<p>If the courses are so easy, why not pick up a few graduate courses? At the slow pace they will use, you obviously could learn the material you missed in a weekend. Then back to boredom.</p>
<p>Like I said, approach the professors about research. Once they realize they have a Nobel laureate in their midst they will snap you up.</p>
<p>You can always pick up a textbook with hard problems if you are so keen on them (Jackson's Electrodynamics for e.g.). You don't need a prof to assign them to you. I know you are paying for the course and getting an experience entirely different than what you expected. But complaining about that on CC isn't gonna help, is it?</p>
<p>BTW, if you really are so eager on hard problems, then research problems are the mother of hard problems.</p>
<p>Well this thread is about how hard brown is, so there you go, I'm sharing my views on how hard it is. I didn't start a thread to complain.</p>
<p>You see I thought (actually I am very sure) that there is still a very lot of physics that I don't know. I wasn't planning on skipping it, by starting research or whatever. Cause I know what physics is, I know how much physics I know, and although research does seem the only option, it's not normal to start it soon. I was supposed to learn a whole lot more of stuff before starting.
Jackson's Electrodynamics is indeed a great book, I love electrostatics because of it. But you already need to know it for the olympiads by 10th grade when you do electricity and friends.
I was maybe hopping for something even better?
And I have started doing research, but here we are talking about courses</p>
<p>So yes woohaa, several people from the class complained to the chair of physics, so now we are going to have a normal, simple course, so everyone can get an A and live happily ever after without sweating their ass..</p>
<p>I'm going to talk to the administration myself as the professor suggested. If a bunch of ****** - insert whatever bad word you want, I'm sick of warnings)
can complain about the course not suiting their needs, so can I and the rest of the non-****** people from the course.
If you can't understand physics, GTFO and do IR or something, really. How is it ok for a degree from such a school be considered more prestigious than the ****tiest university in..anywhere else? When the new thermo course will basically be the 11th grade highschool physics in a whole lot of the rest of the world?</p>
<p>I have never been so disgusted with a school in my whole life, and I don't come from pretty land either. This is pathetic, I thought I was coming to a top school, with smart people, not retard land</p>
<p>That's ridiculous. I should mention something to Dean Bergeron...</p>
<p>I agree with you, Negru, that is absolutely ridiculous.</p>
<p>And the thing is those people don't care about learning anything, just the grade. Why else would they start complaining just after they got the midterm grades back? We started doing the new things from a loong time ago. They probably just thought, oh, it's going to be just van der waals, I can do that and get a big grade, I don't need any of this other stuff. And when they saw they couldn't even handle that, they go to the chair. Like in the professor's back. He said that since he is retired anyway, and has nothing to lose, should've just went on and failed 4/5 of the class. But he was also so disgusted, he just doesn't care.</p>
<p>And it really is a shame, it was one of the best classes I've ever had. If any of those people even cared slightly and understood the beauty of it (and that has nothing to do with understanding the material - the ideas behind it and the conclusions should motivate you to understand more by yourself) they wouldn't have cared about a stupid grade. No one with the slightest interest in physics (beyond the 3rd grade uuuu this is so cool) would've done this. So why must all of us now suffer because of some spoiled brat who brought daddy along?
Next class I'm gonna sit right next to that guy. And I don't feel like being friendly.</p>
<p>I hope the Chem department thermo and statistical mechanics is less whiny and equally awesome before the whining... our QM class has been solid so far, though it is just now starting to get pretty difficult.</p>
<p>Ugh Dean Bergernon . I have so little faith in UHall its not even funny</p>
<p>And negru, once again, I restate my advice while conceding you have a point.</p>
<p>And you have no idea how awkward, and just in what a situation the professor was. Like, someone of his name and reputation, and experience, having to do this. He was so completely disappointed, I can't even describe it. The students who did this honestly didn't deserve more from him than "well **** you and good luck". If I were him I certainly wouldn't be wasting my time for such *****. Especially since he is retired, has no obligations, and just wanted to use this opportunity to teach students, who were supposed to be as passionate, at a whole different level than usual boring crap.</p>
<p>Don't even try to challenge the students, they'll be offended when they discover that their little safe and *<strong><em>ty world they grew up in is so small and *</em></strong>ty.</p>
<p>Either the deans fix this, or I sure as hell am not stopping before as many people possible know what of crap goes on here. Kiddy brings daddy, big daddy speaks to big somebody, and voila. </p>
<p>To hell with the academic and ethical integrity of this school.</p>
<p>Have you spoken to the professor about this? I feel like he'd be happy and encouraged to know that he's not living in some kind of time warp.</p>
<p>Yes I did, he had asked me in the beginning of class to talk to him after. He said he was very sorry for doing this, since he knew how interested I was in his class, so he told me to speak to the physics chair guy to see what solutions he would have.
