Student Life

Brown senior skier Kelly O'Hear has been named a 2007 ESPN Second Team Academic All-American. You can choose from four meal plans: 20, 14, 10, or 7 meals a week. Laundry machines are available in the residence halls. The anchor has symbolized Rhode Island since 1647. Brown’s Ladd Observatory is open to the public on Tuesday evenings. There are over 20 lighthouses in Rhode Island. All first-year students live on campus, with a roommate. We're not sure what this is a picture of. The Photo Lab can make prints up to 16 x 20 inches. Rhode Island may be small, but you won't run out of places to explore. Eat your lunch outside by the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier.
Pets are not allowed in the dormitories. T.F. Green Airport is served by all major airlines. You'll have a lot to write home about living in Providence. The Brown University Sailing Team consistently ranks in the top 10 nationwide. Our state bird is the Rhode Island Red Hen. A sturdy bicycle is the best way to get around town. Prospect Park, just off the Brown Campus, has the best sunsets in town. All dorm rooms have phone, Ethernet and cable TV connections. Rhode Island has 400 miles of coastline and more than 100 beaches. Brown's Swearer Center offers a variety of public service opportunities. By bus it's four hours to New York City and an hour to Boston.
Your host:

Chris Berman

Sportscaster
Class of 1977
Chris Berman

Chris Berman '77's first broadcasting position came while he was a student at Brown University as sports director for WBRU Radio and commentator for basketball, football, ice hockey and baseball games.

The 2007-2008 NFL season marks Berman's 22nd consecutive as ESPN Sunday NFL studio host; he also covers baseball, golf, and other sports for ESPN. In November 1991, he was inducted into the Brown University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Hi there. This is Chris Berman. Some of you may know me from my 25+ years at ESPN (which makes me feel a little ancient), but I'd rather assume that you know me as Chris Berman, Brown Class of 1977.

Funny, that doesn't make me feel so ancient anymore. That's because every time I speak about Brown, or think about Brown, I get this glow. My days at Brown were the best of my life, and if you are fortunate enough to enter Brown, I'm sure you'll feel the same way.

I run into Brown alumni all the time, some older, but most younger, even many who've graduated in the last few years. I always ask them how they enjoyed it, and every time the answer is, "I loved it." So I'm far from being on a Providence pipe dream.

One of Brown's biggest assets for undergraduates is that it's your school. You don't feel that you have to elbow your way around thousands of grad students, whether in the classrooms, in the library, strolling around the campus green or Thayer Street (Brown's main thoroughfare of activity) or in and around your dorm. What's happening for students from their freshman through their senior year is the heartbeat of campus. Don't underestimate that.

You have the best of so many worlds at Brown. It's not a small campus – you'll meet somebody new every day. But it's not so big that you feel you're a number with your professors or with your fellow students. You're not in a huge city, but you're on the East Side of Providence, which is vital and diverse and busy enough. Plus, downtown Providence has become a thriving city itself – New England's second best all around after Boston, but without Beantown's size. Again, it's your town. Remember, Rhode Island is America's smallest state.

And the students? In my opinion, it's an Ivy League school with kids as brilliant and enthusiastic as you'll find anywhere, but without that "nose up in the air" feel you might experience elsewhere. Everyone is more than welcome, and everyone is thrilled to be there.

I felt this in the Seventies, and I feel it when I get back to Brown here in the 21st Century. There is a spirit that is unmistakable.

At ESPN, my alter ego is the "Swami," where I make football picks every week. The easiest prediction I could make is this: If you come to Brown, you'll love it for the rest of your life.