Mir is more flexible in terms of the type of learning style and hashkofos the students have. Brisk is very monolithic, and opinionated when it comes to both. They have their own shitas and they are very strong minded about them. Culturally, they are also very European.
In both learning and Haskofo, Brisk and Chofetz Chaim are an odd couple, and the American Yankee boy type of of Ben Torah that comes from Chofetz Chaim is on the opposite side of the spectrum from the typical “alter litvak” in Brisk.
Rav Aharon Kotler and Rav Ruderman both learned in Slabodka. Rabbi Elya Svei is a talmid of Rav Aharon; Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg was a talmid of Rav Ruderman. One thing that Rabbi Svei and Rabbi Weinberg both agreed upon it is that they are NOT following the same Mesorah.
In Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim they employ a derech halimud that is considered incorrect in many other Yeshiva circles. They will respond that their derech halimud came from their Rebbe who got it from his father/Rebbe who got it from the Chofetz Chaim. Yet others will claim that the approach to learning there bears no resemblance to the Chofetz Chaim’s, and if the Chofetz Chaim would be alive today he would be the first to disagree with them.
I heard from a CC rabbi that the Chofetz Chaim colored shirt thing is supposedly an offshoot of the approach that existed in the Slabodka Yeshiva, where Rabbi Lebowitz, the CC Rosh Yeshiva, learned. They focused a lot there on what’s known as Gadlus HaAdam, the greatness of man, and one of the reasons was because in those days Yeshiva guys were considered lowly and it was hard to feel proud to be one. So they made them dress a little spiffy amongst other things, to boost their morale and self-image. The CC people sort of carried that over, and to them, it manifests in their wearing colored shirts. If you ask me, it doesn’t accomplish anything nowadays and just serves to make CC different in the eyes of the rest of the Yeshiva world. I am nobody to tell them what to do, but I dont see what they’re gaining.
Regarding Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, I heard the following: but please note that (a) I do not necessarily share all the views below, and (b) not everyone who does not think of the Yeshiva they way you believe they ought to does either – the following are only general answers; some may hold like some, others like others, and still others may have additional issues. The following only serves as a general idea.
The reason some do not consider the Yeshiva on the optimal level, is because:
(a) They go too slow. Tearing apart Rishonim and Achronim has a limit. Knowing Gemora and knowing a lot of it of it has value that they consider to be neglected in your Yeshiva. “B’iyun” doesnt mean to spend all that time tearing apart and rebuilding the Rishinim and Achronim that much. If so, ain l’dovor sof. Your spending time discussing the ins and out of the Meforshim they consider beyond the point of “Iyun” and way into plain “kvetching” and ill spent time.
(b) The emphasis on the Achronim and the authority given to them – especially the later Achronim – and the accompanying time spent on “tearing them apart and putting them back together” is considered by them a waste of time, and not proper procedure in learning. There is a certian amount of importance that should be placed on Gemar, on Rishonim, on Achronim, and on the later Achronim. The proper recipe for how much weight each should carry, and how much time should be spent on each, and how much “iyun” each actually contains – is considered by those others as skewed in your Yeshiva (especially where it comes to later Achronim).
(c) The emphasis on the Rosh Yeshiva’s Shiur, the amount of time spent on it, and the value given to it (as always “muchrach”) is considered by those other places to be misplaced, the time ill spent, and the entire idea of emphasizing a Shiur to that point as a problem because it it purposeless to do that and counterproductive since what to emphasize and what not, and how much is considered an intergral part of learning.
(d) The above and similar misfocused learning methods constricts the students’ creativity, constricts his Torah focus on one narrow type of thinking thereby preventing him from developing his potential, especially since that potential may lie in learning differently than the single-minded way was taught to think.
This narrowness comes from the emphasis and over-value mainly on one particular rebbe’s Shiur (i.e. the Rosh Yeshiva) and secondarily, over-emphasis on late Achronim.
The end result of all this is, the way your Yeshiva and its students and alumni learn is not considered up to par with the rest of the Yeshivos. It certainly is different; they consider it worse.
(e) Hashkafically, the Yeshiva is considered to over emphasize going out into Chinuch and Kiruv as opposed to valuing learning for its own sake, and growing into a Gadol B’Torah.
(f) The same over emphasis and focus on one specific way of thinking applies to Divrei Agadita and Mussar as well.
In short, the Yeshiva is perceived by others, as taking the Torahs of the Rosh Yeshiva and his personal thought patterns and way of learning and making them into something much more than they actually are. By doing so, they end up lacking that which they could have had, in both learning and Hashkofa-knowledge, if they would have spent their energies acquiring it.
There are many different opinions as to what the right “derech” in learning is; simply put, a lot of the Yeshiva world disagrees with Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in this respect, plus some other issues, as above.
That having been said, I would like to reiterate that neither I, nor anyone necessarily shares all the views above, in the exact form that I wrote them. There is no “official” handbook of the “Yeshivishe velt” that paskened on your Yeshiva. So any individual may think a bit more or less of any of the above. But in general, that is the situation.
Another, very very important thing. Nobody in the world, from one end of the Yehsivishe velt to the next, has anything but extreme admiration for the Middos and “ehrlichkeit” of the students that come from Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim. If there is any Yeshiva that is considered to “put out” great Baalei Middos and “mentchlicher” students, it would surely be Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim, above any other.