Brown: True New England

Day 4: Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island)

9:00am Campus Tour
10:10am Information Session
1:00pm Introduction to Microbiology
5:00pm Return Rental Car

~~~Relax~~~

I awoke this morning at a reasonable time and felt well-rested which was a welcomed change of pace. An unwelcome change came with the weather. It is mid-April and we walked out to this mess:

Really...?












Woefully unprepared for this New England welcome, my mom and I froze our way through an campus tour. No pictures from this as my hands were too cold to safely hold my phone. I'll do my best to paint a word picture, though.

Brown felt very much like Charleston--reminiscent of an old town that doesn't want to change but compromises to stay modern enough to survive. The architecture of Brown was much cleaner and more symmetrical than the amalgam of architectural styles at Princeton which just gave it a very different feel. It was also significantly more urban than Princeton and it was less obvious what was Brown and what was just city. They had several green open areas very comparable to the Horseshoe at USC, though I'd imagine the greens at Brown are only pleasant for 3 or 4 months of the year. There certainly wasn't anyone out studying today (High was 43 F). Throughout the whole day, I felt pretty ambivalent about the campus and school as a whole. Don't get me wrong the academics absolutely are everything they are held to be, there was just something intangible about the campus that made it impossible for me to feel like I could ever be happy attending Brown. 

This was perhaps best exemplified in the class I got to take this afternoon: Introduction to Microbiology

The specific seminar was something like: "Animal/arthropod and soil borne transmitted diseases" which basically means the professor talked about Lyme disease and malaria for the majority of the 80 minute class. It was a smaller class--about 50 students--which definitely changed the dynamic of the conversation. Students actually asked and answered questions and the professor had a fabulous sense of humor. There were several other prospective students at this class and I was absolutely appalled by their attitude. I have to be careful here because I know I am absolutely a pretentious snob when it comes to academics (okay, when it comes to pretty much anything...) but I really REALLY hope I didn't come across as assuming and self-righteous as these other prospective students did. But the thing that really didn't settle right with me is how these students somehow seemed to fit in with the culture of Brown as a whole. 

I'm not really sure how to explain this, but there was just something cold about the whole experience. Very much like "we will grace you with a few moments of our attention because it's good for public relations." There were absolutely exceptions to this that I feel I must note. I spoke very briefly with the professor and he was clearly very excited to meet prospective students and made me feel very welcome in his class. Also, our tour guide was very engaging and clearly just loved Brown. She spoke a little about her reasons for choosing Brown, and ultimately it was because when she walked on campus it perfectly matched her perception of what college should be like. That was absolutely not the case for me. The buildings felt foreboding and almost oppressive--much like the Puritan model on which they are based. Maybe this was to be expected from New England, but I'm hopeful for Amherst tomorrow. 

I think my mom summed it all up best when she said, "Brown feels truly New England. Princeton is Old England." 

Now that I feel like I've only had negative things to say about Brown, here's some nice things that I really did appreciate. Brace yourself, I'm about to go full nerd crazy here. First, this building.

Not the short one in the foreground, but the tallest one in the picture. Actually, if my memory is correct, I believe the top of that building is the highest point in Providence. Kind of cool. But not nearly as cool as the fact that for many years, Brown held the record for the largest game of Tetris when some students did a light show on the side of the building that allowed people to play Tetris on the side of the building. Okay a little cooler. BUT THEN, this building is a library that has exactly 14 floors so logically, each floor is color coded according to the pH scale. 

They say as you go up the books get more basic.




I didn't get a picture of this next one because that would have been creepy, but I saw a sweatshirt that had this design on it:

I'm sure these are all over the place, but it pretty much made my day. For less nerdy/non-mathemetically inclined persons here's a few translations:
Simplified math: i 8 sum pi and it was delicious.
English:  I ate some pie and it was delicious.






Then I saw design outside the chemistry lecture hall (didn't get a picture so I stole this from the internet):

That was also pretty exciting...







Okay, so what can I learn from all this?
1) I don't like urban campuses. I really like feeling like I'm at this specific physical place that is the college, rather than this general area where the college intermingles with the rest of the city. 
2) Dance is a deal breaker. There is NO ballet at Brown. At all. I'd have to create a ballet club, which would rely on people just looking to do something recreationally. Yikes. Not at all what I'm looking for. Now that I know there are colleges that accommodate various levels of classic ballet training, there's no way I could go to a college where I couldn't at least maintain my technique if not advance my studies. 
3) Practically, I don't need to worry about applying to Brown. It is officially off the list.