<p>Whenever people on this site ask for a rank of the ivy’s, brown is often last, if not just before cornell. I’m applying this year to brown (track & field will play a part) but it’s discouraging hearing brown being called a “fake ivy” and other similar names.</p>
<p>Oh we do that on purpose. We just don’t want people who look at rankings to come here, so we willfully lower our ranking, but secretly we are much better. shhh</p>
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<p>That’s not the button to press. Try the Search one instead.</p>
<p>Don’t let people’s remarks bother you - you will find just as many, if not more, people rank Brown right under HYP. It really all depends on what the particular student wants; each school is quite different. Personally, I’m glad Brown is lesser known than HYP - I’m sure those schools have MANY more applicants who apply only because of name value. Not to say this doesn’t occur in the Brown admissions pool, but probably to a much lesser degree. People who go to Brown are, for the most part, passionate about the University and what it represents. So keep up the Brown pride ;)</p>
<p>Brown is underrated for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, in my opinion, is its comparatively small endowment. To many people, that has an unfavorable connotation. For example, less financially successful alumni, admitting poorer students, mediocre professors, poor school spirit, and inept financial administraton, to name a few things that might come to some people’s minds. Secondly, the people who have led, and are leading, The University, don’t seem to realize the benefits of competing, like Penn, Washington U., Columbia, Duke, et al., to enhance The University’s competitive ranking profile in, for instance, U.S. News and World Report. Thirdly, while Brown is by no means a bad school for graduate studies, its graduate school lacks the research panache that brings national and international acclaim to the school. Until the culture of the school changes, Brown will always be thought of by many to be a bottom half of the Ivy League sort of school.</p>
<p>Don’t pick your school for what people think of it. Most people have never even heard of the top LACs, for example and yet many of them promise excellent educations. Likewise, going to Brown will give you a strong and unique education which is very much desired by the people who actually matter (employers, graduate schools, etc.)</p>
<p>most people think Brown is very good, you should not complain. If anything, Cornell has the rep of being the worst ivy. Schools that are better than Brown such as Olin (have you ever even heard of it?), Amherst, Williams and Middlebury have much lower name recognition than Brown.</p>
<p>"Schools that are better than Brown such as Olin (have you ever even heard of it?), Amherst, Williams and Middlebury "</p>
<p>LOL, where do these people come from? Oh yeeah! High school.</p>
<p>"Schools that are better than Brown such as Olin (have you ever even heard of it?), Amherst, Williams and Middlebury "</p>
<p>What do you mean by schools that are better than Brown?</p>
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<p>What Pinderhughes said is right, and I think all those reason are inter-related (e.g. small endowment leads to small grad school and a limited undergrad body size gives less financially successful alumni)</p>
<p>Unlikely schools like Harvard, Yale, Upenn, Cornell etc., Brown concentrates so much on undergrad teaching and students’ personal & academic growth (lots of guidance from PROFESSORS and intense(^^) advising programs. Numerous research opportunities available, which also strengthen student and mentor relationship) </p>
<p>At the same time, Brown is different from schools like Princeton by giving substantial amount of freedom to its students. Undergrad education is supposed to be a chance for you to explore out. And Brown offers this by its open curriculum program. Freedom doesn’t equal anything easy. Up to this point, I know everyone who graduated from Brown had completed his/her senior thesis, although it’s not a requirement.</p>
<p><a href=“e.g.%20small%20endowment%20leads%20to%20small%20grad%20school%20and%20a%20limited%20undergrad%20body%20size%20gives%20less%20financially%20successful%20alumni”>quote</a>
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<p>Just want to clarify. In Brown’s case, we chose to never make the grad school our focus and not to have professional schools (despite tremendous local pressure to create a law school) which led to the small endowment, not vice versa. Additionally, it’s not the size of our undergraduate body that created our lower wealth, it’s the fact that Brown was not really a nationally renowned university until the debut of the Brown Curriculum. Up until that point, Brown was largely only bringing in students from the Northeast. This coupled with some very poor leadership in the late 80s and 90s (in terms of fundraising priorities, etc) led to our current financial state, not lack of success.</p>
<p>Pre-Ruth Simmons, Brown’s leadership always took the attitude that we couldn’t do certain things because we’re Brown, and we’re small, and we can’t afford it. That attitude dramatically shifted to “If we don’t have the money, let’s go and get it.” The coordination of fundraising efforts, and subsequently, the level of support we receive from alumni, over the last 8 years is unrivaled in Brown’s history. We now have the structures to maintain strong financials in the years to come.</p>
<p>Of course, this far later start on effective fundraising and “nationalizing” Brown is just compounded over time since those huge endowments of other universities come largely from investing wisely over time and not money given in the last decade.</p>
<p>Hi Melody-</p>
<p>I’m actually glad that Brown doesn’t focus on grad programs so that we can get all the attentions here (:D) although reputable grad schools help with ranking these days, I suppose.</p>
<p>Besides creating a law school, Brown was provided with funds from citigroup to establish a MBA program long time ago. But it didn’t work out because faculty wanted “theoretical economics”</p>
<p>Yah, you should have seen the uproar that was created when they wanted to name COE “CEO”.</p>