<p>I’ve come across the Brown pre-college online courses, and was thinking about maybe doing the writing one. I was wondering if doing this course and succeeding in it would help me in getting admitted to Brown? Any ideas?</p>
<p>I have looked at the writing course as well! I opted not to take it, but it looked fantastic.</p>
<p>If it is at all helpful, I can tell you about my experience in the “So You Want to Be a Doctor” course, which I am currently halfway through. It takes the stated amount of time – 5 hours/week – for me, and is in general everything it was made out to be. My professor is the former Associate Dean of Brown’s medical school, and my teaching assistant is a Brown medical student. Both are fantastic in terms of assistance, feedback, etc., and challenge our thinking and research every week. The class’s assignments are extremely well designed, with virtual patient-centered learning, anatomy/physiology teaching modules each week, a focus on a different specialty of medicine each week including a half-hour interview with a practitioner, and “Pathway to Medicine” modules detailing everything from the medical admissions process and PLME to financing med school to assessment of what med school is actually like, etc. Additionally, they encourage two shadowing experiences with a local doctor. I have completed one already, and it was certainly an eye-opening experience. You will not be graded, but your progress is tracked and you will receive a certificate upon completion of all the course’s assignments. In addition, your TA will officially assess your timeliness, contribution quality and quantity, and courtesy by a number scale 0.0-3.0. Correspondingly, he marks your work as 2.25-3.00 = Honors level; 1.50-2.24 = Satisfactory; 0.75-1.49 = Needs improvement; below 0.75 = Unsatisfactory. My TA just did such an assessment for me yesterday, actually, and I earned 3.0s on each of the categories. 
I mention this not to brag but to show that success in these courses does not take an insane time commitment! While certainly challenging, they are realistic and can fit in with a regular course load.</p>
<p>All that to say … my experience with Brown’s pre-college online courses has been superb! It is by far my favorite “class” this semester. Success in these courses is attainable if you work hard, and I know for a fact that having taken one will certainly help demonstrate your interest in Brown.</p>