College Campus Blog Report #2:

In February, I had the pleasure of visiting the Brown University campus in Providence, Rhode Island. While there, I had the opportunity to attend a general information session as well as a tour. Also, while I was there, I had the amazing opportunity of getting to tour their science buildings and labs. Without further adieu, Here is my second college campus blog report and all of the information that I can tell you about Brown University.

Brown University:

Location: Providence, Rhode Island—- about 1 hour outside of Boston

Weather In Providence: Cold wet winters- 25- 40 degrees each day with some snow. The summers in Providence are hotter – 70-80 degrees most days with some high humidity.

Town Feel: Providence is a small city with a lot of charm and history. I wish I could give you some definite information about the city itself but unfortunately, I did not get to the chance to tour the city very much. But, from what I could tell, Providence has a nice downtown area with lots of things to do. According to the Brown University website, Providence is known as a “foodie” town so I am sure that there are plenty of good restaurants to eat at. Also, Providence is home to Brown University as well as the Rhode Island School of Design so there is a big college feel to the city.

Activities To Do In And Around Campus:

• Explore downtown Providence– downtown Providence is about a 5-10 minute walk away from campus and has many things to do such as shops and museums. Providence is also known for being a very historical town so you can visit sites such as the John Brown House and other historical landmarks. Finally, Providence has many parks to walk around in such as the 435 acre Roger Williams Park.
• Go to downtown Boston- downtown Boston is about an hour away from campus and there are buses that go to and from Providence to Boston.
• Brown has many big green spaces on campus that (weather permitting) you can use to hang out with friends or to just chill and do work.
• Brown is also home to D1 sports and has a massive indoor/outdoor sports complex that is a few minute walk away from the center of campus.

Brown University Size:

• 6,752 undergraduate students
• 2,584 graduate students
• 9,921 total students
• 6:1 student faculty ratio
• 70% of classes with fewer than 20 students

Admissions statistics (Class of 2023):

• 7.1% acceptance rate— lower than the overall acceptance rate of 8%
• Total # of Applicants- 38,674
• Total # of students accepted-2,551
• The class of 2023 had the largest applicant pool ever— Although just recently, the class of 2024 broke the record that this class had held which tells me that there are an increasing number of people who want to study at Brown University.

Other Facts About Brown University:

• Division 1 Sports- Brown has 38 D1 sports and has a big indoor/outdoor sporting complex just a few minutes away from the center of campus.
• 100% of demonstrated financial aid is met by Brown.
• Strong research university- Tier 1.
• over 2,700 research/internship opportunities available to students.
• Study abroad program offered in a variety of locations- over 75 Countries that have programs.
• Strong Pre College Program- if you want to take a course at a college and live on a college campus before you go to college, then the Brown Pre College Program is great for you.
• The universities’ goal is to address the problems facing our complex and quickly changing world.
• Brown has a huge alumni network that is willing to help out current students and even has some internships available that are only offered for Brown students.
• The first couple days of every semester is called “shopping period”. During this time, students can attend as many courses as they want to test them out and see if they are a fit for them. This process ensures that the people in each class actually want to be in the class.
• The Brown open curriculum- This is a program unique to Brown University in which there are no specific required courses that you have to take to graduate. Each major has specific requirements that they have to meet but they can be filled through a variety of classes. This open curriculum allows each student to figure out what they actually want to study and ensures that everyones path through Brown is unique.

Brown Science Facilities:

While I was visiting the Brown University Campus, I had the opportunity to tour their science buildings. No other university that I have visited so far has offered this so when I saw this opportunity available, I immediately jumped on it. I love science and plan on studying it when I go to college so this was a perfect tour for me.

What really stood out to me about the science facilities was how modern and state of the art they were as well as how many different buildings for science the University has. The tour lasted about an hour and a half and we saw about 5 different buildings each with many labs as well as facilities to conduct projects and research. One thing that I will never forget from this tour is the design lab at Brown. The design lab at Brown University is a massive room with pretty much any tool you could need to design whatever you want. While touring the design lab, we saw a full row boat that some students had designed a few months ago which is just one cool thing that was built and had practical use. Also, the design lab has a vending machine that consists of random parts or parts that people ask for each month for their projects. Finally, basically any of the objects that you see in the lab that have no name on it you can use to create different things which is very cool and unique.

 

The Brown Chemistry labs were very cool to see as they contained state of the art equipment. Currently, I am studying chemistry at my high school so it was cool to see how their lab and lab equipment related to what we have and use everyday. Overall, the science facilities at Brown are very impressive and I highly recommend taking a look at them if you like science and have the extra time. Not a lot of schools offer this type of tour and go into this much detail so I would recommend jumping on the opportunity if you can.

My Overall Opinions on Brown University:

Likes:

• Size- Brown is a nice midsize school where it is not too small that you know everybody but not too big where you do not know.
• Science program and research opportunities– Brown University is known for its science and research and they have many opportunities available for students
• The small class sizes and the student faculty ratio- I really like the idea of having a midsize university but also having small class sizes. small class sizes allow for students to have a more meaningful experience and learn a lot more.
• The open curriculum- I love this program at Brown because it allows students to figure out what they are really interested and does not force them to learn about stuff that they do not want to. I am not a big fan of general education requirements as they are sometimes boring classes and contain information that I am not interested in learning about.

Dislikes:

• Location- although it is in a small city and is close to Boston, I wish that it was a bit closer to a bigger city and easier to access. But, compared to some of the other schools I have visited, this location is nothing to complain about.
• Location of the sports complex-while I was walking around the center of campus, I questioned where the sporting complex was. After our tour, my Dad and I had to drive a bit to finally find the sports complex. While I did not expect the complex to be right in the center of campus, I did expect it to be a bit closer. That being said, what we could see of the complex itself was beautiful and looked very nice.

My Final Thoughts:

Overall, I really enjoyed having the opportunity to visit Brown University. I have been looking at Brown for a long time as it is one of my top choice schools and actually going to visit really helped me to see if it would be a good fit for me. Before going to tour Brown University, I thought one thing about it but now I really know what is going on and the school exceeded my high expectations. I highly recommend going to visit Brown University if you are interested in going to a midsize school with a lot of academic flexibility.  I hope this report was helpful for you in learning more information about Brown University.