<p>oh and… what are the activities in a “Film/Screening” schedule type?</p>
<p>I can help with the first couple of questions. S01 means “section 1” - some classes have multiple sections (that is, the normal classes you’d go to) with different teachers, so you can choose which teacher you want to have. They cover the same material, though different teachers might have different methods. C01 stands for a conference…some courses require different meeting types. A chemistry course, for instance, might have a regular class (S01), a conference (C01, which is, I think, the pre-lab), and a lab (L01). The section number you were in appears on your internal records. I’m not sure if it appears on your transcript as well.</p>
<p>I’m not 100% sure about the FIlm/Screening, but I believe that’s a weekly movie/film/etc. that you have to go see at that time, to be discussed in the section or conference.</p>
<p>Ohhhh, thanks a lot! :)</p>
<p>Sure of:
RUSS0320A S01 Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” - The Art of the Novel
BIOL0030 S01 Principles of Nutrition</p>
<p>Not as decided on (in order of preference):
CHIN0100 S05 Basic Chinese (or Japanese, not sure)
LITR0110A S04 Fiction I
ENGL0400A S01 Introduction to Shakespeare</p>
<p>*Maybe<a href=“they%20looked%20interesting,%20but%20I%20already%20have%20so%20many%20courses%20I%20thought%20I%20would%20just%20get%20your%20opinion%20on%20these”>/I</a>:
EAST0950A S01 Turning Japanese: Constructing Nation, Race and Culture in Modern Japan
MUSC0021B S01 Reading Jazz</p>
<p>What do you think of the possible workload? Obviously I’m only going to be taking 4 classes my first semester.</p>
<p>^ wow, you have a lot to decide between :P.
Seriously, there are so many interesting classes D:</p>
<p>At the moment I’m considering:
MCM0100 - Introduction to Modern Culture and Media
CHIN0300 - Intermediate Chinese (would 3 years of Chinese in high school be sufficient to take this class?)
VISA0100 - Studio Foundation</p>
<p>and one more writing class. I’m choosing between LITR0110A Fiction I and ENGL0180 Introduction to Creative Nonfiction, what do you guys think of the two classes in terms of difficulty & usefulness? And does this course-list sound okay or is it too… er… (for the lack of my vocab) “soft”?</p>
<p>thanks :D.</p>
<p>@Picasso: Your schedule is extremely varied and, no doubt, your best bet would be to just shop them all and to see which four stick. I’m currently in Intro to Shakespeare, but I have a different professor than the one you will have next fall. I’ve heard nothing but excellent things about the fall professor though–Kahn, I believe her name is. In fact, she helped write the Norton Shakespeare texts you will read. The spring professor is great too–very knowledgable! (Just thought I’ve give my shout-out!)</p>
<p>I have a friend in Nutrition and he basically said that it’s a very easy class (in his opinion, obviously), however, because it’s so easy, he sometimes doesn’t feel motivated to do the work. Still, it sounds interesting so it might be worth it to shop–plus, it never hurts having an easy class in your schedule…especially first semester!</p>
<p>Lastly, if you have an inkling that you may want to study a language, start now! I don’t know anything about Japanese, but from my friends who are in Chinese, they say it’s a LOT of work! BUT, it’s still very rewarding. I think if you are willing to put in the effort, you should be fiiiinnneee! And if you do decide to take Intro to Shakespeare, I would advice against taking an additional Lit class on top of that and your Russian Novel course–too much reading and writing. In my opinion, these four classes sound do-able and quite fun! And who knows, perhaps start the semester off with five courses (by adding Nutrition) and if it becomes too much work, drop one! That’s what I did first semester and it worked out perfectly! Best of luck!</p>
<p>@devlos: I know nothing personally about the two writing classes you are considering, but I have heard good things about both of them! No doubt, there will be a great deal of writing involved in each one, so just shop them, check out the syllabus for each, and make a decision that is best suited for you.</p>
<p>Also, don’t concern yourself with the level of difficulty pertaining to your classes during your first year here. If there’s anyone who can relate to the age-old saying: “take it easy freshman year”, I can! Haha, I don’t really see the point in overbearing oneself so early on in his/her college career–take the classes you want, but don’t get crazy with the level of difficult for each one! Although, if I’m not mistaken, I do believe that there is quite a bit of paper writing in Intro to MCM, but I hear it’s a fantastic class! Best of luck to you as well!</p>
<p>Intro Japanese is probably about 20 hours of work and class time a week. It’s one of the most time consuming language classes because of weekly or biweekly projects.</p>
<p>@devlos:
3 years of high school chinese would likely be enough, though you may want to talk with someone in the department (there might be a placement exam), because you might place a bit higher or they might recommend 150-250 (which will let you reach the same place by the end of the year but provide a better review). Also note that VISA0100 requires a lottery to get in due to the amount of interest. Your workload looks like it’d be quite a bit of time, between a language class (even at the 300 level, quite a bit of time is involved), a studio art class, a class with a mandatory 4 hour filming section, and a writing course (though I think at least one of those writing courses is mandatory S/NC). Usefulness depends on what you hope to get out of those classes. Neither would be particularly useful to where I’m going at Brown, but either or both might be right up your alley. I don’t know anyone who’s taken either of those English courses, sadly.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about the softness, providing you’re not completely ruling out ever taking a symbolic or scientific course, but I’d recommend considering the time commitment and variety of class types…sometimes it’s really nice to have a larger class for which you don’t need to prepare for an intimate discussion (VISA might be that type of course).</p>
<p>I encourage all of you to read pages 5 and 6 of this document (this goes for current freshmen too, who won’t yet have seen this) - <a href=“http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean_of_the_College/advising/documents/dsc_form.pdf[/url]”>http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean_of_the_College/advising/documents/dsc_form.pdf</a>. Pages 5 and 6 show what Brown sees as a reasonable set of goals for a program. I won’t complete them all, and you don’t have to, but it’s something to keep in mind (and something one will have to write about when one declares).</p>
<p>This threas was so exciting to see because I am so excited about scheduling.]
