Brown University Data & Information Overview
This overview covers the essential stats on Brown University, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more. Want to dig deeper into a particular stat? Just click on its tile and you’ll be taked to a more in-depth page on the figure. In addition, you can use the links below to quickly jump to any section on this page.- Rankings
- Admission and Acceptance
- Faculty
- Retention and Graduation Rates
- Diversity
- Cost
- Student Debt
- Average Earnings
- Location
- Majors
- Online Learning
- Related Schools
How Well Is Brown University Ranked?

2023 Rankings
College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.
Brown University was awarded 2,190 badges in the 2023 rankings.
Overall Quality
According to College Factual's 2023 analysis, Brown is ranked #11 out of 2,241 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. This puts it in the top 1% of all schools in the nation! This is an improvement over the previous year, when Brown held the #24 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Brown is also ranked #1 out of 9 schools in Rhode Island.
See all of the rankings for Brown University.
Is It Hard to Get Into Brown?
Acceptance Rate
Even if you have the best grades and high test scores, that may not be enough to get into Brown since the school has one of the most selective in the country. Its acceptance rate is a mere 8%, so there's no shame if you don't get in. Be sure to apply to other schools just in case.
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.
Learn more about Brown University admissions.
Brown University Faculty
Student to Faculty Ratio
The student to faculty ratio is often used to measure the number of teaching resources that a college or university offers its students. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1, but at Brown it is much better at 6 to 1. That's good news for students who want to interact more on a personal level with their teachers.
Percent of Full-Time Faculty
Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.
The full-time faculty percentage at Brown University is 92%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Retention and Graduation Rates at Brown University
Freshmen Retention Rate
Brown University has a freshmen retention rate of 92%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.
Graduation Rate
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Brown for first-time, full-time students is 85%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Brown University.
Brown University Undergraduate Student Diversity
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 6,792 undergraduates at Brown with 6,605 being full-time and 187 being part-time.
How Much Does Brown University Cost?
The overall average net price of Brown is $29,544. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.Net Price by Income Group for Brown
$0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
---|---|---|---|---|
$1,468 | $2,842 | $10,219 | $23,160 | $44,033 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Brown, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
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 0.8%. 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.
Get more details about paying for Brown University.
How Much Money Do Brown Graduates Make?
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Brown with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $78,943 in their early years. That's great news for Brown students since it is 86% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.
See which majors at Brown University make the most money.
Location of Brown University
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.Get more details about the location of Brown University.

Contact details for Brown are given below.
Contact Details | |
---|---|
Address: | One Prospect Street, Providence, RI 02912 |
Phone: | 401-863-1000 |
Website: | www.brown.edu/ |
Facebook: | https://www.facebook.com/BrownUniversity |
Twitter: | https://twitter.com/BrownUniversity |
Brown University Majors
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 78 majors graduated from Brown University. Of these students, 1,987 received undergraduate degrees and 1,045 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
---|---|---|
Computer Science | 213 | $130,101 |
Economics | 184 | $64,028 |
Applied Mathematics | 131 | $105,532 |
General Biology | 116 | $29,535 |
Political Science & Government | 78 | $50,186 |
Area Studies | 74 | $37,471 |
Child Development & Psychology | 71 | $37,636 |
General Engineering | 70 | $70,583 |
Public Policy | 68 | $49,331 |
History | 68 | $42,584 |
Online Learning at Brown
Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.
In 2019-2020, 8,626 students took at least one online class at Brown University. This is an increase from the 0 students who took online classes the previous year.
Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
---|---|---|
2019-2020 | 8,626 | 5,520 |
2018-2019 | 0 | 0 |
2017-2018 | 0 | 0 |
2016-2017 | 0 | 0 |
2015-2016 | 0 | 0 |
Learn more about online learning at Brown University.
Find Out More About Brown University
Related Schools
If you’re considering Brown University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against Brown? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Notes and References
Footnotes
*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.
References
- National Center for Education Statistics
- College Scorecard
- Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
- Image Credit: By Ad Meskens under License
More about our data sources and methodologies.