<p>I’ve heard that Brown’s IR program is really popular, and I can understand why when I look at the class descriptions. However, I am looking for something to really differentiate other colleges with Brown (for instance, Johns Hopkins, Columbia University…). Are there any other plusses to Brown’s political/international relations department other than the amazing classes? For instance: Columbia has access to the UN, well-known professors in the political science department.</p>
<p>What schools like JHU, Columbia, and Georgetown have that Brown doesn’t is really good location (< 1 hr. from DC, in NYC, and in DC, respectively). Therefore students have more opportunities and, likewise, big names in IR have more opportunities to go and speak or teach at those institutions.</p>
<p>However, that does not mean to say that we don’t have our own share of big shots coming in and out. I know that Sergei Khrushchev is currently a professor/teacher at Brown, and if you take a look at the Watson Institute’s website (searchable via Brown’s site), I’m sure you could find other cool names. Brown also prides itself in having the Watson Institute- a physical embodiment of the interdisciplinary study that most schools (although I’m sure the top names your thinking of do have their own) don’t have.</p>
<p>Also, just in the last year, many international/domestic figures have come to speak at Brown, including Mike Huckabee, the president of the Domican Republic, the former president of Chile, and the first female president of Liberia.</p>
<p>As for a personal account, I was choosing between Georgetown and Brown, ultimately choosing Brown. I knew I wanted to major in linguistics, but I was also interested in IR. Although Georgetown is probably better in both fields, I couldn’t possibly do a double major in both fields because the majors were in different college within Georgetown. At Brown, however, there was no limitations of the sort. Also, Brown had a very small economics requirement for the track I wanted (which specifically appealed to my interests GREATLY); econ goes right over me head. 
Currently as a rising sophomore, I’m not a prospective IR concentrator, but I am a prospective linguistics one. I don’t regret my decision.</p>
<p>Hi!I am seriously thinking about an IR major,and I heard the IR majors in different colleges concentrate on slightly different fields.For instance,Tufts IR focuses on IR related to economics,meaning some of the students will choose to work in arenas like World Bank;while Georgetown’s focuses on politics.I can’t be 100 percent sure if these are simply rumors.However,I really wonder in what prospect does Brown’s IR aim at?</p>
<p>Before I start, this is solely an observation from a non-concentrator that has on considered, albeit seriously, IR.</p>
<p>At Brown, the IR concentration considers of a CORE (Intro to International Politics, a history course [European history, but if you already have a background in European history, than another region’s], an intro econ course, and an anthro/sociology course from a list of 5), a TRACK (3 courses that pertain to either “Global Security,” “Political Economy and Development,” or “Politics Culture and Identidy”), a REGIONAL FOCUS (a course pertaining to a region you choose), a LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT (preferably of the region you choose, but not necessarily), a RESEARCH methods course, a HIGHER-LEVEL elective, and a senior CAPSTONE.</p>
<p>Now the answer I’m about to give may sound a little biased because I was considering the Politics, Culture, and Identity track, but I think IR at Brown focuses a lot more on the people moreso than the processes that surround and supposedly give structure to the lives of people. I know there’s definitely not an economic focus (unless that happens to be the track you choose), because an IR student can potentially get away with taking only one basic intro econ course, as opposed to other schools like JHU that require all students to take at least a year of econ (micro AND macro).</p>
<p>Again, this is another opinion that I’m about to state, but I always found the Brown IR concentration to be very typically “Brown” as I perceive it. In my eyes, if Brown were a person, he/she would be the type of person to take care of a person or another individual first before tending to anyone else. Others may find this complete rubbish, but it’s just a personal opinion.</p>
<p>do you mean that Brown doesn’t really focus on the basics? </p>
<p>I’ve heard this is a major problem with Brown’s curriculum, especially in pre-med courses where the basics are essential.</p>
<p>I think this can be avoided if you’re smart, however. I DO plan on focusing on economics in IR, but I can just take the macro and micro econ courses on my own, rather than require Brown to guide me though which classes to take.</p>
<p>or were you referring to a different problem? your wording confused me.</p>
<p>**sans_souci **
</p>
<p>I have no idea what you are trying to say. What are the “basics” that you think Brown needs to focus on?? I have never heard of anyone having issues fulfilling their premed requirements because all those courses are offered at Brown, just like everywhere else.</p>
<p>If anything, most premeds complain that they can not take advantage of the flexibility of Brown’s curriculum and the possibility of experimenting with courses of their interest, because they are rigidly bound to take “premed” requirements, which in fact are pretty basic and uninteresting.</p>
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As someone who has served on two curriculum decision-making bodies, a chemistry concentrator (who therefore took pretty much every pre-med course as a part of his concentration), and as a student who represented Brown both during its NEASC re-accreditation process and during conference calls to Seoul National University, I can honestly say that I have no idea what you’re talking about. Not only is that inaccurate, but I’m not even sure that’s a common, or existing, rumor.</p>
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<p>Check out a different track then than Sungchul mentioned:
I’m 90% sure that most of those econ courses require at least micro or macro and some require both.</p>
<p>Also, don’t forget the language requirement as a part of IR.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.watsoninstitute.org/ir/language.cfm[/url]”>International and Public Affairs (IAPA) | Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs;
<p>Oh,I see.Thanks a lot for your explanation,I think it makes sense to me.So basically you’re saying that Brown doesn’t really confine the main concentration;instead it kinda builds basis for everything by pertaining to more of humanities? =)</p>
<p>Not quite sure what you’re saying Gatita. The way IR works at Brown is that there is a common “core” of IR courses that everyone must take, as a well as a minimum language competency. In addition to that core, you can specialize within three different tracks, each of which offers considerable opportunity for hand-tailoring the concentration to your specific interests, as you can see in the one track above.</p>
<p>Ah,I understood it in a wrong way originally then.Thanks very much for your reply,modestymelody!</p>
<p>I had the opportunity to speak with someone who hires many medical students and is frustrated with Brown student’s lack of basic knowledge. Something about internships or work-study, and it just seemed harder for him to teach Brown students than students from other colleges. </p>
<p>Maybe it isn’t a widespread problem or a problem visible to Brown students themselves, but it does seem to be a nagging issue for employers. I know because of this, the person in question isn’t allowing his children to apply to Brown.</p>
<p>Medical students as in from the Brown medical school or Brown undergraduates who are pre-med? One would make sense to me, the other has no basis in reality.</p>
<p>The Brown Medical School curriculum allows students to take courses is different sequences which has been a source of frustration for someone I know who teaches Brown medical students. He says it’s a blessing and a curse-- everyone has a interesting and different way to come to the same answer, but he has to work to get people on the same page when some have more background in his area than others.</p>
<p>If you’re talking about pre-meds, you can just take one look at our medical school admissions statistics and see that we’re far from not preparing students to enter medical school.</p>
<p>As someone who actually studied a physical science at Brown, I can tell you that after my first year I was more advanced than my counter parts at JHU and Boston University (the two people from high school I stayed in contact with that were doing physical science).</p>