Brown University
Brown University is an Ivy League research university that occupies a 146 acre campus in the small city of Providence, Rhode Island, about a 55 minute drive from Boston and a 3 hour drive from New York.
As the seventh college in Colonial America and the first Ivy League institution to accept applicants from all religious backgrounds, Brown University was established in 1764. It was originally called the College of Rhode Island, but renamed in 1804 after Nicholas Brown, a well-known businessman, donated $5000 to the university. Women were admitted to the university in 1891 through the all-women’s Pembroke College, which eventually merged with Brown College in 1971.
45% of Brown’s enrollment of 7,125 full time students identify as students of color, and 11% of them are international students. Brown students come from all 50 states and international students hail from 66 different foreign countries. Improving diversity metrics are reflected in the freshman class of 2025 which had 48% identify as students of color.
According to Brown University’s website, it currently has an endowment of $6.9 billion.
Distinguished alumni from Brown University include John F. Kennedy, Jr. - lawyer and journalist, Emma Watson - English actress, Bobby Jindal - former governor of Louisiana, John Krasinski - American actor, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. - philanthropist and financier, Allegra Versace - Italian socialite, and many more.
Costs of attending Brown University 2022-2023
Tuition costs - $62,680
Fees - $2,466
Room - $9,368
Meals - $6,472
Personal - $2,700
Total cost of attendance - $83,686
Health insurance (not included in cost of attendance) - $4,255
Access Brown University’s Net Price Calculator
Brown University Statistics at a Glance
Data from Brown University website and Common Data Sets.
| / | STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS | FINANCIAL AID | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrollment | 7,125 | % receiving financial aid | 42% | ||
| Women | 51% | Average financial aid | $56,149 | ||
| Men | 49% | % Pell Grant recipients | 13% | ||
| Students of Color | 45% | ||||
| International Students | 11% | ACADEMIC INFORMATION | |||
| First Generation (Class of 2025) | 17% | Student - faculty ratio | 6:1 | ||
| Instructional faculty (fulltime) | 1131 | ||||
| ACCEPTANCE RATES | Average class size | ND | |||
| Class of 2026 | 5% | Classes with 19 students or less | 69% | ||
| Class of 2025 | 6% | ||||
| First year retention rate | 98% | ||||
| ACADEMIC STATISTICS | 6 year graduation rate | 96% | |||
| Average GPA | ND | ||||
| Number of majors | 59 | ||||
| Standardized Test Scores | Number of courses | ND | |||
| SAT 25th to 75th percentile | 1470-1550 | ||||
| % submitting SAT scores | 51% | Number of students who study abroad | ND | ||
| ACT 25th to 75th percentile | 33-35 | ||||
| % submitting ACT scores | 30% | STUDENT LIFE | |||
| % submitting test scores | 81% | Number of student organizations | ND | ||
| Students who live on campus | 70% | ||||
| Class Rank | |||||
| % in top 10% of HS class | 91% | ||||
| % in top 25% of HS class | 98% | ||||
| % submitting HS class rank | 23% |
Sports at Brown University
Brown University belongs in NCAA Division 1, and the NCAA rules and calendar for athlete recruitment apply to athletes interested in being athlete recruited to Brown University.
Brown University, an Ivy League university with an undergraduate enrollment of 6,792 students, plays a total of 32 NCAA sports, 14 of them for men and 18 of them for women. In the 2021/2022 season, Brown University had a total of 992 NCAA athletes comprising 15% of the total student body.
See:
What NCAA Sports does Brown University Play?
Brown University’s athlete recruitment policies
What you can expect from Brown University
Brown’s mission is to cultivate students who are creative, curious, and independent thinkers, and to foster strong collaboration between students to solve complex problems.
Brown does this through its Open Curriculum, which allows students to select their own courses without needing to fulfill general core requirements and allows student to “concentrate” in fields of study rather than major in them, while also being able to take classes unrelated to this field of study.
There are 6 key values which are fundamental to Brown’s mission: Innovation, Accountability, Collaboration, Empathy, Equity, and Inclusion. Through these 6 domains, Brown seeks to create an environment of excellence and professionalism in which students and faculty alike should aspire to.
Is Brown University hard to get into?
With a 6% acceptance rate for the class of 2025 and 5% acceptance rate for the class of 2026, Brown is a very difficult university to gain admission to.
With 81% of its matriculated students for the class of 2025 submitting test scores, it is quite clear that Brown uses test scores as a strong indicator of college readiness and ability to handle an intellectually rigorous college curriculum. The reported middle 50% range for SAT was 1470-1550 and for ACT, it was 33-35.
Aspiring applicants should be very clear that they will increase their chances of admission if their test scores fall within or exceed the middle 50% ranges published for the Class of 2025.
As with any highly selective college with a single digit acceptance rate, it is material for applicants to present as both academic high achievers and as passionate individuals pursuing unique activities beyond academics who possess qualities valued at Brown.
Where do Brown University graduates work and what do they earn?
According to Brown University, 92% of its graduating class of 2020 were either employed or in graduate school or professional studies.
Highlights of employers who hired Brown University graduates:
The Brookings Institution
Boston Children’s Hospital
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
U.S. Department of Justice
Facebook
New York Times
The Walt Disney Company
Los Alamos National Laboratory
New York Genome Center
Amazon
Microsoft
Google
Deloitte
McKinsey & Co
Bain & Company
Lockheed Martin
Proctor & Gamble
SpaceX
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
BlackRock
Goldman Sachs
Council on Foreign Relations
Earnings Data for Brown University Graduates
With the costs of attending college becoming prohibitively expensive, it is hard to treat the college experience as a strictly educational and developmental one. You have to think about your earnings potential as well. Unless you are very lucky, chances are that you will graduate with some student debt. Whether you can afford to pay it off in reasonable time, and not have this debt interfere with your ability to live your life without a overhanging debt burden depends on what you can earn when you graduate from college.
Knowing what you can earn with the the degree you earn and the college you earned it at is essential for planning your life. The data we provide here is meant as a guideline only as there will be variance between individuals based on many factors including the types of jobs and employers they pursue.
Data from Payscale based on 902 responses
| Median Starting Salary | $63,400 | Number of respondents | 902 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average Base Salary | $90,000 | |||
| YEARS OF EXPERIENCE | ||||
| BY MAJOR | Entry level | 7% | ||
| Mathematics and Statistics | $87,800 | Early career | 37% | |
| Computer and Information Sciences | $86,400 | Mid career | 24% | |
| Engineering | $74,100 | Late career | 13% | |
| Business, Management, Marketing and Related | $70,900 | Experienced | 18% | |
| Philosophy and Religious Studies | $68,000 | |||
| CAREER AVERAGES | ||||
| Early Career Salary (1st 5 years) | $64,300 | |||
| Mid-Career Salary (10+ years experience) | $129,300 | |||
| BY JOB TITLE | ||||
| Senior Software Engineer | $146,423 | |||
| Director of Operations | $130,000 | |||
| Senior Product Manger | $129,588 | |||
| Product Manager, Software | $120,000 | |||
| Data Scientist | $113,500 | |||
| Software Engineer | $109,234 | |||
| Executive Director | $98,264 |
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