I am very interested in attending Brown because their open curriculum will allow me to take courses only in math and science. I have 0 interest in humanities courses, and Brown is fantastically unique in that I will be able to pursue those subjects I am most interested in to the deepest level possible. I know exactly what I want to do in life. Math is my passion, I have always wanted to do math, and I am basically obssessed with it. If I got into Brown, I would go extremley hardcore on math and science classes and dive very deeply into ceartain areas.
I know that some people are probably interested in Brown for the opposite reason, i.e they will never have to take any math or science courses.
However I am aware the intended use of the open curriculum is not avoiding courses you aren’t interested in. It’s to be able to explore freely. (Although I’m not quite sure why you can’t do this at other universities…). I’m not sure: does Brown want students who don’t know what they are interested in and who can benefit from exploration, or students who know EXACTLY what they want and will benefit from no distribution requirements.
When I answer the Why Brown? essay, if I am honest and tell them I plan on using the open curriculum to maximize exposure to math and science, I am afraid I will be rejected immediatley. I don’t want to waste time writing the other essays if I have no chance of getting in.
Will I be able to communicate in a positive way my intended use of the open curriculum, or should I answer this question not honestly?
Personally, I’d avoid that answer altogether. Your college application essays are your best chance to display your personality, hopes and dreams, and experiences to the admissions committee. Answering “Why Brown?” with “Open Curriculum” has to be close to the most overused/cliched answer.
Did you visit? Did you attend some classes? Talk to some students and profs? Have you talked to any students from your area? Did you meet with Brown’s regional rep when she or he visited your town this last fall and last spring? Did you talk to your interviewer about his or her college experience? Have you spoken with alum in your area? Have you exhausted Brown’s web site and other online resources? These may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aNp6bJCAhUhttps://vimeo.com/91641978
OP says, “I know exactly what I want to do in life. Math is my passion, I have always wanted to do math, and I am basically obssessed with it. If I got into Brown, I would go extremley hardcore on math and science classes and dive very deeply into ceartain areas.”
This comes across as an honest expression of self-awareness, personality, hopes, and dreams. And it dovetails with the curricular opportunities at Brown. It is not something that was found from browsing websites, it was found from delving within.
I have no statistics on which responses to the Why Brown essay are the most overused. Even if I did, that would be irrelevant. The issue is which responses come across as being the most honest and heartfelt.
I have no inside information, but I am going to make a wild guess that that Brown Admissions Officers could classify responses to the Why Brown essay in a small handful of categories. They have certainly seen it all. Does that make all responses cliched? I don’t think so.
Here is a cliche: OP writes a Why Brown essay talking about the wide diversity of courses that will be available for OP to take as part of an application that reeks passion and laser-focused devotion to math and science.
Here is an honest display of personality, hopes and dreams: OP writes just what OP proposes…which would apparently fit the rest of the application like a warm glove
I’d be wary of making such a broad statement about “the humanities” though. For example, reading and writing are CRUCIAL to success as a scientist (and probably mathematician too, but I can’t speak from personal experience). Similarly, a student who is interested in studying history or policy who decries mathematics is ignoring the importance of understanding statistics in policy work.
Now don’t take that as an argument for distribution requirements because it’s not - at least given how most schools actually structure their distribution requirements. What it is, is an argument for is ownership of your curriculum and designing it to your needs. That’s what Brown wants. Students who want to own and control their curriculum and for good reasons.
I disagree that open curriculum is too played out. The thing is that you can’t just say “I love the open curriculum and the freedom it gives me.” Open curriculum can certainly be part of it but how it fits into the bigger picture of you as an academically curious, mature student ready to be given the type of freedom almost no other college gives its students is the key. “Maximizing exposure to math and science” is a very different idea than “avoiding humanities.” So if you want to write about the open curriculum, what is it that you really hope to get out of your Brown education that requires the open curriculum? What’s going to guide your selection of those 32 courses now that you’re unfettered by distribution requirements - especially since there are more than 32 math and science courses available?
Who are you?
What do you want from Brown?
What will you offer Brown?
Not quite that. You don’t have to name it to show your interest in exploring.
But saying you want the Open Curriculum so you don’t have to explore is plain old counter to why it exists. Considering the competition, you can seem like a poor match. Maybe even poor judgment. And if your activities ard similarly unilateral, oops. You get the whole point, right?
