<p>thanks dcircle</p>
<p>what would the "unofficial" GPA include (dropped classes, etc.)?</p>
<p>anything you took pass/fail doesn't factor in, anything you drop doesn't factor in--failed classes don't appear on the external transcript either (your internal transcript just says "NC" for no credit)</p>
<p>so in essence, an A is a 4.0, a B is 3.0, a C is a 2.0, and nothing else counts</p>
<p>so do they just use "unofficial" GPA's to calculate graduation awards like summa cum laude, etc?</p>
<p>Magna cum laude is, I believe, awarded to about the top fifth of the class. It is calculated by the total number of A's and S's with distinction.</p>
<p>sorry if this has been answered, but how is Providence? Mostly from an entertainment perspective, but perhaps about jobs/recruitment also...</p>
<p>I've heard that S's with distinction are a myth. S* simply denotes an S in a mandatory S/NC course. They don't factor into the MCL formula, I believe.</p>
<p>According to this site, "S with distinction" is extremely rare:
<a href="http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean_of_the_College/DOC/s4_degree_completion/acad_stand_grade_ops.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean_of_the_College/DOC/s4_degree_completion/acad_stand_grade_ops.html</a></p>
<p>Ravenna, my freshman daughter is doing Egyptology. That is why she is going to Brown, which has the only major in that in the Western hemisphere.</p>
<p>No, there aren't many E concentrators. When dd was still in high school, we talked to the E department and someone told us that they had a "rather large" graduating class the previous year. It was 6 ... Have you seen the department's building yet? It is this cute little thing and contains E and the History of Math departments.</p>
<p>Dd has two freshman friends who are interested in the subject, but still somewhat undecided. But she has been sure of what she wants to do since 3rd grade.</p>
<p>So far she has taken two classes in the subject. (Well, at college -- she did some correspondence work in high school.) The first hieroglyphs class was easy; the professor said it is designed that way because so many people not interested in the field think it would be cool to take. (For the same reason my daughter wants to take Mayan and Accadian -- which she's heard are easy as well.) Then again, maybe she thought it was easy because she already knew it! The second semester is supposed to be harder.</p>
<p>So many languages to learn -- dd's first semester she also took the German for Reading course (the thing for grad school). The E department recommends early reading knowledge of German, and French as well for that matter. Also all new digs in Egypt now have to be written up in Arabic first, so that needs to be done. Brown has a Junior Year Abroad program which includes American University in Cairo, where she is going to begin studying it.</p>
<p>Two Egyptologists have also told dd that knowing ancient Greek is useful, more than Latin. Those are the two languages she took in high school.</p>
<p>So, anyway, the hieroglyphs class was larger. The Egyptian literature course had something like 6 students, with two being grad students and her the only freshman. She was freaking out about the paper requirement given who she would be compared to, but the professor was very helpful.</p>
<p>She shopped the E archaeology course but decided to drop it. The professor didn't seem that organized and it seemed like a lot of memorization to do in addition to some other memory-taxing courses. She also decided it would be cooler to take this course at AU Cairo.</p>
<p>BTW we just got back from a vacation in Egypt. AU Cairo is about a block away from the Egyptian museum. So you can just walk over and see whatever you are studying about in the way of artifacts. In Providence, RISD has a small Egyptian collection and the Brown library is supposed to be the strongest in the US in Egyptology.</p>
<p>The decision came down to Chicago and Brown for my daughter. (She had applied to Yale and Penn as well, which also have near eastern studies departments, as does Chicago.) She thought she would be happier at Brown for a number of reasons and it also seemed to have stronger undergraduate offerings in the field.</p>
<p>I would have had my daughter respond to this thread but she is back at Brown a week early for Hell week (full-time physical training and practice for student athletes). If you want, I can see if she can drop you an email when she has a chance.</p>
<p>^
AWESOME post. I too am interested in Egyptology (well, obsessed would be closer :)), as you can tell from my previous posts lol. I was accepted to U Chicago EA, and although I'm fairly sure I'm going to attend, I'm waiting on Brown and Yale RD. That study abroad program sounds particularly interesting!</p>
<p>I was accepted to Brown ED, but the whole grading system still worries me.
I want to be challenged, but I don't want it to be impossible to achieve good grades.
