Brown University Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Brown University full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – I like taking the materials science classes, and the research experience here is wonderful

Cons – donot have any in my mind

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Brown University part-time for less than a year

Pros – Paid summer week, 10 sick days, full dental, medical, and childcare

Cons – Weather can be rough in the winter and work can be cancelled because of New England weather conditions

Advice to Senior Management – Continue employing more people of diverse backgrounds

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Brown University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - Excellent benefits and work/life balance (hours and time off are amazing)
- Not a corporate culture
- Excellent opportunities to leverage Brown for advanced degrees
- Providence is a great city to work in

Cons – - Annual raises don't even cover cost of living increase
- Very Low pay compared to other locations (but you work less hours)

Advice to Senior Management – For the love of God change your ability to give raises. Due to the low % for annual raises 1-2% employees are forced to leave or change departments every 5 years. Give more power & flexibility to the department's to decide their own compensation practices.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Brown University full-time for more than a year

Pros – Very ethical organization; HR is superb; leadership is great; sense of community

Cons – Salary is very low and it is hard to get a raise

Advice to Senior Management – At least keep up with cost-of-living increases. It is difficult to stay long term because eventually you need to be making more money, even if you love the job.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Brown University part-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great benefits. Reasonable salary. Nice co-workers. Freedom of action.

Cons – Vast. Hierarchical dealings with staff.

Advice to Senior Management – Look down and not always up.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Brown University full-time for more than a year

Pros – Open curriculum, freedom to choose my own courses, and the environment allows me to educate myself in the best way possible.

Cons – Too much to choose from!

Advice to Senior Management – Make sure that everyone is on the same page

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Brown University full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – The benefits: time off and standard work week of 37.5, flexible schedules available with some supervisors

Cons – Parking situation and limited public transporation offerings for those who work past 5 pm.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Brown University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Benefits are decent if you stay at least 5 years and then the 4 years for you child to attend college.
RISD, PC, RWU and many others have much better benefits.

Cons – Pay is lousy and they know it, admitted in in President Simmons letter stating admins are paid 6% on average lower than the surrounding area for the same jobs. To compensate, they decided on a pool of 2% to increase salaries 2011. Do the math, with an increase below inflation when we were already 6% below the average, we continue to lose money every year we stay there.

The amount of work administrative staff are expected to do and the vast diversity of that work with the constantly changing "experiments" and software makes it impossible to do the great job we want to do. Being unappreciated doesn't help. Though you may hear thanks from faculty, the thanks is never relflected in the pay check. They also charge us over $500 to park!!! Not to mention, they took away our benefit of free gym membership, so we lost another nearly $400 if you count that as slaary. They steal from the poor to give to the rich at the university. I don't make enough to live here or to work at Brown and I only have one child to support. It's not a living wage!

Advice to Senior Management – Pay your employees appropriately. Give raises, bonuses and promotions to those that do so much for the university. Reward the administrative staff that continue to have an unreasonable amount of work piled on them. Admins, we need to start a union so we can be treated and paid fairly!!! For an allegedly democtratic university, it's not reflected in how you treat administrative staff.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Brown University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – You get to talk about poetry all day, your teaching assignment involves teaching really really smart kids, and there are adequate colleagues.

Cons – The anti-union policies mean that the administration can unilaterally change work policies/funding policies, without warning or consultation. The hours suck (so does all grad school, though).

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Brown University full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – good health insurance, very open environment for research

Cons – pay is not good for a family with kids

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company