Universities & Colleges in Rhode Island

Brown University — Rhode Island's Ivy League Crown

Founded in 1764 as the College of Rhode Island, Brown University is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the eight universities that constitute the prestigious Ivy League. Located on College Hill in Providence — a neighbourhood that takes its very name from the hill that Brown shares with the Rhode Island School of Design — the university is one of the most academically distinguished and distinctively liberal institutions in the world.

Brown's campus occupies 146 acres atop College Hill, commanding sweeping views of Providence's downtown skyline and the surrounding New England landscape. The campus's architectural character is defined by a harmonious blend of Georgian colonial and Federal-period brick buildings — many dating from the 18th and 19th centuries — interspersed with carefully chosen modern additions. The John Hay Library, designed in the Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1910, houses Brown's special collections and rare books, including Lincoln manuscripts, Napoleon memorabilia, and Napoleonic-era books. The Rockefeller Library, the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, and the Sciences Library form the core of Brown's research facilities.

Academic Culture & the Open Curriculum

What most distinguishes Brown from its Ivy League peers is its Open Curriculum — arguably the most flexible and student-centred undergraduate degree program at any major American research university. Brown has no core curriculum requirements, no distribution requirements, and no mandatory courses of any kind. Students are free to design their own academic programs, taking full advantage of the university's approximately 80 concentrations (Brown's term for majors) or creating their own Independent Concentrations. The only requirement is that students demonstrate proficiency in their chosen field through the completion of an approved course of study.

This radical academic freedom was not always the norm at Brown. The Open Curriculum was adopted in 1969, following a student-led review of the curriculum that produced the "Magaziner-Maxwell Report" — a document that argued passionately for treating students as responsible adults capable of determining their own intellectual paths. The curriculum attracted enormous attention and controversy at the time, but it has since become central to Brown's academic identity and a major draw for the independent-minded students who choose it.

Brown's academic departments are consistently ranked among the national elite. The computer science department — from which several of Silicon Valley's most influential companies have been founded — is particularly strong. The medical school, known as the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, has pioneered the Programme in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), a combined eight-year BA/MD program that admits exceptional high school students directly to the medical school pathway. The School of Public Health addresses global health challenges. The Institute at Brown for Environment and Society (IBES) is a leading centre for climate and environmental research.

Notable Brown Alumni

Brown's alumni network includes some of the most influential figures in American public life, business, and the arts. Among its distinguished graduates: John F. Kennedy Jr. (Class of 1983), who studied history; Emma Watson (Class of 2014), the actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador who studied English Literature; Soledad O'Brien, the CNN journalist; John Krasinski of The Office fame; Laura Linney, the Academy Award-nominated actress; Jeff Bewkes, former CEO of Time Warner; and a remarkable cohort of business leaders, Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, senators, governors, and ambassadors who have shaped the modern world.

The university's research output is equally distinguished. Brown's Brown Institute for Brain Science brings together neuroscientists, psychologists, engineers, and clinicians in one of the world's leading brain research programmes. The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs produces policy-relevant research on global governance, development, and security. Brown's Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World has led major excavations across the Mediterranean and Near East.

Visiting Brown University

The Brown campus is one of the most beautiful in New England and is open to the public. The Van Wickle Gates — the university's ornate wrought-iron ceremonial entrance on Prospect Street — are opened only twice a year: inward during Convocation (when new students arrive) and outward during Commencement. Tradition holds that undergraduates who walk through the gates in either direction before graduation will not complete their degrees, a superstition taken with varying degrees of seriousness depending on the occasion.

The Office of Admission offers guided tours of the campus for prospective students and their families, typically departing from the Waterman Admissions Office on Prospect Street. Self-guided tour maps are also available. The John Hay Library's reading room is open to visitors during regular hours, and the university's public events calendar — lectures, concerts, exhibitions, and sporting events — is extensive and often free to the public.