<p>First, you insist on accuracy in statistics, which makes me glad. Then you had to go and post this.</p>
<p>The New Curriculum is right for some people. It's those people for whom Brown is such an attractive brand. Do not confuse good branding with poor academics - that doesn't make any sense.</p>
<p>I wrote a nice long response and then I realized it wasn't worth my time.</p>
<p>Apparently, siserune doesn't know how to read. It's amazing the amount of information not in those quotes she/he assumed.</p>
<p>brown celebrates its open curriculum and the academic philosophy behind it--so it's obviously part of the school identity. it's no more branding than the core or NYC is for columbia. there is absolutely no reason to assume brown is more of an "application magnet" than any other competitive school.</p>
<p>secondly, brown does take more cross admits from columbia by a narrow margin. every competitive school in the COFHE group collects this data and shares it internally each year. though the data is not public, you can confirm it by contacting COFHE (<a href="http://www.cofhe.org%5B/url%5D">www.cofhe.org</a>) or the appropriate administrative offices of member schools. </p>
<p>the bottom line is, the model cited in the new york times article is imperfect (as all models are), but it is quite predictive of the hard data collected each year. more over, the cross-admit trends have been very stable in the last ten year despite fluctuations in US News.</p>
<p>The open circulum does make it an application magnet there is no denying that. But NYC makes Columbia an appplication magnet. Rnkings make penn an app magnet too. Prestige makes Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and MIT application magnets too.</p>
<p>
[quote]
brown celebrates its open curriculum and the academic philosophy behind it--so it's obviously part of the school identity. it's no more branding than the core or NYC is for columbia. there is absolutely no reason to assume brown is more of an "application magnet" than any other competitive school.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The point was to explain the discrepancy between Brown's selectivity ranking and its overall ranking. The factors that draw applicants to other schools do not tend to lower their Peer Assessment ratings -- which count for more than selectivity in the US News formula. The factor that, according to Brown's admissions office, draws applicants like no other, in part raises Brown's peer assessment (more self-motivation among students) but also lowers it (grade inflation, impossibility of failure, etc) with the negative effect almost certainly being higher.</p>
<p>
[quote]
secondly, brown does take more cross admits from columbia by a narrow margin. every competitive school in the COFHE group collects this data and shares it internally each year. though the data is not public, you can confirm it by contacting COFHE (<a href="http://www.cofhe.org%5B/url%5D">www.cofhe.org</a>) or the appropriate administrative offices of member schools.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, do you have some numbers you can share about any of those cross-admit contests?</p>
<p>
[quote]
the bottom line is, the model cited in the new york times article is imperfect (as all models are), but it is quite predictive of the hard data collected each year.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Some schools in COFHE have disclosed some cross-admit data. That data, although limited, tends to confirm that the Revealed Preferences model is not predictive except in situations where it is superfluous and guaranteed to work (such as separating schools into broad tiers, or comparing schools that have nearly identical applicant pools). If you have some shareable quantitative basis for saying that the RP model is predictive of COFHE or other cross-admit data, what is it?</p>
<p>The notion of a laid back, diverse, semi-urban/ suburban, fun, school that also happens to have tremendous grad placement and an amazing reputation is very compelling for a lot of applicants. Brown's reputation significantly exceeds its rank.</p>
<p>I just don't understand how an open curriculum means an easy curriculum. Don't get it. Not at all. Maybe that's because I go to Brown and am poorly educated because of how easy our classes are.</p>
<p>Ever heard of rocks for jocks? physics for poets? People do all sorts of things to make their requirements less rigorous. Moreover, many of Brown's majors have more requirements than at other schools, making them, by your logic, harder. </p>
<p>There's grade inflation in all sorts of places. I heard that something like 70% of grades given out at Harvard are A's. Let's go condemning them now! </p>
<p>Siserune -- I just don't understand what your motives are here. Do you have any experiencial evidence that Brown is so easy? Your conclusions are not based on fact, but on speculation that an open curriculum must mean any easy curriculum. Why do you feel the need to bash Brown?</p>
<p>I'm a transfer to Brown. I find Brown much more challenging than my previous school, which was also a good school.</p>