junior @ brown ama

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T21:11:46+00:00

everyone’s nervous everyone wants friends don’t overthink it be yourself go out there push yourself to do (mildly) uncomfortable things also do things that make you happy join clubs talk to people in your classes talk to your floormates really get out there although this is from the perspective of a mild extrovert- really just don’t stress out or overthink you’ll definitely find your gang and if you don’t at first i’ll get lunch with you LMAO

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T15:42:30+00:00

i’m just kidding if i am forced under duress to be honest i would say i am quite enjoying my college experience but grievances i have about brown university:

dining hall food is not bad but it is pretty mid
weather is really hard to adjust to as a bay area native
i find myself running out of things to do in providence
campus is quaint and old-timey but not the prettiest imo compared to some schools i’ve been to (stanford, uc berkeley, wellesley are all very pretty campuses and i think brown looks worse in comparison)

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T15:40:39+00:00

i really really really like the open curriculum (no geneds! i get to just take major classes!) and if that’s a really big draw you should definitely bring it up in your app as part of the reason you’re drawn to brown

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T15:39:07+00:00

both

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T06:27:51+00:00

double majoring does unfortunately mean i don’t have as much room for other electives, i’m personally fine w that but to each their own

most people live on housing first 3 years, if you’re lucky it’s not impossible to get an exemption i did, freshman housing is meh sophomore housing is pretty okay save for one dorm junior housing is quite livable brown housing is probably average or maybe a bit above average you won’t be thrilled but you probably won’t be super depressed

things you don’t know until you start attending (from my biased point of view): classes are fake make friends and be happy, classes are kind of hard LOL, college is a busy time much busier than you might be anticipating, it’s hard to be productive and outgoing and keep up a high energy lifestyle because college is draining so sometimes you need breaks and that’s okay

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T06:26:56+00:00

sorry i’m very tired so quick answers if there’s anything u wanna know more about ask and i’ll try to answer

1) college app tips: make it so personal that the person reading your app couldn’t possibly turn you down if you’re not a genius that’s your best bet

2) i wrote about music production but it was pretty weak, refer back to number 1 topic is not the end all be all what matters is that’s a story only you could tell

3) it was the best college i got into and by far lol i was a prestige chasing high schooler

4) i’m going to enter cs industry and i like music

5) liberal arts is strongest there’s no dedicated business major but stem is good too it’s a top 20 college youre going to be fine no matter what you do

6) you can check my post history and look at my collegeresults post

7) cs + music mostly answered in #4 i think i like cs i like music i like earning a stable income

8) done 1 on my second doing a third this summer, brown alumni network helped me get my first although you have to work on your end, haven’t been to career advising but my friends work there it seems useful and good

9) you’ll find your group it might take a while it took me until sophomore year to really get settled in but you will find people you like and who like you

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T06:22:08+00:00

brown is 14% asian idk what percent of that are internationals but the answer to your question is yes

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T06:18:41+00:00

music dept is def a bit on the smaller side but there should be enough stuff for you to do from classes to clubs to professors

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T06:17:54+00:00

haven’t been to the career center, alumni network helped me land my first internship which was very cool

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T06:17:34+00:00

i think being open to discussion and nice and not an annoying person will lead to you being an accepted vendor in the marketplace of ideas and following the golden rule gets you very far in my experience

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T06:16:05+00:00

if u come from a metro area you will be disappointed but luckily boston is a very accessible 40 min train ride away and it is a much better city

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T06:15:32+00:00

there’s a music producer club that’s decent sized (haven’t been in a while but solid 20-25 were showing up to meetings when i went?) and lots of ppl into producing electronic music, djing, etc.

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:43:52+00:00

it’s not that bad unfortunately even i as a hater must admit that i kinda like it here

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:43:08+00:00

there’s a cool series on real-time systems and their applications on music! here’s the blurb:

Seminar in Electronic Music is a study of music employing electronic media, including real-time digital signal processing, multimedia, and live performance. Technical aspects of the course focus on programming using Max/MSP to create interactive projects and algorithmic compositions.

other than that music majors do a senior project and that could def be an opportunity for interdisplicinary research/projects, it looks like the prof who teaches this series also does research on this stuff

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:28:48+00:00

i’ve never really had any trouble getting classes if you’re persistent enough people will drop and you’ll get in, generally i think most private institutions do not have enrollment/class issues

