Brown University Top Questions

College is a time of discovery and growth. When choosing a school, try your best to make sure you feel comfortable in that environment. Once you're there, regardless of whether or not it was your first choice, make the most of every experience. College is truly the greatest four (or more :) years of your life- be sure to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. Don't be afraid of taking risks, meeting new people, or taking a class in a field completely different than your area of interest. Be open, be excited. It was Emerson that once said: "Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." Remember this and please, make the most of yourself.

Don't set your heart on a school that you've only read about. Regretfully, there is no statistic for what is the most important criterion for a school: happiness. Visit the school, talk to the students, have an overnight stay. Remember that a university is a whole new lifestyle, not merely a place with books and classes. No matter what school you go to, the people you will be spending the most time with are the other students - not the professors. Make sure you find a school that has a culture that fits your personality. Ultimately, it's this community that determines whether or not you will have a happy four years or not. Don't look for a school that has a "niche" for you - find an inclusive school that embraces you no matter where you happen to be on campus.

Select a school based on the strength of the departments in which students wish to study. If unsure, pick a school with many strong departments. The social atmosphere should also fit students' needs, since many or most students live on campus. For example, consider whether religion or diversity (not just racial diversity, but socioeconomic diversity, diversity of hobbies, etc.) is important. As to making the most of college, it really depends on the individual and how one apportions his or her time. A large part of college is learning to make one's own decisions and choosing one's own path. That said, the environment the student picks should provide the tools necessary for him or her to realize his or her goals. Finally, I would recommend that students planning on going to college directly after high school think hard about whether they are going to college immediately because it is simply "the next step" or because they really want to get something out of it. If the reason is more the former, I might recommend some time off between high school and college.

Brown University was my so-called dream school. I fell for all of the hype that things like US News and World report create. As it turned out Brown (and I don't believe any college) didn't inherently make me happy. I have two pieces of advice for students and parents: just because other people like or dislike a college doesn't mean you will or won't. Go with your gut but realize that whether you end up loving or hating you school is largely a function of luck and circumstance. There are some obvious variables that you know from the beginning (such as size of school etc.) but the process is really beyond your control. My second piece of advice is not to beat yourself up about being busy all the time. Try to do well in school, but I spent two years wondering what to do with my time and my life and it was miserable. So just enjoy four unique years before the working world comes knocking!

Don't let money govern your decision. Apply to schools that you want to attend and worry about your financial aid packages later. What's in a name, anyway? Maybe less than you think. Follow your heart, not the name. Don't apply to fifteen schools (e.g., all of the Ivies and Stanford and MIT and Williams an...) to maximize your chances. No. Think it through. These are all very good schools; if you're determined to get into a 'top 20' school, good for you, but not all of them are the same: If Brown suits you, then MIT might not, and if Cornell suits you, then Wellesley might not. Accept it and don't waste your time and resources.

The best advice I can offer is to talk to as many students as possible at all schools of interest. While faculty, deans, and other administrators can offer great insight as to the "nuts and bolts" requirements of any school, the students can tell you about the more important and personal aspects of college life. It's important to remember that much of college learning takes place outside of the classroom, and picking a school environment that promotes this kind of learning is of utmost importance.

The search for the right college is difficult and there is really little advice that will work in every situation. However, one thing is for certain, the more you visit a college, the fuller you'll understand it and you'll be able to make a smarter decision based on that knowledge. Tours and information sessions are useful for parents, but if you want to find out whether you actually belong, the only test is to live there and experience it in real time. Making the most of the college experience is a little more difficult. We're sent to college to get an education, right? While academics should always come first, college is just the backdrop to growing up. And experiences, problems, and relationships are all necessary to develop and all take away from studying. But you shouldn't sacrifice a great friend or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the sake of studying. In short, work hard, harder than you'd like, but when someone or something comes along that you truly value, embrace it as an education in something other than academia.

Search the course cataloge deeply when applying to schools. Make sure that the university offers courses that you are interested in. Search and read surveys, like this one, from students attending the university or college. The best way to research a school is through the students who are enrolled. Surveys like these are the best ways to find out about professors, campus life, and academics that are usually omitted on the school brochures. As for making the most out of one's college experience, join clubs and become active on campus. Make friends and discover what your are truly interested in. I joined the cycling club my sophomore year and have discovered that I love competitive cycling. Throught his club I have made many friends as well.

We spend about eighty years on this earth; you'll spend about four in college. That means you'll only spend five percent of your life living in dorms, eating off a meal plan, and writing messages to your friends on those little whiteboards hanging on dorm-room doors. But these few years will be the most important in your life. You will meet lifelong friends. You will find love. You will go broke. You will study more than you ever thought possible. You will party more than you ever thought possible. You will choose a major, and possibly, a career. While you gradually become an adult, you will discover not only what you'll do, but who you are. These are the most transformative years of your life. Whether you go to your dream school or you're stuck at (heaven forbid!) a safety school, cherish the time you have in college, because a day will come when you're out of meal credits and memories will be all you have left of those years between 18 and 22.

The most important advice I can give to this year's college applicants is that finding the right college or university is ultimately up to the student, and not his or her parents. When college begins, parents are there to help the student move in, unpack some things, and make the bed. Then they leave, and college begins. The truth is that your parents won't be there through the entire schoolyear, like they are in highschool. Even for students who live at home throughout college, it is during those years that they must learn independence and self-sufficiency. Ultimately, an applicant can't know what he or she will want with life in four years, or two. What is most important is that you choose the school that will allow you to experiment and grow on your own, to experience and to learn for yourself what it is you want with your life. College is about defining yourself and creating a template for you to work with for years to come. Any school where you can do that and have fun doing it is exactly where you should be.