Brown University

Brown University Introduction

Brown University a unique member of the Ivy League, is a high-caliber institution that is low on pretension. With no core requirements, Brown’s innovative curriculum takes academic decisions out of the ivory tower and puts them in the hands of students. Each student becomes the architect of his or her own education. The result is a community of self-motivated learners who relish the chance to discover and explore their true passions.

On the whole, Brown students are more collaborative than cutthroat. The university attracts some of the highest achievers from the United States and abroad, but in the Brown environment, these students value learning from and working with their peers over vying for grades. Brown students can also be an eclectic, creative bunch. The typical Brown student is atypical. As one student puts it:

The main thing I love about Brown is that everyone is here to learn. There is a lot of passion in the student body. People come here because they have a love of learning and want to expand their minds—consequently, grades are not considered as important as they might be at other schools. — Elizabeth Gilbert, Class of 2008

For some, the academic and social freedom can be intimidating, but Brown works hard to provide a system of advising to help students find their way. Students get the most support through one-on-one mentoring relationships with faculty members. Professors are easy to approach and devote considerable personal attention to undergrads. It is not uncommon for students to form close bonds with professors and stay in touch with them long after they graduate. And with University President Ruth J. Simmons’s plan to hire one hundred new fulltime faculty over the next five years, the level of meaningful interaction between students and faculty will only improve.

Students also tend to form close ties to Brown’s locale, Providence, Rhode Island. An artsy, midsized city, Providence has undergone a transformation over the past decade. The refurbished downtown area boasts a beautiful walkway along the Providence River, several small-scale concert venues and theaters, and the easily accessible Providence Place Mall, complete with a movie megaplex and a vast array of shops and restaurants. All of these entertainments are within walking distance or a short trolley ride from College Hill. Closer to campus, students frequent the coffee shops and eateries on Thayer Street and Wickenden Street and enjoy the brick sidewalks and large Colonial and Victorian houses that give this section of Providence, known as the East Side, a distinctly New England feel.

Many students first get to know Providence through community service projects. Nearly seventy percent of Brown students contribute time and skills to the local community. This community involvement is a hands-on form of student activism, as students work to effect change locally through grass roots organizing.

Large-scale political activism is rare or nonexistent on Brown’s campus. While Brown’s liberal curriculum attracts a predominantly liberal student body, both sides of the political spectrum are represented, and protests are few and small. Students are most vocal about issues directly affecting the Brown community. In recent years, students successfully campaigned for the adoption of need-blind admissions procedures.

Campus activities and clubs offer another outlet for students’ diverse interests. From musical groups and sports teams to campus newspapers and literary societies, Brown students make involvement in extracurricular activities a major part of their educational experience.

The thing that I love most about Brown is that, as with any top college, the people here are extremely intelligent and talented. For the most part, they are also surprisingly modest. I never knew, for example, that my friend was a guitar prodigy until I heard her playing in the dorm one day. Brown is full of wonderfully talented people who are also easy to get along with and who impress you daily without even trying. — Amanda Nagai, Class of 2005

Freshmen and sophomores usually dabble in a variety of clubs. By junior year, many students have focused their involvement on one or two organizations where they take on leadership positions such as team captains or editors. Alternatively, many students add to the activities on campus by starting their own organizations.

Brown offers bright, self-directed students the freedom and support they need to realize their full academic potential. Students shape their own learning experience while enjoying collaborative working relationships with professors and peers alike. They also know how to balance rigorous academics and community involvement with a social life for a well-rounded collegiate experience. It’s no wonder then that ninety percent of respondents to a 2002 student life survey said they would choose Brown again.

Brown University provides bright, self-directed students with the freedom and resources to realize their full academic potential. By removing the confines of a core curriculum, Brown lets students, with the help of faculty advisors, select a course of study that best matches their interests and passions. From the beginning of their college careers, students learn how to discover and pursue their academic interests.

This place will pick you up and spin you around like Dorothy in a Kansas twister. When you touch down again, though, the world appears in Technicolor. You are indeed somewhere over the rainbow, in a magic place of deeper aware- ness. The bumps and bruises of discovery are well worth the beauty Brown allows you to find in yourself and in the wider world. — Keally DeWitt, Class of 2004

As students explore Brown’s offerings, they have access to the full resources of the university, most notably, the faculty. One hundred percent of Brown faculty members teach undergraduates, and students develop close mentoring relationships with their professors. There are even university grants designated for undergraduate research with professors, a benefit usually reserved for graduate students.

