<p>Hi everyone. I am one of the lucky students of 2013. I am planning to go along the curriculum of Pre-dentistry or Pre-med. I am scared because I do not know what to expect in my first year. Should I study in advance? Also, how hard are the classes overall? I have friends in college that tell me the two extremes of college life. Some say that they do nothing but literally “eat” books for the whole day, and others say that they are having the best moment in their life. How will my life be in Brown? Thank you for enlightening me.</p>
<p>It really depends on the person and the type of background they have. Some kids come from intense high schools that find college really easy, and some kids come from the complete opposite and have a hard time adjusting. But generally, Brown is stereotyped as the chill Ivy, so chances are that if you’ve been accepted, and you go in bracing yourself, you should be able to handle the load just fine.</p>
<p>If you want to make sure you’re set, I know there are few pre-orientation programs that deal with adjusting academically. Pre-orientation programs are all really good stuff.</p>
<p>Just so you know, you don’t major in “pre-med” – there are some classes that all pre-meds need to take, but you can concentrate in whatever you want – including Classics or Literary Arts or Egyptology. There actually aren’t that many “pre-med” classes.</p>
<p>Organic chemistry is really hard. A lot of students take that second semester freshman year – and there are students who get really low grades or even fail it. I think that’s the only class to be scared of – but you won’t be alone. </p>
<p>What Sungchul said is very true. It depends on the toughness of your high school, on whether you are used to studying or used to getting As with little work. If you decide to spend more time partying or doing outside activities, you may find yourself in trouble for midterms and finals. If you are putting pressure on yourself to get all As – then it will be tough. </p>
<p>Take advantage of all the advising at Brown, and make sure you take a balanced course load. Take 4 classes your first semester, and make sure they are varied (not all heavy reading/writing, for example). </p>
<p>I don’t think there is any way to prepare this summer academically. So relax and have a good time, and start making friends with fellow Brown students on Facebook.</p>
<p>Don’t overestimate yourself (ie taking a super hard med class or something ridiculous like taking three really time consuming courses). The hardest thing will be drowning everyone else out and studying. I say Brown is in the middle of being really easy, and really hard.</p>
<p>As people have mentioned, it really depends on your preparation, particularly in high school. If you coasted through high school, there’s the possibility that you won’t be quite prepared for college - having a final exam worth 60% of your grade and subpar study skills aren’t the greatest combination. Go in expecting bumps and bruises, particularly the first two semesters. I’ve heard people equating living away from home for the first time to be the equivalent of another course (unless you attended a boarding school or are accustomed to being away from home and doing everything on your own). Pre-Meds often put a lot of stress on themselves, sometimes to their benefit, sometimes to their detriment. Brown doesn’t calculate grade point average. Every single pre-med I know has worried about/complained about theirs. If stress doesn’t make you work better (for some it does, for others, it adversely affects their work), being a pre-med will make the transition harder. All in all, there isn’t much you can do over the summer.</p>
<p>Courses are a mixed bag. It depends on the person what is easy, what is hard. I took a course this past spring in which the majority of the class struggled (based on the test scores, at least) but I found incredibly easy. On the other hand, I took a course where I struggled much more than most of my classmates. One skill is to create a schedule that is balanced. It may sound much more attractive to take 4 science courses than 1 or 2 and then a couple humanities courses, but spending all of your time in the lab and having most of your grade be determined by a couple of exams in all your classes may not be a good thing.</p>
<p>I believe it’s better to be a bit tentative in course selection for the first term, so if things are easy, you can focus on the transition to living in a dorm, and if not, you’re not completely overwhelmed. You’ll get an adviser whom you can approach with questions like this, but in the end, it’s up to you to get the most out of Brown without getting too swamped in work.</p>
<p>And if you want more info on classes you can check out thecriticalreview.org, where you can see how hard other students found a course and what they thought of it.</p>