<p>I would love to apply to Brown, but my parents, who think that Brown is only for liberal arts majors, is totally against it. (I want to go into science or engineering, possibly ChemE, but I just love Brown’s environment) What are the best science or engineering departments that Brown has?</p>
<p>Please do some searches for my posts in this area. I’ve written a ton about it. You should also take a Physical Science tour on campus if you have the opportunity.</p>
<p>I think Brown is a fantastic place for life sciences, but not the best place for ChemE. If are you attracted to Brown’s new curriculum and are also into ChemE and engineering in general, then there are better places to consider: Caltech, MIT, Georgia tech etc. Because just like everywhere else, you have to complete a core for engineering. In this case, it’s 4 semesters (2 years) of common req courses if you want to concentrate in any of the engineering specializations, for a BSc. Although the new curriculum allows you to choose you own courses, for content/core heavy concentrations like engineering, most people just take what is recommend by the faculty. You have to be very clear of what you want to do to truly take advantage of the new curriculum, and honestly very few people at Brown are. What is it about brown that you like? The curriculum? the liberal atmosphere?</p>
<p>I do love Brown’s liberal atmosphere and how I can take classes outside of my major. I’m really worried about getting locked into a major or concentration because I think my goals and passions will change. I’ve been told that to really take advantage of college, you have to take classes that are outside of your concentration, so you can broaden your mind and explore new subjects. I see a really opportunity for that at Brown.</p>
<p>interesteddad posted this elsewhere:</p>
<p>Here’s the percentage of science, math, and engineering majors as a percentage of total majors over a recent five year period for selected LACs, private universities, and public universities. </p>
<p>30.4% – Princeton University
30.0% – Carleton College
28.9% – Swarthmore College
26.3% – Grinnell College
26.0% – Haverford College
23.5% – Williams College
23.2% – Harvard University
23.1% – Bryn Mawr College
21.2% – Dartmouth College
19.1% – Brown University
17.8% – Pomona College
16.9% – Yale University
16.8% – Davidson College
16.6% – Bowdoin College
16.1% – Smith College
15.6% – Washington and Lee University
14.8% – Amherst College
12.2% – Wesleyan University
12.0% – Claremont McKenna College
11.7% – Wellesley College
11.2% – Middlebury College
10.8% – Vassar College</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>thanks for the stats, kei. i was looking on brown’s website, and i like a lot of the interdisciplinary science concentrations that they offer (chemical physics, biophysics). it seems weird that brown lumps all the engineering into one category. it seems like they would produce stronger engineers if they separated into different engineering departments.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you were trying to show there with that chart.</p>
<p>You can take classes outside of your concentration at just about all the colleges. In fact, it’s a general ed requirement that you do. And you’ll probably find most elite colleges are able to offer similar liberal learning atmosphere. You often hear about broadening your mind at college, but that’s not really something a semester in Egyptology is going to do. If you have no clear direction of where to go, and begin to try/switch concentrations without planning ahead, you may end up with something very different from you actually want. Think BSc Engn turned to BSc Bio, to AB Bio.
Brown does have its advantages, the semiflexible new curriculum and comparably liberal environment, and a lot of people simply just love the school.</p>