A Lovely Shade of Brown

My son and 100 or so other equally bright, equally wide-eyed juniors spent the afternoon at Brown being led from one bucolic location to the next. It was all there: the flowering azaleas, the health-flushed youth tossing frisbees in the impossibly pristine quads, the spanking new, $100 million science facility. Who wouldn't want to go here? Apparently, not many. Brown is the most popular school at North. 48 applied last year and a lucky two were admitted. A*, so bound-and-determined not to come on this tour, now doesn't want to leave. "I could see myself here," he says. And from the look in his eyes I can tell that he means it. Who knows, but MIT may have some competition after all.