So I went and talked to that guy too, he basically gave me the ******** with blabla we must try and satisfy all students, but if you're interested in the subject I'll try to find you something to do. At the moment I had other stuff to do so I didn't have time to start an argument.</p>
<p>And the professor is basically confirming everything I've been telling you but for some reason you just think I'm stuck up or something. Education is going down seriously. Not just the level, but this whole attitude that you can't tell a student he sucks because you'll offend him. The result? Just like I predicted, and as the professor has been experiencing -we'll end up teaching counting up to ten in college. Phd will be counting to 16. The good thing is we'll be winning nobel prizes for numbers over 20
This is because too much focus is put on useless activities - ECs, sports, volunteering, and all that. Not only are the academics plummeting because of this, the time wasted isn't doing anyone any good. </p>
<p>Anyway I won't be going anywhere with the chair guy, I need to find someone else to talk to.</p>
<p>I don't think I've been saying you're stuck up about it... in fact, I think you're probably 100% right about it at this point-- initially I was skeptical, and I still think you can find what you want here, and I still don't agree with necessarily EVERYTHING you're saying, but obviously this is no typical scenario and something pretty ****ing ridiculous is up.</p>
<p>I wouldn't call ECs and volunteering "useless." You may learn some of the most valuable lessons from such activities.</p>
<p>ECs and volunteering can be a tremendous part of the academic and ethical learning that is a part of the universities mission. It's one of the things that separates the American liberal arts education system from the European system which is based on classroom content.</p>
<p>It's all about the right activities, of course some things are complete ********...</p>
<p>Negru, how exactly is the course changing?</p>
<p>If you don't ascribe a genuine meaning to your EC's, they are useless. </p>
<p>Of course, the way that most high school's are gearing their students to become portfolio gods and goddesses undermines the idea of an extra-curricular, which perhaps lends to your frustration and the superficiality you may find in sports, volunteering, etc. </p>
<p>That being said, when you take away all of the garbage, EC's are definately an avenue where you can find a strength and inspiration that will complement your academics.</p>
<p>It depends on your interests... But obviously someone interested in, say, journalism would benefit greatly from the experience of working on staff of one of the student publications.</p>
<p>All EC's are great. There is more to life than academics. And I don't mean going ot drama club 2 times a month, I mean real, dedicated EC's. And they don't have to "relate" to your chose field or whatever. </p>
<p>Furthermore, there are many more people smart enough to go to Brown (though Negru may disagree...) than get in. Part of what makes Brown sepcial is the diverse interests of its sutdent body.</p>
<p>"there are many more people smart enough to go to Brown than get in"
Actually I agree very strongly with that. And instead of all those people, look at who is in my thermo class. What are those people doing here? How the hell did they get in in the first place?
And you know, it's fine, the school is private, it is its own right to accept whomever it wants. But it should drop the top-school-leet-academics crap.
And having diversity and all kinds of students is great too, but these things should come along naturally, they shouldn't be a purpose on their own. </p>
<p>I bet we would have the same diversity in everything if the only people accepted were the best, academically. More smart people to my thermo class wouldn't hurt for sure.
Instead of all the "oh, i went to a lot sailing competitions, that's why I got accepted, because it shows passion and dedication and blabla". Well, I hope you become a great sailor one day, fishing fish or something. Now really, how the hell is something like that even considered? I told you.."you are special, you can flip coins..you should put that in your app". Sure ECs are valuable, and it's great to do them in your spare time. Not for college. Unless you tell me how having a leet sailor on campus will help anyone? I can name you 4 people from the physics olympiad who can sail and share sailing stories, if that's where the gain is. Too bad they never thought of putting that in their app. What, the campus would get too dull if they only accepted top scorers on IO's? Not by a long shot. The classes would only get better, and there would be more real people around. And believe me there are too many such great and smart people who don't get in. You know what the difference in my apps from 2 years ago, when I didn't get in anywhere, and last year, when i got in ED here? Adding a LOT of ********, and some minor strategical details. So, that's how you get in, by having a good app.</p>
<p>So, like I said, the school can accept as many sailors as it wants, but it should stop ********ting on how useful and great that is</p>