Although Brown students are high achievers who embrace academic rigor, they are more collaborative than cutthroat. Brown’s liberal curriculum and grading system help create an atmosphere where students value learning for learning’s sake and enjoy working with their peers rather than competing for grades.

Brown students also know how to balance their studies with extracurricular and social activities. Involvement in campus groups lets students try things they’ve never done before, such as hosting a radio show or organizing a political rally. Brown students are also willing to try new things socially. While many schools’ social scenes revolve around drinking and partying, Brown’s social options are as diverse and creative as the student body itself.

Brown is a school that nurtures the student as an individual. Students are encouraged to chart their own course, and the professors who help them along the way also get to know them as people. Students graduate from Brown with a stronger sense of who they are and the conviction and skills to go on to pursue their true passions.

Brown University Academics

Requirements

Brown stands out from other competitive colleges in its emphasis on student choice. While most schools have distribution requirements that all students must take to graduate—usually a series of introductory-level courses in different fields of study—Brown has no core curriculum requirements. There are requirements only within a student’s concentration (Brown’s term for a major). To graduate, students need to pass thirty courses, demonstrate competency in writing, and complete the requirements for their concentration.

Some might fear that students would abuse this system and miss out on all that a liberal education has to offer. But Brown students are inherently motivated and the school provides academic advisors to help them consider their academic programs carefully. The thought students invest in this process gives them more ownership over their course of study. Even without requirements, most students choose a well-rounded selection of classes, and they are more eager to put time and energy into classes they’ve chosen.

At the end of the sophomore year, students begin to focus their studies on one field by declaring a concentration. Requirements for concentrations vary greatly. Some departments, such as history, have as few as eight required courses, while other programs may require as many as twenty courses. Students also have the option to double-concentrate or create their own concentration in collaboration with a faculty advisor.

Applying Early Decision to Brown was the best choice I ever made. My experience here at Brown has been everything I hoped it would be. There is an incredible support system in place for freshmen that makes them feel welcome and at home when they arrive, and a rich student and campus life with opportunities for all students to get involved with whatever they are interested in. All the students I have met here are bright, interesting, and passionate people, the kind of people I want to be surrounded by and live with for four years. — Beth Enterkin, Class of 2007

Academic Advising and Support

While Brown students enjoy tremendous freedom in shaping their course of study, they do not have to go it alone. All incoming first-year students are assigned an academic advisor, a faculty member with whom they meet during orientation and throughout the year. Most academic advisors teach in the Curricular Advising Program (CAP). This program allows freshmen to take a class with a professor who will also serve as their advisor.

The CAP program has garnered mixed reviews from the student body. While CAP advisors are generally encouraging and supportive, they often know a lot about their department but are less helpful when giving advice about courses outside of their area of specialty. Also, since students take their CAP course during the first semester of their freshman year, sometimes the CAP advisor’s expertise and the student’s interests don’t mesh in the long run.

Fortunately, there are many other opportunities for students to receive guidance. Brown faculty members, on the whole, are accessible and eager to help students. Many advising relationships develop informally as students get to know their professors. Faculty Fellows, who host study breaks and social gatherings in their homes, can provide support and mentoring. Fellow students are also on hand to help. Resident Counselors, upperclassmen who live in freshman dorms, have already navigated through their first year of decisions, and they can be an invaluable resource to the freshmen they mentor. Sophomores get an added level of support through Randall Counselors, faculty members who work particularly with sophomores to review their educational goals. And once students declare a concentration, concentration advisors help students further hone their course of study.

Classes

Class size and format vary at Brown depending on the department and type of course. Most classes are small in size (about thirty to forty students) and are taught in a seminar style with an emphasis on student participation. Introductory lecture classes and lab classes for sciences tend to be larger (one hundred students or more) but usually include smaller section meetings during the week where students can get more individual attention.

A shopping period at the beginning of each semester allows students to check out a variety of classes before finalizing their schedule for the semester. Students often use the shopping period to compare different courses and see which professors they prefer.

The students really make the difference at Brown; there are so many smart, creative, and dedicated students that you learn as much from working with your peers as you learn in class. As a biology concentrator, Brown is big enough to have first-rate researchers and offer graduate-level science classes to undergrads, but small enough so that you can really get to know the professors teaching your courses. I’ve had phenomenal success getting medical school interviews so far as a senior from Brown.

