<p>I am planning to apply to Brown ED - the atmosphere, the students, the freedom all contribute to my excitement for this awesome school. </p>
<p>However, I have heard from a teacher at my school that sometimes it is hard for Brown undergrads to get into good grad schools. From the many students she has kept in touch with, some have had bad experiences with the open curriculum, having taken classes all over the place and chosen to take them pass/fail. Is this true for most students?</p>
<p>Freedom to choose cuts both ways - you can make bad choices, or great choices. If you choose a rigorous curriculum with some logic and balance to it, and earn a respectable GPA, I wouldn't expect grad school admissions from Brown to be more difficult than any comparable school.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you take a poorly balanced set of courses, many of them pass/fail, it will be harder for grad schools to evaluate your academic accomplishment and potential.</p>
<p>Very true, Roger. The Open Curriculum does give you the freedom to fail, but if you talk to your advisors, do some research on what grad schools are looking for, stretch yourself, and work hard, you should be fine.</p>
<p>I've not heard of people having a hard time, in fact, we're one of the top "feeder" schools into many grad school programs. However, like at any other university, there are paths which you can take which are far easier to a degree than others. If you fill your schedule with courses that are not challenging, you'll be a less competitive candidate. It's like choosing to take APs in high school or not. But, a well-balanced schedule (an important thing that each person must find for themselves) should get you where you deserve to be for grad school.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about it. For the most part, the type of student that gets into Brown is capable of creating their own academic pathway, it's part of the reason they're accepted.</p>
<p>the main drawback that im seeing from other freshman is that there are just SO MANY POSSIBILITIES that kids are having trouble figuring out what they want to do...so i guess the lack of direction could be a big drawback if you dont know what you want to do coming in, like me.</p>
<p>I still don't know what I want to do and I am a sophomore. I am not sure I will ever know what I want to do. That's the clearest advantage to me-- I am working everyday to discover, in part, what it is I enjoy. There are tons of classes I want to take and I can't possibly take them all while at Brown. But wanting more than my education can actually provide is not a downfall to me, because in essence, I'd be a life-long student if I could be. It's not the university's fault that I want to do so much at once, more than I can handle. I just hope that I can make enough money quick someway that I can return and explore all I wish I had before...</p>
<p>One of the disadvantages of the open curriculum is that in letting students take practically whatever they want, it means that some students will not have decided what they want to do with themselves after a year or two (or three or four). However, it doesn't make sense to think about how this affects these students' chances at graduate school admissions because these students aren't likely to be applying to graduate schools (at least, until they figure out what they want to do).</p>
<p>If you go to Brown and take the bare minimum requirements for your major and then a bunch of randomly unrelated courses, chances are you're not going to get into graduate school because you took the bare minimum requirements for your major. You can do this at any practically any school, and so the open curriculum doesn't have a major effect on this.</p>
<p>So really the only situation we're left with is taking a lot of courses pass/fail. Graduate schools will not care about electives unrelated to your major, so taking those pass/fail will not be a big deal (I took two or three courses pass/fail while an undergraduate at NYU and did fine with graduate admissions). So really the only problem is when someone is taking courses for their major pass/fail. But this is a much more deeply rooted problem - you're likely taking them pass/fail because you don't think you're going to do well in them, and if you're not going to do well in these courses than you're not likely to get into graduate school anyway. So really, it's a student's own lack of drive/work ethic/talent/intelligence/etc. that would hurt their chances of admission - not the open curriculum.</p>
<p>When I first heard about the open curriculum I thought that it might make students lazier. However, from what I've seen in the small sample size of my friends, it lets students challenge themselves by taking extra courses and not having to stress out about them as much as their more important coursework. It actually makes students push themselves further academically, and if anything this will help in graduate school admissions.</p>
<p>So yes, one can use the open curriculum to squeeze by without too much work. But people who are going to do that are not people who are going to be getting into good graduate schools. For the rest of us, what it really does is provide a slightly less stressful atmosphere in which we can challenge ourselves to the fullest.</p>
<p>You'll get addicted to following your bliss-- which is a good thing. Brown sets the bar really high for the rest of your life-- you'll forever expect to be engaged, interested, and passionate about what you do. And you'll keep exploring until you find that again!</p>
<p>Let's face it, 32 classes-- no mater what they are-- cannot scratch the surface of human knowledge. But they can get you started in a joyful direction and they can give you the idea how much happier life is when you care deeply about what you are doing.</p>
<p>I would take it to mainly take an enourmouse number of math and science courses (molecular, celluar, biochemistry, organic chemistry, polymer, quantum mechanics, linear algebra,thermodynamics, etc.), which consistes of a mixture of chemistry, biology, physics, and math of course. Yes, it does does a little insane, but for me it would be a dream could true. One might say that I will not have a "well-rounded" education, but with all honesty, we all specialize in a particular field for graduate school. I also feel a little depressed in humanities, and social science classes because memorizing info, analyzing essays, somewhat critical thinking is repetitive, science is not. etc. I would also say my writing is quite proficient since I have taken AP English and AP Lit. and read more than anyone I know ( I have a library at home :)) I also don't have any problems with grammer or writing, in fact, I size every opporturtunity to read scientific publications, textbooks, and books, which strenthens my ability to write a write with supporting evidence that have a varied of sentence/paragraph structures and sources. I would NEVER be able to enroll into a easy courseload just to get by. Science, research, and improvment in technology is the only endeavor that really is exciting and challenging, since it has an immense impact on our community. By the way, I want to be a scientist and study molecular chemistry or biochemistry and do research in cancer, immortality cells, AIDs, etc. I just wanted to show you a different perspective for open curriculum.</p>
<p>Two comments:
When I was at Brown, I knew someone who took a lot of courses pass/fail (at least 2 a semester, sometimes 3), and got A's in everything else. He got into law school, although I don't remember which one.
On the flip side, when I applied to Columbia business school, I was invited to the school for an interview with an admissions counselor, mainly to explain my transcript which did have a few pass/fails on it (maybe 3 in 4 years -- I don't remember, this was too long ago). I was stunned that I had to explain my Brown transcript and Brown's policy on pass/fail to Columbia. OTOH, I was accepted to Columbia Journalism (at the time I was interested in the joint journalism/business program). I honestly don't remember what happened to my business school ap.</p>
<p>As an interested Applicant this year to Brown</p>
<p>I was wondering if it is really hard to get an A in the courses you take at Brown
or
is it more dependent on the professors
and if it is on the professors, are most of them challenging?</p>
<p>Planning to be an Internnational Relations major but on pre med track. (thus the worry about my academic GPA to med schools)</p>
<p>HS Stats
SAT 2220 (1490)
SAT II math 800
phy 800
us hist 790
bio 780</p>
<p>GPA 4.28 rank 20 out of 550 (96.4%)</p>
<p>AP
Bio 5
phy b 5
phy c mech 5
e/m 5
env sci 5
calc ab 5
chem 4</p>
<p>IM not sure what the point of IR + Med school is, but I guess that's the beauty of Brown. I do a lot of **** that doesn't make sense too with my course load, but I guess in the end, I just don't get how IR can be that fascinating that of all the things in the world you'd learn just for the sake of knowing you'd choose that... but anyway...</p>
<p>Getting an A depends far less on the professor than you. If you belong at Brown an A should be at least feasible in any individual course, though it's possible you'd take some that's hard enough that the decision would be to get an A in that course at the expense of other grades.</p>
<p>I've never thought the amount of knowledge I'd need for an A is unreasonable, and I have far more Bs than As (it's great not worrying about med admission).</p>