<p>Thank you all again :D</p>
<p>Most of the dorms have a laundry room in the basement with anywhere from 2-5 sets of washers and dryers. A few dorms have a washer and dryer or 2 in a room off the kitchen on alternate floors (Verney Wooley,) Also many of the dorms have a connecting dorm without going outside, (Andrews vs Miller for ex) so the trick is to figure out where laundry is the least busy and do it in off hours (mid day, on weekdays etc.)</p>
<p>It may seem like people aren’t open to friendship but most students are on a college campus. Why don’t you ask people you meet in your summer class, down the hall, at the ratty if they want to do something? People who have friends usually are open to more friends. If people don’t have friends, they are open to making friends. Reach out!!</p>
<p>Anybody recommending (or opposing) any biology courses??</p>
<p>I just read on the “What to bring with you” section for incoming freshmen, that you need to bring a touch-tone phone with you. Why would you need one, and it that mandatory?
Thanks</p>
<p>^That’s from yesteryear. No need in these modern times.</p>
<p>I only had a landline my freshman year, and it existed solely to receive calls from collections departments to which someone had fraudulently given the number :-)</p>
<p>Trivia: Back in the day, the number 867-5309 was assigned to a Brown student room, but they had to sell the number because of the sheer quantity of prank calls. Or so the legend goes. It’s now owned by a local plumbing company.</p>
<p>Thank you. That’s what I thought!</p>
<p>Do Brown students have trouble with the open curriculum? I, for one, could totally see myself diversifying my classes too much my first few years and not having enough credits towards my major by the time senior year rolls around. Do academic advisers help you if they think you’re going way off the track of a major and just sporadically taking classes in various academic fields instead?</p>
<p>You have to submit for a concentration your sophomore year at which point your official academic advisor is your concentration advisor. At that point in time you have to chart a course toward the completion of your concentration (non-binding), and there are other, later potential check points that avoids this. With something like 97% of students graduating in 5 years and 95% in 4 (the gap is mostly folks who took a semester off for some reason, these numbers may be +/- 2% or so I’m quoting from memory), Brown has clearly figured out how to avoid that problem.</p>
<p>I guess students realize that they can’t abuse the open-curriculum too much but can still take advantage of it. </p>
<p>Another question: What about Brown makes its students so happy? It certainly can’t just be the other students themselves because if that were the case, a number of other T20 schools would top the PR list too. Instead, Brown seems to have topped it regularly.</p>
<p>It’s the open curriculum and the way that system/philosophy impacts the culture of the university. When 18-22 year olds are given freedom to pursue what they want both inside and outside the classroom, it’s hard not to be happy.</p>
<p>^ All that, plus the fact that none of us are cutthroat in the least. Seriously, I don’t know anyone who has experienced cutthroat competition here – not even my premed friends. Collaboration is the norm in the hardest classes (think orgo, or any of the engineering ones).</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s fair to assume that the more elitist Ivies (HYP) are cutthroat while Brown is an outlier and nurtures only laid-back students that have no intent of undermining a classmate for a grade. This is based on the fact that an institution doesn’t define the student. If the student wasn’t competitive and cutthroat in high school, he likely won’t be at college either. Likewise, if a student is competitive in high school and chooses to attend Brown, that inherent competitiveness is not going to go away just through magically being surrounded by students and and institution that is known for its laid-back culture. </p>
<p>I think Harvard (and similar schools) gets the bad rep because people that do go there are the creme de la creme both academically and extra-curricularly and have often had to find unconventional ways to being the best. Putting people that are told they’re the best with others who are told the same can only ask for more competition. But I think my previous tenet stands, in that if a non-competitive student enrolls at Harvard, he’s not going to be competitive. It’s just that Harvard happens to accept a lot more competitive people, because by nature, being at the top of your game means being competitive.</p>
<p>Okay… I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s 1 AM and I’m kinda loopy in the head right now, but I was just rebutting blueroomjunkie’s point about how no one at Brown is competitive, since I have trouble believing people that work hard to go to one of the best institutions in the country are non-competitive academically. Maybe they just don’t show it or are more secret about their competitiveness, but getting into Brown in the first place requires academic excellence-- something that goes hand-in-hand with competitiveness.</p>
<p>There’s a difference between being competitive with yourself and striving for greatness and personally trying to **** people over at the hopes that you’ll do better than everyone else. I don’t know why it’s so hard to believe.</p>
<p>Fair enough. Your point reminds me of my good friend [Kevin</a> Chang](<a href=“http://hackedirl.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2011/05/epic-win-photos-yearbook-quote-win2.jpg]Kevin”>http://hackedirl.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2011/05/epic-win-photos-yearbook-quote-win2.jpg).</p>
![http://hackedirl.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2011/05/epic-win-photos-yearbook-quote-win2.jpg]Kevin](http://hackedirl.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/epic-win-photos-yearbook-quote-win2.jpg%5DKevin){kind=link}
<p>There’s a very big difference between being competitive with yourself and being competitive with others. I think only the former is necessary for academic excellence-- the need to be better than what you are, not necessarily better than your peers. When you’re competitive with yourself, you aren’t jealous of other people’s success but rather you’re motivated by it (and can still be happy for others). I can’t explain why Brown is less competitive than the other top tier schools, but I do think the applicant pool is self-selecting. Brown appeals to a different crowd. Everyone wants to be happy, everyone wants to achieve their own definition of success-- not one that’s prescribed to them, which I think is the case for many other schools. My high school was the same way, and I’m so grateful I’m headed to a school where collaboration trumps competition.</p>
<p>In response to the request for a good biology course:</p>
<p>Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease</p>
<p>Limited to around 20 freshmen and sophomores, the professor is awesome, and since there is no textbook, you save money and go through a crash course in reading scientific literature.</p>
<p>I believe I would be a great candidate for Brown, and I love what Brown represents as a school and how it is so radically different from many other types of schools. I will be transferring from a state school and am wondering if any current Brown students are friends with many transfers or transferred themselves?
What is the experience like transferring? When is the best time to transfer? And how can I stand out as a transfer applicant? What do you believed helped you the most as a student (even if you did not transfer) in standing out?</p>
<p>I graduated from high school early as a Home School student, are there many home school students at Brown? Due to Brown’s open curriculum, it seems that designing one’s own curriculum would be a good way to show that you are ready for the open curriculum that Brown offers. However, I will need to show that I can flourish in that type of environment at Univeristy, too. What kind of advice might one offer for showing that sort of ability at college?</p>
<p>Supersizeme,</p>
<p>I will also disagree with you that individuals cannot be shaped by the institution. While I agree that most students will not do complete 180s on their personalities, we are talking about a time when most kids are first experiencing life without strong parental presence. This new freedom allows college students (in general, not just at brown) a chance to shape their identity, and what institution you’re at will definitely play a role.</p>
<p>Beyond college, graduate schools and employers often try to “create a culture” at their institutions. You’re right that a large part of it is due to who is admitted/hired but it is also human nature to adopt certain elements of the ethos that surrounds you. The role of deans/upper level management at these institutions is to help the group stay true to certain agreed upon ideals, and this includes indoctrinating the new admits/hires.</p>
<p>Also, I’m thinking of taking Political Movements in 20th Century America by Robert Self, and the critical review doesn’t say anything about discussion sections but it’s on the syllabus. What’s considered “participation” in discussions? I listen very well, but I almost never speak, especially when I don’t know much about the subject…and while I know I should work on that, I’m terrified of having participation as a part of my grade.</p>