Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island · Founded 1764
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SAT / ACT required
Brown returned to requiring the SAT or ACT with the 2024-25 admission cycle and superscores either exam. The SAT Essay and ACT Writing stay optional, and the ACT Science section became optional in spring 2025. There is no minimum score. Transfer applicants are test-optional. Source: admission.brown.edu (verified September 2026).
About
Brown is an Ivy League research university built around the Open Curriculum: there is no required core and no distribution requirements, so students design their own path through more than 80 concentrations. The university pairs that freedom with a strong advising culture, and every member of the faculty teaches undergraduates.
History
Founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Brown is the seventh-oldest college in the United States. It moved to its College Hill campus in Providence in 1770, and adopted the Open Curriculum in 1969 after a student-led review of how undergraduate education should work.
What stands out
- Open Curriculum - no core requirements and no distribution requirements
- More than 80 concentrations, plus certificate programs
- Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), an eight-year route to the MD
- Brown|RISD Dual Degree with the Rhode Island School of Design
- A 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio, with all faculty teaching undergraduates
Popular majors
Campus life
About 75 percent of undergraduates - and 98 percent of first-year students - live on campus, so the residential community is the center of student life. There are more than 500 student organizations, and the Office of Student Life funds new ones students want to start.