Brown University Reviews

"The people that go to Brown are smart, achievers, and accomplished. This include students and faculty. But, when you read my review, what is missing? Well, as a graduate student, they treat you like garbage. Honestly. This is what I experienced. Screaming and yelling from other students in the worst way. Students are unprofessional. They laugh at other students. Professors look the other way. I mean like what the hell? They complain you need to be the best to work for them. They need their tenure or reputation. You can't park on campus without getting a ticket. Even if there are parking spots open, like Spring Break. I was told it is the job of graduate students to learn on their own, and it is not the job of the faculty to teach. However; if you are Master student, you pay a lot of tuition money. The dean did not care. Wow! Good luck dealing with other issues like religious observance. They do not care for that. Only they missing parts of their syllabus, so they could go get tenure. I was told you should be 'hired' to be a graduate student. Well, Brown really believes their faculty and students should be the best. It is hard to do so, when you're competing with bigger labs and more established departments around the country. They are still excellent academically, but it is hard to compete in apples to oranges. Shucks though, you have to show that for tenure, to become dean, and to even become a future president of college/university. Well, in such a great place, I experienced faculty bad mouth each other saying they are not the best. Can you imagine what they did to students then. Ouch.... The loving people at Brown. Don't be mad though. Speaking to myself. Hey, 'we are liberal'. So, it is all awesome. I would tell you to evaluate Brown for graduate school versus other places. If you can, please find a school that values being kind to each other. It will save you a lot of headache. There are so many good graduate schools out there. Again, if you keep your religion, please please please, be careful. If you value your health, please please please, be careful. No one is there to help! If you want an ivy league, this place is great. Know the benefits of being in such a prestigious place, and the downfalls, which can be cruel. This is what I experienced. Why then one star? Where is the love? Higher levels of education should at least give you some love?"

"Excellent program that offers flexibility to pursue a curriculum that best aligns with your interest and career goals. I was able to take coursework that spanned multiple departments from engineering, neuroscience, and business/entrepreneurship. Co-Op provides a great opportunity to build connections while being a paid intern and receiving credit. They have built a strong network with many of the leading companies and individuals in the industry. Faculty within the MPPB department and the other departments I worked with were very engaged and supportive."

"Brown University campus is great for students who want a larger campus than a small liberal arts school but smaller than a state school. Its undergraduate student body is around 8,000 which allows you to interact with students from around the world. Its biggest strength is that it has a diverse student body with a wide range of interests. We have a passionate student body that actively participates in student organizations. We constantly have amazing speakers come to campus. If you are an inquisitive student that loves learning, this is a great school! Brown University has recently expanded its financial aid program and it has become more generous for low-income and middle-class students. Check out their financial aid website for updates."

"I met many wonderful mentors in research and elsewhere. Everyone was always open to having a conversation about their work, though you sometimes needed to be persistent as they are busy. I also appreciated all the student organizations that allowed me to find people who shared my interests and explore different career areas. It is a competitive place, but if you seek out mentors who understand you and ask for help when you need it, it's a good experience."

"Brown is an amazing place. If ever you get into, go for Brown.. Go Bruno :) CS dept is like a great community in itself. Because of Brown's smaller student intake, most people know everyone in CS dept by name and person. :) Nelson gym is a great place to hang out too!"

"Brown is an amazing school. It has a balance of optimum amount of pressure,fun and competition to keep you going. No matter what field or program are you in, it will pay you well in life."

"Go to an Ivy League and be challenged. The learning environment is a lot better than state schools. Embrace your youth and do lots of activities in college."

"Pleasant and very comfortable when it comes to learning"

