Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin
Vassar
Wesleyan
Grinnell
Carleton
Skidmore
Sarah Lawrence
Reed
Kenyon

Good list

This is a good list. I attended one of these schools and my DH attend another. My DS will be attending a third in the fall.

We looked at all of these but my DS didn’t apply to Carleton because it does not have an open curriculum and is on a quarter system. Seemed like a great school otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Brown, consider other colleges with an open curriculum - Wesleyan, Vassar, Smith, Grinnell, etc.

Brown has more in common with other ivy pluses such as Yale, Columbia, Harvard, MIT than wesleyan's, Smith, or grinnel. In terms of information processing, there's a big difference between top 1% and top 3%.

This^.

No, not this. College cohorts don’t work like a waterfall. Ivies+ don’t fill up their class with 99th percentile and then the next tier universities get the 98th and then Wesleyan, Smith, Grinnell etc get the 97th. Colleges don’t even measure processing speed in their applicants, so PP was just talking out of their @$$.

Exactly.

All of these top schools look to fill a class- they don’t just take the top 1% or 3%, however that is measured.

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin
Vassar
Wesleyan
Grinnell
Carleton
Skidmore
Sarah Lawrence
Reed
Kenyon

Agree with a PP who said, good list. OP, our DC researched four of the above colleges, visited and applied to three, is at Vassar now. Brown was another of the ones DC researched (but didn't visit or apply to, in the end). Any of the above could be good for your DC but research the potential major programs in depth before you visit.

BTW, open curriculum (no big list of prescribed must-do courses/subjects, which frees students to construct a more tailored experience) is fantastic for students who want that. It's one of the reasons DC chose Vassar and was interested in Brown.

Whatever you do, visit colleges. I'm seeing some threads here recently about not visiting colleges until after acceptances (if at all) and I think that's short-sighted. Better to create a smaller but really well-researched list, and then visit before you apply to the ones that truly seem like they have potential. On paper, Sarah Lawrence looked very interesting and attractive academically, for instance, but visiting turned my DC off it immediately despite having a good friend who was already there. Not dissing SLC (the friend loves it there), it just was a place where visiting in person made a huge difference. Same could be true at any of the above schools.

Bowdoin

There’s lots of ways to find programs with similarities to Brown even at colleges and universities which seem very different on the surface. But in the end, Brown is just Brown and no one is going to find a replica of what it does somewhere else.

Here’s one college consultants take on schools similar to Brown:

http://www.koppelmangroup.com/blog/2018/3/10/schools-similar-to-brown-university

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child said Pomona feels very similar to Brown

LOL does your child go to both schools?

She picked Yale but went to Brown and Pomona admitted student days

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weslyan, Vassar, St Andrews (really), Bryan Mawr and Wellesley (if a girl)

Why St Andrews? My DC's first choice is Brown, also interested in Wesleyan, loves the mix of arts and academics and the open curriculum. Has also considered UK schools, but the rigidity of having to know your major when you start is a big stumbling block. We are waiting on this year's AP scores but I expect DC will meet the requirements of St. Andrews.

The Scottish system isn't the same as the English system, and actually encourages you to take courses outside your designated studies in the first two years. It's more rigid than say a SLAC, but less so than an English school.

Also, the vibe is actually quite similar. It's a VERY international school with very old and longstanding traditions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Brown, consider other colleges with an open curriculum - Wesleyan, Vassar, Smith, Grinnell, etc.

Brown has more in common with other ivy pluses such as Yale, Columbia, Harvard, MIT than wesleyan's, Smith, or grinnel. In terms of information processing, there's a big difference between top 1% and top 3%.

This^.

No, not this. College cohorts don’t work like a waterfall. Ivies+ don’t fill up their class with 99th percentile and then the next tier universities get the 98th and then Wesleyan, Smith, Grinnell etc get the 97th. Colleges don’t even measure processing speed in their applicants, so PP was just talking out of their @$$.

According to our college consultant, Brown, Rice and Amherst have a similar culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Brown, consider other colleges with an open curriculum - Wesleyan, Vassar, Smith, Grinnell, etc.

Brown has more in common with other ivy pluses such as Yale, Columbia, Harvard, MIT than wesleyan's, Smith, or grinnel. In terms of information processing, there's a big difference between top 1% and top 3%.

This^.

Anonymous wrote:My child said Pomona feels very similar to Brown

LOL does your child go to both schools?

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin
Vassar
Wesleyan
Grinnell
Carleton
Skidmore
Sarah Lawrence
Reed
Kenyon

Good list

Oberlin
Vassar
Wesleyan
Grinnell
Carleton
Skidmore
Sarah Lawrence
Reed
Kenyon

PP have mentioned other schools with an open curriculum. If you are also thinking of schools with a similar student body that are intellectually curious, engaged, and collaborative rather than competitive, you might want to look at Tufts. Know a number of students who applied to both and thought they had a similar “vibe.” They also both have med schools that are located on another campus so both campuses have a pretty strong undergrad feel for a university.

Wesleyan