<p>Untrue. Most people don’t go to Brown because it’s in the Ivy League.</p>
<p>Hello everyone!</p>
<p>I was recently admitted to the Class of 2014 at Brown University and was very keen on attending the same. But, there is a small problem that experienced people like ‘modestmelody’ and ‘Brown08’ could help me with. </p>
<p>As outlined in my previous posts, I plan to concentrate in either Computer Science or Astronomy. Some members of my close family, on account of some random hearsay, think that Brown is not ‘strong’ enough in the Computer Sciences. Somebody has fed into their minds the fact that Purdue has a much stronger program than Brown (I am shocked!).</p>
<p>All members of my family will come together to bear the grunt of my college expenses and hence, to some extent their apprehensions are valid. They don’t really have an in depth knowledge regarding American College Admissions. Therefore, even the slightest of hesitation for them can be dangerous for me!</p>
<p>Can anyone come forward and give me an honest perspective on the Computer Science department at Brown? How big are the classes, how accessible are the professors, how intense is the course load et al is what I am specifically talking about! Especially helpful would be an approximate starting salary for Computer Science concentrators from Brown (Who doesn’t want good returns from their investments!)</p>
<p>I hope people will come forward and help me become a part of this wonderfully vibrant, active and cheerful community called Brown!</p>
<p>Best,
Harvard17</p>
<p>I’m a fourth semester Computer Science concentrator, so I’ll do my best to answer your questions and provide my personal perspective.</p>
<p>I’ve found the Computer Science department to be very challenging without having the silliness of the sorts of assignments one would have in an AP Computer Science course. To give an idea about Brown’s introduction courses, no AP credit is accepted for the department, whether it’s the A level or the now-defunct AB level. The intro courses are conducted at a level significantly higher than AP courses. So while my peers at other institutions such as Princeton and Harvard were able to skip the first semester or two because of their AP credit, I took CS019 with Professor Reiss. I believe there were roughly 40 of us in that class, and it was quite an experience. Our projects (after the first one) were pretty crazy, and I spent something like 20 hours a week on them. Part of this was the professor (who is brilliant but far from the best lecturer I’ve ever taken a course with), but a friend who took the same course with a different professor this fall had a similar experience. These intro courses teach much more theory and go into much more depth than an AP course, as we covered topics from graph algorithms to basic compiler theory to runtime analysis of divide and conquer algorithms to implementation of Red-Black binary trees. My friends at Princeton and Harvard were amazed at what we were doing, while even my friend in the CS department at MIT was impressed. I gather that, while the projects for CS015 and CS016 are easier, they still cover the same types of theory to a comparable depth, albeit in 2 semesters, while CS017 and CS018 also teach Scheme.</p>
<p>I’m not the best person to speak about the lower level theory courses, having stuck primarily to the programming courses. Once one gets to the advanced courses, though, where one has plenty of choice as to what one wants to take, and the class sizes tend to be smaller (they range from 13-55 students this term, while the lower level courses CS032 and CS022 are both over 100 students). The advanced course I’m in right now (Design and Analysis of Algorithms) has been interesting, and not nearly as much work as the lower level courses, but it’s different work. Rather than spending a long time to program a large project, we’re spending time (perhaps 5-6 hours a week) thinking about 1 problem, trying to determine a good, efficient algorithm to solve it, then doing a clear writeup giving the algorithm along with rigourous proofs of run-time and correctness.</p>
<p>I gather most of the professors are good; with that said, I’ve only spoken with one of my professors once in two years; it’s definitely possible to do so more, but generally, one goes to the TAs with questions instead of the professors. The TAs are all students who have done well in the course before, but they’re also generally not PhD holders in the field.</p>
<p>The courseload depends on a variety of factors…if you’re planning to be an ScB, you’ll likely take more than 1 course in the department a term, and those can really add up (some students spend most of their time in the Linux lab, presumably working on CS assignments). Because I’m a Mathematics-Computer Science concentrator, I only will take 1 course a term, keeping the workload manageable, even though it’s still fairly intense. This term excluded, I’ve had anywhere from 10 to 30 hours a week, while trying to balance 4 other courses.</p>
<p>I can’t help you with the starting salary, though I can say that students are recruited for summer positions and positions after graduation by such companies as Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Adobe. If anyone has such a number, I’d be casually curious, even though I’m unsure if that’s the vocational route I wish to travel upon graduation.</p>
<p>I hope I was able to give you a decent overview of the department, and if you have any other questions, feel free to PM me. Although I’ll be on much less frequently starting tomorrow due to the end of Spring Break, I’ll do my best to help you out in any way I can.</p>
<p>My son was admitted to Brown, interested in English and Biology. How is the English department? Is it possible to do a double concentration in English and Biology?</p>
<p>@sunmachine </p>
<p>Congrats to your son! I concentrated in English at Brown. The department recently changed some of the concentration requirements while I was a student. You had to take three survey courses (rather big ones) over three times periods of the English language. Now, they have three “areas” - essentially time periods over the English language - and the student can take any course he or she wants so long as it meets the requirement for that area. Here is what I mean: [English</a> Department | Brown University](<a href=“English | Brown University”>English | Brown University)</p>
<p>I loved my professors within the department. </p>
<p>As far as doubling, I’m sure you can manage to do both. You son needs to sit down with his academic adviser and get a plan going!</p>
<p>harvard17 (you may have to change your screen name!): The Brown CS department is excellent. Google Andy van Dam, who founded the department and is still there today, and you’ll get an idea of how strong the department is. I don’t know what type of CS you are interested in, but I know that companies like Google and Pixar recruit at Brown, and many Brown CS majors work at very well-known companies.</p>
