<p>hi… i ll be joining brown this year and wanted to know as to how many classes can one take each semester without being too burdened… most people say four… with one S/NC… what would be your take on taking 5 classes ( 2 S/NC )</p>
<p>Ahh, I’m also wondering about this…I think I might play it safe and just take four classes first semester, and see how that goes.</p>
<p>(sorry, useless post)</p>
<p>haha np :)</p>
<p>When visiting Brown, I learned that the consensus was that most students take four classes.</p>
<p>You should most likely take 4 classes freshman fall to let yourself adjust and so you don’t overdo it. At that point, you’ll have a sense of what you can handle and can decide for yourself whether or not 5 is viable.</p>
<p>thanks uroogla… thats what i’m thinking as well</p>
<p>but I recommend registering for 5, so that you can drop the one midway through the semester for which you feel like doing work for the least. Admittedly, if you know this by the end of shopping period, you’re good to go, but I usually need another couple weeks before I stop attending/doing some of the work for all 5.</p>
<p>Also check out this thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/1062827-s-nc-per-semester-pass-fail.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/1062827-s-nc-per-semester-pass-fail.html</a></p>
<p>@chsowlflax17, does dropping a class in the middle of the semester hurt you in any way? Because otherwise that sounds great!</p>
<p>@mgcsinc, Thanks for the thread, it’s really helpful. Now I’m both excited and worried about choosing classes, haha!</p>
<p>Dropping a class in the middle of the semester doesn’t hurt at all. It doesn’t show up on your transcript, and only you and your advisor will know.</p>
<p>^A small caveat: late drops and NC’s show up on your internal transcript, which is (supposedly) used by the university in considering certain prizes, etc.</p>
<p>chsowlflax : Thanks for the tip!</p>
<p>Mgcsinc - As always, thanks for your help :)</p>
<p>always, always, always register for 5 classes initially, even if you’re planning on taking 4. Then just drop one (i guess ideally) before the end of shopping period</p>
<p>I fundamentally disagree, but I seem to be alone in that regard. Perhaps because I feel that if I start with 5 courses, I should see them through to the end…especially if I’ve spent 15 hours a week on the material, why shouldn’t I let grad schools see I’ve done the work? <em>shrug</em> To each her own.</p>
<p>^ Yes, I feel as though I would not be able to bring myself to withdraw from a class even if I go in with that intention, simply because of the years of negative connotations with dropping classes.</p>
<p>^Eh, to each their own. One thing to note: shopping period is only 2 weeks long. However, if you drop a class within the first 4 weeks (i.e. before the add deadline) it won’t show up even on your internal transcript. Usually the workload in the first few weeks isn’t as much as it is towards the end of the semester (or even the next two weeks), so I feel like trying out a 5th class, and seeing which one ends up being least appealing is the way I’ll get the most out of the work I do put in.</p>
<p>Here’s how registration worked for me and most of the people that I knew, back in the day:</p>
<p>You’d pre-register for 5 courses that you were vaguely interested in. Mostly, this was just a procedural matter; none of us understood it to be binding in any way, other than for the few courses for which there was some special registration procedure.</p>
<p>Then, you’d start shopping period taking 8-10 courses. After attending each once, you’d be able to whittle that down to 5-7, and down to 4-5 by the end of reading period. If you had a 5th, you’d take it S/NC, and try to stick with it all the way through the semester, unless you realized that you had gotten caught up in something you really weren’t expecting. (That never happened to me.)</p>
<p>My understanding is that the re-invigoration of pre-registration (via Banner) moved some of the whittling down to pre-registration time. That makes me a bit sad – my personal feeling is that shopping period is extremely valuable and should be used as much as possible. But, I’m an old fogey.</p>
<p>Most people take four classes per semester, but that varies. One of my roommates has taken five classes every semester she was here, but another has taken 3 classes some semester. I generally have taken 4- I only took one semester with 5. On average I’d say I took a class S/NC once every two semesters.
It really depends on what classes you’re taking. If you’re in a science class with a 4 hour lab each week, maybe don’t take five classes. If you’re going to be in some intro classes and are taking something s/nc, it’s more reasonable.
And don’t be afraid to drop! I dropped one class after getting into a class at RISD. These things happen. I think that most drops are probably people at risk of getting a C.</p>
<p>I’d take four, definitely.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that while each class at Brown is one “credit,” it is equal to four credits at another university.</p>
<p>So don’t worry about your friends taking five classes at Columbia. Five classes at Brown would be equal to 20 credits, which is ridiculous to start off with.</p>
<p>If you really need to take five, make sure one is like ENGN0090, a course that’s an easy A, extremely worthwhile, and not particularly strenuous.</p>
<p>I took five courses twice. Once with ENGN9 (and a language course that met all five days a week) and once that were all straight-up legitimate courses (and, even worse, generally annoying pre-requisites for other more interesting courses).</p>
<p>The one with ENGN9 was fine. </p>
<p>The other one I always had at least three or four problem sets per week, guaranteed, plus readings and mid-terms and papers. I was constantly working. It was not fun.</p>
<p>also when comparing Brown “credit loads” to other schools, remember that labs at Brown, which are 4 hours/week plus time spent prepping/doing assignments do not count as credits at all.</p>