Brown University is one of the ten most prestigious private universities in the United States of America. It was founded in 1764 in the city of Providence, which is the capital of the state of Rhode Island. Included in the Ivy League, an organization uniting the country's oldest elite educational institutions. The university was the first in the northeastern United States to abolish religious segregation.
Spirit of freedom
Studying in the USA is very popular among international students. This is due not only to the highest level of teaching staff and a rich material and technical base, but also to the special atmosphere inherent in leading universities in the United States.
Brownian University, whose training system was created in the 1960s on the wave of hippies, is especially notable in this series. The institution is characterized by a peculiar teaching program when students do not have compulsory subjects. They are free to study those disciplines that they consider necessary. Instead, grades are set off at will.
History reference
The founding of Brown University is dated 1761, when three Newport residents approached the colony General Assembly with a proposal "to open a literary institution or school to instruct young gentlemen in languages, mathematics, geography and history."
The Assembly decided to establish a Colonial College in the town of Warren. As his first president, Pastor James Manning was sworn in in 1765, who later held classes in his ward. Five years later, the institution moved to a suburb of Providence.
In 1803, the administration promised to name the college by the name of the first person to make a donation of $ 5,000 or more. It turned out to be a merchant Nicholas Brown. The promise was kept, and since then the educational institution is called Brown University.
Unique education system
In the 60s of the last century, under the influence of the hippie subculture, a new movement of students and progressive teachers who wanted to “teach students to think, not just teach facts” unfolded in the United States.
Several American universities supported the initiative at the time. Brownian became one of them, where in 1966 the First Independent Research Group (GISP) was formed, in which 80 students and 15 professors took part.
As a result of the work of the GISP (and after a series of student demonstrations in their support), University President Ray Heffner in 1969 supported the reform of the curriculum. Its essence is as follows:
- Conducting special courses "Thoughts" for freshmen.
- Introducing interdisciplinary courses.
- Refusal of compulsory study of general education subjects.
- Changing the system of assessing the level of knowledge. Instead of points, if desired, the values can be set to "satisfactory" or "no rating". At the same time, subjects that have not received a satisfactory mark are not displayed in the final certificate (its analogue).
In the future, the special course “Thoughts” was canceled, but other elements of the reform are still relevant. In 2006, an attempt was made to switch to the traditional letter (point) grading system. However, the idea was rejected by the Learning Council after a survey of graduates, teachers and students.
Training
Within the walls of the educational institution, specialists are trained in more than one hundred undergraduate programs. Among them are such rare disciplines as: anthropology, archeology, biophysics, geobiology, Egyptology, biomedicine, cognitive neurobiology, urbanology, Sanskrit, marine biology, sex and society, semiotics, chemical physics, ethnology and others.
International programs are organized through the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. The university has academic links with the Marine Biological Laboratory and the State School of Design. Together with the latter, the Brown / RISD dual degree program is being implemented, in which, after a five-year training course, graduates are awarded degrees from both institutions.
University structure
In general, the university includes three main departments:
- Undergraduate.
- Graduate School.
- Medical department.
The university includes:
- College.
- Graduate School.
- Alpert School of Medicine.
- School of Engineering.
- School of Public Health.
- Research school.
In addition, the institution has institutes, laboratories, research centers, museums, Women's College, sports teams, sections, clubs, communities and other structures.
Campus
Those who are interested in studying in the United States know that in this country campuses have been built for large universities. These are educational centers where on a compact territory, applicants study, spend the night and spend their leisure time. Many teachers, employees of research centers and technical personnel live here. Brown University is no exception (the name of the institution is written in English).
The College Hill campus was formed in the 18th-19th centuries on the Jewelry District hills overlooking Providence. It is surrounded by residential buildings of the same era, so the university buildings are combined with the architectural structure of the city. You can distinguish the main campus from neighboring houses by an old brick fence that encloses the territory of the educational institution. The main campus consists of 235 buildings located on 143 acres (0.58 km 2 ).
Architecture
By tradition, the most important element of a private university in Providence is the central gate - Van Wickle Gates. They are used in a symbolic ceremony of initiation of freshmen and graduates. The main gate was built in 1901 at the initiative of the patron (and former student) of August Stat Van Wickle. They are made of wrought iron and limited to brick and stone columns. They are opened for processions and on special occasions. On the sides are smaller gates, which are used for everyday movement.
Perhaps the most beautiful building is Robinson Hall - a library built in the years 1875-1878 according to the design of Walker and Gould. The octagonal lacy structure of red brick is made in the Venetian Gothic style. The multi-thousand library fund is located in five buildings, of which the John Hay Library is also worth noting. It opened in November 1910 and until 1964 was the main one. The rarest and most valuable manuscripts associated with the development of the New World are stored in the John Carter Brown Library, the central entrance of which is made in the Bo-Art style and resembles the Arc de Triomphe.
The most notable campus structure was the Carrie Tower. Built in 1904 in an English interpretation of the Baroque style, it is a monument to Caroline Brown, the granddaughter of Nicholas Brown.
Brown Hall University is considered to be the oldest building. He accepted the first students in 1770. Until 1832, living rooms, classrooms, a reading room, a chapel, a library and a dining room were located here. Currently, the University Hall is the administrative center, including the offices of the president, dean of the college and the office.
Achievements
Among professors and graduates of American Brown University, there are eight Nobel Prize winners, five national liberal arts medalists, and ten National Science Medal winners. Eight students subsequently became billionaires.
Also among prominent graduates:
- Chief Justice of the United States.
- Four US Secretary of State.
- 54 members of the United States Congress.
- 55 scholarship holders of the Rhodes Award, giving the right to free education in Oxford in any specialty at the master's or postgraduate school.
- 52 Gates Cambridge scholarship holders (similar to the previous scholarship, but training is conducted in Cambridge).
- 49 holders of a Marshall scholarship, allowing free study at any university in the UK.
- 19 winners of the Pulitzer Prize.
- 14 holders of the Grant for Geniuses ($ 500,000). It is received by people with exceptional abilities.
- Members of the royal families, as well as leaders and founders of large companies.
According to various ratings, Brown University ranks high in the ranking tables among American universities. For example, in 2012, the MFA magazine awarded him 1st place among the Ivy League institutions and 4th overall in the country. Forbes in 2014 placed the university in seventh position in the America’s Most Entrepreneurship Universities category. In the Academic Ranking of World Universities for 2017, the institution entered the TOP-60.