College Discussion - View Single Post - Open curriculum

AudiB4 · 04-24-2008, 12:58 PM

My son is a sophmore and I agree with Franglish completely. You will have an advisor your freshman year assigned to you by an interest you expressed as a possible major. You can change that as you go along. My son thought he might be a sociology major so was assigned a sociology advisor but has changed his major and thus his advisor. He also had 2 mickeljohn (spelling??) advisors who are students. He is now a mickeljohn for freshmen this year. They all meet with you and ask you about your interests etc. I was very impressed that his sociology professor made him think outside the box and suggested courses in topics he would have never thought of taking. They are all there to assure you get a good and well rounded education. The mickeljohns helped with suggestions about teachers, work load etc-they made suggestions that students like to hear-who is good, who is hard, etc
For those students who choose Brown, I think this is an amazing opportunity to stretch your wings-take classes that interest you and in subjects you might want to learn something about. When will you get this opportunity again?? My son has taken a diverse range of courses in his two years there. He only wished he could be there longer so he could take more! It is challenging to be given a book of 1,500 (not sure of exact amount) classes and told to select only 16-20 in four years.
By the way, my son's physician went to Brown and graduated as a classics major. He said he wanted to be a doctor so took all the required med classes he needed for admission to med school but had a passion for classics and took many humanities classes. It didn't prevent him from going to med school at all and he told us it was the best place for him because he could fulfill both desires-medicine and the classics. So it is possible to take whatever you want and still get into a grad program of your desire. By choosing what you want, you want to be in that class, and so the discussions etc are that much more interesting. Hope this helps. I am sure current students can add alot more.

04-24-2008, 12:58 PM	#5
AudiB4 Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Long Island, NY, but son at Brown and one at Five Towns College Posts: 455	My son is a sophmore and I agree with Franglish completely. You will have an advisor your freshman year assigned to you by an interest you expressed as a possible major. You can change that as you go along. My son thought he might be a sociology major so was assigned a sociology advisor but has changed his major and thus his advisor. He also had 2 mickeljohn (spelling??) advisors who are students. He is now a mickeljohn for freshmen this year. They all meet with you and ask you about your interests etc. I was very impressed that his sociology professor made him think outside the box and suggested courses in topics he would have never thought of taking. They are all there to assure you get a good and well rounded education. The mickeljohns helped with suggestions about teachers, work load etc-they made suggestions that students like to hear-who is good, who is hard, etc For those students who choose Brown, I think this is an amazing opportunity to stretch your wings-take classes that interest you and in subjects you might want to learn something about. When will you get this opportunity again?? My son has taken a diverse range of courses in his two years there. He only wished he could be there longer so he could take more! It is challenging to be given a book of 1,500 (not sure of exact amount) classes and told to select only 16-20 in four years. By the way, my son's physician went to Brown and graduated as a classics major. He said he wanted to be a doctor so took all the required med classes he needed for admission to med school but had a passion for classics and took many humanities classes. It didn't prevent him from going to med school at all and he told us it was the best place for him because he could fulfill both desires-medicine and the classics. So it is possible to take whatever you want and still get into a grad program of your desire. By choosing what you want, you want to be in that class, and so the discussions etc are that much more interesting. Hope this helps. I am sure current students can add alot more.