Brown's Curriculum

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>My son is currently chosing between Brown and a few top LACs. I’ve been impressed by the strong difference of opinions on CC regarding Brown’s open curriculum. Some laud its flexibility and inter-dependent approach, while others claim that Brown’s new curriculum is a disaster, lacks academic rigor and focus, and produces droves of “unemployable” graduates. (I hasten to add that I’ve seen no claims that Brown’s biology department lacks rigor; quite to the contrary). Bottom line is, I don’t quite know what to think, though I admittedly feel less educated about Brown than about several LACs, since my son’s search focused mainly on LACs. </p>

<p>I would appreciate hearing about any insights as to what a student can expect academically at Brown as compared with a top LAC. To the extent it might be relevant, my son is interested in English literature, languages, and biology, though not at all sure how to combine these interests in an undergraduate career. Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/385841-brown-curriculum-university-college-explained.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/385841-brown-curriculum-university-college-explained.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Old, but still mostly accurate. I think you have to realize, especially on the main forums on this site, most of the people posting here are young and ill-informed. Brown students are hardly unemployable (we’re actually sought-after in many fields) and anyone claiming lack of rigor or focus hasn’t sat down and talked to a few Brown students about how they used their time here.</p>

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<p>Academically, any Brown student can 9 out of 10 times find professors who are highly respected and currently practicing in their fields. </p>

<p>I think what’s important to differentiate is the following: Students at Brown can design any course of study, but once the course of study is designed, the professors teaching to that course of study are phenomenal! </p>

<p>I can personally say that I took advantage of the amazing academic freedoms at Brown (graduated in 2008) - took many classes on a “pass/fail” basis - and worked my ass off to perform at the academic standards my professors expected. </p>

<p>I concentrated in English (officially) and took many classes in Education, Literary Arts, Public Policy, Religious Studies, and Political Science. I also did two independent studies that merged Literary Arts and Creative Writing. </p>

<p>Employable: We are. I must warn you though, given the condition(s) of any market economy will affect one’s job outlooks. Just because one graduated from Brown or “X” LAC doesn’t mean one will be considered more “employable.”</p>

<p>Hope this helped!</p>

4

<p>It’s worth noting that the Open Curriculum can be abused into an unrigourous, unfocused set of courses. At the same time, so can a core (many of the LACs I visited mentioned how it was not uncommon to satisfy the math portion of the core with a course that’s not particularly math-related, which seems to defy the purpose of the core in the first place). The Open Curriculum is really what you make of it. Starting this year, Brown has attached a list of “Liberal Learning Goals,” 10 ideals that they think are important to an education (both in the classroom and outside it), to concentration forms, and students are required to respond to these ideals from the context of there programs. No one is forced to complete some or all of these ideals, but this does provide some guidance of sorts for those who want it.</p>

<p>I would therefore say that the Open Curriculum allows students the freedom to choose; those who think about their program and try to get the most out of it should be without problems. I feel that the decision should ultimately be “Will my son use the opportunities inherent in the Open Curriculum, or will he use it to make his schedule easier and get away from types of work (not a subject like math or history, but rather areas like writing, symbolic reasoning, or the understanding of other cultures)?” That’s not to say that those who use the Open Curriculum that way are wrong, but everyone needs to make her own decisions as to how they would get the most out of the open curriculum, whether that means considering what one needs to take to improve one’s chances of employment or not.</p>

<p>I wish you and your son the best as the college decision process comes to a conclusion, and I hope his decision, regardless of which college he chooses, makes both of you happy.</p>

5

<p>We examined the idea of required courses and distribution requirements during my time on some university bodies and are findings and beliefs came out quite clear-- requiring distribution requirements or a set of courses is not going to be any more rigorous or more successful at creating a liberal arts education than the open curriculum.</p>

<p>Distribution requirements are universally abused and what follows the creation of these requirements is nearly always the creation of courses which are strictly used to keep department enrollments up and satisfy a requirement many students avoid. When you have a forced core, you can be sure of a certain level of quality but you’re also creating uniformity that is against what we feel the strength of Brown is-- the creation of a student body with 6,000 different ways at looking at a problem from tons of different angles and really think outside of the box and creatively when engaging the world around us. That’s what I get hired for right now and it’s what makes me stand out in my graduate program (imo)-- I think differently because of my broad training.</p>

<p>Most importantly, any sort of prescribed curriculum comes with its intentions on a platter. The open curriculum forces the purposes of a liberal education to be intentionalized by each student. It’s very easy to abuse the open curriculum, but that’s not what the students that are attracted to Brown do. We place responsibilities on the student to have the conversation about learning goals and the whole point of their education with themselves, friends, and advisers whereas most institutions simply assume that.</p>

<p>Students here take disparate paths, and the motivations may seem juvenile or absent at many times, but most people I know come across a reflective moment at some point (sometimes after Brown) where their entire path became clear and their purpose and intentions suddenly make sense. It’s like impressionist painting by numbers-- we all know how to mix colors right to make a section beautiful, but each of us at different points have the moment where we can step back a few feet and suddenly see the picture we’re creating.</p>

<p>The person who we attract (successfully, IMO) is someone who loves to learn and is very thoughtful in engaging the process and culture they are living in right now. It’s an awareness of the connections between course work and from course work to what’s going on outside of the classroom, it’s viewing some underlying structure to their education in recognition that each class is but one part of some truth they’re uncovering about the world-- that’s what Brown’s education is all about.</p>

<p>In the end, based on some data collection, almost all students end up taking what would be considered a distributed course load at most major universities. The students who don’t fulfill these requirements almost always have some interesting and unique reason for their path (when I contacted them, at least). What the open curriculum creates is 80% of students doing a course that looks like what everyone else does, but having constructed it themselves so they take on true ownership of the general curriculum, 15% of people doing something truly unique with their coursework that couldn’t be weaved like that anywhere else, and 5% of abuse.</p>

<p>I think that’s a very successful set up.</p>