Brown University Top Questions

Second to none.

the academics are quite strong and are what you make of them. its not hard to get good grades as long as you do the work. effort-based grading.

The New Curriculum rules - students only have to take required classes for their concentrations, and the rest is completely up to them. Students are serious about their studies here, and the classes, especially in the sciences, can be challenging and competitive. However, the academic atmosphere is not overly stressful. To quote a visiting friend from UCSB, "Brown kids study hard, and party hard." The profs here are really intelligent and motivated, across the board, and most classes are very rewarding. Best class? Neuro 1: Introductory Neuroscience. A Brown education is geared toward learning for its own sake - with a lack of requirements, students have to choose each of their classes on their own, inspiring them to choose what truly interests them.

I feel like the open curriculum's lack of academic requirements is perfectly balanced - you are required to take a certain set of courses to satisfy a concentration (unless you create your own, which is totally possible but actually a lot more work), but at the same time you can easily complete your requirements really early and take whatever courses you want (unless you're pre-med or engineering, those have a lot of requirements). The range of courses available is great, and everyone stresses out about making their schedules, but it's usually about how many awesome things they want to take. Classes are generally pretty small, I like it. Also YOU CAN TAKE ANYTHING PASS-FAIL. This is a great thing. It is also crazily underutilized even by the vast majority of Brown students. Most people I know have taken, max, like TWO courses pass-fail. But that was their choice. Me, I take everything pass-fail.

Students study a lot, atleast my group of friends do, but yet again Brown has a diverse student body so study time varies although a majority of students do buckle down during exam periods. I have spent time with professors out of class and some (not all) professors know me by name. It is all in the choice of classes and class sizes you get to pick which one you want. I feel like education at Brown is generally geared at learning and changing the world with knowledge. Yes a bit idealistic, but that's Brown.

Do professors know your name? In most classes yes · Tell us about your favorite class. I've had many! One is "Hispanics in the US", where other than the readings and class discussions we each volunteer every week at a local public school and tutor, usually in Spanish. During spring break some of us also participated in a Brown community service project that takes volunteers to a clinic in the Dominican Republic · How often do students study? Depends on the student. But you can find a lot of people in the library on a Sat night. Kinda scary · Is class participation common? Yes, everyone loves to hear themselves speak · Do Brown students have intellectual conversations outside of class? Yes · Are students competitive? I don't think so. Everyone just has high standards for themselves · Do you spend time with professors outside of class? I was invited to two holiday dinners with professors, and one professor in a class I took last semester, took 5 students to dinner at a restaurant after class every week. It was a nice restaurant too · How do you feel about Brown 's academic requirements? They are minimal, and it's great · Is the education at Brown geared toward getting a job, or learning for its own sake? Depends on major, but generally I would say learning. Everyone's gonna get a job eventually anyway.

In general the academics at Brown are good. Intro level classes, particularly in the sciences, tend to be big classes, you have to make a real effort to meet the professor, and it's tough and awkward to meet the professor unless you're having trouble in the class. Class participation is common in smaller classes, particularly humanities. In my classics class, for example, my professor knows my name. With the open curriculum, you can take any class you want to, which is really cool, because I've taken a class called Ancient Utopias and Imaginary Places at the same time as I was taking Organic Chemistry. That said, the advising program for freshman stinks. My advisor doesn't seem to have any investment in me, and my micklejohn (student advisor) is nice and insightful but not all that useful.

The classes are HARD, not going to lie. At the same time, however, schoolwork does not consume your life. Most important is that I know, even if I am not getting straight A's anymore, that I am learning so much interesting stuff that I will actually remember because I want to. Love it.

Brown is famous for its open curriculum. It gives students the freedom to take the classes that they want, not what some old administrators think may be useful. Since students control what classes they take, they learn whatever interests them, and do not need to have a certain major to get into certain courses. Classes range in size, but there are always small classes available. Language classes, theatre classes and other courses that are best with a small group cap at around 20.

Professors are generally very friendly and very open to after-class discussion. They appreciate your insights and treat you like an intelligent person whom they might even be able to learn from. My professors have been, for the most part, approachable, affable, and intelligent. Students are not cutthroat about academics, and generally, I feel, this fosters a happier student than competition does. Being at Brown is not really about landing a job at Goldman Sachs or making millions of dollars straight out of college (although some do), it's about the "Brown experience". Seriously, I know already that these are probably going to end up being the best four years of my life.