<p>the "my residential college is the best" culture is more of a joke than anything...Yalies don't get really ultracompetitive between colleges, lol. The residential college system is wonderful...you have a chance to meet people from different social groups than your own, and you're immediately put into a smaller but diverse community within the college. (Btw Yale only has 1400 students per class undergrad, so it's really not that big)</p>
<p>The open curriculum is HUGE. When I was admitted to Brown, I confess, the big draw of the open curriculum was "Yippee, no more math." Okay, I was 18-- and I hated math. (I still hate math! :))</p>
<p>I've been out 24 years and now-- and now I see the REAL benefit of the open curriculum. It is not what subjects you avoid, in fact, it has nothing to do with the classes you take at all. It's how Brown's system shapes your way of thinking. </p>
<p>Beginning as a freshman, you have completely free rein. So, with no fixed program, you have to quickly figure out just what makes you tick, where you will be happy, what your 'bliss' is, what you want. Yes, you explore, and the goal is to find something exciting.</p>
<p>As I put it to a friend, picking 32 classes out of Brown's enticing course catalog is like having 32 golden coins to spend... and you don't want to waste even one of them. There is simply no reason to EVER be in a class that isn't JUST where you want to be. In a way, that would be a sin!</p>
<p>Yes, you will make a few mistakes-- and you will learn from them. You'll try something and say, oops... never mind! Bad choice. Learn, regroup, pick better next time. </p>
<p>You will come to value <em>total engagement</em> above all, because that's the gold standard, the proof of a good pick, a great prof, an engaging topic, a well-spent golden coin. </p>
<p>And you will become addicted to loving what you do. It will be how you measure everything, including what you undertake after college: AM I THRILLED HERE?-- because you will have had four years of that pure bliss. That is what you should be shooting for. You will regroup and adjust and strive until you get that "this is just where I want to be" feeling again. </p>
<p>Having free rein also means you become accustomed to running your own show. You will spend four years in charge of yourself. You will be pretty good at it by graduation. You will be very ready for real life. </p>
<p>Finally, after four years, you will have a sense of the world as a place where you can fall on your face but recover, make lateral moves, explore, change directions, figure stuff out, or even strike a brand new path that nobody ever took before. ALL of that defines the open curriculum and it will become your way of thinking. Other people will think you are bold and audacious, but it will feel normal to you.</p>
<p>Brown is a utopian community for learning, including learning who you are.</p>
<p>SBmom, I could not have said it better. Having graduated almost 11 years ago now, your eloquent description of the long-term affects of a Brown education helps me to better see (and understand) why I still feel attached and grateful to Brown.</p>
<p>Thanks SBmom. I was excited when my son chose Brown, but hearing it again from someone, gives me the reassurance that he made a wise choice.</p>
<p>I credit "Brown thinking" with my success at jumping to four different careers over the last 24 years (all very good jumps, all to brand new things that fascinated me). I feel like brown1996, very attached and grateful.</p>
<p>My friend from Yale came to visit me at Brown the other weekend, and I think his impression was that Brown was more relaxed than Yale and the campus was "homier". For example, Yale requires you to take 36 classes within your college career and use the S/NC option only twice. Brown requires you to take 32 classes, pass 30, and encourages you to use the S/NC option as much as possible. So people usually take about 5 classes/sem at Yale (one of his friends has apparently taken 6/7 every semester) versus 4 classes/sem at Brown. He did say, however, that he felt like most people adapt to whatever situation they're in- people at Yale thrive on being busy and having intense amounts of work, since they really like what they're doing, while people at Brown thrive on being able to balance academics with other activities and being able to explore things they're interested in. He also said the campus buildings at Brown were less imposing and that the area of Providence surrounding Brown was a little bit more inviting than New Haven. One thing I hear a lot about is how Brown students have an entrepreneurial mindset... mostly from the administrators, but even from Doug Liman (who graduated in '88). I'll have to wait a few years to actually see if that's valid, but it seems to make sense to me.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind Count, that professors teach knowing that you're taking four classes. All of the transfers I've spoken to (and some from peer institutions) say that a four course load here is equivalent most of the time. But generally, I agree.</p>
<p>counthaku, absolutely true: a ridiculous number of my friends from Brown are entrepreneurs/self employed/writers/etc.</p>
<p>I wouldn't say you're "encouraged" to take lots of S/NCs, it's just that there is no prohibition to doing so if that is what you want to do.</p>
<p>In general, I've been advised away from SNC from professors, btw.</p>
<p>I remember a Brown rep came to our high school and told us about a girl who took all her classes S/NC but still got accepted to Harvard Medical School. I find this hard to believe but who knows.</p>
<p>Addy, the story is 100% true but also something that I'm hoping to stop the Admissions department from telling. We'll see how that goes.</p>
<p>Hmm. any reason you want them to stop? Is it because this was a highly unusual case and just gives the wrong impression?</p>
<p>And I didn't know the admissions department had set stories that they tell. That's interesting.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with it being an unusual case in the sense that it cannot be done-- it definitely can and I don't think it's as big of an issue in that sense.</p>
<p>It has to do with being a fundamental abuse of the New Curriculum which circumvents the very things expected of you as a student at Brown-- not required, but expected.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, I misread what you wrote.</p>
<p>You SHOULD take everything SNC. I wish I had from the start and I'd have less qualms about it now.</p>
<p>The story typically goes that everything was SNC with course performance reports and ONLY in the subject areas needed for medicine and psychology, I believe, because the interest was in psychiatry.</p>
<p>It's the latter that I have a huge problem with, not the former.</p>
<p>I disagree that you should take everything S/NC. I think its fine if that's what the person wants to do, but, IMO, S/NC exists to encourage experimentation outside the academic comfort zone without fear of GPA damage.</p>
<p>That's definitely what it's meant for SB. I'm just saying for me, I'm not only ok with that but I wish I had done it. So I feel like if you decide that's what you want to do that's what you should do.</p>