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modestmelody: You should read your own post. You support most of what I wrote. Four weeks is a long time to decide on whether or not to proceed pass/fail. Why are you so defensive and so negative? Especially when your post confirms my post which you are allegedly trying to discredit.
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<p>If you think I'm being defensive, I'm sorry, I was responding to points brought up in your post that were inaccurate. We can go through it point by point so that we both are on the same page.</p>
<p>First, you say that students can take any course pass/fail. I confirmed this in my post-- no disagreement there, though I reserved making any judgment as to whether this makes courses easier or not. More on that later.</p>
<p>Second, you posted this:
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I also have been told, but don't really believe, that a Brown student can take a course under a provisional pass/fail that grades pass/fail only if that student's grade will fall below a certain level as stipulated by the student.
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<p>This, as I posted is in correct. What you've been told, as you suspect, is inaccurate. Midterms are held after the S/NC deadline (or not given back until after that point) so that students cannot "game" the system and choose to take courses S/NC only if they do poorly on the first exam. S/NC lasts four weeks because hte first two weeks of our semester is shopping period and so students are often unsure of what courses they're taking. Assignments (HWs, problem sets, essays, etc) are often not assigned during this period so it can be difficult to judge how heavy one's workload is just based upon reading about what you're going to be doing in a class. Yes, many students use S/NC as a means to balance their schedule. That is to say, it's better to take a course outside of one's comfort zone which will be more challenging and time consuming for you as it would be for most of the rest of hte class. S/NC is one way to attempt to balance the pressure of work. Most professors suggest to never take their course S/NC as time and time again the students who take courses S/NC earn As. It's all about alleviating mental pressure, although students at Brown are the self-motivated type (it's who we attract... not cheerleading, it's a result of an open curriculum which is appealing to self-motivated students) that end up doing the work anyway. I've always said it's impossible for me to not get a B in a course with essays because if I'm going to bother writing an essay, I'm not going to hand in a complete piece of ****. I'm going to work on it until it's at least what is considered B work because I take pride in myself and my work. Unlike what you assert later, which is that the above is the same as having four weeks to make a decision, it is in fact, quite different. I cannot blow off a final and get a C or even fail leading to a C in the class which will then turn into an S versus studying hard and getting an A so it remains an A. Long before I take exams I know whether or not I can get an A or I can get an S. These are very different.</p>
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These factors combined with the create your own major/curriculum serves as the foundation of my informed opinion
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<p>I refute this statement by noting that 3 students created their own concentrations last year. I think that's horrific and we should encourage that number to increase. You're writing that off as making course work easier demonstrates that you're not aware of the difficult process students must go through with the CCC to justify their concentration. </p>
<p>As for the notion that creating your own curriculum somehow makes course work easier (not the concentration), I attempt to refute that in the featured discussion written on the Brown forum by me. If you dont' find that satisfying, I suggest you look towards Shelia Blumstein's report in 1989 presented to President Gregorian in a time where your belief was much more widespread. There was significant misunderstanding amongst academia about how a program with an open curriculum would work when Brown first embarked on it. Much of that has long be lcleared up, but public perception is way behind the times in understanding the consequences of our curriculum. Don't believe me, look at transfer student's experiences posting right in these threads-- they have a basis of comparison that is non-existent in students coming from, "from students matriculating from the nation's most elite and academically demanding prep schools".</p>
<p>The environment here is significantly more relaxed then at other institutions, but just because there is less competition, greater collaboration, and students take joy in doing their work (because they chose to do that work) does not mean that it is somehow easier.</p>
<p>It is completely incorrect to assume that sciences are easier here because we're encouraging humanities students to take sciences. In fact, we do VERY LITTLE to actively encourage students to cross disciplines. We don't have to, Brown students choose on their own to do this. Our science programs are very well respected and have excellent placement into top graduate programs, and it's not because they're lax for so-called humanities students.</p>
<p>In fact, only about 70-75% of humanities students will take a science course while at Brown (approximately 95% of science students take both one social science and one humanities course). This is something we'd like to change and are discussing in the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, and never has the option of creating our own "Chemistry for Shakespeare" come up (not in the context typically imagined), and certainly never has the idea come up to dilute and/or weaken our introductory science courses at the expense of science students and science education come up as well.</p>
<p>So I'm not sure why you're angry with my sharing my experiences at Brown, my knowledge of how things work here (from being here and having weekly, active discussions about this on the Task Force), or the evidence put forth by transfer students who actually have a basis for comparison, but there it is, laid out.</p>
<p>This is exactly the kinds of discussions I'm looking to avoid on CC from this point forward, so hopefully others can step in a respectfully continue this discussion because I'd rather not.</p>
<p>Btw, negru, do you know Ivy? If so, I believe we may have had this conversation at my apartment once before...</p>