Any advice on this:
1- TAPS 0310 - Beginning Modern Dance
2- HIST 0970M - World of Walden Pond: Transcendentalism as a Social and Intellectual Movement-FYS
3- PHIL 0700 - Philosophy of Religion
4- PSYC 0210 - Social Psychology</p>
<p>I am a theater major, but I don’t want to overload on theater classes right away. I tried to stay fairly well-rounded while avoiding science and math. Any comments or suggestions?
Also, what are the chances of me getting into this FYS?</p>
<p>Oh, by the way, I got a 5 on my AP Psych exam, so I am exempt from intro to psychology.</p>
<p>@AmbitiousMind07
Thank you for the feedback. If I’m going to be taking an extremely intensive language class, I’m glad Nutrition will be more laid back! Did your friend like the class though? Or was it just entirely boring?</p>
<p>@Uroogla: Thank you for the tip! I think I’ll go with Chinese then.</p>
<p>So here’s what my refined schedule is looking like:
LITR0110A S04 Fiction I
BIOL0030 S01 Principles of Nutrition
RUSS0320A S01 Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” - The Art of the Novel
CHIN0100 S05 Basic Chinese </p>
<p>I’m so excited!</p>
<p>By the way, can anyone tell me what “primary meet” means? Do we just have that one “primary meet” class the entire week, or do we have more meets, conferences, sections or whatnot on top of that?</p>
<p>Hannah, your schedule looks great! OMG, I took Beginning Modern Dance last semester and it was sooooooooo much fun! Ahh, it was by far my favorite class! I learned soooo much as an actor and about my body in that class (i’m a theatre double concentrator as well). Julie, your prof, is great and so nice—hella intimidating at first, but she knows her stuff! You can totally tell that she’s had quite the experience with teaching dancers…she reminds me of my ballet teacher (but only a little more strict and intimidating…lol). But you will basically do a combination of african dance (with live drums!) and ballet technique–a great workout too! Plus even though the class is capped at 40, it really felt like such a small class! We all got really close–I urge you to make as many friends in that class as you can—you will be surprised what kinds of people end up taking it (people from all concentrations)!</p>
<p>The FYS lottery is completely random. Not much else to say about it!</p>
<p>And, yes, you can place out of Intro to Psych with your 5!</p>
<p>Primary Meeting is basically your lecture. Classes are either everyday (like many intro languages), four days per week (langauges, dance), three days per week (most classes fall into this category), twice per week, or once per week seminars. Many larger classes break down into sections where you and about 20ish other students discuss the lectures with either a TA or the professor, depending on the professor and the class. I have section with my Shakespeare professor, so that’s nice!</p>
<p>Note on AP scores: you can place out of any class with any AP score, or even without any AP score. Don’t let people (including Banner) tell you there are prerequisites here: they’re mostly just suggestions, but feel free to try harder classes if you think you’re prepared for them. Just let the professor know and they’ll give you an override. The only thing is you’ll likely have to take just as many classes for your concentration if you skip lower courses, you’ll just get to have more of them be fun upper division courses.</p>
<p>Not all teachers are as willing to give overrides, though. My friend and I have had trouble getting some from the math department (from different professors, even). I’ve had a professor outright say no before. But it doesn’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>It’s also worth mention that there is no department just for Psychology, so that Social Psychology course is now known as CLPS0700.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I am super excited about going to Brown next semester!!</p>
<p>Could someone explain what we need to do for the first year seminar lottery and how it works in general? I believe it said the first round is in early June and I have so many classes that I am interested in. On a sidenote, any comments regarding personal experiences or secondhand knowledge of the following courses would be appreciated since I can not access the Critical Review yet.</p>
<p>1- NEUR0010-S01 The Brain: An Introduction to Neuroscience
Instructor(s): John J. Stein (P), Michael A. Paradiso<br>
2- CLPS0020-S01 Approaches to the Mind: Introduction to Cognitive Science
Instructor(s): Sheila E. Blumstein (P)<br>
