<p>I know that it’s generally recommended to only take four courses in the fall so you don’t kill too much free time, but I’ve found five courses that I ABSOLUTELY would love to take. I’m thinking of maybe making one of the courses (a FYS) S/NC in order to lighten up the load. Here’s what my tentative fall schedule looks like right now:</p>
<p>Intro to Neuroscience
Intro to Cog Sci
Accelerated Intro to CS
Linear Algebra
Psychology of Creativity (FYS, S/NC)</p>
<p>What do you think? Do you think this courseload would be too much for the average frosh? I obviously don’t intend to spend all my time studying and would like a decent amount of free time in order to explore Brown as much as I can before buckling down for the really advanced courses in the future. Is that possible with a schedule like this, or would I be better off saving one of the classes for next year? How much will making one of the courses S/NC affect my time commitment to the course?</p>
<p>I would think the workload for CS and linear math would be way up there. I would take either neuroscience or cog sci. If you read the other thread, you saw that we all recommend taking four classes first semester freshmen year. My guess is that both intro classes are really large lectures. I would also look into whether you need to take the intro classes to take other classes in the department. </p>
<p>I have to say, 30+ years ago when I was at Brown, no one took five classes a semester. I never even considered it. We all took four, and many of us occasionally took just 3. This push to take 5 classes is really fascinating to me. Are the students different, more driven? smarter? Is it a desire to get your money’s worth? </p>
<p>In addition, and I think this is a parallel development, I don’t remember anyone who double majored, or who even talked about double majoring. </p>
<p>I’m planning to be a CS concentrator, but I’ve always been fascinated by how the mind works – how we “think”, where emotions come from, and so on. I really want to gain a deep understanding of neuroscience while also keeping a focus on computer science (without double concentrating). I’m not taking any of these intro classes to fulfill requirements. I’m genuinely excited to learn everything that the courses have to offer, especially neuro and cog sci. I think I might put off cog sci for sophomore year though, if taking five courses really is too much (even though it’s a class that I’m really excited about).</p>
<p>What about taking a course S/NC? Would that make much of a difference in the amount of time I would have to commit to the course? Ideally, I would like to take the FYS just for the interesting lectures and class discussions and not have to focus too much on grades and exams.</p>
<p>SIDE NOTE: I actually originally considered taking either Honors Linear Algebra or Honors Calculus, but I figured that with my intended workload it would be too much. As a result, I decided to drop down to the regular Linear Algebra course in order to free up my schedule a little. Do you think doing so would make taking five courses (one S/NC) more doable?</p>
<p>One of my friends at Brown majored in linguistics, which is now part of the cognitive science department, and went on to have an amazing career in the computer science field. Don’t ask me for too many details, but my understanding is that there is a really interesting connection between CS and cognitive science – after all, CS is like a language, which explains its connection to linguistics, which is connected to cognitive science. Based on what you wrote, you might actually lean more toward cognitive science as opposed to neuroscience.</p>
<p>I’m really not exaggerating when I say that CS is very time consuming. Honestly, you’ll be working on a project and all of a sudden you’ll realize the sun has just come up. I promise you, there is plenty of time to take lots of classes. </p>
<p>And no, I don’t think taking a class S/NC necessarily means you’ll have less work. One of my heaviest workloads was in a class I took S/NC (which I should have taken for a grade, since I got an A) – because I was so interested in the class, I did all the readings. </p>
<p>I’ll repeat another thing – if you’re not planning on majoring in either cog sci or neuroscience, you may not need to take the intro classes. There may be other classes in those departments that are much better to take and will satisfy your intellectual itch. Won’t you kick yourself if you take those intro classes, take 5 classes, get no sleep, never hang out with friends, get mediocre grades – and then realize that neither of those classes were prerequisites for the classes you really want to take?</p>
<p>Don’t make any decisions until you’re on campus – there are lots of people to talk to, including your advisor and your Meikeljohn, who will help you. And as I advised someone else, you can start with 5, but have the intention to drop one. </p>
<p>Repeating from the other thread: do NOT take 5 courses your freshman fall. You’ll have time to take 5 later on if you want to push yourself, and the Brown experience is about more than just academics.</p>
<p>Intro to Neuro is a great course, and lots of freshmen take and love it, even those who don’t plan on going on in the department. Skip Intro to CogSci.</p>
<p>In my experience, taking a course S/NC didn’t mean that I didn’t spend quite a bit of time still doing work for the course - professors still require the same amount of work no matter how you’re being graded. For me, it was more of a way to take classes out of my comfort zone in departments where I perhaps had less experience than other people in the class.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks! I’ll take CogSci off the list.</p>
<p>I have one more slightly relevant question: if I’m planning to take Intro to Cognitive Neuroscience in the spring, is it worth taking Cognitive Science the following year to fulfill the WRIT requirement, or do they overlap enough that I would be better off taking an entirely different WRIT course?</p>