As with concentrations, students also have the opportunity to design their own classes. Student-created classes develop as collaborations between a small group of students and a faculty advisor and are known as Group Independent Study Projects, or GISPs. GISPs are a perfect example of what happens when you give motivated students the freedom and resources to pursue their true passions. Many GISPs encompass several fields of study and result in innovative research or help extend Brown’s interdisciplinary course offerings.

Brown also offers cross-registration with RISD (pronounced Riz-dee), the Rhode Island School of Design, a top-level art school that is Brown’s neighbor on College Hill. Visual Arts concentrators make the most use of this option. In the past several year, both schools have committed to raising academic collabo- ration to a new level.

Recent Independent Concentrations at Brown

• Physics and Religion: The Search for Understanding
• New Media Publishing
• Immigration Studies
• The Culture of Medicine
• Computer Graphics and Film

Grades

Most Brown students are inherently motivated to take their studies seriously, but they are not overly concerned with grades. Overall, grading at Brown is fair. Students receive an A, B, or C for passing work and an NC, or No Credit, for failing work. Professors maintain high standards for A and B level work in all disciplines, though professors in the sciences may grade more harshly.

Pass / Fail Grades

The S/NC grade option at Brown, which stands for satisfactory/no credit, is intended to encourage academic risk taking. Since students can opt to take any course S/NC, they are more likely to venture outside of their comfort zones academically without fear of sullying their transcripts with a low grade. For example, a history concentrator may decide to take a competitive physics course S/NC or an economics concentrator might try art history without having to worry about grades. Most students view the S/NC system as a nice option but still take the majority of their courses for a grade. Very few students abuse the system.

Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME)

One final aspect of academic life at Brown is the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME). This program provides a unique path to medical education. Students apply to PLME as high school seniors and, if accepted, are guaranteed spots in Brown’s medical school upon graduation, provided they maintain a certain GPA. As undergrads, PLME students are just like other members of the class. They are encouraged to take full advantage of Brown’s liberal arts offerings, and many end up concentrating in the humanities before continuing on to medical school. Ultimately, this eight-year continuum of liberal arts education and medical education encourages PLME students to develop into well-rounded scholars who view medicine as a humanitarian pursuit rather than a trade.

Brown University Admissions

Each year Brown’s admissions process seems to get more selective. In a recent year, Brown accepted 2,555 of 18,316 applicants. Students seeking admission must meet high academic standards. Nearly half of the current freshmen were in the top ten percent of their high school classes, and SAT scores average 1400 (based on 1600).

But meeting these requirements alone does not ensure acceptance. There is no one formula for gaining admission to Brown. Admissions officers look at many different aspects of an applicant’s profile in addition to his or her academic record. Brown, like most competitive colleges, looks for students who have the whole package—exceptional academics, leadership in outside activities, commitment to the community, and a certain intangible spark that can come across in an applicant’s essay or recommendations.

Geographic and Ethnic Diversity

Brown’s admissions committee also tries to foster geographic and ethnic diversity in the student body. For this reason, students who come from underrepresented regions, such as the Midwest, may have an easier time getting in than students from the Northeast. The university also actively recruits international students and values the diverse perspectives they bring to the community. At present, Brown enrolls approximately 5,900 undergraduates from all fifty states and almost seventy countries.

The university has an equally strong commitment to promoting ethnic diversity. About thirty percent of undergraduates are people of color. Over the years, the university has established programs to provide a network of support for the minority community on campus. Minority Peer Counselors or MPCs are a group of Arab, Asian, Black, Latino, Multiracial, and Native American undergraduates who provide academic and personal counseling to first-year students of color. They also conduct workshops in freshman dorms throughout the year to promote understanding on campus.

Student groups based on cultural background are another source of support and community for minority students and are very popular. They provide a venue for students from similar backgrounds to hang out and get to know each other, and they also host events on campus, such as performances or panel discussions, that let students share their heritages and raise awareness about issues affecting their community.

Application Process

Brown’s application process is fairly standard. Applicants submit academic transcripts, recommendations, test scores for the SAT or ACT, two SAT Subject Test scores, and a personal essay.

Once students have assembled all of their materials, they can submit their applications to Brown by one of two deadlines: the Early Decision deadline or the Regular deadline. Students choosing the Early Decision option apply by November 1 and receive decisions by mid-December. This option is reserved for applicants who have selected Brown as their first-choice college and will attend Brown if admitted as an Early Decision candidate. The Regular admissions deadline is January 1.

