Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private institution that was founded in 1764. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 6,548, its setting is urban, and the campus size is 146 acres. It utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. Brown University's ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 14. Its tuition and fees are $49,346 (2015-16).

    Located atop College Hill in Providence, R.I., Brown University has a college-town feel with Thayer Street serving as a center of activity for shopping and dining. The Brown Bears have about 35 NCAA Division I athletic teams and compete in the Ivy League. The Bears are well known for their men’s soccer team, which consistently ranks among the top 25 teams in the nation. All students at Brown are required to live on campus for their first six semesters, and housing options include traditional singles, doubles and suites. With around 400 student organizations on campus ranging from The Brown Jug comedy magazine to Brown Ballroom Dance, students can find a way to pursue their interests. Brown also has a small but vibrant Greek community with approximately 10 chapters, including a few co-ed Greek organizations.

Brown offers a number of a graduate studies through its Graduate School, which offers well-regarded programs in English and history, and the highly ranked Warren Alpert Medical School.

     Brown is the only major research university in the nation where undergraduates are the architects of their own course of study. The University's signature academic program for undergraduates encourages intellectual exploration and risk taking and fosters rigorous multidisciplinary study in more than 70 concentrations, ranging from Egyptology to Cognitive Neuroscience. Its unique, highly competitive program in Liberal Medical Education provides the opportunity to receive an undergraduate degree and a medical degree in an eight-year continuum. Its School of Engineering prepares students for careers that will make a difference by seeking solutions to current problems that challenge our society. Brown is frequently recognized for its global reach, many cultural events, numerous campus groups and activities, active community service programs, highly competitive athletics, and beautiful facilities located in a richly historic urban setting. Brown students are distinguished by their academic excellence, creativity, self-direction, leadership, and collaborative style of learning, while Brown's outstanding faculty is known for its singular dedication to teaching and research.

     

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 the Brown environment, these students value learning from working with their peers over vying for grades. Brown students can also be an eclectic, creative bunch. The typical Brown student is atypical. For some of 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 relationship personal attention to undergrads. It is not uncommon for students to from close bonds with professors and stay in touch with them long after they graduate. And with University President Ruth J. Simmpn’s plat to hire on hundred new full time faculties over the next five years, the level of meaningful interaction between students and faculty will only improve.

                Student also tends to from close ties to Brown’s locale, Providence, Rhode Island. An artsy, midsize 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 theaters, and the easily accessible Providence Place Mall; comments 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 local community. This community involvement is a hands-on from of student activism, as students work to effect change locally through grass roots organizing.

                Large-scale political activism is race 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. Form musical groups and sport teams to campus newspapers and literary societies, Brown students make involvement in extracurricular activities a major part of their educational experience. Freshmen and sophomores usually dabble in 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.

                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 advisers 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’re 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 are such as history courses.