<p>More people need to read this thread.</p>
<p>To the top...</p>
<p>Jason! just realized you gave D and I our science tour this past wednesday, actually this was the first tour she had done. We stayed after and you were kind enough to show us things on the regular tour. You have now set the standard for what a tour should be. 3 schools after Brown and it was all downhill after that. I doubt any tour will live up to yours. Brown is indeed very lucky to have you! I am sure we will be back with many questions.</p>
<p>Thanks Again,
4Giggles</p>
<p>4Giggles, I remember staying after, and I'm glad my tour went that well.</p>
<p>I only hope other people feel the same way after my tour, after all, that's my job. Good luck to your daughter on the college search/admissions process! If you ever have any questions, don't hesitate to ask...</p>
<p>Well modestmelody, this thread is now a Featured Discussion as it should have been!</p>
<p>I have to say, that's pretty awesome...</p>
<p>I've got probably about 14000 collective posts on internet forums and this is my first sticky.</p>
<p>MODESTMELODY:</p>
<p>I think your post is extremely helpful to prospective students who want to explore Brown. It is even more beneficial in that it is coming from a current student, not a brochure. You have put a lot of time into composing that explanation and it should give a good picture to anyone who is trying to learn more about Brown's curriculum and approach. This is clearly more advantageous than a bunch of "what are my chances to get into Brown" posts! I appreciate the effort you put into creating this thread and in other posts as well. You clearly love attending Brown and wish to share your knowledge and enthusiasm for the school with prospective students and/or parents who read CC. I did not know you were on the Task Force. I also never knew you were a male! I had assumed you were a female all this time and so I also learned something new. :)</p>
<p>I chose to feature this thread in the Brown forum as it is very useful and a good resource for those who visit this forum in the coming few months.</p>
<p>Thanks for helping newbies considering Brown. Best wishes as you start a new year at school.</p>
<p>well, jason often cross-dresses, so he gets that girl thing all the time. lol.</p>
<p>Okay I will fess up and say that at 18 avoidance was on my mind. </p>
<p>I was pretty uninterested in taking more math/science after AP everything in HS, but I was extremely interested in sampling ALL the humanities and arts that I hadn't yet had a crack at-- religious studies, semiotics, comp lit, urban studies, international relations, philosophy, art history, etc-- things were not offered in my HS. </p>
<p>So I guess for me it was a bit of both, explore and avoid. I surely liked getting to pick based on my inner voice, loves, and desires.</p>
<p>24 years out: I completely agree that it is not what one avoids but what one encounters that defines the open curriculum. Further, I would say this is so EVEN if you skip out on math, or languages, or whatever. </p>
<p>Here is what you'll encounter at Brown: passion, joy, excitement, bliss, kindreds, energy, inspiration. This sets the tone for the sort of life and career you will want after Brown. You will want to be deeply interested, excited, and in love with what you do. Nothing else will really feel right. You will keep going until you have that blissful feeling of total engagement. </p>
<p>You will also have a four year head start on running your own life and finding out what makes you tick, so you will be ahead of the game. And probably, by following your passions, you will have wound up at a high level of something or other. </p>
<p>I believe this is a common experience of all Brown students: the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you look at the course catalog and realize you'll only get to take ~32 of those incredible classes before it's time to go-- and the resultant determination to choose well and carefully.</p>
<p>I will also fess up that I NEVER took a science class at Brown. After sampling the humanities smorgasbord, I concentrated in English Literature and became a writer (mostly because writing is always new; you can always learn about a new thing and write about it). </p>
<p>Then a funny thing happened to me about a year ago. I got interested in a scientific subject and when there were no books on it for me to study, I decided I wanted to write a book about it. </p>
<p>I had some basic catching up to do, clearly. So I bought and borrowed about 50 text books and proceeded to teach myself 101-level Endocrinology, Neuropsych, Evolutionary Anthropology, Human Sexuality and a smattering of basic Bio, all stuff that danced around my topic. </p>
<p>I got so into it that I began corresponding with a researcher I'd run across (his email was appended to a journal article in PubMed), asking him a bunch of my unanswered questions. He turned out to be a BIG cheese in his field (little did I know). He was astounded that I was self-taught, once that came out, because I was asking such sophisticated questions. </p>