Anybody willing to post the name of their courses this semester, their grade, and how hard they worked to achieve it?
Thanks.</p>
<p>IBclass06,</p>
<p>I was going to post and tell you how my daughter decided between Brown and Chicago (even drafted a response), but maybe I should wait and see what choices you have! My daughter didn't want to make a final determination of her school rankings until she saw where she got in.</p>
<p>If you need and want some input about making a decision later on, let me know.</p>
<p>DianeR, I haven't been accepted to either Brown or Chicago yet (and may never be) but would you mind passing the response you had planned for IBclass06 on to me? Brown & U of C are two of my top choices - acceptances permitting - at the moment.</p>
<p>Oh dear, let me see if I remember!</p>
<p>First, my daughter looked through the course offerings at Brown and Chicago in her field and what other courses she would want. She found that Brown had the more Egypt-specific courses she was interested in (Chicago tended to have near eastern courses). While Chicago has far more in the way of general archaeology courses, given the core curriculum and the courses in her major, she wouldn't have had time to take any of them. But if she had wanted the near eastern courses, perhaps Chicago would have gotten the nod.</p>
<p>Second, the core curriculum was a major turnoff for my daughter. We homeschooled and used college texts throughout, except for precalculus math, really trying for a classical education, core curriculum type experience at home. It seemed like a waste of time and money to her to do it again. She read through all the course descriptions and it just didn't seem worth it to her. Of course, people are of two minds about core curricula and have different backgrounds in high school. So YMMV.</p>
<p>Third, she read through what students and alums had to say about the two schools on <a href="http://www.studentsreview.com%5B/url%5D">www.studentsreview.com</a> and what a number of "what colleges are really like" books at Borders had to say. (I was expecting them to tell us to stop reading and BUY something already, but they didn't!) I posted on a number of internet boards about experiences with the two schools and they confirmed what had been read. My daughter thought that Brown would be a better fit for her emotionally and socially. Indeed, after she made her decision, people who know her were telling me that they couldn't have imagined her happy at Chicago. But here, again, YMMV.</p>
<p>Fourth, there were some personal considerations. She researched and found that the winters in Providence, while no picnic, are better than Chicago. She liked the area around campus better in the former. Finally, Brown has a fencing team, while Chicago only has a club.</p>
<p>So while it started out as a tough choice, once the research was all done, the correct decision (for HER I emphasize) was obvious.</p>
<p>I hope everyone reading this has the choice or any other they are hoping for. But maybe you don't want to jinx yourself by doing all this research until you know where you got in. It is so much easier to say "I wouldn't have wanted to go there anyway" -- as dd did for her two rejects -- if you haven't already come up with your definitive listing of schools!</p>
<p>How hard is Psych 1? I know at most places intro psych is a cakewalk, but I know one person who says it's actually harder than her chem class</p>
<p>Most people say Psych 1 is a waste of time. A lot of people take upper level psych classes (for which PY1 is technically a prereq) without taking it. If you glance through a psychology textbook (I highly recommend this one: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0716752514/qid=1138120389/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8609346-9254504?n=507846&s=books&v=glance%5B/url%5D">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0716752514/qid=1138120389/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8609346-9254504?n=507846&s=books&v=glance</a>) then you should be fine to skip it.</p>
<p>You can look at student reviews of particular courses online. I don't happen to have the link; perhaps someone actually at Brown can post it.</p>
<p>I had a friend in Psych 1 who never took psych. He only showed up for the exams which he studied for the hour before hand and got As on both midterms. I dont know how he did on the final, or whether he's just particularly brilliant, but I'd say that this indicates it is NOT more difficult than chem, which isn't that bad, btw.</p>
<p>I also got into Chicago EA and am waiting on Brown RD. We should start a club. If I get into both, I'm going to have quite a dilemma in choosing. I love the intelectual character at Chicago but the complete freedom of brown class selection is also enticing. Hmmm..</p>
<p>It's kind of funny running into several people now looking at Brown versus Chicago. When my daughter was deciding, people thought it was such a strange choice to be making, because the schools are so different!</p>
<p>Great thread!</p>
<p>I'd like to ask for a friend who applied RD: what's the queer scene at Brown like? Is it particularly activist- or party-oriented?</p>
<p>Thanks very much.</p>