Fuck Yeah Brown University

It’s my understanding that Bear Bucks will be taking on a new ability this year: the ability to pay for you laundry. 

It was always a complete hassle to try and scrounge up quarters or to find a working machine to put money on your vending strip. With Bear Bucks this year, you can just do an online deposit from your bank account and pay for vending machines and laundry that way.

The other places where you can use Bear Bucks are pretty much limited to the bookstore (which is overpriced so you should avoid it at all costs) and the dining halls (they function the same way as flex points, so if you run out of those, this might be a good option, though you can always buy more points too). 

So, since we really suggest only using this for laundry and vending machines, putting about $50 in there might not be a bad idea.

In terms of Student Advantage Cards, they can very be beneficial. The list of discounts you can receive is really endless, ranging from clothing to travel to cell phones. If you’re planning on traveling outside of Rhode Island, these cards offer discounts on both Greyhound and Amtrak. Even if you don’t travel, there are nice clothing discounts you can receive. For the price you pay to receive one + how long it lasts (until you graduate from Brown) + all the discounts you receive, we think it pays off to have one. I know I have personally already saved over how much I paid for the card (I believe it was $20).

And don’t worry about your questions, we are more than happy to answer them! :)

Correct me if I am wrong, but are those the linens that you can buy from Brown? If so, I personally did not buy them, but many people do. it’s pretty useful if you have no idea what kind of bedsheets you would like and don’t feel like looking. Plus, you can pick them up at Brown when you arrive in the fall, so it is convenient. Bruno and I both had friends who ordered the student packs, and they liked them. There are cheaper alternatives though. It’s just a matter of preference, I guess!

We are currently in the process of making a post about Meal Plans. :) It should be up in the very near future. (AKA in the next few hours, haha)

Advising is generally really good. During the summer before your freshman year, you’ll be assigned a freshman adviser and a meiklejohn (we’ll include a pronunciation guide later), and that’s considered your advising team. They’ll take you out to lunch at nice restaurants, talk to you about classes, etc. Most advisers are very knowledgeable and invested in your future and meiklejohns tend to be very popular and involved on campus, so there is generally no problem with your advising team.

It seems like the way people get assigned an adviser generally works by pairing your intended concentration with someone who will be knowledgeable in that field. If you’re undecided, they’ll often assign you a dean or other administrator (don’t despair if this happens, because it’s actually great. Deans have a ton of sway at the university and most general faculty members know what’s going in all the departments). 

The only place where the concentration-pairing hits some issues is if you switch concentrations or they just really mispair you (computer science professor with comparative lit concentrator), which can happen if there is a shortage of professors in your field interested in mentoring. They’ll still be helpful, just less knowledgeable about what you should be doing. This is a situation where the advising center or the deans can be helpful instead. Plenty of people just pick a member of faculty and treat them as their adviser instead because the professors here are so open.

Once you declare, you get a concentration adviser, who will be VERY knowledgeable in the field you’re studying, so this is a great resource in planning your classes. It also means you automatically get a close relationship with a professor you may someday take a class with.

How great are the professors? As with every school, there are bound to be some duds, but in general everyone is here to teach, and that’s what makes the difference. We don’t have a very intense graduate program and research isn’t always the focus, so undergraduate learning gets the most attention from the teachers. Most people have only had one or two professors they’ve actually disliked.

The student body is amazing! Maybe I’m biased since I’m a member, but holy shit is it amazing. I came from a competitive high school and I expected an Ivy League school to be the same, but when I got here I found a very relaxed environment where competition in grades is not very important for any student. Interests vary vastly from person to person, and new perspectives are introduced to you on a daily basis. Basically it’s a fun, weird, diverse group of people. It’s impossible to characterize it as “preppy” or “hipster” or “normal” or anything like that. 

It’s different from anything you’ve ever experienced, but we know you’ll probably like love it if you come here.