3- CLPS0040-S01 Mind and Brain: Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
Instructor(s): David Badre (P) </p>
<p>These first three seem extremely similar, I honestly can not get a solid grasp of their differences simply by reading the course descriptions. I would love to hear someone’s explanation of the nuances of these respective classes.</p>
<p>4- PHYS0120-S01 Adventures in Nanoworld
Instructor(s): TBA
5- BIOL0190F-S01 Darwinian Medicine
Instructor(s): Marc Tatar (P)<br>
6- RUSS0320A-S01 Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” - The Art of the Novel
Instructor(s): Svetlana Evdokimova (P)<br>
7- CLPS0050A-S01 Computing as Done in Brains and Computers
Instructor(s): James A. Anderson (P)<br>
8- PHYS0110-S01 Excursion to Biophysics
Instructor(s): TBA
9- HISP0500-S02 Advanced Spanish I
Instructor(s): Silvia Sobral (P)
10- ECON0110-S01 Principles of Economics
Instructor(s): Rachel M. Friedberg (P)<br>
11- RUSS0100-S01 Introductory Russian
Instructor(s): Lynne Debenedette (P)<br>
12- BIOL0170-S01 Biotechnology in Medicine
Instructor(s): Beth Anne Zielinski (P) Edward Hawrot </p>
<p>They all just look so good! </p>
<p>P.S. What does the (P) in an instructor’s name indicate?</p>
<p>Do we get to choose our First Year Seminars? What’s with this lottery system? I’m going to be an economics-applied math concentrator (most probably, unless if I really like Computer Science). How’s this for the first semester:</p>
<p>Definitely taking:
ECON 0110 - Principles of Economics
MATH 0170 - Advanced Placement Calculus (thinking I could take MATH 0180 since I took the GCE A’ Level)</p>
<p>Considering:
ENVS 0490 - Environmental Science in a Changing World
Language/First year seminar/ PHIL 250 - The Meaning of Life/URBN 0210 - The City</p>
<p>I didn’t have any interest in taking a FYS so I can’t really speak to those (I believe you fill in your top n choices in order or something and hope you get into what you want.)</p>
<p>NEUR0010 is very very memorization intensive (several of my friends complained about that). I couldn’t begin to guess the difference between 1 and 3, but 2 would be the most different of those. It appears to be a survey of “what is cognitive science?” rather than a scientific course on “How does the brain do ____?” I’d note the writing designation on it as well as being important. I’m not sure which you’re more interested in, but those would be very different courses.</p>
<p>As cool as it would be to learn Russian, I would caution you that the time commitment is intense (6 hours of class a week, lots of out of class work - intro Italian said 12 hours out of class a week), and learning Russian goes very slowly because of its structure…it’s sort of like trying to speak Latin in a way. You won’t likely get overly far in 1 year. Intro to Econ is a very large course. Some people have said it might be worth taking it S/NC if you’re not considering it as a concentration, but you’d want to do what’s best for you in particular. I would recommend a mix of classes, across various fields, various types of assignments (having 4 problem sets due every Friday would be awful), various sizes, and various discussion levels. Chances are you don’t want 3 or 4 small discussion classes with lots of writing unless you’re sure you’ll be fully prepared for every single class (I have a small language class where participation is 50% of my final grade). Shopping period will likely remove some of those classes from your “wish list,” and it’s not unheard of for a student to go into a term with that many interests. Brown does highly recommend in several places that you continue a language or start a new one, for what it’s worth. The time commitment is great, as I said, though.</p>
<p>(P) probably indicates that this person is the main professor.</p>
<p>@bdude: You choose which FYS’s you’re interested in and put them into a form over the summer, and are given one of those, I believe.</p>
<p>I just skimmed over the GCE A’ level material, and there would likely be some new material at the end of 17, though I don’t think the math department would have any trouble letting you take 18, 20, or 35. Your schedule seems fairly balanced, but do make sure that 4th course is a small discussion course, as your others won’t be. Writing would be helpful, though I didn’t take a course with writing in English freshman fall.</p>
<p>@ Uroogla: Thanks for the clarification. I definitely want to take a first year seminar, and I might add a writing-designated course (which I think are medium-sized classes?), to balance out the larger intro classes in econ and math.</p>