<p>Our daughter will enter Brown in the Fall as a freshman and is very excited. She is, however, a bit overwhelmed with the prospect of choosing freshman classes from the 2000 or so courses offered (or so she laments). She did attend the Summer at Brown program last year and had an opportunity to look over a course catalog, which she found helpful, but she also found so many courses she wants to take that she can’t imagine how she’ll select just 4 or 5 each semester. But now, she finds the on-line course catalog overwhelming.</p>
<p>Last night she received an e-mail from the DOC Advising Team telling her that this Friday they will send a link to “the first year course lottery” that will open on the following Monday. She is soooo confused and hasn’t much clue what this actually means for her. She is leaving (in a matter of hours) to go on a two-week trip that will have limited (if any) internet accessibility. So, she’s worried she will screw up her course selection right off the bat.</p>
<p>Would someone help us get started down the right path and give us a head’s up about what ‘the first year course lottery’ is all about? Won’t she get an advisor or some help in wading through all the course offerings—at least her first time out?</p>
<p>This is not a first year course lottery, but rather a first year seminar lottery - certain courses are set aside as small discussion classes for freshmen. These are completely optional. It won’t be the end of the world if she doesn’t sign up for one because of this trip; I elected not to do one, and I’m sure others here have as well. If she really wishes to do one, you’ll want to try to make sure you can contact her in some way and then do the lottery from home after hearing what she wants to enter for.</p>
<p>Your daughter will be assigned an advisor and will meet with this person and her student advisor a couple days before classes begin. Before then, however, she will be asked to make a preliminary list of courses she’s interested in and submit it by a website (only the advisor will see this). This is in no way binding, however, just a way to get her to think and start to narrow down the options.</p>
<p>Thank you, Uroogla! That helps a lot.</p>
<p>If any CAP/FYS (first year seminars) courses interest your daughter, she should enter the lottery for them. She’s likely to get one of her choices, especially if she lists four or five that she’s willing to take. If she gets to campus and decides she’d rather not take the class she got into through the lottery, she can always drop it or try to switch into another FYS/CAP. For example, I entered the lottery for a CAP class but then decided not to take it for logistical reasons. My advisor and Meiklejohn (student peer advisor) also gave me useful input when choosing courses. Bottom line: it’s confusing, but people will always be ready to help you!</p>
<p>I’ll actually be a Meiklejohn next year, so if you have any questions about courses/course selection/orientation, feel free to PM me or respond on this thread!</p>
<p>Thank you! We appreciate the explanations and help.</p>
<p>A little confused here. My son got the e-mail link to the list of FYS’s being offered, but many of the courses that appeared in the Banner listings as FYS’s are not listed. More specifically, there are 6 classes listed under the Cognitive, Linguistics and Psych Sciences Dept. according to Banner, but only 2 being shown in the overall list of courses that were accessed through the ‘New Students’ area at brown.edu/college.</p>
<p>Anyone have any insight as to what the discrepancy is and if this is typical of course listings being out of date (even though Fall '2010 was selected in this case in Banner)?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance–</p>
<p>It is likely you’re looking at the complete list of existing courses as of fall 2010, not just those being offered in fall 2010. Mocha is an easier tool to use than Banner for seeing what courses are being offered next term. A google search for “mocha brown” should come up with it.</p>
<p>Mocha:
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<p>Putting courses into Mocha doesn’t register you since it’s not connected to Banner, but it’s still a really useful tool as Uroogla says.</p>
<p>Re: CogSci (“CLiPS”) not sure what’s going on there. There are a number of courses being offered in that department this fall but only one FYS (Brains and Computing with James Anderson).</p>
<p>Hi, I’ll be a freshman this year and I have another question about courses.
What is the difference between a class conducted by a TBA and a class held by a professor? Is it a better idea to enroll in an enormous maths class with a professor or a small one with a TBA?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I think TBA is “to be announced” rather than a TA or teaching assistant. It probably just means they have multiple of the same class with different professors</p>