The Yearly: Brown student taking questions thread

<p>I have a question about grading-- what is your best advice about taking classes for grades versus S/NC. What about taking all classes S/NC?</p>

<p>I wish I had taken everything SNC from the start since I completely agree with it's philosophy/purpose/meaning in every way and I find myself most engaged in those classes. As for advice-- do what feels right for you. I think everyone who says it won't be respected is full of ****-- if you're doing it to use it as it was intended you'll be just as well off as if you grade everything. If you SNC only your hardest classes, obviously that's going ot look suspect.</p>

<p>So explore, take everything, if you're nervous about moving away from your comfort zone SNC is supposed to alleviate those nerves, and if you want to take everything SNC please do it I think it's a great idea.</p>

<p>That's my endorsement-- this is Brown, do what you have to do to learn and gain the most out of your experience.</p>

<p>Do you guys know when you have to be out of your dorm? My son has to be around until the end of the month for some graduation thing with his acapella group. He was told that he has to vacate his dorm by the middle of the month and that he will housed somewhere on campus for the remaining 2 weeks of May. It seems like a real inconvenience to have to move out of his current dorm (Keeney) and move into another dorm for 2 weeks. Does anyone know how this works?? Also, do any of you current students store their stuff over the summer? There is a place we pass when coming to visit near the university (U-Stor??) but I am not sure if that is what students do. I was told there is a service that advertises on campus about summer storage but previous people have had lots of problems with them getting their stuff back in Sept. Does anyone have any advice or info???</p>

<p>They all have to move into Grad Center as the other dorms will not be staffed with janitors and are cleaned out during the commencement period. They simply cannot staff properly to have a few kids sporadically around campus for the last 2 weeks when almost no one is around. I think the best bet is to just go to your own storage place, I went to one in North Providence (5min drive) and had no problems.</p>

<p>smartmovers or something like that comes to campus. I have no idea how their rates compare to anyone else, but they bring the stuff to campus, and for a small fee they bring it to your room.</p>

<p>Yeah but there are all kinds of Smartmovers issues and they are far more expensive then renting your own storage space and since Audi is from Long Island they're going to be driving up to pick up their kid they may as well drive 5 miles further to their own storage place.</p>

<p>smartmovers is pretty bad and i heard they were out of business by now. brown does offer some vouchers for storage, but they're prob. going to be rather inflexible. i used collegeboxes last year and they were kind of slow but otherwise good. they moved my fridge out of my old room and into my new one.</p>

<p>as for moving for commencement housing, it depends on which part of campus you live on. some ppl get housed in grad center, but i recall some ppl being able to stay in keeney.</p>

<p>Some people get to stay in Keeney. If you live on Wriston, you'll be moving. If you live with a senior, you can stay. If you live in Barbour, most likely you'll move. Pembroke is kind of random. A lot depends on alumni housing. Alums can request specific rooms and they obviously get first priority. I had to move from my Keeney room last year to the room next door because some alums wanted my room. How it works is basically reslife will let you know if you have to move, and then you need to be out of your room by noon on the 19th. If you're staying for commencement, that means all your stuff needs to be piled in the middle of the room or on the street. Then, at 2 pm, reslife makes everyone form a line and gives them keys to rooms. Then there is a mad scramble as everyone tries to move their stuff into two grad center towers.</p>

<p>I certainly understand why the university would want to consolidate students into 1 or 2 bldgs. I am hoping my son who is in Keeney can stay there-it would make life so much easier. If not, we will come up and put most of his stuff in off site storage and leave him with the bare essentials for the remaining 2 weeks. Modestmelody, do you remember the name of the place you used? I tried googling some places but was not too successful-I don't mind having to travel a short distance-I will have a car to move his things. There is a place we pass before we get into the city of Providence (when you come over the bridge from I-95-I think its called U-Stor???)-is that the one you were referring to?? Thanks</p>

<p>Audi-- we used Public Storage, 1130 Mineral Spring Avenue in North Providence. It was about 8mins from Keeney there (take Main St to 146 for 2 exits until Mineral Spring Avenue and it's right off the Parkway). I split the storage unit (which was 8x10x10) with two other guys and ended up paying something like 95 bucks for the summer total. Definitely worth it. I'm not sure what else is around, my mom found and chose the place.</p>

<p>Is there a lot of red tape at Brown? TWW seemed really unorganized... I heard ADOCH was too. Just wondering because the other schools I am considering are at least a couple thousand students smaller than Brown and also seem to have a better grip on running things smoothly. But! correlation does not always mean causation...</p>

<p>ADOCH is all student-run and coordinated. I'm not sure whether other schools have the same sort of thing. I will say that my friends at other schools have a far more rancorous relationship with the administration. Generally, Brown's Admin is out to help you not get in your way</p>

<p>There is almost no red tape here... concentration filing is a matter of one page, as are most other forms basically...</p>

<p>ADOCH is "disorganized" because the idea is for prefrosh to run around and do, for the most part, whatever interests them on a schedule of many choices. It'd be un-Brown for everyone to be carted along doing the same event all the time.</p>

<p>Dragon, that's interesting. I attended ADOCH three years ago with my kid and I came away so impressed with how WELL organized the event was and thinking, wow, this was all organized and run by STUDENTS! I don't know if it has changed but it was very well thought out and run when we went. </p>

<p>I have a daughter who is finishing up her junior year at Brown and has run into NO red tape and can meet with ANYONE at ANY time and get any course or anything she needs every single time. No red tape with any of the many transactions, be it financial aid, advising, special forms, registration, study abroad, anything.</p>

<p>Well, I believe at least two of the other schools I visited also had the pre-frosh programs organized and run by current students. And by no means was I forced to attend all the events that they had planned - in fact, there was not enough time to go to all of them. Just wondering though.</p>

<p>My experience: Apparently they hadn't received my registration for TWW. So I ended up waiting in the room directly below Leung Gallery (Sorry I forget the name) for an hour while the line for registration actually curved around the room because there was only one line for all of the pre-frosh! It would have been <em>much</em> more efficient to do a A-L, M-Z kind of thing. After three to four hours since arriving (and since TWW events had begun), by random luck I was finally assigned to an ovenight host whose pre-frosh did not show up.</p>

<p>Good to know that this does not reflect the administration... Hopefully!</p>

<p>Well guys, as I stated in another thread, my experience this April at ADOCH was awesome. My parents were quiet impressed as well. ( I found Dimensions at Dartmouth kinda of boring actually and left earlier cause I had nothing new to check out ) STEM went flawless and very smooth at Brown. I am sure that glitches happen anywhere...too bad dragon mouse that you seem to have been caught in one of them..</p>

<p>Q: How many international students don't go home during the Thanksgiving break? I read somewhere that they have to move to another form during those few weeks, before school re-opens. Any more details on this?</p>

<p>New question:
How often do employers come on campus to recruit undergraduates for work? Like job fairs? Are these helpful at all?</p>

<p>Also, is the food really that bad? (According to review books...)
I'm used to eating really healthy. Little to no processed foods, whole grains, fruits and veggies. I am a pescetarian. Do the dining halls cater to my needs? Is the staff there typically responsive to students' requests?</p>

<p>Dartmouth has tasty, natural food. :9 I was wondering if Brown's was comparable.</p>

<p>.....when food becomes more important thant the rest of the experience.......i can not help but wonder...........OK...does someone else have a question?? pleeeeeaaaaaaseeee???!!!!!!!</p>