Brown University

Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, is considered the most liberal and progressive of the Ivy League schools. It combines an innovative approach to education with high standards of academic excellence. Brown encourages its students to form their own educational programs as much as possible, believing that students are best motivated by their own goals and values.

Brown allows students to choose from 100 established undergraduate degree concentrations or to formulate their own. The school offers 50 different graduate programs, ranging from highly specific science programs to multi-disciplinary programs in arts and humanities. Brown's medical school is well known for its unique eight-year Program in Liberal Medical Education, which combines undergraduate and professional study. Its goal is to produce doctors who combine their medical expertise with a humanistic world view. The program is extremely respected and extremely competitive, accepting only about one out of 20 applicants.

All this educational freedom means that Brown expects its students to play an active role in designing and getting their educations. The school encourages students to think outside the educational box, pursuing knowledge beyond their disciplines and actively seeking out the skills they need to excel in their chosen fields. It requires students who have confidence, creativity, focus, motivation, and a strong desire to learn. The faculty and staff at Brown provide plenty of support in the form of guidance, advice, and feedback on their students' educational choices, but it's the students who must take the initiative and responsibility for their own educations. If you need more structure and discipline to stay focused, this approach to education can be overwhelming and may not be right for you. Brown's innovative approach to the structure and design of its educational programs makes it unique among the most elite universities. You should carefully consider whether you're cut out for this kind of academic environment before pursuing admission.

Brown Graduate Admissions at a Glance

The Brown Graduate School offers graduate programs in over 50 different disciplines, ranging from humanities to mathematics, engineering, and the social and natural sciences.

The Brown Medical School consistently earns high marks for the quality of its medical education and for its innovative and cross-disciplinary programs. The Brown Medical School also takes an unorthodox approach to admissions. In past years, most of its students were drawn from Brown's highly competitive Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), an 8-year-long course of study that combines undergraduate and M.D. studies. The Brown Medical School also has linkage agreements with the postbaccalaureate premed programs at Columbia University, Bryn Mawr College, and Goucher College, and has an Early Identification Program that recruits sophomores from several Rhode Island colleges. Brown only began taking 'standard route' applications again in 2004, following a several-year hiatus. This allows students holding (or completing) undergraduate degrees from other universities to apply to Brown through the AMCAS system. Brown AMCAS admissions remain exceptionally competitive because so many of the School's first-year seats are used for PLME and other special program applicants.

Brown used to have a joint program with the Dartmouth Medical School, but that program was ended in 2006.

Note: This page was last updated on September 6, 2011.

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