"Although it is an Ivy League university, Brown does not sit at the forefront of people's minds when thinking of an Ivy League school, unlike Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. But while Brown may lack the public spotlight relative to other big-name schools, it nevertheless lives up to the Ivy reputation as an integrative, academically rigorous university. From a cultural standpoint, Brown cultivates an open, communal environment where people of all nationalities, religions, genders, and sexual orientations are welcome. The student body and faculty are all quite politically active, and it is not uncommon to see students (especially undergraduates) form public demonstrations on a variety of social subjects. Often big names come to campus to talk about political issues, give lecture-seminars, or have a panel discussion. Just this year, for example, we had The Daily Show's Trevor Noah, former British prime minister David Cameron, Robert DeNiro, Daveed Diggs from the musical sensation "Hamilton", and several Nobel Laureates visit campus for public forums and lectures given to, particularly, students. Beyond political activism and visitors, Brown's culture of openness plays a major role in education. Brown is known for its unique educational platform in which students are free to build their own degrees with the courses they feel fit best with their interests. Consequently, outside of a few standard courses that must be taken for a given concentration, students are free to build their education as he/she finds fit, and professors organize original seminars and courses almost every semester on specific topics of interest to them and their students. As an ecology and evolutionary biology graduate student, I was able to take a seminar on global climate through geologic history, a seminar where we use physiological principles to reconstruct an extinct animal, and courses on animal locomotion, biological materials, and biomechanics. Of course, some graduate programs at Brown have specific courses that must be taken in order to graduate, which I believe is the case for students in public health, the physical sciences, and some of the Humanities; most departmental websites explicitly state whether this is the case or not. And whether you select your adviser before or after coming to Brown also varies according to department. In my department, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, students coordinate with a professor they are interested in working with before applying to Brown; should he/she be accepted, that person then becomes their primary adviser. This is not the case for someone going into the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry department, though, where they instead have students rotate around labs for the first year or so before selecting a primary adviser. Again, most departmental website explicitly state those details. Outside of your department, though, lies a network of people and opportunities for you to grow as a budding academic or public service member. Brown has the CareerLab, an entire building dedicated to helping students grow as professionals, whether that is by helping them construct their resumes/CVs, doing mock interviews, giving critical feedback on written proposals, advice on steps to reach your desired goals, or taking professional photos for your LinkedIn account. For those who are striving to become academics, there is the Sheridan Center, which organizes several certificate programs to learn about teaching pedagogy, how to develop a syllabus, how to write a teaching philosophy statement, and how to give critical feedback to students and other professionals. For networking, Brown hosts an annual GradFair in the fall, where representatives of big companies or professional fields (many of them Brown alumni) come and run panel discussions, one-on-one interviews, resume critiques, and information stands. It's a great networking opportunity and often opens the door to new possibilities and/or your ultimate goals. Overall, Brown is an incredible place with a lot of great opportunities if you take advantage of them, but it also costs an incredible amount. In my department, doctoral students specifically are given an annual stipend that covers their tuition, health insurance premium, and living support. They also have an incentive program where students entering with their own funding will have a percentage matched by his/her department. That seems to be true of the sciences in general, a reflection of the high priority put on science, which tends to get majority of the funding, whereas the Arts and Humanities get a bit of the short end of the stick; students in those departments frequently must TA majority of the way through their graduate school career. In my department, students are required to TA for at least a year, after which they are free to focus solely on whatever seminars/courses they want and of course their research. This blatant dichotomy between the sciences and humanities was addressed this past year as students fought to be classified as employees and therefore have union rights. The full effect has not taken place yet, but if you are in the Arts or Humanities, it is something worth asking further about. Activism on the part of graduate students was also what granted all graduate students dental insurance on top of health insurance; it really does play a major part in the university's culture. Ultimately, Brown is a phenomenal school for graduate school life. The University cares about your opinion, is constantly finding ways to help you achieve the goals you are after, and builds an environment that feels like an enormous family. As an Ivy League school, you have access to copious literature, academic resources, technology, and facilities. To get around, most students live within walking distance from campus or ride their bikes in, although Providence is honestly not built well for biking. But if you're on campus late and don't want to brave walking home alone, an on-call shuttle bus runs around campus through the wee hours of the night and can pick you up wherever (plus your school ID gets you on any of the public bus transportation for free!). Truly, this is an incredible school with plentiful opportunities and a host of people willing to help you along the way. I have never regretted coming here for my education."

"Brown University is the perfect place for undergraduate studies. Your classmates will challenge you, your professors will be well-established and informative, and there is a great social environment as well. The main downsides are in regards to food and housing, Brown has a ton of money and this could be improved, as could financial aid."

