<p>Agree with fireandrain - Wisc, at Madison is culturally similar to Brown - also check out UC Santa Cruz</p>
<p>At least one school last year (Georgetown?) specifically said they don’t look at writing still. I would guess that schools are looking at it to some extent. My younger son was accepted at some schools and rejected at others, but I think his math score (similar to his writing score high 600s) and his grades are just as likely to be the reason for the rejections he got. You’ll never get me to admit that the essay is an accurate measure of anything on the writing test.</p>
<p>Busdriver, for what it’s worth, my younger son is at Tufts and it’s been great for him. He’s feeling the pressure to work hard, but in a good way. For the first time he’s really seeing what he’s working for. He just got back from an amazing research trip to India and Pakistan mostly funded by the Global Leadership Institute at Tufts.</p>
<p>Yes, chocchip (now you are making me hungry and I have no access to food), we will check out Rochester. That school seems to come up alot. My only (probably useless) concern for that has been that I travel alot, and in the winter I avoid Rochester for about 4 months…so cold, so, so, so much wind. Then again, on campus they probably have everything they need.</p>
<p>I do think you’re right, mathmom, Georgetown doesn’t ask for writing scores, so he’s in the range for the other two. Tufts really does sound like an amazing school, too.</p>
<p>busdriver…without knowing your son’s specific stats, it’s hard to recommend; however, you had mentioned that Brown’s open curriculum was appealing and a strong business program was desirable. IF your son was at the top of the applicant pool, he might be offered a spot at UVa as an Echols Scholar. This distinction eliminates all distribution requirements and allows those students to have priority registration. Furthermore, UVa’s undergraduate business program is like in the top 5 of the nation. Just a recommendation. Good luck!</p>
<p>busdriver, the “cure” for Rochester winters is to own cross country ski equipment (it is relatively inexpensive). Then, the attitude changes to - YAY SNOW!
There is a beautiful park adjacent to the campus, Highland Park, where you can just go and ski for an hour. There are other parks a short distance away with miles and miles of trails.
For the faint-hearted, though, a system of tunnels runs under the campus and students can get to almost any building without going outside.</p>
<p>My daughter is also currently at Brown. Other schools she looked at and considered were Wesleyan, Middlebury, Dickinson, Williams. She would have been happy at any of them. She is a liberal arts major, but even so, she has hardly had a “laid back” experience at all. I would say she worked harder at Brown than she ever will again. I really wish this reputation would not be propagated. I think many students can make any school easy or hard depending on their own motivation. My daughter took quite a few classes Pass/Fail (S/NC) and worked as hard on those as on her graded courses. She often took 5 classes a semester and slept very little. She adores the school and knows it was the right place for her. But the others that I mentioned above would have been just as fine. And, there are probably hundreds of others. It is a daunting process. But you have many good suggestions here.</p>
<p>Levrim is correct (Hi Levrim!:)) There IS an underground tunnel at Univ. of Rochester for the kids to use in winter months…pretty cool!</p>
<p>People should understand that the “laid back” atmosphere at Brown doesn’t refer to the work load!!! It is a very challenging and demanding school. But the atmosphere among students is not competitive in nature. Also, students who are in classes are generally motivated to be in those classes because they chose the classes in the first place and are not forced to take ones they have no interest in. “Laid back” has nothing to do with the work at Brown but more a sense of atmosphere and non-competition among students or non-cutthroat.</p>
<p>Anyone mention Colgate yet?<br>
some favorable facts:
very small classes
profs very available and close to students. they actually teach the classes - no assistants
all have PHd’s
very high percentage of freshman end up as graduates
division 1 in all sports men and woman - rah rah larger school feel but close community
very strong alumni relationships</p>
<p>Yes franglish, there are many great suggestions and we’re definitely looking at every one (not physically, but at least looking into and putting on the yes, no or maybe list).</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone had mentioned Colgate, but a good friend had suggested that was an excellent choice.</p>
<p>The OP asked for a school close to a big city. Colgate is a beautiful campus, but it is the epitome of rural isolation. And culturally, it has little in common with Brown. Far more preppy, strong Greek system, Div. 1 sports. Little of the artsy, quirky, intellectual vibe that’s at Brown.</p>
<p>concur: 'Gate <> Brown</p>
<p>One of the schools that seems to come up alot is Vassar. We’re going to take a visit to NYC some time in Feb, and that sounds like well worth taking a look. Any more opinions on that?</p>
<p>Vassar has the relaxed, happy/vibrant intellectual student body “like Brown,” with strong humanities and arts offerings. It’s not in New York City, but in a much smaller city in upstate New York. The campus is pretty, the Gothic architecture and stained glass window in the library very beautiful. From a tour I recall 20-foot-wide hallways in some of the dorms, originally built that way in the l9th century so that two women wearing hoop skirts could pass two other women wearing hoopskirts. Today I think it’s 30% male (or a bit more), but no more hoopskirts.</p>
<p>Sounds very nice, definitely worth a visit. And thank God, no more hoopskirts! And no more corsets! We have come a long, long way.</p>
<p>^I wouldn’t call Poughkeepsie upstate NY, it’s less than two hours by train to NYC. It’s even MetroNorth (the commuter rail) not Amtrak. Vassar has a reputation for being a bit artsy hipster - not sure how true that is for Brown. My younger son applied to both Vassar and Brown. I liked the campus, ultimately my son felt it was too spread out, he wanted more density.</p>
<p>Good point about the less-than-2-hour commute on user-friendly MetroNorth. In that sense it’s only twice the time to travel by public transpo from Brown U to downtown Boston (45 min-1 hour). </p>
<p>Point is: a healthy college kid can wake up (oh, my) at Vassar any morning and be in NYC easily before noon; spend the day; crash overnight with NYC friends who attend Vassar…or come home to Poughkeepsie all in the same day. I forget how young they are!</p>
<p>The issue with Vassar is that it somewhat fits if your question is merely “schools like Brown” or “schools with an open curriculum” but then you said you want tech majors or business majors and Vassar really would not fit that bill. It has Computer Science though. Also, if your kid is more the science/techy/business type, Vassar is a more heavily humanities and liberal arts types of students.</p>
<p>Colgate is not like Brown and doesn’t meet a lot of your selection criteria.</p>
<p>You know, it is a problem. It is challenging when a kid doesn’t know what their major will be, nor has any idea. It was so easy with son #1, though he changed his major the first two months into school! We do know he is completely disinterested in anything that involves heavy writing, english, cultural studies, foreign language. I doubt he’ll major in engineering, though. He is very good at math and science, loves drama, somewhat interested in economics/business. The problem is, not everybody knows what they want in high school. That’s why we just want to make sure his options aren’t overly limited. Though he would love the intellectual, challenging environment that many of these top liberal arts schools provide.</p>
<p>Would you be interested in checking out Case Western Reserve? It is in a very nice part of Cleveland, right near the art museum and symphony hall, it has a pretty campus, tech majors as well as access to other classes, merit scholarships, intellectual students.</p>