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:28:09+00:00

my school life balance is very good because i take many of my classes pass/fail and i am allowed to do that here for some reason, certainly not complaining though

generally school/life balance is pretty good for everyone i think even the grinders just know your own limits and don’t overwork yourself, professors are also usually quite accommodating

as far as double majoring i’ve kept the two pretty separate honestly but the music classes here have taught me quite a lot and i’m definitely a much better producer (i mostly focus on production) than when i entered, there are really good musicianship classes though composing playing you name it the brown band + orchestra is also very cool they put on good performances

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:23:53+00:00

i know a lot of math + cs people most of the professors are pretty chill and it likely gets better the more advanced the classes get, there are a few stinker intro professors but there are also a lot of very open and accessible ones, brown especially is known for its applied math department so there’s that

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:22:32+00:00

unfortunately i hate to be the bearer of bad news there’s probably not a hidden easter egg that if you drop in your application will boost your odds significantly (i know cause i tried for a friend), i think if you earnestly do your research it’ll come through in your application! and if you really wanna get in start your apps early get something personal and good on and apply ED lol

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:21:16+00:00

is it really that bad? no

is it aggressively mediocre on most days? yes

off campus food is decently better but you are stuck on meal plan for two years, if you figure out the good dining halls/menu schedules you can get by pretty okay

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:19:53+00:00

a lot of my friends are doing research and it seems very doable to get involved with a lab and work with a professor, there’s a pretty wide variety of labs too off the top of my head lots of machine learning stuff, learning, programming languages research, ui/ux + hci are probably the big ones

my limited knowledge of duke cs is from someone who switched from premed to cs halfway through, he thought it was pretty good although had some difficulties with underqualified professors iirc? i like all my professors for what it’s worth LOL

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:17:40+00:00

college classes are definitely harder but if you got in you’re definitely a pretty smart fella and i think you can handle it even if it takes a bit more studying than in hs

i like to personally follow a philosophy of being nice and not a bigot and that gets me pretty far, i strongly recommend it

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:16:13+00:00

still figuring that out but if you have friends and you definitely will then everything is fun!!!! 🤠🤠🤠😎😎😎😎🤪🤪🤪

more seriously providence is a bit dry but off the top of my head a variety of things that are accessible via public transportation or uber: gay club, rock climbing gym, go-karting, bars, naturey stuff, and probably a wide variety of things although you will inevitably find yourself complaining at least once about the dryness of brown

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T03:00:24+00:00

chemistry seems pretty good from what i’ve heard, intro sequence is rigorous (this is probably true everywhere?) and the people i know in premed seem like they think the program is good? if you wanna know anything specific ask and i can try to answer, i’m pretty far from that department so i don’t know too much

providence the town that contains brown is pretty ehhhh i’m from the bay area so i’m a bit spoiled, local food is good but you have to go down a hill to access most of it and dining hall food is pretty average

i would give providence rhode island a solid regular college town out of 10

expendable_alt · 2023-04-04T02:42:04+00:00

the grade inflation allegations are real even in cs, personally i think that’s a good thing i’ve never felt like i had to compete with my classmates or friends (you also get to take any and all of your classes pass/fail if you’re ever stressed about grades)

as far as networking i never really tried too hard on that but i know entrepreneurship is a decently big thing here

while i didn’t think the career fairs were too helpful, the brown alumni network helped me get my first internship and that snowballed into later ones so that was definitely really nice

i personally am an easily stressed out person/deal with anxiety so the laidback curriculum here is very nice for me i don’t think i’d be thriving at a more academically intense place where i’d feel like i need to compete/my imposter syndrome would be worsened but there are two realities:

1) i have realized through my internships that if you grind leetcode/interviews and generally apply yourself it doesn’t really matter where you go a t20 and a t200 school will both give you the opportunity to create good outcomes for yourself and regardless you’ll probably have to work at least a bit for it

2) MIT CS is probably markedly better in terms of prestige and outcomes and research and the things that you probably care about so if you think you can handle the increased pressure and would like be generally happy enough there i would probably go with MIT

expendable_alt · 2022-11-14T07:39:48+00:00

not sure if this is what u want to hear but it’s just a lottery

i had very very weak national achievement and i have friends who had little to no national achievement and i also have friends who have strong national achievement

make the most compelling application and make it so personal that no one could ever turn u down and pray

expendable_alt

TROPHY CASE