Going to graduate school isn’t about acquiring knowledge. It’s about developing, applying, and sharing knowledge.

Graduate students are participants at Brown — central to the dialogue and discoveries of a major international research university.  

Research and teaching go hand in hand at Brown. Faculty members are accomplished and accessible.

You’ll find a MacArthur Fellow leading doctoral studies in Anthropology, and a National Book Prize winner guiding MFA candidates in Literary Arts. A neuroscience researcher generates large grants and receives a Graduate School award for advising and mentoring students. An engineering professor and doctoral student co-found a local firm to commercialize their pioneering technology.  

Brown has a friendly scale and collaborative culture. With nearly 2,000 graduate students and more than 680 full-time faculty members, Brown offers exceptionally close mentoring in its doctoral and terminal master’s programs.  

Along with that support is the latitude to chart a path. It’s in the DNA of the place, reflected in the open curriculum adopted in 1969 for undergraduate education at Brown. Graduate students can craft their course of study, and they have the flexibility and resources to engage in Brown’s exceptionally rich tradition of interdisciplinary research. 

Independent thinking, skepticism, and difference are prized. Brown’s climate of openness and cooperation can be traced to its home in Rhode Island, which was founded on the principle of religious freedom. From the start, Brown welcomed students of all religious beliefs, and Brown remains dedicated to diversity and intellectual freedom.  

Whether your research takes place in a chemistry lab, at an overseas excavation site, or in a rare-books library, there is a wider community available to you that will enrich your student experience. Many of our graduate students also engage in the local community, through mentoring or other volunteer activity.