<p>Doing the ScB and AB in 4 years would still be incredibly difficult to do, but technically possible. It’s not something you should assume you can do, though, in part because course times may conflict and you have very little room for error in that regard.</p>
<p>The survey classes are challenging. The course I’m currently in reads 900 lines of Greek a week, and the Latin one I took last term was 700 lines of Latin a week. This is obviously a substantial time commitment, and it’s notable that the graduate students tend to take all of these courses, due to the vast amount of literary history covered (and tested). These courses tend to change authors quickly (This week, I think I’m reading from 4 different authors), making them different from a grad course of the same pace.</p>
<p>What is your current Greek background? By the time I entered Brown, I had read in the original Plato’s Apology, the Crito, and a portion of Lysias’ 1st oration. The 2nd year course tends to cover Herodotus, Plato, and/or Xenophon. All of these texts are accessible to someone with only a year or two of Greek. It’s possible to consider Homer, though the epic dialect varies from Attic enough that I would advise against teaching yourself Greek with Homer. The intro courses assume no knowledge of Greek, and unless you’ve read a substantial amount of Greek, beginning higher than the intermediate courses would be risky - the Greek professors have higher standards than the Latin ones.</p>
<p>@charismaztex: A Level math, physics and chemistry gives 6 credits in total. (MATH 9, 10, PHYS 3, 4, CHEM 33 and one unassigned chemistry credit). This will only accelerate you one semester, if that is what you intend to do. You need a seventh credit to accelerate a full year. I’m not sure about the Classics Department’s policy regarding credit for A Levels. </p>
<p>Also very few of the credits you will be getting from A Levels actually go towards fulfilling your concentration requirements. I don’t think you will be able to use PHYS 3, 4 in place of ENGN 3, 4, and chemistry does not feature in Computer Engineering at all. You will probably be able to use your credit for MATH 10 for MATH 17/19, given that you need to take MATH 18/20 anyway. So in essence, if you choose to accept Advanced Standing, you will be forced to complete roughly the same number of courses in fewer semesters.</p>
<p>@ Uroogla: How many years of Greek did you do prior to Brown? My school doesn’t offer Greek classes so I’ve done minimal. Sorry I didn’t make it clear, I was supposed to write textbooks or intro books; I’m definitely not ready to read proper authors in the original yet. I have some spare time before college so I might as well make a head start on some vocab and grammar.</p>
<p>@aleph0: thanks for the info.Hmm… one more credit to skip one more semester. Do you know if Brown accepts college credits? I’ve done first year maths at the top university in my country during high school. Do you know if it’s possible to test out of courses? All I want to do is to skip the intro courses.</p>
<p>I had two years of Greek prior to Brown. I’ve used a couple different books - JACT’s Reading Greek is fun and gives practice with reading extended passages, but it tends to not be great for grammar. Chase and Phillip’s A New Introduction to Greek is an older text that is very good for grammar, but light on vocabulary and might be difficult to use on your own. In a few places, it is difficult to follow unless you know several languages (it tries to teach the uses of the word αυτος by comparing it to the French m</p>
<p>Brown distinguishes between course credit and enrollment credit. Any college credit you want to transfer to Brown (as course credits) will probably have to go through the relevant department, so we can’t really say off hand if you will be able to get it.</p>
<p>Brown is relatively reluctant to give enrollment credits, which is the thing that gains you Advanced Standing. A Levels are one way to get enrollment credit (3-6 course credits = 1 semester of Advanced Standing, 7-10 course credits = 2 semesters of Advanced Standing), but beyond that the policy is fuzzy. Though my intuition is that it will be relatively difficult to do so.</p>
<p>Ah I see, so two enrollment credit corresponds to full A-level? Is it possible to use AS-levels (I’ve got 3AS and 3 Alevel). Does Brown allow a bit more flexibility for better grades? (I’ve got the highest grades for all my subjects) As you mentioned above, my 3 A-levels correspond to 6 credits and I’m missing 1 credit to skip an extra semester.</p>
<p>I understand that some A-levels do not go to fulfill my concentration requirements (e.g. chemistry doesn’t have much to do with computer engineering) but if I skip introductory courses and focus in on my engineering concentration right away I hope to finish the requirements faster than if I took time to explore other engineering areas. For the accelerated engineering at my local university, students can skip first year (general intro courses) and go straight into second year.</p>
<p>With regard to combined ScB/AB, you can do it in 4 years and not get an “AB” but simply “concentrate” in the other field. It shows up on your transcript as an AB, the only “drawback” is that your diploma only has one degree (i.e. it’s a meaningless distinction). You could also entertain the idea of doing an AB in engineering if you really want to do the Latin and Greek. I had a friend do a double AB in engineering and econ and he’s a financial analyst at Citibank, although I have no idea if an AB in engineering would look good for a PhD in the field.</p>
