Brown University Overview

Located in Providence, Rhode Island, Brown University is a private not-for-profit institution. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

What Is Brown University Known For?

• Students at Brown may have an easier time interacting with their teachers since the student to faculty ratio at the school is 6 to 1.
• The student loan default rate at Brown is 2%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Brown.
• In 2017-2018, 90% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from Brown makes roughly $67,500 a year. This is 65% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• The average Brown student graduates in 4.2 years. That's better than the national average of 4.4 years.

Brown University Rankings

We have ranked Brown as #34 out of 2,587 colleges and universities in the country in our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. Brown also holds the #1 spot on the Best Colleges in Rhode Island ranking.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Brown has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#26	Best Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#31	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#35	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Brown.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#4	Best Mathematics & Statistics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Computer & Information Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#11	Best Public & Social Service Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#11	Best Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#12	Best Natural Resources & Conservation Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#18	Best Health Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#30	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#30	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Brown has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#3	Best Mathematics & Statistics Schools	College Factual
#9	Best Computer & Information Sciences Schools	College Factual
#13	Best Business, Management & Marketing Schools	College Factual
#15	Best Healthcare Schools	Healthcare Degree Search
#16	Best Health Professions Schools	College Factual
#22	Best Education Schools	College Factual

Where Is Brown University?

Contact details for Brown are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	One Prospect Street, Providence, RI 02912
Phone:	401-863-1000
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/BrownUniversity
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/BrownUniversity

How Do I Get Into Brown?

You can apply to Brown online at: https://www.commonapp.org/

Admission Requirements for Brown

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	recommended
High School Rank	recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	considered but not required
TOEFL	recommended

How Hard Is It To Get Into Brown?

With an acceptance rate of 8%, Brown is one of the most selective schools in the country. If the admissions department requests additional materials, be sure to submit them promptly. This could be a sign that you're on the border line of being accepted or denied.

Approximately 49% of accepted students are men and 51% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 9%, and the acceptance rate for women is 7%.

Average Test Scores

About 71% of students accepted to Brown submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 710 and 770. Math scores were between 730 and 790.

Brown received ACT scores from 43% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 34 and 36. Math scores were between 30 and 35. Composite scores were between 33 and 35.

Can I Afford Brown University?

The overall average net price of Brown is $58,057. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Brown, approximately 13% of students took out student loans averaging $9,671 a year. That adds up to $38,684 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Brown is 2.1%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Brown University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 6,792 undergraduate students at Brown, with 6,605 being full-time and 187 being part-time.

There are also 3,156 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 6,605 full-time undergraduates at Brown, 47% are male and 53% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Brown University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	1,224
Black or African American	478
Hispanic or Latino	734
White	2,744
International Students	733
Other Races/Ethnicities	692

Geographic Diversity

Rhode Island students aren't the only ones who study at Brown University. At this time, 49 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 117 countries are represented at Brown. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, India, and Canada.

Online Learning at Brown University

In 2019-2020, 8,626 students took at least one online class at the school.

Brown University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Computer Science	229	107	9	345
Economics	203	13	15	231
Applied Mathematics	178	8	10	196
Medicine	0	0	137	137
General Engineering	65	56	15	136
Public Health	53	73	6	132
Public Policy	60	55	0	115
Area Studies	78	20	7	105
General Biology	93	6	0	99
History	87	4	6	97
Political Science & Government	78	9	4	91
General English Literature	76	1	6	83
International Relations & National Security	79	0	0	79
Child Development & Psychology	70	5	2	77
Physics	27	32	11	70
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	62	1	6	69
Writing Studies	53	13	0	66
Entrepreneurial Studies	57	0	0	57
Communication & Media Studies	45	5	5	55
Fine & Studio Arts	49	2	1	52
Chemistry	20	13	15	48
Geological & Earth Sciences	26	10	11	47
Biomedical Engineering	14	23	8	45
Drama & Theater Arts	18	22	2	42
Human Biology	41	0	0	41
Biomathematics & Bioinformatics	9	21	8	38
Business Administration & Management	0	38	0	38
Sociology	24	5	8	37
Natural Resources Conservation	36	0	0	36
Interdisciplinary Studies	32	3	0	35
Music	29	0	4	33
Data Science	0	32	0	32
Medical Science	0	29	0	29
Philosophy	25	0	4	29
Science, Technology & Society	13	15	0	28
Urban Studies	25	0	0	25
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	24	0	0	24
General Education	24	0	0	24
Linguistics & Comparative Literature	20	2	2	24
Mathematics	15	2	6	23
Anthropology	18	0	5	23
Security Science and Technology	0	22	0	22
Computer Information Systems	21	0	0	21
Cognitive Science	17	2	2	21
Classical Languages & Literature	16	2	2	20
Ecology, Evolution & Systematics Biology	0	11	8	19
Ethnic Studies	11	6	2	19
Biotechnology	0	14	1	15
Historic Preservation	0	15	0	15
Behavioral Science	13	1	0	14
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	13	0	13
General Architecture	12	0	0	12
Educational Administration	0	12	0	12
Religious Studies	10	2	0	12
Cell Biology & Anatomical Sciences	0	2	8	10
Romance Languages	5	3	1	9
Archeology	6	1	1	8
Statistics	6	0	0	6
Classical & Ancient Studies	1	1	4	6
Physiology & Pathology Sciences	0	0	5	5
Health Sciences & Services	0	0	5	5
Other Social Sciences	5	0	0	5
Pharmacology & Toxicology	0	1	2	3
Medieval Studies	3	0	0	3
Engineering Physics	1	0	0	1
Molecular Medicine	0	0	0	0
Business/Managerial Economics	0	0	0	0
Information Technology	0	0	0	0
Multilingual Education	0	0	0	0
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	0	0
South Asian Languages	0	0	0	0
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	0	0	0	0
Mathematics & Computer Science	0	0	0	0
Museum Studies	0	0	0	0
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0
Astronomy & Astrophysics	0	0	0	0
General Psychology	0	0	0	0
General Social Sciences	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	2,182	733	354	3,269

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Ad Meskens under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.