<p>Does anyone know?</p>
<p>Advantages: You can take classes just for interest without worrying about whether or not your GPA will be affected if you do poorly.
Disadvantages: None really, you don't have to take any classes S/NC if you don't want to.</p>
<p>In addition to what moat said,</p>
<p>Advantages: it can allow you the extra latitude necessary to take that fifth class you couldn't let go of during shoping period without sacrificing your other courses</p>
<p>Disadvantages: they do not factor into your GPA. technically, brown does not calculate on official GPA anyway, but they are often necessary for grad school, med school, etc. So if you do well in an S/NC course you may be missing out--but then again, you could always request a course performance report from a professor which is a much more in depth analysis of your performance than a letter grade anyway.</p>
<p>I wouldn't want to be in a class, working my butt of for a grade, while the people around me are skating by on S/NC.. something to consider.</p>
<p><em>shrugs</em></p>
<p>Why not raven?</p>
<p>It's not like the transcript won't show the difference.</p>
<p>Right. Though, in honesty, raven does possibly reference a decent point. In some discussion classes, you could argue that people who are only taking the class S/NC will work less hard and will have less to offer the discussion group. However, I haven't witnessed this (in my MCM discussion section the two best kids in my opinion were actually taking it S/NC). Additionally, if it is a big concern, students can ask the professor to split the groups up by taking it for a grade vs taking it S/NC, but its usually not an issue.</p>
<p>I personally love S/NC and the open curriculum! No offense to raven, but your comment might be a reason that you don't go to Brown. S/NC is a great way to releave the pressure of taking a course in a subject that you might not be as strong in. I have taken one course S/NC each of my semesters at Brown, and I plan on continuing to do so (I'm pretty much just going to be taking science courses for grades and non-science courses S/NC from now on). Everyone at Brown has a different opinion about which classes they would like to S/NC, if any. That's another great thing about it, personal choice. It also helps to add to the laid back, non-cut-throat atmosphere at Brown. Nobody is ever going to ask you what you got on your exam unless they are a friend who wants to know how well you did (even then it they aren't gonna ask you for your score). In my classes, I pretty much don't know who's taking it for a grade and who's taking it S/NC. It really promotes a great learning environment.</p>
<p>One note on S/NC classes...You have the option of asking for a CPR (Course Performance Report) which will provide more detail than simply S/NC</p>
<p>There are some schools that only have the credit/no credit option. (with evaluative reports)</p>
<p>The idea being that people should work to learn, not for grades. The concern would be the lack of a GPA when you're applying to grad school or to a scholorship, but these schools successfully place people at top graduate schools all the time.</p>
<p>I definitely see your point, raven, but remember -- Because of Brown's open curriculum, you won't see kids using S/NC for required classes that they don't really want to take. So that to some extent eliminates the disinterest part of the problem.</p>
<p>And I'm willing to bet that, in some classes, there are kids due to receive a letter grade who are just barely skating by.</p>
<p>It seemed like Raven was upset at the possibliity that he would be working hard and others wouldn't be, and that would bother him. But really, who cares what other people are doing if it doesn't affect you? Live and let live.</p>
<p>I won't try to defend what I said earlier, because, never having used a S/NC system, I have <em>zero</em> personal experience to base my opinions on (as opposed to other posters, like MTM). Please, folks, listen to people who have actually attended Brown - not lowly ole me :)</p>
<p>To clarify what I meant, though, I was trying to get across that (I think) I'd prefer to be in the exact same boat as the rest of my classmates - be it graded A-B-C-F, S/NC, Pass-Fail, on a curve, whatever. But that's just me, YMMV!</p>
<p>what if we get to a class that we're taking for a letter grade and then we decide that it's really hard and we would much rather take it S/NC? Is hat possible? I feel like such a slacker for asking...</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that some people do not take classes because they plan to get an A in it. They take them because they're interesting classes, regardless of how well they expect to do in the class. There's a good reason to take a class S/NC.</p>
<p>I took 5 classes last semester, and let me tell you, if I had taken them all for a grade I would have been freaking out by finals period (not that I wasn't anyway). The S/NC system lets you take it easy in a class, and not have to stress over a grade that's going to impact our already fake GPAs. Granted, if you happened to get the equivalent of an A in an S/NC course, you could request the grade be marked as S*, but from what it seems, it's a lot easier just to get a course performance report filled out by your prof.</p>
<p>Jmarsh - You can, but not for the entire semester. There is a period at the beginning of each semester where you can change your grade option, but I believe it only lasts about 2 months. I don't how long the period is for sure, but you can change it.</p>
<p>do you think is gpa method they have will impact law school admissions, since it's so heavily based on GPA? I'm sure brown has a great acceptance rate anyway, but does a lot of S/NC classes make a difference</p>