<p>It sounds like you don’t have a problem staying for your full time, and money isn’t such a big issue. Honestly, you’d probably end up getting a more satisfying experience if you didn’t take advanced standing, skipped intro courses where you could, and took the full 5 year AB/ScB. If that’s not the case, but you plan on going to engineering grad school anyways, you could consider doing an AB in Engineering and double concentrate in Classics. The AB for Engineering has a lot fewer requirements, but like concentrating in Physics then doing grad school in Engineering, would likely not provide much of a hurdle in terms of being able to handle the coursework/be where you needed to be. I’m not confident about this, but I know in CS there really isn’t a big stigma against people who get ABs instead of ScBs, they just take fewer CS/other science courses.</p>
<p>Not every field offers this, but it’s reasonably common in Computer Science. In CS, it’s generally seen as a fine idea for those planning to go into industry. I don’t think the people who do it tend to want to do PhD programs (apparently, an ScM can be inhibitory for applying to some PhD programs because it’s generally a terminal degree). The classics department does not offer this program, as far as I can tell, although an AM in Classics is seen as a good stepping stone to PhD programs.</p>
<p>Not sure if this has been asked before (haven’t this entire thread) - but what’s Brown’s attendance policy like? Are they very strict, or is it fairly lenient? </p>
<p>I’m obviously not looking to go to Brown just to slack off and not go to classes, btw :P</p>
<p>Keynesian: it really depends on the class. None of my big lecture classes take attendance, though one gives occasional in-class quizzes, so you receive no credit for the quiz if you’re not in class. Smaller classes tend to take attendance; some make it count for part of the grade. I have one small class that doesn’t take attendance, but it’s extremely difficult to keep up if you miss class, so I’ve only missed that one once.</p>
<p>Thanks! That’s basically what I expected, actually.</p>
<p>I have another question: How does the combined A.B./Sc.B. degree work? Would taking it mean that you have less choice in doing random fun papers? Also, if I do plan to do it, should I start taking that into consideration from freshman year?</p>
<p>Hi. I’m sorry if something like this has already been asked, but I haven’t had time to read the entire thread. </p>
<p>I’m from Britain, and am really interested in coming to Brown University, however, I was wondering how many international students you would say there were? If being from abroad limits your chances of getting in? And finally, if you think it would be easy to integrate within Brown as an International Student?</p>
<p>Oh, and as a sidenote, I basically don’t have a clue what all these grade point averages mean, can someone put it into perspective for me?</p>
<p>If you need financial aid, you need to know that Brown is not need-blind for international students. That means that admissions takes your ability to pay into consideration when looking at your application, and may mean you could be denied admission because of this.</p>
<p>Because Brown values diversity and is positioning itself as a global university, it heavily recruits international students and wants them to be on campus.</p>
<p>Is it easy to integrate? I think that depends on the personality of the student. Clearly many international students have been successful at Brown.</p>
<p>As for GPAs – I really wouldn’t worry too much about it, since Brown and other US colleges understand that the grading system in other countries is very different than in the US. I mean, it’s not like we understand the GCSE’s or A levels (even though we know about the Wizarding World equivalent of Owls and Newts). If your grades put you in the top 10% of your class, then you are within range to apply to Brown. (I’m not going to attempt to explain the US grading system; you can go to Wikipedia and find a page that tries to define it.)</p>
In the 4 year program, you receive only the ScB, but your transcript says you completed the AB as well and you can put it on your resume. You have between 30 and 40 courses to complete requirements that could be as numerous as 36, depending on the fields…in that case, you’d need to be taking these courses right away. (My program is a more reasonable 28 courses, giving me a good number of electives to play with, since I take 5 courses a term.)</p>
<p>In the 5 year program, by the end of the 2nd year, you need to let Brown know you plan to stay for a 5th year. You get 2 degrees, and ScB and an AB. You have 10 semesters (though you can potentially do so in 9) to complete the same requirements, meaning more electives (or less pressure to take 5 courses a term).</p>
<p>Brown’s looking for the best fits. It’s important that they see you as academically qualified (i.e. your GPA and SAT/ACT need to be good), it’s important that they see you as motivated and someone who will bring a lot to the school (i.e. you should have some ECs where it’s clear you’re passionate about them), but it’s important that they think you’d be perfect for Brown in particular, which comes through in numerous ways.</p>
<p>With that said, it seems that Brown cares a little less about SATs than other comparably selective schools.</p>
<p>What about the size of Brown? I’m tossing up between Brown and Amherst, so I’m trying to decide whether I want to go to a small school, or a fairly big school. I already go to a very small high school (200 people), so I’m not sure I want to do that again. Is the faculty-student interaction still good at Brown even though it’s a little big (by my standards)?</p>
<p>Question: What about attending Brown when an older sibling goes there?</p>
<p>Any thoughts on this from older siblings who attended with a brother or sister, younger siblings who attended with a brother or sister, parents who sent two to Brown, current or former students who had friends with siblings in attendance, etc.?</p>
I’m sorry if something like this has already been asked, but I haven’t had time to read the entire thread. </p>