The Yearly: Brown student taking questions thread - Page 9

modestmelody · 04-05-2007, 04:06 PM

Cool, I don't mean to attack, it's just that questions like that make me cringe. That 3-5% of the population who's here because they didn't get into Harvard and they just want to get into the best med school possible and who never lift their head up to smell the roses and take in the scenery just really get on my nerves.

2bztp · 04-05-2007, 07:11 PM

Regarding the mix of courses with letter grades and pass fail, and also GPA, what's the strategy for getting hired immediately after Brown? Brown grads still have to compete for jobs with others who attend schools where grading is perhaps more traditional.

RaboKarabekian · 04-05-2007, 07:26 PM

As far as I can tell with my friends who looked for jobs after graduation last year and the ones looking this year, there has not been any problem with any one of them finding a job. They're quite a mix of people, with concentrations from bio (premed) to american civilization, and they're all fine. I plan on looking for a job after graduation (instead of more school) and I'm not worried about my prospects. Any problems I (or anyone) would have getting hired would be due to me and not to Brown.

2bztp · 04-05-2007, 08:29 PM

Thx, Rabo, but is there a blend of say, 70/30 or 80/20, grade / pass-fail, for a typical Brown student?

modestmelody · 04-06-2007, 01:22 AM

It depends on what you want-- your degree is respected either way. Personally, I've taken three pass fail classes (I think...) in four semesters, but I wish I had taken all my course pass/fail, that's what jives with my philosophy. I was too cowardly to do that and it would look stupid now that I have more courage to.

siserune · 04-06-2007, 04:43 AM

Quote:

Regarding the mix of courses with letter grades and pass fail, and also GPA, what's the strategy for getting hired immediately after Brown? Brown grads still have to compete for jobs with others who attend schools where grading is perhaps more traditional.

I would think this matters more for grad school admission.
For employers, if they're the kind of place where an Ivy League degree puts you way above their median hire, then having gone to Brown will probably matter more than the type of grades. If they're a place where an Ivy degree is routine, then pass/fail grades and meaningless courses won't be an asset on the transcript.

sly_vt · 04-06-2007, 09:10 AM

I’m a parent, and I don't want to hijack this thread, but I can answer some of these questions:

Q: Regarding the mix of courses with letter grades and pass fail, and also GPA, what's the strategy for getting hired immediately after Brown?:

Most employers don’t ask to see your transcript – after 27 years in the job market, I was asked for my transcript only when I was looking for teaching jobs. My husband, an engineer, has never had to provide his transcript. In classes you take P/F, you can (or at least you could when I was there) ask the prof for a written evaluation of your work.

Emlet: I lost weight my freshmen year. You do a lot of walking. It can be done!

Health insurance: The $2500 fee is if you are not covered by your parents' insurance. If you can show proof of coverage, then there is a smaller fee. I'm pretty sure this is explained on the Web site.

Engineering: My husband and many of my friends studied engineering at Brown. They've all done very well after graduation. Many of them have gone into management or consulting, which is where the money is.

Food: I loved reading about the dining halls. We complained about the food when I was there. If you think it's bad now …, well, I promise you, it's gotten a lot better. Is there still mystery meat? On the plus side, I remember most of the desserts quite fondly (Hermits, chocolate chip bars, soft ice cream … how did I manage to lose weight freshmen year?)

My daughter will be there next year. Figuring out the meal plan options seems daunting.

OK, I have a question – cell phone service. Any recommendations? We have Verizon now, and would ideally like to keep it.

modestmelody · 04-06-2007, 10:34 AM

Verizon and Cingular both work well. It's TMobile that'll give you trouble.

siserune · 04-06-2007, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Most employers don’t ask to see your transcript – after 27 years in the job market, I was asked for my transcript only when I was looking for teaching jobs. My husband, an engineer, has never had to provide his transcript.

That's "most" measured relative to the whole job market, not relative to the employment sought by Ivy grads leaving college. For Wall Street positions and others of similar level the selection process tries to directly calibrate intellect. That includes transcripts and for some jobs, SAT scores.

modestmelody · 04-06-2007, 11:45 AM

So Ivy grads all want to work on Wall Street 80hrs a week until they burn out at 25?

Yeah sure, some people want to do that, but certainly that statement doesn't apply to "The whole market of Ivy grads leaving college." Come on now, you can do better than that and realize that across the job market, most positions won't be that interested in your transcript, especially if you have any experience and that most Ivy students end up doing the same things that everyone does, straight across the job market so while it'll be important for some it'll be near meaningless for others.

Bruins · 04-06-2007, 07:19 PM

sly_vt, actually, verizon gets pretty bad service as in relatively none if your daughter ends up living on pembroke, unless she makes/receives calls outside....

moniker · 04-06-2007, 08:33 PM

What's the administration's attitude towards drugs/alcohol? Will they actually suspend or arrest you like it says in the guidebook, or is a more of a slap on the wrist type thing?

Also, did any of you guys do the Day on College Hill? It's coming up in a few weeks and as I'm in NY it wouldn't be much trouble to go, but is it worth it if I've already decided to go to Brown?

modestmelody · 04-06-2007, 08:39 PM

ADOCH is 100% worth it just as that final experience to be a Brown student for a day. I had a blast even though I was 99% sure. I stepped on campus and handed in the card in person to admissions.

Basically, the attitude used to be, "Please don't die". The younger classes seem to be screwing that up though (not that their dying, but getting into far more alcohol and drug related incidents...). Anyway, the basic thing is you'll never get arrested, your parents won't get called, Department of Public Safety ignores it unless you're causing a big disturbance or someone gets sick or hurt.

Basically, if we're talking serious problems (multiple trips to the hospital for alcohol, overdosing/being caught with drugs other than pot, etc) they may force you to take leave for a semester or two and go to rehab before you can be readmitted but for day to day **** it's mostly ignored.

Brown students are trusted as being responsible enough to not screw up and very little needs to be done to police them and avoid that.

ungan · 04-07-2007, 04:03 AM

Can you give me a whole lists of courses available at Brown?

Are there business majors at Brown?

modestmelody · 04-07-2007, 10:31 AM

There are no business majors at Brown, the closest thing we have is either COE (commerce, organizations, and entrepreneurship) or Business-Econ (which is an economics degree with a business focus). Brown in general does not have preprofessional degrees/schools other than engineering and our public health concentration.

I'm not going to list 3,000 courses, so check out: http://mocha.cs.brown.edu