<p>I’ll be joining Brown as a freshman this fall. I am planning to major in Computer Science and Applied Math-Economics.</p>
<p>The only two CAP courses which are of interest to me are “Principles of Economics” and “Calculus Honors (most of whose material I have already self-studied)”. </p>
<p>I am not particularly interested in the computer science CAP courses offered
(they are offering CSC 015, CSC 019 (basically an accelerated version of CSC 015/016) and CSC 020 (more intended for humanities majors) - here is the relevant website regarding the courses <a href=“http://www.cs.brown.edu/ugrad/whatcourse.html[/url]”>Brown CS: Which Introductory Course Should I Take?</a>. The website recommends taking either CSC 015/016 or CSC 017/018, I plan to take the latter.)</p>
<p>What CAP course do you think I should take bearing in mind that the prof of my CAP course will also be my first year academic advisor?</p>
<p>Don't take a CAP course unless you wanted to take it anyway. The advisor thing should be an added plus, not the reason you're taking the class. You could try for EC11 and then you'd probably have Friedberg for your advisor, whom I've heard good things about (as an advisor), but it really doesn't matter. You'll get an advisor anyway.</p>
<p>It's really not a big deal to not have a CAP class. Most people don't and just have an advisor who is a professor in their field(s) of interest. Don't take a CAP class if you're not interested in it - it's really awkward if you drop your CAP advisor's class, my freshman roommate did that.</p>
<p>Any particular reason why you're not taking the accelerated computer science course? I think it just seems like a waste of time to take a year a of computer science when you already know what they're going to teach you.</p>
<p>caps and fys are not required for graduation. </p>
<p>Theodorant: not sure about the OP's reasons, but CS 17/18 teaches different stuff than CS 15/16, so if s/he's planning on taking 17, it doesn't make sense to take 19 (the accelerated) because it's still different material.</p>
<p>I have another question to add: Can you take both a CAP class and a FYS? I'm thinking about taking a CAP class in the fall and then a FYS in the spring, or maybe taking a CAP and a FYS at the same time the first semester. Any thoughts on my doing this? Are there limits on doing this?</p>
<p>Also, I'm planning on taking an English class, one of those classes limited to 17 students. Does that count as a FYS?</p>
<p>You can take a CAP and FYS. They're not connected programs.</p>
<p>Any other class that's limited enrollment does not make it an FYS. FYSs are exclusive to first years. An English class limited to 17 may already be full so I'd email the professor now and express an interest and be sure to show up to all the classes early on in shopping period if you want ot get in the class.</p>
<p>It seems that right now, anyway, there are relatively few FYS courses for each semester. The packet says that students will choose FYS in July, if they are interested in them. Will more be added? Is there a reason there are only about 6 or so (maybe slightly more) for Fall, and actually fewer for Spring?</p>
<p>Thanks, again, Modest, you have been really terrific through all of this!</p>
<p>There were quite a few more than that offered my freshman year, at least one in almost every department. Where are you getting your list of FYS? It's possible it's not all in the Banner system yet since it wouldn't need to be for upperclassman registration.</p>
<p>The list is on the Summer Academic Advising part of the New Student Page. We also went to the Banner page and could only find FYS courses by department that way, not by a whole list of them. There are actually 9 listed for Fall and 3 listed for Spring. I think Mocha is a good way to browse for courses, but the best would be a paper catalog. I know it was controversial on campus last school year. But is there a plan to get paper catalogs?</p>
<p>Mocha is fantastic and I don't really think we need a full on print catalog if Brown would more formally integrate and support Mocha. However, Banner's course catalog is so horrific that they university has to put something out that's better for an official piece so there was a hastily printed course catalog that I don't believe there are any more copies of.</p>
<p>There will be a full and complete list/set of descriptions of CAPs and FYSs sent along with preregistration materials to prefrosh in the summer, or at least there was my year.</p>
<p>The mailing they sent this week also includes directions on how to view ALL of the available FYS courses on Banner (basically you highlight all departments simultaneously using the shift key, and for attributes select "first year seminar").</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! I emailed to Steven Cornish, whose name was at the bottom of the Summer Academic Planning page (and who, it turns out, is the Dean of First Year Seminars) that there were so few FYS listed on that page. He very kindly answered me saying that the updated list of those classes was coming, and that they were not really aware that most of them were left out on that particular page. </p>
<p>I learned from you guys about highlighting all of the subjects and then clicking on the attribute on the Banner page, and all of the FYS came up. I know that probably seemed obvious, but it was a great revelation to me! :)</p>