<p>What time does Brown start and end??</p>
<p>What’s the earliest class time??</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>By time, do you mean date? That information is pretty readily available on the website, but this past year, orientation started September 5. Fall term finals ended December 21. Spring term will start January 27. Spring finals end May 21.</p>
<p>The earliest class time is 8 AM, but these classes are very rare. Typically, you won’t have a class before 9 (though a few classes start at 8:30 AM). More common is a class that finishes at 8 PM, though there aren’t too many of these either.</p>
<p>Other than maybe 10-20 classes, Brown’s day is from 9am-530pm</p>
<p>The earliest class time is 830am. The latest a class will end is probably 730pm or 700pm…</p>
<p>Technically there is an A hour with 8am classes.</p>
<p>I actually have a friend who had a class in the A hour this term. She hated it, but she was good about going to bed by midnight, so she dealt with it.</p>
<p>My Italian class last year ended at 7:50 PM, FWIW. The average student won’t deal with a start time that early or an end time that late.</p>
<p>How many Pass/Fail classes do most people take per semester?</p>
<p>I remember being really surprised one morning by my friend… she was in the Ratty eating for class (I usually went around 730 then to the sci li.)</p>
<p>Anyways people usually take 1 - 2 classes pass fail… it really depends on your situation and some classes are mandatory pass fail.</p>
<p>Most freshman I know took 1 class out of 4 S/NC, some took two (esp. when one was mandatory). I also know a lot of people who took none S/NC, but wish they had. Myself included.</p>
<p>After freshman year, I don’t think people typically do within their concentration, but it’s still useful outside of it.</p>
<p>Thanks~
So,do you think getting a 4.0 at Brown is not that hard??</p>
<p>Brown does not calculate GPA. Brown students (minus premeds and a few others) don’t obsess over GPA. GPA is at best a questionable measure of success, especially if you’re using S/NC to avoid Bs and Cs rather than to explore the curriculum. I know very few people who will admit to having a 4.0, and I’m only done 3 semesters.</p>
<p>One person from my HS, who’s a few years my senior, went to Brown. He was quite possibly the most hard-working, academically-minded and talented student to come from my school in years (as in, unlike most super intelligent high schoolers, who tend to just coast through, he filled every moment of his life, it seemed, with productivity, even if it was rarely about school) is nowhere near a 4.0 now. It is anything but easy to maintain a 4.0. But seeing as a 4.0, for the vast majority of students here, isn’t at all that important to maintain, we don’t focus on getting straight A’s.</p>
<p>4.0 is less difficult than at similarly competitive schools (of which I would venture to guess there aren’t too many), since all your A-'s get bumped up to A’s. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean there is more grade inflation at Brown (even though there might be) than at similarly competitive schools, since B+'s are deflated to B’s, making the effect balance itself out somewhat.</p>
<p>S/NC is just an excuse to be lazy or to mitigate GPA impact, so I don’t take any classes that way. Since the Open Curriculum allows you to take whatever classes you want, there’s really no excuse for not getting an A/B in every class, assuming that you are competent in the subject and work hard.</p>
<p>And I disagree with the guy above me–focusing on getting straight A’s is the goal of any academically ambitious student (of which there are many at Brown), as GPA is the most important measure of competency to graduate schools and employers alike.</p>
<p>…which is precisely why science grad programs will take a student with strog research with lower grades and GREs every time over the 4.0 with less substantial experience or less quality work.</p>
<p>My view, at least, is that when students are taking classes, they’ll try to do their best (i.e. aim for straight As if possible), but not beat themselves up over Bs if they happen. On the other hand, most students (again, premeds notwithstanding) will not sign up for certain courses for the purpose of getting straight As. They may consider workload or stress or difficulty, but seldom “likelihood of getting straight As.”</p>
<p>Well… I am one of those Brown students who cares about GPA. And if you’re willing to work, work, work, it can happen. To maintain that pretty GPA you want, you also have to give up taking lots of pass/fail classes. So it’s a tradeoff, which limits your ability to use the open curriculum.</p>
<p>Also, it’s very easy to schedule your classes so that you don’t have to leave your room until 9:50 3 days a week; the rest of the week you can sleep til whenever (unless you are an engineering student).</p>
<p>Gah this is funny how this turned into a GPA thread. I think Brown is like highschool in this department, some people seem to not care about grades anymore while some just obsess. But I feel their is a great balance between activities and grades. Where if you really really are consumed by grades you do nothing but academics, versus the opposite consumption you are consumed by activities.</p>
<p>What arapollo said.</p>
<p>thanks~ </p>
<p>but…how long is each class?</p>
<p>How many classes are you guys taking(per semester?) </p>
<p>Do you have all the classes everyday??</p>
<p>Some classes are 50 minutes per class, 3 times a week. Some classes are 80 minutes per class, 2 times a week. Several are 140 minutes per class, 1 time a week. Lab sciences have further time spent in prelab and labs (though the length of these vary by class, I gather). Some other courses, primarily humanities (but not always), have a section in which you break into smaller groups, typically led by a TA. Language classes at the introductory and intermediate levels, meet 4-5 times a week, sometimes with variable length class meetings (that is, some may be 50 minutes, others may be 80).</p>
<p>4 is the “standard” courseload, since you need to enroll in 32 courses in 8 semesters to graduate if you enter as a freshmen. I’ve taken 5 my last two semesters, and I know others who have taken 5 courses in some terms. I also know a person who’s taken 3 this past semester (from the start, that is - occasionally students drop a course in the middle of the term).</p>
<p>As implied above, most courses don’t meet every day. I took Italian 100 and 200 last year, however, and they did meet every day.</p>