Brown University

Brown University is an Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1764 as Rhode Island College, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in New England and the seventh-oldest in the United States. Brown was the first college in the nation to welcome students of all religious affiliations.

Related Topics:
Ivy League - Providence - Rhode Island - 1764 - Higher education - New England - Seventh-oldest - United States

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Brown distinguishes itself from its peer institutions through its "New Curriculum." Instituted in 1969, it allows students to more flexibly determine their own educational paths by eliminating distribution requirements and mandatory A/B/C grading (allowing any course to be taken on a "satisfactory/no credit" basis).

Related Topics:
1969 - Grading

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Admission to Brown, one of the nation's foremost universities, is extremely competitive. At 14.6%, the College has the sixth-lowest undergraduate acceptance rate for doctoral universities (as categorized by the Carnegie Foundation and U.S. News & World Report) in the United States, after Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, and Stanford). Students come from all 50 states, as well as 65 countries. Brown's financial aid program awards approximately $70 million each year in the form of scholarships, jobs, and loans. Over 50 percent of students receive some form of financial aid. In the fall of 2004, billionaire Sidney Frank, who could only afford to attend Brown for one year in his youth, donated an additional $100 million exclusively for financial aid—the largest gift in the university's history. Earlier that year, Frank had given $25 million for the construction of Sidney Frank Hall, the future home of Brown's fast-growing Department of Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Science, and Department of Linguistic Sciences. In September 2005, Frank made yet another donation of $5 million to aid Brown in providing free tuition for New Orleans students whose colleges had been rendered unusable by Hurricane Katrina just weeks earlier.

Related Topics:
Carnegie Foundation - U.S. News & World Report - Harvard - Princeton - Columbia - Yale - Stanford - State - Financial aid - 2004 - Billionaire - Sidney Frank - Hurricane Katrina

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Brown is notable for, among other things, having the oldest undergraduate engineering program in the Ivy League (1847), the only undergraduate Egyptology department in the Western Hemisphere, and the only undergraduate History of Mathematics department in the world. Brown was also one of the first institutions to emphasize media studies, with its department in Modern Culture and Media, where students study film, film criticism, and critical theory.

Related Topics:
1847 - Egyptology - Western Hemisphere - History of Mathematics - Media studies - Film - Film criticism - Critical theory

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Since 2001, Brown's current and 18th president is Ruth J. Simmons, the first Black American president, and second female president, of an Ivy League institution, as well as the first permanent female president of Brown.

Related Topics:
2001 - President - Ruth J. Simmons - Black American

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The school colors are seal brown, cardinal red, and white. Brown's mascot is the bear and the sports teams are called the Bears. The costumed bear mascot named "Bruno" makes appearances at athletic games. The use of a bear as the University's mascot dates back to 1904. People associated with the University are known as Brunonians.

Related Topics:
Seal brown - Cardinal red - White - Bear - Mascot - 1904 - Brunonians

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