Brown University
Responses from the Student Interview
From a student who identifies as Concentrations: I’m a double concentrator with International Relations and Slavic Studies with Russian Language. International Relations has two tracks: Political Economy and Security and Society. I’m more into international politics, so I do Security and Society. I did Slavic Studies with Russian Language because the upper-level courses have to do with Russia and Russian politics.
Student Self Identifies as: Caucasian Heterosexual Female
Summary
I volunteer with Safe House, which is a volunteer shelter for women who suffer from domestic violence. I’m part of the Student Language Exchange where I work to set up classes in languages that would not normally be taught at Brown, such as Malay and Swahili. I’m was also in Brown Elementary After School Mentoring (BEAM).
Background
Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
First-Generation College Student: No
High School Experience: Private school in Baltimore, MD with a graduating class of about 100 students. There was a culture of going to college.
Concentrations: I’m a double concentrator with International Relations and Slavic Studies with Russian Language. International Relations has two tracks: Political Economy and Security and Society. I’m more into international politics, so I do Security and Society. I did Slavic Studies with Russian Language because the upper-level courses have to do with Russia and Russian politics.
Extracurricular Activities: I volunteer with Safe House, which is a volunteer shelter for women who suffer from domestic violence. I had to do training in order to work there. A lot of what I do is be on the phone with people who want to stay at the shelter. I’m part of the Student Language Exchange where I work to set up classes in languages that would not normally be taught at Brown, such as Malay and Swahili. I’m was also in Brown Elementary After School Mentoring (BEAM) where I go to an elementary school in a low-income neighborhood and teach an after-school club. It’s exhausting but fun. I eventually stopped doing it.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience?
Safe House had a really big impact on my college experience because I am now thinking about doing human rights law after graduation because of it.
Academic Experience
Can you describe the weekly coursework for your concentrations?
It depends on the semester, most of the time the weekly work’s reading lots of academic articles. The major assignments are essays, you’re writing all the time.
Is there anything you think your concentrations’ departments do especially well or poorly?
International Relations is a huge department, so you have to advocate for yourself for attention in advising. That’s part of the reason why I did Slavic Studies, which is a small department. It’s also important to know that IR has a lot of requirements. [In 2018, there were about 60 graduates with the International Relations concentration.]
What was your favorite class you took for your concentrations?
International Relations: Introduction to International Politics or International Law and Politics of Human Rights.
Slavic Studies: Politics of Post-Soviet States.
What was your least favorite class you took for your concentrations?
Globalization and Social Conflict – a vague sociology lecture. I didn’t like it because of the professor and TA.
What is a fun class you took outside of your concentration?
European Women’s History. It covered history from the French Revolution to now.
Why did you pick your concentrations? Are you happy with your choice?
I went into college knowing I wanted to do that because I took Russian all through high school. I came in thinking I may want to do something in the state department and diplomacy and played around with some classes and decided on International Relations. I chose Slavic Studies because it was easy to start after taking Russian in high school. Now that I’m three years into the IR major, I realize that I’m more interested in politics. So, I think if I could go back and do it again I would have done a Politics concentration with an international track.
Reasons to Attend
1) Academics.
2) It’s really easy for freshmen to mesh socially.
3) It’s a supportive academic community yet still competitive.
Reasons Not to Attend
1) If you’re looking for a crazy party scene you won’t get that.
2) Dining hall. I hate the dining hall. [Editor’s Note: The dining Hall has been recently renovated.]
Around Campus
Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: Keeney Quad, I lived in Jameson House with one roommate. I loved living in that dorm because all my best friends came from that floor and the floor below me.
Sophomore: I lived in a double in Caswell with a friend. It’s a great location and I loved my hallmates. The dorm gets dusty but I had a big room.
Junior: Graduate Center in a six-bedroom suite with one bathroom. It sucked and was really isolating. It was a really old building and we had to clean our own bathroom. I was there for a semester and then went abroad.
Senior: Off-campus apartment with two others. I’m super excited because my best friends are living in an apartment across the hall
What is your favorite off-campus restaurant?
Harry’s Bar & Burger. They have alcoholic milkshakes.
What is your favorite place to get away from campus?
The Mall? [laughs]. I used to go off campus a lot through BEAM but not anymore. I guess the movie theater in the mall.
Social Opportunities
What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I go out almost always Friday and Saturday. Brown doesn’t have much of a bar culture and we can’t have parties at frats because they’re campus owned, so we mostly go to off-campus houses that are affiliated with sports teams.
Can you describe a typical night going out?
My most typical night is my whole friend group will hang out in our friend’s apartment, and then go out around 11ish to a house or a club downtown – we’ve gone to less clubs as we’ve gotten older because they’re 18+ so a lot of freshmen go. Recently the cops have been shutting things down early, so on a good night we’ll stay out until 1 or 2, get food and pass out.
What have been your favorite days and nights at Brown?
Spring Weekend in April is especially fun. We’ve had Fetty Wap, Waka Flocka Flame, and Mac Demarco perform. Others are day parties are for football games.
What are some other options if you don’t want to go out to a party?
Brown has different student clubs that will have events at night. There are definitely things to do. A lot of the time for Freshmen people will just hang out in dorms.
Do freshmen boys have trouble getting into parties?
No, not really. People will get turned away if it’s an exclusive thing. It’s no different than other years.
How happy are you with the weekend options at Brown? Is there anything you would change if you could?
They’re fine. There’s not much to do. There are times when I have a lot of fun and things are great, but those are not as often as times when there’s nothing to do. There are only so many weekends you can hang out in somebody’s living room before it gets boring.
Campus Culture
How did you make your closest friends?
Of my core group of seven girls, three lived on my hall. One went to high school with a girl we know. I had three football players living across from me that I hung out with a lot. Other friends I met through BEAM.
How would you describe the overall social scene?
It’s a little cliquey, but I tend to stick with a group when I have one though. We all hang out with each other even though it’s cliquey. Like my friend in BEAM, she has her friend group and I have mine and we all hang out together. Athletes tend to hang out with each other. There are also some people who float around. I had a really lucky situation because my friend from high school lived one floor below me.
I just think people do their own thing and if you think somebody’s cool you hang out with them and if you don’t you don’t. People don’t think athletes are gods like they can be at other schools. There are also groups from where you’re from like New York, San Francisco, and the International crowd. Some people may think they’re on top but I don’t think that there’s a hierarchy overall.
Do people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
In general, yeah. I think it depends on what social circle you’re in. There are definitely groups who are for specific races and sexual orientations. When groups have events celebrating a holiday or Pride, they are welcoming to others coming and I’ve never experienced someone being unaccepting of somebody.
Do people seem happy with their choice Brown?
I personally am. We tend to get a lot of transfers coming into Brown. There are people that complain about Brown but don’t leave. Some people get frustrated about how small it can be and that we’re not a big sports school. For the most part, I think people are pretty happy, though.
Careers
Has the alumni network helped you with internships or jobs?
Yeah, sort of. My parents are both alums so somebody my parents went to college with helped me find an internship this summer. But, I’ve never used the official alumni network before. I’ve talked to alumni for advice but never in an official capacity.