<p>Since threads in past years on first-year course selection have been so successful, let’s see if we can have a discussion this year as well.</p>
<p>For incoming first-years to Brown, what classes are you thinking of taking in Fall 2014?
Any advice from current students would be appreciated.</p>
<p>For me:
Intended concentration: Computer Science (A.B.)
Classes:
[ul]
[<em>]MATH0170: Advanced Placement Calculus
[</em>]CSCI0150: Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming and Computer Science
[<em>]ECON0110: Principles of Economics
[</em>]CLPS0701: Personality
[li]GEOL0220: Physical Processes in Geology (or maybe BIOL0210: Diversity of Life)[/li][/ul]
Comments:
I really wanted LITR0100A: Introduction to Fiction as my fifth class, but I didn’t get it during the First-Year Seminar Course Lottery. How likely is it to register for a capped course like this during shopping period? How many classes do people generally shop during shopping period?</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Think long and hard before committing to 5 classes. I know that after taking 7-8 classes in high school, four classes seems like a breeze – except it isn’t. I strongly recommend taking four your first semester freshman year. Five may seem OK the first few weeks, then when midterms hit you will be slammed. And you want to have fun freshman year and not spend it only doing classwork. If after fall semester you realize that your brilliance makes 5 classes doable, then take five in the spring. That’s a much better scenario than either having to drop a class too late, or getting crappy grades on everything.</p>
<p>One approach is to go to five classes for a few weeks, with the intension of dropping one. Sometimes you’ll find you can keep up the 5, but it’s better to be fully prepared to drop one by the deadline (which used to be just before midterms, but someone more current can check that).</p>
<p>CS can be very very time consuming. (Disclaimer: I never took it at Brown, but know people who did.) You get into a perfectionist mode and just want to keep working on projects to make them work better, and next thing you know 12 hours have slipped by. </p>
<p>The intro Econ course is, I’m pretty sure and you can check, offered every semester. So consider taking it second semester.</p>
<p>As for shopping: My kid used to shop 2-5 classes a semester. Usually knew 3 classes for sure and was shopping for the 4th. Had a friend who was infamous for shopping dozens (yes, dozens) of classes a semester. Some people shop not for this semester, but future ones, or are checking out profs.</p>
<p>And people definitely drop out of FYS, with spots opening up.</p>
<p>Fellow incoming freshman here. </p>
<p>Here are my thoughts on your schedule based on browsing through the critical review, talking to students, and reading past threads on this site:</p>
<p>-As fireandrain mentioned above, 5 classes during your first semester is pretty much universally seen as a bad idea. For many students, that kind of workload is overwhelming. Even if it’s not going to be terribly hard for you, what’s the benefit of having that extra class this semester when your time is better spent meeting people and figuring out what Brown has to offer? There really isn’t any rush, especially since you’re intending on doing a CS A.B. (which only has 10 courses, if I remember correctly). </p>
<p>-Math 17 can apparently be really difficult, depending on the instructor. </p>
<p>-Geo 22 with Jan Tullis is supposedly another time consuming class, but it’s supposed to be rather awesome. </p>
<p>May I ask why you’re leaning towards CS15 instead of CS17? </p>
<p>fireandrain, thanks for your advice, though my situation may be slightly different than you expected.</p>
<p>I’m actually an international student from Australia. Our calendars are different, so I graduated from high school in November 2013. Since then, I’ve had one semester in my state’s prestigious law school (there are undergraduate law degrees in Australia) where I took five courses (four is the norm; I had to request). I got pretty good grades, a 3.8/4.0 on the American scale if the online conversion tool is correct. </p>
<p>I think I’m prepared for five courses at Brown, especially since I took Introductory Microeconomics in law school; I probably know about half the material in ECON0110 already. Also, I think you can drop a class at any time before finals? That sounds like a great safety net to me. </p>
<p>For CS, I’ve heard that it’s time-consuming, so I’ve tried to ensure that I don’t have another time-consuming and/or difficult class (like MATH0350 and PHYS0070, maybe?) in my schedule. What other Brown classes are known to be very time-consuming or difficult?</p>
<p>Do NOT take a 5-course first semester, especially with a course such as CS15, which is honestly a huge workload on its own. It’s fine to start out with 5 with the intention of dropping one later on, but you’ll burn yourself out if you try to actually do 5 as a first-semester freshman, no matter what you did in Australia. Your intention should be to spend your extra time making friends and joining clubs, not studying.</p>
<p>WuLiMaster, I’m in a rush because the idea that we can only take between 30 and 40 classes at Brown makes me very uncomfortable. There’s so many academic disciplines I want to explore and delve into! The liberal arts education ethos is what made me apply for US universities in the first place.</p>
<p>I’m doing CS15 because it just seems way more fun than CS17. CS15 seems more focused on graphics and making games, while CS17 seems to be more mathematical and focused on a variety of programming languages. To use an analogy, I like playing tennis (CS15) more than making a tennis racket (CS17). </p>
<p>Also, CS15 is taught by the renowned Andy van Dam.</p>
<p>What classes are you going to take?</p>
<p>The number 1 rule at Brown, universally, is to take 4 classes your first semester </p>