<p>I've been debating this forever, and I can't make up my mind. </p>
<p>I loved Providence, I loved the atmosphere at Brown, I liked the cutting edge arts at RISD.</p>
<p>I loved Yale's academics, I loved the atmosphere at Yale, and I've heard that Yale arts are amazing.</p>
<p>I know most people say, that you should just do Yale early, since its non binding, and then you can always try for Brown regular.</p>
<p>My hesitation is this: I know Yale is slightly more competitive than Brown, but slightly is the key word. Brown is still really competitive so I've heard. Much more than schools like Duke, U Chicago, Wash U, JHU, Cornell, etc which are ranked above it. And I don't want to take my risk and then even possibly miss out on Brown also. So unless I get confirmation that Brown ED is just as tough as RD, I have no clue. </p>
<p>Also are the Arts at Yale more traditional?</p>
<p>i think yale is much more competetive than brown. just take a look at the expected SAT scores and you'll see that Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown allows more leniency. But, for any applicant I would still consider all Ivies to be crapshoots and there is no reason for anyone to bet on getting into one.</p>
<p>I mean, like, if you're willing to go to Brown without getting into the dual degree program at RISD you're fine. It's just, RISD is even more competitive then Brown or Yale imho. Plus, you have to get into both before applying to the dual program which has another admissions process.</p>
<p>for someone interests in the arts, the brown-risd program might be the best anywhere--you would simultaneously graduate from the most prestigious art school in the world and BROWN. if you would be happy there, go for it</p>
<p>i think you need to ask yourself if you would rather go to brown without risd (which you would have to if you applied ed to brown and ea to risd and managed to get accepted to brown) or yale.<br>
I'd say to apply to yale EA because that way you still have the flexibitilty to go to brown/risd if you get in, and you'd have a better chance of getting into yale in case you don't get into brown/risd. If you did brown ed then even if you didnt get into risd and got into brown you'd have to attend brown and wouldn't have the chance to even consider yale.
for your case, i think yale by itself is better than brown by itself, although both work. if you think you'd really love brown without risd better than yale, then apply to brown ed.</p>