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I was just wondering, because im seriously considering brown.

By Ratserutuf (Ratserutuf) on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 05:16 pm: Edit

As the rest of the ivies, stanford, duke, MIT.

By Tennizpro06 (Tennizpro06) on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 05:31 pm: Edit

no

By Ratserutuf (Ratserutuf) on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 05:32 pm: Edit

Why, isnt it in the ivy league.

By Giovanni (Giovanni) on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 05:42 pm: Edit

Aww... don't be a prestige whore. I doesn't matter.

By Haon (Haon) on Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - 07:28 pm: Edit

Brown definitely is one of the least prestigious Ivies. However, I'm not sure if it THE least prestigious Ivy, just towards the bottom end. It really depends on what you're looking for--Brown is BY FAR the poorest Ivy (Brown is broke by Ivy standards).

By Chrisy (Chrisy) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 12:01 am: Edit

back in the day no serious scholar considered brown or upenn.

By Encomium (Encomium) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 12:32 am: Edit

I think it depends where you're from a bit actually also. Where I live...a lot of people don't consider Duke or Stanford as prestigious as some of the northeast ivies and stuff.

Don't worry, nobody's going to think you're Otto the bus driver because you went to Brown. Maybe principal skinner...;)
j/k

By Admissioner (Admissioner) on Thursday, October 23, 2003 - 03:58 pm: Edit

From my experience and readings on this topic (I am in my 30s, and have lived on four continents) Brown does not enjoy the same prestige as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT or Stanford. It does, however, have around the same as the remaining ivies - it all depends on the source.

It depends on what you consider prestige to mean. Brown is recognised as having students as strong as the other ivies, but that the college program is not as rigorous, mainly due to people's point-of-view about Brown's open curriculum. Of course, most Brown students spend just as much time studying as their ivy counterparts; they just do it for courses they elected to take as opposed to a core or distribution requirement.

As for the comment above about 'back in the day no serious scholar would consider Brown', that really would be back in the day... and not entirely accurate either. Over the past 20 years since Brown was named THE "hot college" by Newsweek and the New York Times, it has been recognised by many as a home for scholars as well as free-spirits.

Finally, on Brown being the poorest ivy - it does have the lowest endowment. However, on a per student basis (including undergrad, grad and professional schools), it actually is equal to Columbia (>$1.4B for Brown with ~7,000 students vs ~$4.2B for Columbia with ~22,000 students in total). Of course, endowment does not directly equate to prestige, although it does help. Nonetheless, Brown has a much larger endowment than most schools and has just begun a $1 billion capital drive. But it is forced to do more with less, which can be a challenge.

All in all, I agree with anyone who states that prestige is not as important as fit. If you think Brown is right for you, and you are accepted, then go for it.

Another long post from me - I hope that it has been informative.

By Striker (Striker) on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 06:19 am: Edit

Prestige wise, I would consider Brown on the same level as Cornell and probably better than Duke. UPenn might be a little bit higher in prestige to most. The rest of the Ivies+MIT+Stanford have a better reputation.

As far as quality is concerned, from what I've gotten from my friends at different schools, Brown is very good, I'd consider it better than either UPenn, or Cornell who don't do a good job of teaching undergrads.

By Ratserutuf (Ratserutuf) on Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - 02:08 pm: Edit

thanks for all of your input everybody. everything was really informative. but i still think brown deserves a better reputation. if only people knew the true quality of the brown curriculum and how the students there are really engaged.