Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is really helpful in that it confirms my impression that Wesleyan is the closest in term of fit.

All the PP harping about what is or isn’t a “peer” of Brown are missing the point of the question. If the only reason your student is applying to Brown is because it is an Ivy then no, Wesleyan isn’t a good replacement because all the student wants is a brand. If the reason that a student is applying to Brown is because they like the open curriculum and other characteristics of how kids get educated there (meaning fit), they should take a look at Wesleyan.

Yes, I posted above that my kid fortunately got into Brown. Also applied to Wes, Middlebury and Vassar. Last 2 considerably smaller, but similar approach to learning experience and commitment to supporting student interests and passions. And for a true safety, Muhlenberg was impressive. Skidmore and Bard might be a good choices as well, though mine ruled these out for major offerings (Skidmore) and campus layout (Bard). Maybe Bennington too.

Anonymous wrote:This is really helpful in that it confirms my impression that Wesleyan is the closest in term of fit.

All the PP harping about what is or isn’t a “peer” of Brown are missing the point of the question. If the only reason your student is applying to Brown is because it is an Ivy then no, Wesleyan isn’t a good replacement because all the student wants is a brand. If the reason that a student is applying to Brown is because they like the open curriculum and other characteristics of how kids get educated there (meaning fit), they should take a look at Wesleyan.

Anonymous wrote:I would like to send out a blanket announcement to everyone wringing hands over what school is like Brown or Yale or whatever: You are not getting in, you are wasting your time. Please stop worshiping these schools with tiny classes who court you but have no intention of admitting you UNLESS...

you are legacy and ED
you are recruited athlete
you are URM and an excellent student
you attend an elite private school where your counselor is friends with the AO.
you want to major in something unpopular and are full pay and ALSO have some other hook like female or oboe player that they need really bad.

Beyond that, I cant see how anyone is getting in. My child graduated with a 4.529 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Top 1% of class. 13 years of straight A's and almost 30 college credits. A thriving LLC, president of 2 clubs, athletics and full pay and got in to none of the ivies. This kid is a marvel. Ivys started sending us brochures in 10th grade when he missed a SINGLE question on the SAT. And want to know where he was admitted? None of them. It's laughable.

You will only be in on the joke that they are after your kid wastes their senior year weekends writing essays and applying and you will see it was just a ploy to get their denial rate higher. It's an inside game. Rigged.

Anonymous wrote:I would like to send out a blanket announcement to everyone wringing hands over what school is like Brown or Yale or whatever: You are not getting in, you are wasting your time. Please stop worshiping these schools with tiny classes who court you but have no intention of admitting you UNLESS...

you are legacy and ED
you are recruited athlete
you are URM and an excellent student
you attend an elite private school where your counselor is friends with the AO.
you want to major in something unpopular and are full pay and ALSO have some other hook like female or oboe player that they need really bad.

Beyond that, I cant see how anyone is getting in. My child graduated with a 4.529 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Top 1% of class. 13 years of straight A's and almost 30 college credits. A thriving LLC, president of 2 clubs, athletics and full pay and got in to none of the ivies. This kid is a marvel. Ivys started sending us brochures in 10th grade when he missed a SINGLE question on the SAT. And want to know where he was admitted? None of them. It's laughable.

You will only be in on the joke that they are after your kid wastes their senior year weekends writing essays and applying and you will see it was just a ploy to get their denial rate higher. It's an inside game. Rigged.

Anonymous wrote:I would like to send out a blanket announcement to everyone wringing hands over what school is like Brown or Yale or whatever: You are not getting in, you are wasting your time. Please stop worshiping these schools with tiny classes who court you but have no intention of admitting you UNLESS...

you are legacy and ED
you are recruited athlete
you are URM and an excellent student
you attend an elite private school where your counselor is friends with the AO.
you want to major in something unpopular and are full pay and ALSO have some other hook like female or oboe player that they need really bad.

Beyond that, I cant see how anyone is getting in. My child graduated with a 4.529 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Top 1% of class. 13 years of straight A's and almost 30 college credits. A thriving LLC, president of 2 clubs, athletics and full pay and got in to none of the ivies. This kid is a marvel. Ivys started sending us brochures in 10th grade when he missed a SINGLE question on the SAT. And want to know where he was admitted? None of them. It's laughable.

