Brown University Top Questions

Brown University is just right. The best thing about Brown is the diversity. You find people from all over the world. When I tell people I go to Brown first thing thy say is: WOW you must be smart. Then they ask: Do you get grades? I spend most of my time in my room. Because it is my little home. I also spend a lot of time in my friend's room. Brown's administration is amazing. There is a a lot of school pride: Go Bruno!! The open curriculum is mostly of the best unusual things here. One experience that I will always remember is dropping a chemistry class a week before the finals. And I did not panic because it won't show on my external transcript.

Brown is a place of many positives and many negatives. The positives can be very positive, especially the academic freedom, the extra-curriculars, and the party life, but the negatives, should you encounter them, are rather intractable. Overall, many students find life at Brown quite pleasant, but it can be a bit of a bubble atmosphere at times, and for some, it simply just isn't the right choice.

The best thing about Brown is that you can choose the classes that you wanna take and there are no painful requirements that schools believe are the "proper" classes for a student to take. But there's no fucking REAL advising, so you're really on your own.

Best thing about Brown - the Open Curriculum Thing I would change - nothing School size - just right How do people react? - (gasp) (but back home in Hong Kong it's like "that's in NYC, right?") Time on campus - (90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} - the campus is like a village - it's got everything) College town - yup Brown's administration - best in the USA Recent controversy - Two anti-globalization students tried to pie a well known guest speaker, managed to get him but were caught afterwards. School pride? Hell yeah. We know deep inside we're the best, most diverse, and coolest Ivy. Unusual nature - we have a openly homosexual student body. Anything goes here - from naked parties to regular cross-dressing. Anything goes. Most memorable experience - SexPowerGod Most frequent complaints - what are you talking about? We're the 2nd happiest college in all of the US.

school size is perfect, so is the college city and campus. it is easy to walk from one side of campus to the other, and thayer street offers a lot of restuarants, some good shops, and bars. Downtown is walking distance or a short cab ride. Big mall, movie theater, good bars and restaurants. students and professors are awesome. Nice, fun, smart. Work hard, party hard environment. kids dress casual to class, but some dress up to go out at night. Pass/fail option is awesome. It allows you take whatever you are interested in without worrying if you won't get a good grade. THere is no core curriculum, which is nice if you don't want to ever take a math or science. My only complaint is that the winters are too long!

Brown is as non-competitive as I think an Ivy League can be. With our pass/fail option and no core requirements, we like to take things a lot easier. We work hard, but not out of competition, rather to do well for our own sake. People are friendly and collaborative, and for the most part professors actually care. Providence is a sweet city with a nice local music and art scene (google AS220 or look up Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel for info on music. Check out the RISD art museum and AS220 gallery spaces for art.) We have some really nice restaurants around, including Italian food on Federal Hill. It's small, but Boston is only an hour's cheap bus or train ride away, and if you really want, New York is only 4 hours away. Also, RI beaches are awesome if you have a car, or if you are here in the summer, when RIPTA runs beach buses (Brown students get free rides on all of RIPTA too!) Brown's campus can get a little depressing in November, but there is nothing more gorgeous in the spring and summer, with flowering trees everywhere. The main green becomes almost a beach itself as soon as the weather gets nice, with people just hanging out, doing work, throwing Frisbees or suntanning. One drawback here unfortunately is the administration, which is bureaucratic, unorganized and generally unhelpful (they lost my high school transcript... twice!) The advising system is also somewhat of a joke, so if you're not capable of figuring things out on your own, you may be in trouble. The other major annoyance is that the administration and professors are living in the stone age as far as technology is concerned. We still use carbon copies, for certain forms, and online course registration was only started last year, through a ridiculously idiotic program called Banner. Maybe they'll have figured it out by the time you get here. I doubt it. Still, overall, it's a great place to go to college, with lots of different types of people doing all sorts of cool stuff.

Brown is in Providence, RI, what I would consider to be a great little starter city. Campus is fairly safe, but there are often reports of muggings and occasionally an armed robbery (mostly by local high school punks). There's plenty to do if you're willing to look for it, and if you aren't, there's always Thayer St. You can't miss it. It runs right through campus, and though it used to be a string of quaint, quirky little shops, it's morphed into more a glorified food court that makes a nightly transition into a place where students use their fake IDs to get drunk. If you're like me and you were sort of a big fish in your not-so-great high school, coming to Brown can be a bit of a shock. It's not that I need to be the best at everything, but I think the size and level of competition at Brown has kept me from missing out on a few opportunities (including singing a cappella and TAing a course). I also found it a bit more difficult to stand out in the eyes of the educators, which made me feel anonymous at times. That being said, I have plenty of friends who have LOVED all of Brown's opportunities and taken full advantage of them. One of the best things is obviously the free curriculum. Hands down. Plus, you can take anything pass/fail which, if used correctly can help take some pressure off of you and won't hurt your overall chances of getting into grad school.

great school, great professors (usually), great guest speakers, great place to live, great prestige, good nightlife, easy to make friends, but engineering building is a dump.

the best part about brown is how open everyone is. students here are really laid back and love to have fun, academics isnt the main setting of the "brown experience" the campus is amazing however, if you come from a big city, Providence can get a little boring at times. RI are weird but you get used to them.

Brown University gives its students pure freedom within the college experience. Virtually all classes are open to all students (if they can take the time to send an email to the professor expressing their interest), and thanks to Brown's New Curriculum, the academic options for students in any concentration (which is what Brown calls majors) are limitless. The student body at Brown is awesome, and people are very sociable, down-to-earth, and nicer than the average person. The party scene is strong at Brown, especially because cops do not regularly enter dormitory buildings anymore, thanks to SSDP. Providence is a unique little city, and it can be fun at times, but NYC and Boston are easily accessible. The weather sucks, in general, with lots of rain, snow, and mud during the winter, but spring and fall can be gorgeous. Athletics at Brown are strong, but games are rarely well attended. But really all I can say is that I love Brown. Most everyone here does.