I think the wording you used for the title of the thread may be attracting attention away from what you are saying in the text of your posts.
You have stated, “I know exactly what I want to do in life. Math is my passion, I have always wanted to do math, and I am basically obssessed with it. If I got into Brown, I would go extremley hardcore on math and science classes and dive very deeply into ceartain areas.”
I think, as someone with no inside information about Admissions, if you expand on that up to the word limit (and clean up the typos) you would have a positive Why Brown essay that fits and enhances what the rest of your application probably shows.
Based on comments I hear from time to time from a current Brown student, there are people there who are extremely well-rounded and others who are extremely lopsided. If Brown Admissions thinks they are admitting only those who go for breadth and not depth, they are getting the wool pulled over their eyes. (I am betting Brown knows exactly what the situation is)
I think you should be honest and not try to say what you think they want to hear.
Everyone has their own risk tolerance. Up to you to decide whether the $75 and any remaining time to complete the application are worth it.
I think the problem is that you call anything that’s not math or science “boring.” As I_wanna says, to live and function in the real world means having knowledge about a broad range of topics. It’s one thing to want to intensely focus on one subject. It’s another to say that you hate everything but the one subject you like. I think Brown is open to the first person, and not as much to the second.
Don’t lie in your essays. Chances are, your laser focus on math will come across in your teacher recommendations and your interview.
If you are so rigid about this – to the extent that the only classes you will ever take at Brown are math and science – then it’s possible that other students will find you boring.
My frame of reference is not all-encompassing, but from what little I do know, the Brown student body is characterized by nice, accepting, inclusive people. Might you suffer a micro-agression (or in this case, a micro-avoidance) here and there because you don’t have a Humanities course on your record? I don’t know, that sounds a little far-fetched.
But I am confident in predicting that a heavy, lopsided STEM course selection will not subject you to social isolation and that you should not be concerned one whit about being unable to find a nice circle of friends because of that.
Now, maybe you are just a boring person to begin with. In which case taking 50% Humanities courses probably could not change that and turn you into the life of the party. If you are not a boring person to begin with, taking all or a high percentage of STEM courses will not suddenly turn you into a yawn-maker–at any campus.
Brown is a very accepting place. I hope that is your take-away from this post.
Yes I concede that my original wording was poor. I do find humanities subjects boring compared to math and science (except for world history), but I’m not saying I hate them. I’ll apply and make the essay positive.
I have trouble taking any student’s advice, based on that kid’s personal experience, as gospel. They have some perspective, as students, sure. But they aren’t charged with culling through the mass of applications. And there’s lots of misunderstanding on CC about “authentic.”
My point to OP is that the OC was created to allow kids to explore and feed intellectual curiosity across disciplines. Of course, some kids end up doing that more than others. And some kids fake the interest, sure. But adcoms didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.
Anecdotal information is that there are many current Brown students concentrating in the humanities who use the Open Curriculum in a way that they never take a STEM course. And concomitantly, there are many STEM concentrators who find substantial intellectual diversity solely within the disciplines described by that acronym.
Is this some kind of wild statement? Are any readers out there really surprised by this?
Welcome any data that can disprove or confirm this anecdotal bumph (or your own anecdotes)
Who is to say that each individual’s desire for exploration and the feeding of intellectual curiosity can not be accomplished within the humanities or within STEM, respectively.
I am not sure what the reference to the “turnip truck” means. But if it means that Brown Admissions is aware that the Open Curriculum is there to support depth of intellectual exploration as well as breadth of intellectual exploration, I agree.
I think that article can be misleading. That’s all. The author states no affiliation with admissions and says, “if you’re thorough and authentic to yourself, you have a good shot.” Well, what’s that mean to the hs kid? Go ahead and tell them you find humanities boring? Not.
Of course there are kids who may skip STEM. OP’s original post hit a nerve, let’s leave it at that.
I haven’t posted or referred to any articles. Maybe my anecdote and another poster’s citation are being conflated?
You said the OP hit a nerve. Maybe with you, but not for me, and my sense is that it did not generally. I think it raised an important issue about the Open Curriculum, and people are expressing their sincere–not emotional–opinions.
Good chance this thread may peter out on its own accord…but if not, and people have data relevant to the anecdote you disputed or on any other aspect of the Open Curriculum relevant to the OP’s situation, let not just leave it at that, let’s discuss!