<p>sunmachine: Brown does have a strong English department. As for double-majoring – doing an ScB Biology and AB English is doable, but not easy and would mean not being able to take full advantage of the open curriculum. If your son is thinking biology because he wants to go to med school, another approach is to take all the required pre-med courses, but to concentrate in English. One does not have to be a bio major to go to med school.</p>
<p>I’m interested in a double concentration in English (or Literary Arts) and Studio Arts (because of RISD being next door), but I chose not to apply to the Brown/RISD dual program. I also want to take French and explore the sciences a little bit, but I’m pretty much dead set on English and Art - for me they take precedence over everything else. Is there any difference in flexibility between getting two AB’s and getting both an ScB and an AB?</p>
<p>@Uroogla: Thank you so much for an in-depth review of the Computer Science program at Brown!</p>
<p>@fireandrain: You are right my friend - after I got crushed by Harvard, ‘brown17’ would be a much better screen name!</p>
<p>My daughter is deciding between Chicago and Brown for astronomy/astrophysics. Can anyone comment on the quality of the physics instruction at Brown and grad school placement (for physics or astronomy since I assume there have not been many astronomy concentrators under the independent concentration). I noticed that the undergraduate group in the Physics Department has been inactive. Any comments about the undergraduate experience in the department would be appreciated.</p>
<p>My CS friends have almost across the board had great success in getting great jobs in Silicon Valley and Redmond. Of course, they’re also amazing and good people - but, it also speaks well of the CS dept.</p>
<p>The undergraduate group in physics is one of the most active, they just don’t have much of a web preference. </p>
<p>Two weeks ago we approved astrophysics and astronomy as official, on the books, full-fledged concentrations. This was done at the request of the physics department and reflects their significant shifts in faculty positions, now having far more astrophysicists/cosmologists as tenure or tenure-track professors allowing for many more courses to be offered very consistently in the field (whereas there were fewer faculty mentors and more independent studies required in the past).</p>
<p>Do all new students get assigned a Meiklejohn advisor?</p>
<p>Do any former students recommend other advisors from the CAP program?</p>
<p>I know the Classics department is great, but anyone have any experience with that? How about the math department? Would a double concentration be doable?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Thanks, modestmelody. My daughter has been in touch with one of the profs during the past year about the new concentration. Glad to hear it’s official. Any other thoughts on astrophysics at Brown vs. Chicago (not asking you to restate the broad differences between the universities).</p>
<p>Is one of Brown’s standout departments - I knew several concentrators and, all loved it. Joe Pucci, often one of the freshman advisors gets great reviews.</p>
<p>Professor Pucci is also the concentration advisor. Going the absolute toughest path (Latin and Greek concentration while taking all 4 terms of history and all 4 survey courses) is rough, but worthwhile if you truly enjoy the field. For those who want more of a taste, the regular classics track gives you plenty of freedom to sample what you want without feeling obliged or forced to take the harder courses.</p>
<p>Hi!
I was accepted at both Brown and Mount Holyoke College, and I’m trying to decide which one to attend next year. I plan on majoring in English and become a writer, and hoped you could indicate which college would be better for that career choice. How would you evaluate the quality of your literature and creative writing classes?</p>
<p>Furthermore, what can you tell me about the dorm situation? I attended a summer@Brown course, and was rather turned off by my room (sticky, icky, and bland is the best way to describe it!) The physical appearance and aesthetic of the campus is an important factor for me.</p>
<p>I’ve been in one Mount Holyoke dorm, and it was about as bad (small, bland, built-in ugly furniture) if not worse than the worst Brown dorms. Perhaps Mount Holyoke has some wonderful dorms – I have no idea, I only saw one. </p>
<p>I’ve said this before: you don’t go to Brown for its dorms. There are many beautiful parts of campus; I always thought the flowering trees in front of Faunce House were gorgeous. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder (some people love Yale’s Gothic buildings, I thought they were oppressive and depressing). </p>
<p>Brown’s literary arts program is quite good, although I don’t know how easy it is to take classes with the published novelists and writers who teach there. There is a wide range of writing classes – fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, etc. There are so many Brown alums who are professional writers and have written novels and screenplays and books, that I couldn’t even begin to name them all.</p>
<p>@tstong, it seems like your question has been forgotten! The AB/ScB program is five years, so that doesn’t seem like a fit for you. Actually, you seem to be in a great position totake advantage of Brown’s open curriculum. You can do your Lit and Art majors and then take French and Bio classes on the side, no problem. I was Econ and Development Studies, but I took two RISD classes because I did not want to miss the chance of having one of thebest art schools in the country right next door. </p>
<p>Taking classes at RISD is easy, much easier than most Brown students think. You DO NOT need to take VA 10 (the over enrolled Brown foundation Art class) to go to RISD, although you might in order to get a Brown VA degree. RISD could care less about our Art requirements. I took Oil Painting and Glass Blowing, both awesome (I recommend Fritz Drury in painting if that’s your thing). The important thing is is to personally visit the RISD professors of the classes you want to take, especially if they are popular. RISD has their own registration system and you have to get on the prof’s radar on your own or good luck. Both my classes were overbooked and being on good terms with the prof pre-first class got me in. It can be hard to mesh the RISD studio times with Brown classes,but it can definitely be done. The other great thing about RISD is that you can use Brown’s ridiculously long winter break to take a Winter Session class at RISD. Great use of time and a very easy way to knock off a spring credit.</p>
<p>Hi, I’ve been admitted to both Brown and Columbia and was wondering ow good are Brown’s anthropology and art history programs? Compared to Columbia’s, are they worse, about the same, or better?</p>
<p>FatEnvelopeGuy - thank you so much, that was incredibly helpful! I was getting a little worried…</p>