I’d love to hear anyone’s recent experiences with the engineering program at Brown. I am definitely interested in engineering, but want to explore majors before choosing which type of engineering. When we toured, we were not able to be inside the engineering buildings or talk to any engineering students. It’s a small program, and sounds like it’s highly focused on biomed-type engineering which may not be my personal focus. I’d love more info from those who know it first-hand.
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Tagging @Catcherinthetoast, who may be able to opine?
I apologize but I don’t have much first hand experience with the engineering department at Brown. My son was an applied math and entrepreneurship concentrator so happy to offer any general insights to Brown.
Of the two CS majors I know one is working at Boston Consulting and the other is a co founder of a venture in the medical space that angel funded Pre graduation and is now up and running. Obviously I wouldn’t suggest those two are representative of much beyond examples.
If you have specific questions please let me know a s I will try and get info. Also may want to engage @cquin85 @melvin123 @MommaLue or @MMRose. I believe all had Brown expertise (sorry if wrong).
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Thank you. Also interested in what undergraduate engineering is like. Anyone with experience in mechanical e, robotics, or the design programs- I’d appreciate some perspective. Thank you.
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It’s far preferable to start a new thread to ask such questions.
Isn’t that the original question of this thread? Though, bummer there weren’t engineering people weighing in.
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No. The original question was posed by @carolineg1.
When someone new comes along and starts asking questions, that’s called hijacking. And it makes the thread confusing figuring out who is responding to whom.
I realize it was a different person, but it was the same question – UG engineering at Brown. Does not seem like hijacking to me and was a new poster that kind of got swatted down.
It was not confusing.
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It did to me. Hence my message. Now unless you have an answer to the original poster, let’s move off the off topic conversation. If you want to ask a question about Brown, kindly start a new thread
No experience in the Engineering department unfortunately. Mine is a mathematics concentrator. Close, but no cigar.
Sorry.
Do you still want to hear about it ?
This thread is a little old but I’m in my second semester at Brown for engineering and wish I could have heard more about it before I committed here. Let me know if there’s anything specific you want to know, but I will say that I had the same mindset of I want to explore before I decide on engineering - went to Brown for the open curriculum thinking it’d help. If you have that mindset and that’s the biggest selling point of Brown I would advise to choose a different school unless you want to go to grad school for engineering (most engineers here end up going to grad school or not doing something engineering related after undergrad) - the engineering curriculum is OK, and taking gen eds at another school with a better/more focused curriculum IMO is a better way of seeing what you like. The open curriculum is best used when you’re already certain of what you want to concentrate in or if you’re a humanities major (same with SNC - having mandatory pass fail classes here is something I still don’t really understand, most of the professors complain about SNC too). This might not align with everyone’s view but that’s what I found while being here. Look at the Brown Engineering requirements (Engineering < Brown University) and compare it to other schools and see what you like best. Additionally, as an engineering major it was kind of annoying that I had to take two engineering classes that I would test out of at almost every other school - Brown’s way of issuing credits isn’t my favorite system but you might find that you like it since it keeps you with the same peers and strengthens what you know (but limits your space for exploring other things which is why I’m not a fan). Let me know if you have specific questions though - happy to answer what I can!
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Mt daughter is interested in environmental engineering at Brown. Any thoughts on that? What were the classes you would have tested out of? Mine would come in from a PLTW HS engineering program w/ engineering basics, some civil, etc, but would expect to take those type in college anyway.
Thanks!
I’m not sure familiar with environmental engineering here, most of the engineers here are either in mechanical or biomedical engineering, so the only thing I really know is that it’s a smaller major. Many upperclassmen in small STEM majors tend to really like that they know their peers well and their professors well (something your daughter could like or dislike!). Although I will add that the engineering department here is generally smaller than at other schools, and with all the time you spend working on problem sets at office hours or with classmates, there is definitely a sense of community and people love to help each other out. We also have a few environmental clubs that your daughter would probably really like ! I’m only a freshman and still in intro courses that all the engineers have to take, so I will say that she will be exposed to different types of engineering in her first two years and see what she likes then start to specialize later (one of the good things about Brown, in my opinion, is that you don’t declare your major until the end of sophomore year, and you’re able to add another major for awhile after and also can easily change your major if needed). As for the classes I could have gotten out of, I could have gotten credit for statics (the intro to engineering here), and I made a mistake in my original comment as the other course I would have gotten credit for is a biology class requirement for BME. Brown offers retroactive credit upon completing a higher level class. Your daughter will probably be bored in the first and possibly second engineering course she has to take, since her background likely has covered many of the topics that the courses cover - this can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it!
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I’d love to probe further here if I may. Can you speak to the situation of a kid from a high school where kids take e.g. fluid dynamics, multi-var, etc? I.e. courses that are a year beyond even the APs (after BC calc, after the physics APs). Does Brown not provide a path to demonstrate that one has mastery in a given subject such that an incoming 1st year could take “what’s next” at Brown?
I’d love to hear more about this, esp the applied math side. What’s your son doing now? What would be the thing(s) they’d do differently if they had it to do again?
Sorry but would be off topic. Please see moderators comments up thread. Happy to discuss via DM.
You may find this reference from Brown’s CS Department concentration handbook relevant. If your student took these courses at a high school while a high school student, it is unclear what their options are. (You can DM me for more info if you want).
You may have taken, say, MV Calculus or Linear Algebra in high school. Brown’s policy is that courses taken while you were in high school may not be used for college credit. However, if you took such a course at a college (and have a transcript to prove it), even though you were in high school at the time we’re willing to excuse you from taking the course at Brown if needed as a prereq for a course or if it’s a degree requirement. However, you still must take three (Brown) intermediate courses if doing an AB and five if doing an ScB. For example, if you completed a linear algebra course at Stanford while in high school, you do not need to take a Brown linear algebra course as part of satisfying the AI/ML pathway (the notion of a pathway is defined below). But you still must take three or five intermediate courses, depending on the degree.b
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Yes taken in HS, not college. MV calculus and fluid dynamics (physics). I’ve been in touch with admissions and they recommended I contact each department to inquire as they didn’t have more specific info. They did mention the possibility of sitting for a placement exam but said the department would be the arbiter which makes sense. And not looking for credit, only placement.
FWIW neither I nor droidskid are objectively against repeating material in the abstract. We understand that oftentimes the way things are taught, and by whom, where the micro-focus is, etc. is enough to make it ‘different’ even if the same material, nominally speaking.
Note that getting subject credit or advanced placement for high school more-advanced-than-AP courses is something that each college or department may handle differently; it is not unique to Brown.
Yup for sure. Was probing here bc it has risen quite a bit on droidkid’s list, somewhat unexpectedly and for reasons that have nothing to do with my question in this regard 
But yes expect to have to figure this out regardless.