<p>I was just curious about what the least popular major at Brown is? Anyone know?</p>
<p><a href=âhttp://www.brown.edu/oir[/url]â>www.brown.edu/oir</a></p>
<p>Look at concentrations completed.</p>
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<p>Iâm sure thereâs an absolutely logical reason why the OP is asking about Brownâs least popular major.</p>
<p><em>cough</em> admissions misconception <em>cough</em></p>
<p>naughty naughty</p>
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<p>Now, now. He could just be a shockingly lazy grad student doing research for his Ph.D. in Education Theory.</p>
<p>Wait a minute, we only have about 6 people do an independent concentration each year? That seems waaay too low, especially as thatâs a cornerstone of the New Curriculum. Do we really have every concentration that people want?</p>
<p>Independent concentrations are, in my view, usually gimmicks that carry much more symbolic relevance than practical ones. As an applicant to Brown and several other schools that offer similar options, Iâve come to realize that while âthe flexibility to design your own curriculumâ makes me feel incredibly good about a school, in my head that excitement is not about pursuing that option as a practicable choice but rather a result of knowing that such an option exists if I want (or for some reason, need) it. For the great majority of college students however (myself included), a conventional, established major is a far wiser option. The one notable exception I can think of is with individuals who have a specific and established interest in one particular multidisciplinary area. Graduate schools might look favorably upon such specialization.</p>
<p>I used to be a part of the subcommittee that approves independent concentrations. We only get about 12 applications per year and we approve about half of them after revisions.</p>
<p>The reason there are so few is two-fold: one is that we have a boatload of concentrations, many of which are already interdisciplinary or offer lots of opportunity for electives. If you can fulfill your goal in an existing concentration, we will not approve your independent concentration. The number of concentrations at Brown has nearly doubled since we started having independent concentrations; two is that people tend to apply late, often second semester junior year, and very few proposals are high-quality, âshovel-readyâ when we read them. We often gave extensive feedback for revisions and further discussion and at least 2-3 students a year were discouraged because they felt they would run out of time before they could put things together and realized it wasnât that important to them. We expect the quality of an IC to be essentially the same as any new concentration which can be a formidable task.</p>
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