<p>Just wondering what the best departments at Brown are considered to be.</p>
<p>Because you are trying to pick a major or because you are deciding about applying to Brown?</p>
<p>Yeah, I'd just like to hear about some of the highlights while I decide about applying.</p>
<p>Portugese (best in the nation), Spanish (best in the nation), Computer Science, Egyptology, Classics, Applied Math.</p>
<p>Brown has no core curriculum....are you aware of that? PassFail grading...aware of that also?</p>
<p>I'm a prospective IR/Hispanic Studies double major. Where can I get more info on Brown's Spanish department having been ranked #1 in the nation?</p>
<p>"best departments" in terms of ranking are different than what is popular among undergrads, because rankings usually correspond to size (research capacity, number of profs and grad students, etc.)</p>
<p>that being said, the philosophy department is ranked very high (see gourmet report) despite being very small. classics is arguably the best in the nation as well despite being small</p>
<p>IR is very popular and well supported through the very generous watson institute endowment</p>
<p>neuroscience is also very popular, the book used in the intro course was written by three brown professors--it was the first (and still widely considered the best) neuroscience text for undergrads</p>
<p>you should also know that brown is unique for interdisciplinary concentrations that do not necessarily fall in a single department (such as COE--commerce, organizations, and entrepeneurship)</p>
<p>dcircle--I actually proposed a philosophy major, so I would like to know like why it's small...is it because not many people major in it, or are there limited spots?</p>
<p>there are never any "limited spots" for majors. When he said small department he meant few professors.</p>
<p>Oh, I see. Thanks for clarifying that, GHBrown!</p>
<p>few grad students and professors (relative to say nyu or rutgers which are ranked number 1 and 2 respectively for graduate philosophy, but not necessarily better places to study as an undergraduate)</p>
<p>see for yourself:
<a href="http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/main.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Philosophy/main.html</a></p>
<p>brown is home to two major philosophy journals, ranked in the top ten for political philosophy, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. this year brown managed to woo richard heck away from a senior faculty position at harvard</p>
<p>why is biology the most popular concentration at brown? its biology program is not particularly ranked high in the nation. just wondering if anyone can help me clarify this. thanks.</p>
<p>Because biology is a logical concentration for people who want to be pre-med.</p>
<p>Does anybody have the link to a website that ranks undergraduate departments?</p>
<p>there aren't really any good metrics to quantitatively compare and rank undergrad programs (arguably, there aren't good metrics to rank grad programs either but traditional measures of research productivity and acceptance rates aren't going to tell you much).</p>
<p>student review websites exist but be cautious because they are extremely subjective and have all kinds of biases</p>
<p>the best way to go about it, is probably to check out the department websites of the schools you are interested in. see what courses and other opportunities are available (special research programs, study abroad, undergraduate journals, etc.). look up the faculty, see what schools they graduated from and what their research interests are. this method isn't full-proof either, but generally speaking department strength shouldn't be a primary factor for choosing a school for undergrad. overall academic strength and culture is probably a lot more important</p>
<p>how are history, english/writing, and music programs?</p>
<p>Excellent, excellent, and excellent. You just named three of our strongest departments.</p>