<p>On behalf of myself and anyone else who wants to join me from Brown '09, CONGRATULATIONS… seriously, and i hope to meet some of you guys during ADOCH… i can show you guys around if you want. so yea, good luck, and welcome to this Glorious School of Fine Thinking and Magic?</p>
<p>Yes, welcome everyone! Congratulations!</p>
<p>thanks for the kind words.</p>
<p>just wondering if any of you current brunonians can give us future brunonians some advice you wish you had received but didn't. ie meal plans, housing, extracurricular opportunities just to name a few.</p>
<p>Housing: absolutely nothing you can do about it</p>
<p>Meal plan: get 20 meals a week. It's ridiculously expensive not to. And plus, you'll miss out on the fun calculations of adding random snacks up to 4.45 at Jo's or the Gate or wherever.</p>
<p>ECs: DO SOMETHING. Go to the activities fair, go to meetings, just get out and meet people. </p>
<p>Classes: definitely take advantage of shopping period. Classes I shopped in areas I'd never studied before or never had any interest in before have turned out to be my favorite ones. Try anything that might sound remotely interesting. Don't feel bound by what you're registered for.</p>
<p>dont take a chem class with rose-petruck or a math class with braverman. intro math at brown sucks... umm... embrace your dorm, enjoy it for what its worth, try to meet people across campus, unless you get stuck in perkins.</p>
<p>Well, I'll ammend that. Take Rose-Petruck if you have no interest in chem yet want to be a doctor (why someone with aversion to chemistry would do that is still beyond me). He's the easiest of the teachers. You'll learn the least and be tested on the least. Moulton is the opposite. Many feel Doll is inbetween, but I never went to that section so I don't know.</p>
<p>Intro Math can be bad-- in general, don't take the Advanced Placement versions of the classes. Math 10 is plenty adequate--17 sucks. I am in 17 and doing fine but there was no reason to do that to myself, it's far harder and unless you're going to be a math major, even if you like math, it's not worth it. Math 35 is the same way, all my friends tell me it's a killer and unnecessary.</p>
<p>SHOP.</p>
<p>Take a variety of classes.</p>
<p>It's ok to get Bs.</p>
<p>Take things pass/fail.</p>
<p>Get 20 meals.</p>
<p>Jo's is far better than the Gate.</p>
<p>V-w is nicer than the Ratty-- neither are very good.</p>
<p>Go to Louis' at 5am.</p>
<p>Throw your own parties with your own friends-- they are better than any other party on campus no matter what's going on there.</p>
<p>Start thinking about concentrations fast. Sure there is time to switch around and of course, very few of us really know what we are doing, but start looking at all the potential pathways. Start reading the course catalog, read the Critical Review, start thinking of **** now.</p>
<p>Ask questions, always, of everyone. We all would love to answer you.</p>
<p>which one of the dining halls is right in front of the frat houses? because that is the only one i ate at during my trip there.</p>
<p>That's the Ratty.</p>
<p>I disagree about the Jo's and the Gate. They serve completely different functions. Jo's is good for stocking up on snacks when you have extra meal credits. However, the Gate has much better sandwiches than Jo's, so if you're actually looking for a meal, the Gate is your place. Also, the Gate has better atmosphere. </p>
<p>And yes, completely agree with the throwing your own parties.</p>
<p>I didn't find the food at the Gate to taste much better at all. The grill at Jo's gives more options alone and the sandwhiches, while not as good, are respectable depending on who makes it. Overrall, I think that the benefits of Jo's far outweighs the Gate.</p>
<p>I may feel different if I lived in Pembroke, but I've found no compelling reason to go there instead of Jo's. If I lived closer to the Gate, I'd lament Jo's was far and deal with the Gate, but I would be far more likely to walk to Jo's then to the Gate.</p>
<p>this is a really really really early question, but out of curiosity, whats the one thing every dorm-room at Brown needs, and whats the one thing you wish you had brought that you would have rather kept at home?</p>
<p>Clearly, you have not fully explored the options of the Gate if you think the grill at Jo's has more. I will agree that Pembrokers will like it better though. I only go there because I work there, and definitely always go to Jo's (or the IV room) instead, but I do think the foodis good.</p>
<p>MattyB: I really can't think of something that EVERYONE needs. Maybe a fridge.</p>
<p>Rabo, the IVY room? I only went there was this semester, and that was about a week ago. the gate has amazing sandwiches, bu i mean it all depends on how you order it. the pizza is not too great, and has a limited variety of snacks. Joes has a great grill (spicy chicken sandwich) and a lot of snacks. I like Joes, but too damn far away from pembroke to just go and hang there. and its allways so dirty and loud. the gate has couches and table, and yes they can sometimes have some trash on them, its not the dirtiness found at joes. the V-dub usually has less of a choice then the ratty, but the food is generally better at the v-dub, only because they are cooking for less people. and then if you hate the food, you could make your own sandwich, with far more items then the ratty has to offer. perhaps not. </p>
<p>and as far as what your dorm needs... something to decorate the walls. it also doubles as a conversational piece.g</p>
<p>I would argue that the $300 that I spent (my roommate matched) for a decent TV and a ****ty surround sound that does the job was the most crucial purchase.</p>
<p>Get a plywood board to throw under the mattress, it's far more comfy that way.</p>
<p>And get a foam pad to go on top of your mattress. My roommate has this therapeutic pad thing and her mattress is amazing. I just have one of the egg crates things, but it works fine.</p>
<p>and umm... you could do what me and my roommate did... and not get a tv. yup.. no tv in my room all semester. but then agian, we get a few channels online and stuff.</p>
<p>My roommate brought a large tv, but we hardly ever use it to actually watch tv. We generally only use it for movies.</p>
<p>I know this is a stupid question, but what's the general size of a dorm room? I'm an avid cyclist and I'm planning to keep my bike in my dorm room. Would there be enough living space after that? Thanks.</p>
<p>And another question: what's the general number of credits you can get for "A" levels at Brown? I plan to accelerate by one year. I took Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and C Maths. Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>THe dorm rooms vary a lot. I've been in a room in perkins that was practically a closet. My friend has a former lounge as a huge double. Most rooms are somewhere in between. There is enough room for bikes in most. There are also bike storage rooms.</p>
<p>shu<em>uemura: You'll get two credits per A level in which you get a C or higher (see <a href="http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean">http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Dean</a></em>of<em>the</em>College/DOC/s4<em>degree</em>completion/prebrown<em>cred</em>inter.html ). That is enough for you to accelerate one year, if that is really what you want to do, although it's an unpopular option. Note that IB/A-levels/other intl. things are favored over the AP at Brown, which cannot be used to count toward your number-of-courses graduation requirement.</p>
<p>Also, as a fellow international, I don't feel like too much of an ass saying this: if you plan to live in the US for three years, one of the first changes you make to your lexicon might be removing the "s" from the end of "maths" :-P</p>
<p>my room is 12'x16'. By rearranging the furniture, you can HUGE amounts of space in the middle of the room to do whatever. A bike in your room? good luck with that, i mean you have to take it up that stairs, unless you have an elevator, and then you have to put it in the rom and you dont know if your roommate is cool with that. they have bike racks outside, and for the vast majority, inside as well.</p>