<p>I’m curious to know what students or applicants view as being unique about Brown and their education. What stands out, what are the pros and the cons, what is life at Brown like for a student, how is it different than other Ivy Leagues?</p>
<p>It’s hard to talk about this subject without bringing up the Open Curriculum. Although some other comparable schools allow you to take some courses pass/fail, and other schools tend to have distribution requirements instead of rigid courses required for graduation, Brown is one of the few schools in the country that allow students to take any and all courses pass/fail. Moreover, the lack of requirements (outside of one’s concentration and the writing requirement) allows for more flexibility than distribution requirements. Most students elect to take a variety of courses anyways, but the Open Curriculum truly lets you shape your own curriculum. I considered another school with an Open Curriculum (Grinnell), but even there, there wasn’t as much flexibility as at Brown. Departments were much stricter about prerequisites (Brown let me skip multivariable calculus and 3 semesters of Greek where other schools would not have), and they were clear that they discourage double majoring (I’m now 1 course away from completing the requirements for Classics and for Math-Computer Science).</p>
<p>Another pro of the Open Curriculum is that it tends to attract students who want to learn for the sake of learning and students who are much less competitive with each other about grades. This leads to a less-stressful atmosphere than at some other schools. A con is that it’s easier to get lost in the open curriculum unless you know exactly what you want to do or seek out advice. There are many people you can talk to for advice, but one may need to be proactive about this (I switched advisors over the summer because one of mine would not respond to e-mails or show up to his office hours).</p>
<p>Just some basic thoughts…</p>
<p>Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinion! The open curriculum is definitely one of the first things that sparked my interest in Brown, I absolutely love it, I think it’s a better “educational system” allowing for more freedom of choice and experimenting, i’d be really excited to be a part of it if I were to be accepted.</p>
<p>Are there any other things that are particularly unique or simply enjoyable at Brown? Or things that aren’t so good?</p>
<p>Brown’s open curriculum allowed my very focused kid to dive deep into her chosen field quickly. By first semester of second year, has already finished most requirements of one concentration and is choosing a second. Already took a high level seminar full of grad students.</p>