You will only be in on the joke that they are after your kid wastes their senior year weekends writing essays and applying and you will see it was just a ploy to get their denial rate higher. It's an inside game. Rigged.

Anonymous wrote:Many who apply to Brown also apply to Tufts.

Anonymous wrote:I would like to send out a blanket announcement to everyone wringing hands over what school is like Brown or Yale or whatever: You are not getting in, you are wasting your time. Please stop worshiping these schools with tiny classes who court you but have no intention of admitting you UNLESS...

you are legacy and ED
you are recruited athlete
you are URM and an excellent student
you attend an elite private school where your counselor is friends with the AO.
you want to major in something unpopular and are full pay and ALSO have some other hook like female or oboe player that they need really bad.

Beyond that, I cant see how anyone is getting in. My child graduated with a 4.529 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Top 1% of class. 13 years of straight A's and almost 30 college credits. A thriving LLC, president of 2 clubs, athletics and full pay and got in to none of the ivies. This kid is a marvel. Ivys started sending us brochures in 10th grade when he missed a SINGLE question on the SAT. And want to know where he was admitted? None of them. It's laughable.

You will only be in on the joke that they are after your kid wastes their senior year weekends writing essays and applying and you will see it was just a ploy to get their denial rate higher. It's an inside game. Rigged.

Anonymous wrote:

Wes is a good school. No one thinks it is a Brown peer.

You literally missed the point of the post and the PP's response.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My good friend at work went the Brown and I went to Wesleyan.

We are doctors, so we kept going to school for a long time after college. As a result I rarely think about college since I feel much more “connected” to my residency and fellowship programs.

However, my friend and I reminisce about undergrad all the time because our experiences were so similar - academically and socially. Wes and Brown have a lot of the same little annoyances, too. Both of us are still very very liberal, but some of the things we did and said in the name of political correctness were just funny in hindsight.

One difference is that Brown sounds like it had more wealthy and famous/well-connected students than Wes (as would be expected). For what it’s worth, there’s no real difference in intelligence between us, though

I think you have more to prove than your brown friend. He also had easier time getting to where he is. Brown has the "wow" factor most schools don't have.

What in the world is the “wow” factor???

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My good friend at work went the Brown and I went to Wesleyan.

We are doctors, so we kept going to school for a long time after college. As a result I rarely think about college since I feel much more “connected” to my residency and fellowship programs.

However, my friend and I reminisce about undergrad all the time because our experiences were so similar - academically and socially. Wes and Brown have a lot of the same little annoyances, too. Both of us are still very very liberal, but some of the things we did and said in the name of political correctness were just funny in hindsight.

One difference is that Brown sounds like it had more wealthy and famous/well-connected students than Wes (as would be expected). For what it’s worth, there’s no real difference in intelligence between us, though

I think you have more to prove than your brown friend. He also had easier time getting to where he is. Brown has the "wow" factor most schools don't have.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My good friend at work went the Brown and I went to Wesleyan.

We are doctors, so we kept going to school for a long time after college. As a result I rarely think about college since I feel much more “connected” to my residency and fellowship programs.

However, my friend and I reminisce about undergrad all the time because our experiences were so similar - academically and socially. Wes and Brown have a lot of the same little annoyances, too. Both of us are still very very liberal, but some of the things we did and said in the name of political correctness were just funny in hindsight.

One difference is that Brown sounds like it had more wealthy and famous/well-connected students than Wes (as would be expected). For what it’s worth, there’s no real difference in intelligence between us, though

I think you have more to prove than your brown friend. He also had easier time getting to where he is. Brown has the "wow" factor most schools don't have.

My point was that - in my personal experience - Wes is indeed very similar to Brown.

I guess I might have “more to prove” if I were straight out of undergrad. And medicine is a long slog - it’s not “easy” for any of us. However, we ended up in the same place professionally, and no one cares where the heck we went to undergrad anymore.

It’s just great fun to talk to my friend about the really strong similarities between our undergrad experiences (it probably helps that my friend from Brown is really smart and fun with a great sense of humor!) - our coworkers who went to UCLA, UVA, and other private universities (ie Duke) had very different undergrad experiences.

I've heard the same story from a community college grad who eventually became an account working along side with more "prestigious" state university accountants. Wes is a good school. No one thinks it is a Brown peer.