Avoid dark clothing and bring a lint brush because these pups are back and ready to snuggle! Come to the Main Green today, April 30 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for Heavy Petting (Ed.-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) with Brown faculty members and their pups. Prepare yourselves for some good ol’ fluffy fun. If you can’t make it, enjoy this corgi on stilts. We’ll see you there!

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Long gone are the days when Brown was the happiest school. The Daily Beast has ranked Brown the sixth most stressful school behind Northwestern, Harvard, Columbia, UPenn, and WashU. Perhaps a Rhode Island marijuana legalization could go a long way after all.

I’ve always thought the SciLi was comparable to Mordor.

The rankings were calculated by the total price of tuition, the percentage of students receiving financial aid, selectivity based on the average SAT or ACT score, and the percentage of applicants admitted. A small weight was given to the amount of crime in the area (all those DPS alerts do make my heart rate go up…).  Brown, with a tuition of $56,150 a year (thanks, Mom and Dad), 49% on financial aid and 9% admission rates, starts to look pretty stressful.

Of the 25 most stressful schools, Brown ranks 15th in the “most crime” category. Go figure.

Hopefully these rankings will emotionally validate some pre-med and engineering students.

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At 8 years old, I was already very concerned about the Career Fair.

I didn’t go to the Career Fair yesterday.

I planned to. I had absolutely nothing to do between 12-4. My Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule is surprisingly open this year, and while that means a hectic Tuesday-Thursday, I enjoy the luxury of lounging around most of the day in pajamas and eating large amounts of gummy vitamins, since I have consumed all other nutrional substances in my room. (Seriously though, those gummy bears are delicious—do bad things happen if you eat ten in one day?! [Ed.- Yes.])

But I didn’t go. I refused to embrace pre-professionalism and thus probably sentenced myself to a purgatory of cubicles and mediocrity.  I watched my peers don their slacks and pantsuits and march off with unbridled optimism, resumes in hand, ready to conquer Corporate America. And I attempted to rationalize my decision to ditch.

Rationalizations:

1. The Dresscode. Seriously, who do we think we’re kidding? We don’t dress like that. The employers know we don’t dress like that. Brown students, in general, have two modes of dress: Homeless People (being sweatpants, sweatshirts, and bedhead) and Chique Homeless People (harem pants, anything from Urban Outfitters, and bedhead achieved through an hour-long battle with a curling iron and hairspray).

Do we really think that wearing those awful tan trousers will change anything?

2. Resume Anxiety. I don’t have anything close to That Awesome Internship, and I’m betting a ton of Brunonians don’t either. ”Research” means I watched a lot of Netflix and effed around on Wikipedia all summer. “Advanced Infant Supervisor” means babysitter. And you better believe the employers know it.

[Read more →]

Puppies, everywhere!

Health Education and Health Services held Heavy Petting on the Main Green, when Brown staff and faculty brought their dogs to school for the petting/making-silly-noises benefit of the student body.

Held once or twice a semester, Heavy Petting helps relief the stress of upcoming final exams, papers and projects.

Better hurry: The dogs are only here from 11:30 to 1:00.

Don't become like her.

Need an extra reason to stop studying? A Brown Med School professor posted Monday about a recent metastudy of over 12,000 6-18 year-olds that found “a significant positive relationship between physical activity and academic performance.” Although specific GPA increases numbers weren’t included, the researchers point to “increased oxygen flow” and endorphins as possible factors for this correlation (among many other things that also release endorphins).

At the same time, Brown researchers at Butler Hospital have discovered that adults who had high levels of anxiety during childhood have genetically-modified stress responses. Although their DNA isn’t changed, the way their genes are expressed is (epigenetics FTW), and as a result, they have “greater stress sensitivity and fear in stressful situations,” according to Audrey Tryka MD, PhD.

All this to say that no matter how much work you can get done sitting in the Ratty for four hours straight, “you should probably get off your butt and go get some fresh air.” [Thanks for the quote, Mom.] So, snow football tomorrow anyone?

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Brown University Health Services sponsored a “Heavy Petting” event this morning, which featured Brown faculty and staff and their furry friends as a great way to de-stress from the barrage of mid-October mid-terms and papers.

Feeling stressed by upcoming finals? Head on over to the Main Green today between 11:30 am and 1 pm.  Lucky for us, ‘Heavy Petting, A Stress Relief Event’ sponsored by the Health Education center is back. And no, it’s not what you’re thinking. Brown faculty and their dogs will be on the green for you to play with in hopes of reducing your stress level. And from past experiences, it (for the moment, at least) works!

Apparently, Brown is the 20th most stressful school, according to The Daily Beast’s college stress rankings. Not sure about their ranking system, though.

While Brown students are lounging at home or partying it up on Spring Break, it seems that our compatriots still can’t get over how hard life is. What is it this time? The Daily Princetonian’s three-part examination of “stress as a way of life.”