"Brown University is a great location to get an education because there are so many resources around. The city of Providence is a 5-10 minute walk away from campus, the faculty are world-renowned, other great cities (Boston, NYC) are extremely easy to get to. The networking opportunities are awesome. There are plenty of job/post-grad opportunities once you graduate. The learning environment is second to none. There is also a healthy social environment. While there may not be 50-100 thousand screaming fans at a football game, there is a substantial amount of opportunity to get to know people intimately. There is a close bond that forms within each class that is possible due to the low amount of numbers. If a small community is something that you like, then Brown offers it. If you would rather have larger interactions, there are plenty of places near Brown where that can happen."

"Brown University was an excellent college. I highly enjoyed the open curriculum which afforded the opportunity of students to pursue a major and craft a curriculum of their choice. Consequently, we saw many double majors. I personally needed it because I was pursuing a rigorous degree and I was able pursue refreshing courses at the same time as my neuroscience courses to broaden my experience. The feel on campus was always diverse and everyone was open to conversations of their liking. I highly recommend Brown University."

"Brown University: Master of Science in Biotechnology (Grad, 2016): The Masters degree was part of Brown's 5th-Year Masters program. I had previously completed a Bachelor of Arts in 2015, with a double-major in Biology and Theater Arts. The program is great in terms of learning potential and diversity of courses offered. It lacks in cohesiveness when it comes to networking opportunities, and is especially lacking in terms of the needs of international students. The co-op route towards a career in the healthcare industry is common, but Brown is not able to use its considerable influence to attract the most up and coming healthcare entities. The focus is very much on University-based research and healthcare consulting. Laboratory experience is exclusive, depends on the lab that you are working with, and there is very little collaboration between departments. Research infrastructure at Brown is robust, specifically towards medical technologies, though there are few labs that work on medical devices to the full potential. My work on echolocation/bioacoustics in bats at the Simmons Lab (Department of Neuroscience) has been very informative and rewarding. I am concurrently working with the Borton Lab to design and develop an implantable medical device in the pain management space. Intellectual Property (IP) and commercialization through Brown's Technology Ventures Office (TVO) is very much as you might expect they look for any way to gain ownership and IP rights over your original designs. Collaborations with Rhode Island Hospital and surrounding biotech companies is valuable, but career opportunities through these sources are limited. The labs at Brown are equipped with the best technologies to execute your ideas, it is just a matter of gaining that access and protecting your work."

"Brown University, specifically the Patho-biology graduate program, is a fantastic place to receive a quality graduate school education while also enjoying the process. We are blessed with some of the worlds most brilliant research talent as instructors, who passionately strive to instill the highest quality of education in the next generation of scientists. The school as a whole is incredibly flexible to meet individual students needs as opposed to generalizing strict requirements to make their jobs easier. I have heard several stories from students as to how Brown was able to work with them to maintain the same quality education while providing the necessary tools for said student to get through their individual hardships. Brown is also flexible in less severe instances, for example, students from various programs can work in labs not affiliated with their specific program based on their specific research desires. Its this flexibility that makes me realize that I am an important part of this program and my individual development as a researcher is important to my program and the school as a whole. I also appreciate the value placed on making graduate school a work hard, play hard environment. In my program specifically we have a very energetic, enthusiastic administrative staff who work very hard to maintain programs specifically designed to bring together students and faculty in a non-scientific environment. Being friends with my colleagues makes me feel more included and appreciated in this environment which I enjoy working and being a part of. I am very happy with my decision to join the Pathobiology program here at Brown for my graduate school studies."

"Brown allowed me to design my own education in a way that was fulfilling and enriching."

"Brown is academically rigorous and the most independent, self-motivated students do the best there. The other students and the faculty are supportive and challenging, making it a wonderful place to explore intellectual interests and passions."

"Brown is a beautiful place with a thoughtful, kind, and accepting student body. The weather can be truly terrible sometimes, but the student you meet make it all worth it. There are a lot of cool classes and professors."

"Outstanding opportunity for personal growth through development of individual major/concentration. Beautiful campus, vibrant college life scene."

"Brown is an amazing place for a student to learn and grow. It truly was a life-changing experience for me. But, some students probably would not succeed in an environment with very little boundaries and lots of freedom. For those students, I'd suggest looking at different schools."

"A school with good educational experiences and great people."