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The Open Curriculum might best be described as “what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.” Just because one doesn’t have a concentration in something seen as more practical doesn’t limit job opportunities, if one knows what one wants. If one just fools around, doesn’t put in tons of work, and takes courses without any reason for choosing them, I’d imagine there’d be trouble. If one works one’s hardest, makes the most out of every course they’ve taken (and ideally has some sort of goal, though it’s unreasonable to expect that everyone has that when entering), they’ll be in good shape.</p>
<p>The “I never need to take another [insert subject here] course again” mentality isn’t necessarily bad - it is a consequence of the open curriculum, for better or worse. What Brown seems to want, though, is that students build their own core. Brown recently published this (<a href=“http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Registrar/concentrationforms/LiberalLearningGoals.pdf[/url]”>http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Registrar/concentrationforms/LiberalLearningGoals.pdf</a>), which suggests what direction they seem to prefer students take. Generally, the problems I’ve seen have been with people with no direction at all, and not because they have a nonstandard direction.</p>
<p>I have the pleasure of knowing I’ll be employed after graduation because I’ve excelled at my computer science major. I’m more likely to pursue pedagogy in Classics, however, and I’ve made that possible through the work I’ve put in here - next term will be my 3rd semester of TAing experience, my 2nd of grading experience, I’ll have completed a semester of course development, and I’ll have had teaching experience over the summer. If students work towards what they want, keeping backups in mind, they’ll likely find themselves rather employable at graduation. I do think, though, that they need to work towards it - Brown won’t just mold one into an employable person.</p>