What I like best about Brown is the open curriculum. Brown is great because it trusts its students to make their own academic decisions. Having the experi- ence of choosing my classes based on my own interests and not those of some far- off administrator will help me to make my own decisions after Brown. — Lisa Dietz, Class of 2005

Brown University Financial Aid

Beginning with the class of 2007, Brown implemented its new need-blind admissions policy. This means that an applicant’s financial need will not affect whether or not a student is selected for admission. Another recent policy change replaced the freshman work-study requirement with one-year scholarships. Now, freshmen who receive financial aid won’t have to work to contribute to their packages during their first year. Without the pressure of earning part of their aid, freshmen are free to fully explore and enjoy all that Brown has to offer.

Students receive financial support both through financial aid and scholarship grants. Nearly forty percent of Brown students receive some sort of aid. For the class of 2007, the average financial aid package totaled over $26,630.

Many students work part-time jobs as part of their work-study program or to make some extra spending money. Food service jobs are the most common, but there are also job opportunities in academic departments, libraries, or other campus facilities. On-campus jobs pay an hourly wage that typically increases as a student logs in a number of hours or rises to leadership. The average yearly earnings from campus employment is approximately $1,300. The deadline for submitting financial aid forms is November 1 for Early Decision applicants and February 1 for regular applicants, and financial aid awards must be renewed each year.

Brown University Students

Units

The freshman unit marks the beginning of every Brown student’s social life. It comprises forty to sixty students who live together in the same freshman dorm. Brown intentionally tries to maximize diversity in these groups, so students from one unit represent many different ethnicities, geographic backgrounds, and interests.

People tend to bond quickly with their unit mates, and units often travel as a pack during the first few months of freshman year. Members of the same unit will eat together in the campus cafeterias or turn out in large numbers to support one of their unit mates at a performance or sporting event.

Many Brown students make lifelong friends in their freshman unit, and some even meet their future spouses. Overall, the unit setup provides first-years with a feeling of community and gives students a chance to make a diverse group of friends whom they might not otherwise encounter.

As a first-year student at Brown, I was a little worried about coming to Providence from deep south Texas. But I soon found that social life is just as active on campus as off. Comedy, parties, music, movies on the green—anything you might want can be found at Brown University. You never have to leave the campus! — Meagan Brooke Garza, Class of 2008

Fraternities and Sororities

Units are the first social group at Brown, but it isn’t long before students begin to find their way to other campus groups and activities, such as fraternities and sororities. Unlike many college campuses, Greek life plays a small role in Brown’s social scene. Ten percent of students belong to the ten fraternities and three sororities on campus. Of the fraternities, two are coed and tend to throw less traditional frat parties around themes such as swing dancing. The more traditional frats and sororities throw the majority of big public parties on campus. These parties can draw a crowd, but many students move on to other social options after their first year or two on campus.

Things to Try at Least Once Before Graduating

• Dress up for the midnight organ concert on Halloween.
• Undress for the annual “Naked Party” at Watermyn Coop.
• Rub the nose of the statue of John Hay for good luck.
• Sing your stress away at Karaoke Night in the cafeteria during finals period.
• Nap on the couches in the Absolute Quiet Room in the John D. Rockefeller Library, AKA “The Rock.”
• Star gaze at the Ladd Observatory.

Other Social Activities

The alternatives to frat parties are as diverse and creative as Brown’s student body. Cultural events are a particularly big draw. Students pack theater productions, dance performances, a cappella concerts, and improv comedy shows. There is also an on-campus bar and music venue called The Underground. Funk night at The Underground is popular among freshmen and sophomores, while upperclassmen frequent the Graduate Center Bar, known for its dungeonlike atmosphere, pool tables, and dart tournaments.

No matter how much you stood out in high school, at Brown you blend right in. For many people Brown will be the one time in their lives they will be just like everyone else around them for a change. — Michael Thompson, Class of 2007

Dating

The dating scene at Brown is somewhat lacking; it seems that people are either in a serious relationship or they’re single. There’s not a lot of casual dating. Brown students tend to hang out in groups, and couples usually stay connected with their group of friends. But there’s always help for those who wish they were dating. Several years ago, one enterprising student created an on-campus matchmaking service called HUGS, Helping Undergraduates Socialize. Each year at Valentine’s Day students can fill out a questionnaire and, for a small fee, receive a list of their ten most compatible and five least compatible matches on campus. Then they wear out the pages of the class face books checking out the photos of their potential matches.

