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Archive for: Brown University

Brown University President


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Christina Paxson will succeed Ruth Simmons as president of Brown University (photo credit: Brown University / Patrick O’Connor).

There is a new Brown University president. The university announced today that Christina Paxson, the Dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, will succeed Ruth Simmons as Brown’s president. Said Paxson upon the announcement of her selection, “I loved my time at Princeton, but I find the Brown character to be very appealing.” According to the “Brown Daily Herald, “In particular, she cited Brown’s university-college model as admirable, noting that she received her bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, also a small liberal arts institution.”

In November of 2000, Ruth Simmons was elected as the first female president of Brown University. Her presidency was also historic in that she was the first African American president of an Ivy League college. In 2001, shortly after she began her presidency, “Time” selected her as “America’s best college president.” She managed to secure an unprecedented amount of philanthropic donations and she made great efforts to expand Brown’s global reach. Also of note, she was cited in the Academy Award-winning movie “Inside Job” for taking in a salary of $300,000 from Goldman Sachs while serving as the Brown president. The movie expressed that this was a conflict of interest that should be rectified.

Do you think Christina Paxson is a good choice to succeed Ruth Simmons? What do you think about Ruth Simmons’ presidency? What do you think about Brown choosing consecutive female presidents after hundreds of years of sticking exclusively to male presidents? Let us know your thoughts on the matter by posting below!

Brown University Athletics


A few days ago, we posted about the Brown University administration’s decision to eliminate the fencing, wrestling, and women’s ski teams. We told the story of how the Dartmouth men’s and women’s swimming and diving program was cut back in 2002 and how an entire college came to its rescue. We believe that in order for the Brown University athletes on these eliminated teams to have a chance at reinstatement, they will have to fight as passionately and as creatively as the Dartmouth College students, parents, and alumni did several years ago. Who will stand up for Brown University athletics? Will it just be the athletes whose teams were eliminated? Or will other students come to their support?

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Brown University eliminated their wrestling, fencing, and women's ski teams. If students don't rally to support the teams in big numbers, it doesn't look like that decision is going to change anytime soon.

According to the “Brown Daily Herald,” “About 75 students gathered on the Main Green Monday afternoon to protest the Athletics Review Committee’s recommendations to cut four varsity teams, and some protestors continued to express dismay over the proposal to President Ruth Simmons during her open hours later in the day. Most of the protesters were members of the wrestling team, women’s ski team and men’s and women’s fencing teams, which could lose all support from the University if Simmons and the Corporation accept the committee’s suggestions for the 2011-12 academic year. Though it is a club program, the men’s ski team, which is also facing the possibility of being cut, was represented at the rally as well.”

75 students won’t cut it. Brown University isn’t going to reinstate these teams and reverse its decision unless more students, parents, and alumni rally to the cause. Brown University athletics needs their support.  Or was what Dartmouth College students, parents and alumni accomplished just unique to that particular college? Alumni loyalty to Dartmouth is well known. Do Brown students and alumni not have the same love for their college as Dartmouth students and alumni do for the College on the Hill?

Check out the “Brown Daily Herald” article by Sarah Forman here.

College Transfer Students


It’s no surprise that transferring to an Ivy League university or other highly selective college is a most difficult feat.  At many of these universities, the acceptance rate for transfer applicants is considerably lower than the acceptance rate for its regular applicant pool of high school students applying as freshman. In fact, Brown University experienced a 20% increase in transfer applications from last year. According to the “Brown Daily Herald, “The University received around 1,950 transfer applications this year — a 20 percent increase from last year’s 1,621 applications. The Admission Office has not yet decided the exact number of transfers it will accept, but it plans to offer spots to around 200 students and enroll between 125 and 130. The Corporation approved an increase of up to 50 for next year’s transfer class to stabilize the student body at around 6,000, but the University determined a smaller increase in transfer enrollment would be sufficient.”

Check out the “Brown Daily Herald” article here.

And check out our related blogs: Guaranteed college admissions and Harvard College, Shame on you.

Brown University Students


There is an interesting article today in the “Brown Daily Herald” that discusses what Brown University students intend to do after they graduate from college. 25% don’t know what to do. 35% plan to enroll in graduate school. And 25% plan to get jobs (for the previous class of Brown University students, half of those students who got jobs took them in the non-profit or government sectors). The remaining will participate in service programs.

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In this chart from the "Brown Daily Herald," Brown University graduates tend to put off getting jobs. And for those that do get jobs after graduation from Brown, they tend to get them in the non-profit or government sectors, according to research.

According to the “Brown Daily Herald,” “Just over 35 percent of undergraduates plan to attend medical, law, business or graduate school immediately following graduation, according to last month’s Herald poll. About one-fourth of current students — 23.9 percent — indicated they plan to take up jobs after graduation, and 7.6 percent indicated they will be participating in service programs such as Teach for America and the Peace Corps. More than one-fourth of undergraduates are still unsure about their plans. According to data collected by the Career Development Center, 56 percent of the class of 2009 were employed as of April 2010, while 27 percent of that class told the CDC they were enrolled in full-time education programs.”

Do you think it’s surprising that Brown University students tend to take jobs in the non-profit and government sectors? Do you think it’s surprising that such a large percentage of graduates don’t know what to do upon their graduation or that 35% go on to attend graduate school directly after graduation? Let us know your thoughts!

Check out the article “One-third plan further education after graduation” in the “Brown Daily Herald” here.

And check out our related posts on international applicants to Brown University and Brown University admissions.

International Applicants to Brown University


This year, 14% of admitted students to Brown University hail from outside of the United States. According to the Brown Daily Herald, topping the list of countries from which its admitted students reside are China (57), India (34), and the United Kingdom (33). Said Brown University Dean of Admission Jon Miller, “India has replaced Canada as the second-most-represented country among admitted students. The University has increased recruiting efforts overseas in recent years, and the success of those initiatives is reflected in these numbers.”

We’ll be reporting on international student admission figures to top U.S. universities in the coming days so stay tuned.

Check out the Brown Daily Herald article by Lindor Quanaj here. And check out our related blog posts on international students.

Brown University Admissions


At yesterday’s annual “State of Brown” address in which Brown University administrators delivered a speech about the major issues facing the university, the Dean of Admission, Jim Miller, made an interesting prediction. He, like many admissions counselors who analyze demographic trends in the admissions process each year, believes there will be a fundamental demographic shift in the students applying to Brown University in the coming years.

According to the account of the “State of Brown” speech by a writer for “The Brown Daily Herald,” “The University expects to see more applications and students from the south and the west regions of the country, as well as a growing number of students of Hispanic and Latino backgrounds. Miller also emphasized the need to understand and use new forms of communication and outreach. ‘We need to be very current, going forward as an institution … in the way we reach the next generation of Brown students,’ [Miller] said.”

Check out the article in “The Brown Daily Herald” here.

International Student Support


Brown University is making attempts to increase the support available to international students who enroll at the university. It’s often difficult for students from other parts of the world to adjust to daily life at an American university and thus Brown is undertaking initiatives to improve the available support during the transition to college, during college, and after college.

The students who are championing the initiatives to increase international student support proposed that international students be offered city tours, be assisted with setting up bank accounts and getting cell phones. During the college years of the international students, it was proposed that a language exchange program be established in which native English speakers are paired with international students so that they can both help each other learn the nuances of their respective languages. After graduation, the initiative would help in reaching out to alums around the world in the hope of increasing job finding support globally.

Check out the full article in “The Brown Daily Herald.”