Brown: We Can't All Be Odysseus

Although I would like to be him, to an extent.

On Saturday my parents decided we should go to Brown, because it's not moderately far away like Penn (which is where I'd like to go, even if I get accepted everywhere else, except maybe MIT if everyone else is also there), or really, really far away like WashU, which I don't know if I even want to go in the first place.

I had already heard stories about Brown, both good and bad, so I wasn't sure what to expect. (I never considered it one of the schools on my "list" though, those selectively few that meet my slew of criteria.)

My first opinion of Brown as we drove into campus to find MacMillan Hall was that it was in the middle of Providence, and therefore very crowded and frantic. Providence isn't by far the most frantic city I've been to, and being a city girl myself, I don't mind cities at all (and in fact, I like them better), but something about the way Brown was structured (maybe the buildings themselves, I wasn't sure) put me off. The buildings I saw were mostly brick red, relatively tall, and I was reminded a lot of Williams by the way it spilled into the city.

Then we found the "auditorium," which was really just a large lecture room (and, coincidentally, a chemistry room). We listened in on the hour-long information session (really just 45 minutes, with a 15-minute Starbucks break—at least there's coffee readily available), which included an Odysseus analogy, and how Brown students are explorers who are motivated by curiosity rather than material goods. Then we went outside, where we saw the huge, huge group of people and the small, small group of tour guides.

So instead of shuffling along in the tour, we got a map of campus and walked around ourselves.

Inside Brown, it's really different from the red-brick-hectic side I had seen earlier. This Brown was, in a way, like Princeton, with its greens and wrought-iron gates and pretty stone and brick buildings. It was secluded, maybe even meditative, and it was really nice in general.

Well, in general, I'm unlikely to consider Brown, since it's more stringent towards international students who apply for financial aid, which is what I am. But it's a nice place, I have to admit, even if it's probably not the place for me.

On a separate note, Newport, RI, where we went next as a side trip (as all of these college visits apparently require side trips to make up for their faraway distance and the effort we made to go there), is filled with huge houses and this one school (Salve? Regina? I can't remember) that overlooks the ocean. We didn't investigate further, but my parents concluded that "you can't possibly learn there with so many distractions."

Also, I have finally collected my letter of ineligibility from the SSA, and two different forms of ID. Now just for the mail addressed to me and to actually know the rules of driving.

(Extra mention to Allison Saint-Cross because he's making my taglist look icky, and I won't be talking about him for a while, at least not that I think so.)