<p>Anyhow, one of my questions so intrigued him-- because it had never been studied before from the angle I suggested-- that now he and I are doing a study on it together. SO-- now I am a science person (!), which is really hilarious given my science-avoidant background. </p>
<p>My point is that in ~32 classes, there is NO WAY to deliver an education with no gaps. But gaps can always be filled later. All you have to know is how to learn.</p>
<p>Brown does a phenomenal job of serving passionate, self-directed learners, because Brown makes it FUN and EASY to dive headlong into things that interest you. So far, diving headlong into the things that interest me has been a very satisfying way to live my life.</p>
<p>Well said!</p>
<p>I agree with everything you've said SB and I think you're a great example of the New Curriculum and how it can and should work, as a product and a process.</p>
<p>Rachel, no one is supposed to know I like to wear your clothes...</p>
<p>hahaha, oops, spilled that secret</p>
<p>bad girl...bad, bad girl...lol</p>
<p>...................................................</p>
<p>Thanks for that explanation. I'm still trying to decide whether I am going to apply to Brown or not, and this post was definitely helpful. Like someone else has said, it was good to hear this from a current student and not a glossy viewbook/brochure. I was really surprised to hear that students like the Open Curriculum not as a tool for avoidance but as a tool for exploration. This makes Brown seem a lot more appealing to me now..</p>
<p>I have no bigger complaint about the admissions office then the fact that they tell people they no longer have to take Math while at Brown. First off, well over 50% of freshman take math class here, and second, that's essentially the antithesis of the intention of the open curriculum.</p>
<p>I think it's a tool they use to draw in prospective students, and those who are actually serious about attending Brown find on their own that the OC is not meant for dropping subjects off of one's radar altogether. Just my two cents, because I know when I first heard about the OC, the first thing that came to mind was "well, I wouldn't have to take a math course if I didn't find one that piqued my interest..." And while that wasn't what drew my attention to Brown, after researching more I found that that viewpoint is rather limited.</p>
<p>Added for Emphasis: </p>
<p>At Brown, people are where they want to be. And because of that, they will gladly spend however much time a class requires of them. </p>
<p>Just remember when you apply to Brown: people are where they want to be. No more GPA games. No more requirments. No more pegs to fill in. No boxes for you to collapse yourself into. Nothing. It's freeform. It's scary. But at the end of the day, you grow and are genuinely happy. Because at Brown, you can study Faulkner, play a pickup game of football, and then weave through a couple of lengthy delta-epsilon proofs, and (surprise) fall into bed, tired, but smiling.</p>
<p>If you can appreciate that, then Brown's the place for you.</p>
<p>I would like to relay some information on the Open Curriculum, gathered from DD who is also class of 2009. DD is a Meiklejohn Advisor this year (upperclass advisor paired with first-years and their faculty advisors.)</p>
<p>What I've seen from DD and is consistent in her friends, is that students use the opportunity well. I was a bit concerned that a systematic core may be more useful or thorough, but I see that you can't cram everything in 4 years, no matter. Rather than avoidance, DD usually tries to cram in too much, really, and to talk her way into more advanced classes without the prereq's. I think she is getting a better handle on what is do-able now that she is a Junior. </p>
<p>DD was well rounded academic type in HS but went for sciences first-year, including math, physics and chem (was undeclared on application.) DD now is a Computer Science concentrator. Although math and comp sci is now dominating the courseload, she has taken some variety and a bit of humanities (lit, poly sci) The big thing that the OC and the credit/nocredit option allowed for was for her to take 2 foreign languages that are very difficult for English speakers, and not the same as the 4 years fgn lang taken in HS. This may lead to a semester abroad in Lang as well as math.</p>
<p>Some great opportunities along the way have included paid research for a cog sci prof, paid research for a physics prof and a trip to the FERMI lab, an Honors Research Lab, a Summer UTRA grant for research, and a paid TA position running a lab.</p>
<p>Well darn it Jason, both my kids have been fond of Brown for many years (HP Lovecraft enthusiasts) and due to it's distance from home, I pretended it didn't exist. However, with that wonderful insight, and hoping that my kids would have the ability to "love learning" (there isn't a subject they don't enjoy) again someday (jr. year seems to squash that some) I will have to put Brown on our summer travel plans. Thanks for enlightening us.</p>
<p>Glad to have helped, 2by2.</p>