Erik
ESyngle@aol.com
1) The Dorms:
The dormitories at Brown range anywhere from simply adequate (most freshman housing) to exquisite (senior apartments). As a freshman, you are randomly assigned a room and a roomate, but every other year, you enter a lottery for housing placement in which you can choose the style of room to live in (single, double, suite, etc.) as well as your roomates. Naturally, preferential housing is granted to upperclassmen, but "the leftovers" are not at all bad, and I saw no housing on campus which I would consider to be unacceptable. Brown being a very old school, there is every imaginable type of dorm exterior and interior, and one of the most unique things about Brown's housing system is its heterogeniety. According to official policy, students are required to live in campus housing for the first 3 years, but with a recent housing shortage, this rule is easily flexible. However, on-campus housing is usually preferential because it is closer to all the necessary locations, cheaper, and more social.
2) The Classes:
Having attended a mediocre public high school in California, I found the classes at Brown to be significantly harder than in high school. Many others I know, who attended private high schools, found the classes to be only slightly harder than high school.
3) Workload:
This of course is variable over many factors: the particular course, the professor, the time of the semester, etc. On the average, most of my classes required about 4 hours per week outside of class. Some required much more, some less. It also depends on how many courses you choose to take; customarily, 4 courses per semester is the norm, although some students choose to take 5, and they suffer as a result.
4) Professors:
The professors at Brown are extremely accessible. There is almost no conceivable way you could avoid receiving additional help from a prof. if you need it. Every professor is required to hold what are called "office hours" at scheduled time at least once a week outside of class, in which the prof.
will be in his/her office for the sole task of talking to students, answering questions, in general just being there for whatever purpose the students might need. In more difficult courses, esp. the sciences, these sessions often turn into additional classtime because so many students show up, but conversely, some profs. complain of having nothing to do during office hours because no one shows up. If the office hours don't fit your schedule, profs. are almost always available for a personal session "by appointment" as well, which could mean just showing up and hoping they are available, or making a formal appointment. Most professors are also available by e-mail as well. This is especially useful for asking simple questions, getting an extension on an assignment, etc., and most profs. usually reply within 24 hours.
5) Sports:
Not being much of sports player myself, I might not be the best person to answer this question. Brown has all of the traditional sports (football, hockey, track, soccer, basketball) as well as some more unique ones, such as sailing, rowing, ultimate frisbee, and curling.
6) Extracurricular:
At Brown, if you can name it, we probably have some sort of extracurricular program for it, and if not, you can easily start one yourself. All you need is a few other interested people and to fill out some
simple forms. Of course, the most common form of extracurricular activity is socializing. If you need more than that, though, we have clubs and organizations too numerous to list that are involved in political, artistic, volunteer, and various other endeavors.
7) Entertainment:
For sheer entertainment, there is also a tremendous variety. Every weekend, there are invariably a few things that will always be available regardless of your taste. For music and dancing, there are several clubs and dancehalls in downtown Providence (which is just a 10 minute walk) that often
feature major bands. On campus, local bands play at The Underground (our campus club) several times a week, and the Brown University Orchestra does a series of concerts throughout the year. Also, there are about a dozen a cappella groups composed of Brown students that give free concerts all the time. For movies, the Brown Film Society shows anywhere from 2-5 different movies each weekend, with a varied selection ranging from obscure foreign arthouse titles to "Jerry McGuire" . On Thayer St., a small commercial district running right down the the center of campus, there is also the Avon Cinema, and Thayer St. is itself an adventure, with a strange assortment of record stores, clothing stores, bookstores, restaurants and cafes. Brown also presents several theatrical productions each year, including many student-written plays. And of course there are parties. That goes without saying. These, however, are just the regularly scheduled activities that are constant from week to week. You never know who or what else might show up.
8) Why I Chose Brown:
I decided to go to Brown through a combination of factors: size, reputation, and curriculum. Size, both of Brown and of Providence itself, was exactly what I was looking for in that it was not "small" but was not so large as to be metropolitan. Brown has between 5-6 thousand students, which is large enough to feel as if you've moved on from high school, but not so large as an average state school of 20,000 people. Reputation: Brown is a member of The Ivy League, which means everything to some people and nothing to others, so take that for what you will. Curriculum: The Brown Curriculum, which is unique among major US schools, has no required courses or distribution requirements. That is to say, YOU decide what courses you take and which you avoid, from the very first to the very last. Granted, this is a much a responsibility as it is a privelege, but it was one I wanted.
9) Financing:
I am paying for school through a combination of my parents, Brown grants, and government loans. Estimating the total cost for one year at about $30,000, Brown grants me about $12,000 of that, the federal government (through a combination of several loans) covers about $6,000, which adds up
to $18,000, leaving my parents responsible the remaining $12,000, which they pay for through a special monthly installment plan, which conveniently works out to about $1000 a month.
10) Additional:
The first time I set foot on Brown I knew I wanted to go there. This is an experience that seems to have happened to many Brown students. It is a very unique school, and something about it just seems to "click" with certain people. Considering this, I highly recommend that you visit Brown while you are considering it, and see if you experience a similar sensation. This "something" whatever it is, allows us to overlook the fact that the weather sucks (it rains for much of the year) and that Providence certainly lacks many of the features that makes nearby Boston such a popular college town.