<p>My daughter took a fiction writing workshop Sr year and that was only offered S/NC. I’d guess that is because it is a creative class and the focus is on the work and the process.</p>
<p>She took only 2 otherS/NC her time at Brown, that I’m aware of-- Mandarin and Russian languages. This was a nice way to get involved with difficult languages and not hurt your gpa for grad school. I know people who avoided languages at Yale because of that. She was a math/cs major.</p>
<p>She also took many 5 course semesters but had to drop several times. It is demanding if you are also doing work/study and research and your courses are math/cs heavy. She still felt she got what she needed. And she did summer course every year and winter once. Don’t do 5 courses as a freshman, get acclimated first semester at least.</p>
<p>It’s pretty simple, really. I had a number of 5-class semesters because I wanted to take 5 classes and had the time. At least when I was at Brown, people would often talk about their “fifth classes” – classes they took, often S/NC, outside of their comfort zone or because of a passing interest. Whether or not you have time for a fifth class has to do with the nature of the other classes you’re taking and your desired ratio of time spent doing curricular vs. extra-curricular things. I personally focused more on learning in the classroom, although I dedicated a lot of time to theatre stuff senior year.</p>
<p>At the risk of sounding d-bag-ey or having other Brown students/alums disagree, I would say that there’s a general aversion at Brown to ‘doing what you’re told’, and thinking “oh, I have to take 32 courses, so I guess that’s how many I should take” strikes me as a bit ‘un-Brown’. People do what’s right for themselves, and that’s in keeping with Brown’s overall student-centered educational philosophy.</p>
<p>Remember that auditing is also an option. It’s a nice way to learn five classes worth of material even if you don’t have the time to do five classes worth of work.</p>
<p>short answer for audit is you essentially just go to class but don’t have to do the assignments. It doesn’t count as a credit.</p>
<p>I personally almost failed the only class I took S/NC, but that was because it was an advanced latin class and I took the S/NC designation to mean I never had to do work except the couple nights before exams (not the way to do well in advanced latin).</p>
<p>I didn’t know Brown had an audit option for undergrad, but my daughter audited a grad class for independent research semester taken as a prelude to being on a research team. But Brown lets you withdraw really late and I don’t think it is on the transcript, so I recall an early 5 semester load (fman 2nd semester?) where she withdrew at semester end crunch time, but she still felt she got what she wanted out of the class.</p>
<p>An official audit (which counts as one of the max five enrollment credits) shows up on your transcript as an audit. You’ll register for a class as an audit through Banner, but you have to clear it with the professor because some won’t let you audit. Others may require you do some small amount of work.</p>
<p>You can also unofficially audit a class, which typically entails showing up to class and listening. There’s no paperwork there.</p>
<p>ah, thanks for the clarification. That’s nice about the official audit and getting a transcript notation on it. In this case, the prof who was supervising the independent study (and the research project) was the prof for the specialized grad class, so no problem with permission.</p>
<p>Unofficially auditing is formally called ‘vagabonding’, which is hilarious. From what I can tell, back in the dark ages, opportunities for auditing and vagabonding (which predate the New Curriculum at Brown) were actually considered innovative; nowadays, you just kinda show up and assume that any sensible, human professor won’t have a problem with you being there. </p>
<p>One gets the sense that going to college before the 60’s was a somewhat miserable, overly-regimented experience. At some schools, that might still be true :)</p>
For what it’s worth, I know that numerous professors in small low level language classes do have a problem with it, because there’s little point if the vagabonding student doesn’t participate, but if they do, it detracts from the already small amount of time available for the students in the class. (Some professors are just concerned that the student will not feel obliged to come to class all the time or do all the work, and having someone sit in such a class quietly would be awkward.)</p>
<p>So be sure to always ask if it’s a small class. Rational or not, some professors would be opposed.</p>
<p>This is a link to an article in today’s (3-23-11) Brown Daily Herald about students taking every class S/NC. It’s quite interesting for those who think that it’s an easy way out, or a decision that students take lightly.</p>
<p>You beat me to posting this link, Franglish!</p>
<p>This (calendar) year’s BDH editorial board has been great about highlighting the curriculum and curricular issues, to the benefit of everyone at Brown.</p>
<p>Interesting about the Alum in the article who took everything P/F. Why on his Linked in account does it say he graduated Brown Phi Beta Kappa??? hmmmmm</p>
<p>Why wouldn’t he graduate Phi Beta Kappa? That just goes to prove that taking every class S/NC means that you work just as hard as a student taking them for a grade. Clearly, his effort got noticed.</p>
<p>On one’s internal (but not external) transcript, grades of S that would have been A’s if you had taken the course for a grade are marked. The students that vote for ΦΒΚ can see these and are supposed to treat these the same as A’s. That this student graduated in ΦΒΚ means that nearly every grade was one of these, since there’s a minimum number that one can have before one can even be considered, and it’s just below 4 per term.</p>