I know rankings are highly subjective, I’m confused why Brown’s ranking is so low (US News). I’ve read that Brown focuses on undergrad education so they’re graduate programs are lacking which leads to weaker name recognition in academia… Can anyone explain Brown’s lo wish rank?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/1725236-brown-rankings-p1.html
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/1743093-browns-ranking-p1.html
Been asked before. Honestly, if you care so much about ranking, don’t go to Brown.
This reminds me of once when someone asked why Cornell was the “easiest” ivy to be admitted. The reply I thought was wonderful was: “This is akin to asking which NFL team roster is easiest to get a spot”
OP: if someone truly thinks that anyone actually associated with a top 25 school ACTUALLY looks down on Brown, that’s crazy. Only ranking obsessed outsiders notice these kind of things.
Do you also think the team that loses the World Series is ranked low? Or that there is an important difference between 99% fat free and 99.5% fat free?
Look up acceptance rates for Yale School of Forestry. I know a VP at a Fortune 50 company who rose to the top as a “Yale grad” just because of that low acceptance rate. (I guess at least she doesn’t have to do any real work as a VP)
All Ivies are excellent. They aren’t perfect matches for every top student.
At one point Brown was ranked 8. The rankings for top tier schools tend to fluctuate.
I think Bruno14 was a little hard on OP. Rankings are purely a creature of the factors they are based on. It’s just a big formula and I think that some reasons that Brown’s ranking is lower than you might expect is that some of those factors have nothing to do with academics. I don’t know what they all are and the links Bruno14 provided probably say, but Brown has a (relatively) small endowment, so things like financial aid may be impacted as a ranking factor. Undergraduate emphasis may also affect rank. But, as noted by other posters, Brown is a top notch nationally recognized school, regardless of anyone’s rank. OP – there is nothing wrong with you wondering about this, and I don’t think that your question merited Bruno14’s snippy response.
This may help explain the two place drop from 2014 to 2015: http://www.browndailyherald.com/2014/09/09/brown-slips-two-spots-u-s-news-rankings/ Again, though, these kinds of comparisons among excellent institutions don’t seem all that helpful.
@bonenz: I was also pointing out that the OP clearly didn’t try using the search function. Students that want to go to a top-ranked college (and seem to really care about those rankings) should at least be able to search out information on their own.
I can promise OP that as a Brown grad, I have absolutely never been asked why I went to such a low-ranked school.
Trust me–once you go to Brown and realize the opportunities and companies that recruit here (Goldman, McKinsey, Bain, Microsoft, Google), you won’t care about rankings. Also, most people get into top graduate schools (law, medical, cs, etc.)
Your “why is Brown ranked so low” doesn’t matter anymore, does it? I only say this because I questioned this 3-4 years ago before I went to Brown…and realize how stupid I was then.
For someone who’s intending to apply to Brown, I don’t think you should focus on rank too much. Rather, focus on the opportunities. Brown is an Ivy League school and will always be, even if it was ranked at #1000. Being an Ivy League school is a rank on its own, and it comes with its level of respect.
This year’s Princeton Review rank placed Pomona at #1, but would you compare a Brown graduate to a Pomona graduate?
Um, why wouldn’t you? Pomona is one of this country’s top schools, and its graduates are just as smart and accomplished as Brown grads. (And I say this as a Brown grad with no connection to Pomona at all.)
Of course Pomona is good, I don’t mean it in that sense. I’m just talking about the Ivy League status and how it doesn’t affect the school’s rank.
amewu98, but then you put down Pomona because for you it does not have as much name recognition as Brown? Yet, Pomona beats Brown on many objective indices. Student scores are higher, endowment per student is higher, a higher percent of the classes are very small, etc. I don’t know if you can compare a Brown graduate to a Pomona graduate (although I’d guess so ) even though Pomona beats out Brown in so many areas both are highly rated.
Brown provides a first-rate education, is the fosterer of happy students, is a leader in the idea and practice of the open curriculum, offers excellent career counseling and is a gateway to privileged positions. If you want those things, screw the rankings: Brown could be a good option for you.
What might help Brown gain in the “reputation” battle would be for driven and talented graduates to do great things: start a great company, discover and/or innovate a life-altering advance, become a friend to people through philanthropy. Be the tangible force that brings glory to Brown.
@lostaccount I put Pomona because it was first on the PR College Ranking for this year. I was just giving an example of a high ranked school. I’ve seen Pomona’s strengths so I know how good they are. However, very few people have heard about it in my country. Everyone knows Ivy League schools and that prestige is a ranking on its own.
I didn’t mean to underrate Pomona. No. That would be a big mistake.
Any Ivy League is an Ivy League…I wouldn’t stress about US News rankings at all when your looking at these schools.
And there are some here who break the Ivy League into two, and consider the lower tier the bottom ivies.
The Brown vs. Pomona graduate comment (#10) was interesting mostly because of the way it was phrased ("would you compare a Brown graduate to a Pomona graduate?). If I were to take the parenthetical question literally, I would say that, based on objective statistics – basically SAT scores – that the Brown student, at least, is only slightly less academically high achieving than the Pomona student. So the comparison can be made, but the fair answer contraindicates the question’s implication.
@DyrannosaurusRex You will find a lot of people affiliated with the ivy+ who put them into tiers:
Harvard,Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT top tier
Penn, Columbia, Chicago, Duke mid tier
Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell bottom tier.
While this breakdown kind of makes sense if you look at overall prestige, rankings, department strengths, ugrad research opportunities, starting salaries, career statistics, big scholarships/fellowships, grad school placement etc, all of these schools are excellent. This is nitpicking, but ivy league students,parents, affiliates etc are super competitive so they just can’t resist making these comparisons. Another thing to keep in mind that not all ivies are the same. They have fundamental differences, and many students who would be happy at some, would not be happy at others. Bottom line tho any of these schools will give you amazing opportunities and it is up to you how you will take advantage of these opportunities.