Best of Brown University

Open Curriculum

Very open academic atmosphere with similarly open students. Teachers are renowned in their fields, but not all are great teachers. Some teachers, however, are truly extraordinary

Not Too Intense

The campus strictness at Brown University is very lenient. There is a lot of underage drinking, which takes place in frats, sororities, dormitories, and the like. There is also quite a lot of drug usage. Marijuana is very popular and smoked pretty much everywhere. The campus officers are extremely helpful and are not all out to turn people in or ruin people's fun. Their main purpose is to ensure that Brown students remain safe.

Diverse in Some Ways More Than Others

Brown is an open and accepting place almost by definition. It is a core value of most of the student body. As such, no one will be made to feel unaccepted or "tolerated" by the student body. That said, in terms of sheer representation on campus, certain groups are more heavily represented than others. Brown has such a large and visible LGBT population, for instance, that it is nearly taken for granted that anyone could be LGBT--thus it is a very easy place to come out, relative to many other places. When it comes to socioeconomic diversity, on the other hand, the campus feels wealthy. Issues of class may make those from less privileged backgrounds feel uncomfortable. The renewed focus on financial aid after the economic crisis, however, is aiming to address this area. A wide range of views on religion and politics are represented on campus, though like most of the Ivy League, "godless liberals" certainly compose the majority of students.