culture (about 1/3rd of the students) from the stereotype. Not at all preppy. Kid wouldn’t take any nice clothes to school, saying NO one wears anything more than sweats or jeans. This IS the Pacific Northwest after all.</p>
<p>Iglooo, not Brown (only 4% of women in sorority, 12% of men), but Whitman (30 and 40%).</p>
<p>Kolijma, I will have to visit. I totally got the sense from Whitman’s website that it was a very preppy place. Whole section devoted to greek life, hte style of dress in the photos. But I’ve not been there.</p>
<p>Now my reference point is not say Princeton or Bucknell, but compared to say Reed or the NW in general, it looks very preppy to this outsider.</p>
<p>Also 30,000 is very tiny in my books, not what I would consider a city; but Providence is almost 200,000.</p>
<p>University of Colorado at Boulder, but it is not that easy to get into anymore. Take a look at Northern Arizona University.</p>
<p>yeah, your visit will clear that up!</p>
<p>Brown has neither an undergrad nor grad school of business.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you mean by technical majors- its programs in Computer Science and Applied Math are considered top-notch; it has a highly regarded school of engineering. But it does not have nursing, Ag science, or any of those types of "technical’ majors.</p>
<p>Vassar and Wesleyan are a little easier to get into then Brown and draw the same applicants. Skidmore and Oberlin are a hair easier still and have similar student bodies to Vassar and Wesleyan. The city/open curriculum combo is tough to find tho.
Yale is similar but that’s no help. Maybe Univ of Rochester or Johns Hopkins?</p>
<p>Does he have an interest in a particular major or group of majors?</p>
<p>“Wow, this is great, in less than 20 minutes I’m already getting a good list to look at.” - Yea, CC is great. I’ve been disappointed that GC are not better able to give this kind of advise, since they are well familiar with colleges AND the success rate from that particular high school. (The Naviance online program has helped parents do it more themselves). At a private high school you may have better luck.</p>
<p>Brown doesn’t have a business school, but it has a quasi-business major. It isn’t called that but it’s what people who would major in biz elsewhere concentrate in. </p>
<p>Swarthmore has a very different culture than Brown but meets some of your criteria. Hard to get into, but not as hard as Brown, offers an engineering major, train to city is right on campus.</p>
<p>Washington University in St. Louis
Johns Hopkins
Emory
Northwestern
Rice
Reed
Macalester</p>
<p>“Not at all preppy. Kid wouldn’t take any nice clothes to school, saying NO one wears anything more than sweats or jeans. This IS the Pacific Northwest after all.”</p>
<p>My God, you mean kids actually own more than sweats or jeans? 
I’ve been living out here for way too long!</p>
<p>“I don’t know what you mean by technical majors”</p>
<p>I mean options such as math, science, engineering, computer science. Business would be good, though I’ve realized that not too many schools offer business as an undergraduate major. Brown, certainly, has many different options in both technical/non-technical majors…whereas some of the top LAC’s are very focused on liberal arts only.</p>
<p>Schools that are about same ranking, same size, same university feel (i.e. not LAC), and near a city:</p>
<p>Washington University in St Louis
Northwestern (a bit bigger perhaps)
JHU: either you love it or you hate it
Duke: very competitive to get into
W&M: more Greek than Brown, not near city
Vanderbilt: definitely more Greek, but easier to get into than Brown
Rice: lots of school spirit there, near Houston
URochester: oldest went there, but transferred after freshman year</p>
<p>I’m thinking of the schools where my son applied last year after he was deferred from Brown. He did also get into Oberlin, but it was too isolated. He considered Weslayan, but didn’t care for it. He ended up at WashU and loves it.</p>
<p>You’ve already gotten some very good suggestions and so I will not repeat the ones I would have said. </p>
<p>I don’t agree with you, jonri, that Tufts is not like Brown. I think they have SOME similarities and in fact, many cross applicants. I have some knowledge of both. My brother went to Brown. My daughter went to Brown. I went to Tufts. My daughter narrowed down all her acceptances to deciding between Tufts and Brown in fact. Liked both a lot. I recall when I applied to Tufts, thinking it reminded me in some ways of my older brother’s school (Brown). While Brown has an open curriculum, Tufts doesn’t but the distribution requirements are pretty open ended. The size of the two schools are similar. The campus feel is a bit similar and they both have a campus but have off campus housing and things to do right on the perimeter of the campus, and both have close access to the city. Both have a liberal feel. Neither is a big rah rah sports atmosphere and neither is a big Greek scene either. I think both attract some similar types of students. Tufts is very hard to get into but not quite as hard as Brown. While they are not exactly alike, I would not have said that they are so different. Truly, many who apply to one of these, also apply to the other.</p>
<p>According to the Students Guide to Colleges (by Colman and Buyers), if you are interested in Brown, “you may also be interested in UC Berkeley, Columbia, Oberlin, Macalester, Wesleyan, and Yale.” This might represent the most common application overlaps with Brown (not sure).</p>
<p>Not sure about similarity to Brown or ease of admission… but the Claremont Colleges are interesting (Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer… with facilities also shared with Scripps/Girls-only and Harvey Mudd / Engineering)</p>