Groups

In addition to athletics, students can participate in a wide variety of activities. There are more than 200 student organizations at Brown including theater and dance ensembles, music groups, community service organizations, faith-based groups, student government, and much more. Involvement in campus groups is a major part of the Brown experience. Most clubs give students the option to get involved in a small or large way, and most students are actively involved in at least one club or volunteer activity. Students enjoy the opportunity to try new things, and they often find that campus groups provide their first introduction to a potential career path. For example, Andrew Barlow, class of 2000, served as a writer and editor for the campus humor magazine during his years as a student, and since graduation, he has published humor pieces in The New Yorker.

Brown University Athletics

Brown offers a wide range of varsity sports (thirty-seven different teams) and has decent facilities for a school its size. In general, sports at Brown, like Greek life, are in the background. Attendance at games is low. Athletes tend to support other athletes and students support their friends who play sports, but rarely does the whole campus rally around a sporting event.

There is, however, a strong sense of community among athletes, and students who do attend games get caught up in the school spirit and cheer loudly. Many games are also attended by the very enthusiastic Brown band. The world’s first ice-skating band, the Brown band performs postgame ice shows that are a highlight of the hockey season.

Brown University Local Community

Off campus, students enjoy the cultural and culinary offerings of Providence. A near-perfect college town, Providence is small enough to feel homey but large enough so there’s always something going on. Recently, Providence has gone through a muchtouted cultural renaissance. There’s a thriving arts community that plays host to many quality theater productions and offbeat performance art. There are also several concert venues and jazz clubs and, for more mainstream entertainment, the massive Providence Place Mall has a megaplex movie theater as well as an Imax theater.

Providence is also home to some of the best restaurants in New England. Freshmen find that Parents Weekend is a perfect time to try some of the city’s pricier establishments, such as the famed Italian restaurant Al Forno, while seniors who are off meal plan frequent South Providence’s pan-Asian hangout, Apsara.

Brown University Alumni

Over ninety-four percent of Brown students graduate, then they are faced with the anxiety of figuring out what to do next. Fortunately, Brown provides a support network to help seniors make postgraduation plans.

About a quarter of Brown graduates go directly to graduate or professional school after graduation. These students receive guidance from professors in the field and often attend the top schools in their discipline.

Having the Brown name on my resume has opened doors for me, even in fields completely unrelated to what I studied as an undergrad. Employers see that I went to Brown and they figure that I can learn whatever they need me to learn to do the job. It’s a nice foot in the door. — Bonnie Boyd, Sc.B. Human Biology, ’99

Deans

For students who pursue professional tracks in law or medicine, there are deans at Brown who specialize in counseling prelaw and premed students. They guide students through the process of deciding whether or not law school or medical school is the right next step for them, and if students decide to apply, they help them navigate the involved application and interview processes. There is also a dean who helps students apply for scholarships or fellowships. Historically, this support has helped Brown students fare very well in competitions for highly selective postgraduate awards, such as the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships.

Job Hunting

Career Services is the most valuable resource for students who look for employment directly after graduation. Each year, many finance and consulting firms recruit Brown seniors through interview sessions at the Career Development Center. Additionally, Brown provides excellent resources for the large number of students who wish to pursue noncorporate tracks with their “Careers in the Common Good” speaker series. And in recent years, Brown has assembled contact information for alumni who have agreed to talk with students about their jobs and how they got to where they are today. This vast alumni network gives Brown students an inside track to information about a wide variety of career options.

Prominent Grads

• Mary Chapin Carpenter, Country Singer-Songwriter
• Ira Glass, Host of National Public Radio’s “This American Life”
• John Hay, Personal Secretary to Lincoln and Secretary of State under Presidents McKinley and T. Roosevelt
• John Heisman, the Trophy’s Namesake
• Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice, Supreme Court
• John F. Kennedy, Jr., Publisher
• Laura Linney, Oscar-Nominated Actress
• Horace Mann, Educator
• Joe Paterno, Football Coach
• Tom Scott and Tom First, AKA “Tom & Tom,” Creators of Nantucket Nectars
• John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Philanthropist
• Ted Turner, Media Mogul
• Thomas Watson, Jr., Former IBM Head

Carnegie Foundation Classification

Research Universities (very high research activity)

General Characteristics

Highest offering	Doctoral degree
Calendar System	Semester
Years of college work required	N/A
Variable Tuition

Special Learning Opportunities

Distance Learning
ROTC — Army / Navy / Air Force	— / /
Study Abroad
Weekend College
Teacher Certification