Brown University

The academics here are great--open curriculum of course is a plus, but also many departments here are highly accesible to UGs with quite a few intro classes taught by star profs (who all easily approachable, even for large classes) and generous curves relative to many other schools as well. However, the social life here sucks. The kids are either a) hippies, b) nerds, c) snooty prep school trust fund babies, or d) athletes--there seems to be relatively few "normal" people. Also, the kids (who apparently either come from sheltered homes or had no fun in HS) always rave about the parties, which really suck compared to basically any state school. Frats here are required to open their doors to anyone, which means that most events are packed full of people and often run out of alcohol (which they also charge for). But really, the party scene wouldn't bother me if there were lots of cool people, but the people here suck unless you fit in one of the aforementioned categories. People complain about HS having cliques, but that's a joke compared to here--people never stray from the group they have their friends in, at least in high school nobody cared if you hang out with different people once in a while . It's a good fit for the right person I guess, but I think a lot of people here fool themselves simply because of the stereotypes (eg, "happiest students"). The academics are going to be hard to give up, but I'm going to drop out and apply to state schools (which will also end up saving a lot in the long run, and honors programs offer students good access to faculty); I thought that the stereotypes about Ivy League schools couldn't be that true, but it turns out they were. As a middle-lower class white guy who enjoys college sports, drinking, and having a diverse group of friends (the latter of which you would think is easy to come by here, but again the cliquiness is rampant), I can say that I definitely picked the wrong place. Although, I will say that the liberal atmosphere isn't quite as stifling as some people said--I think the trendy radicalism is cooling over time, although that's still definitely there if it's your thing.

1st Year Male -- Class 2010

Faculty Accessibility: A+, Social Life: F