<p>The First Year Seminars are, from what I’ve heard, wonderful. Don’t know about the CAP courses. My D took a FYS, in physics, her first year and really liked it. You need to follow the registration deadlines stated in the info you got, but if things are the same as they were two years ago, you are not required to take any of them. This could have changed, though.</p>
<p>No requirements. CAP courses are an opportunity to have your advisor be the same person as your professor for a class. FYS are just guarantees to be in smaller classes that are designated for first years. I didn’t take any-- some years the offerings are better than others.</p>
<p>Awesome, thanks for clarifying. So I’ll wait and see what the choices are before making any decision.</p>
<p>How is the music program at Brown?</p>
<p>I second puma’s question, and would like to add the question, is the marching(skating? I think I’ve heard something about them skating at hockey games…lol) band open to even non-music concentrators? I love playing in band for fun, but it’s not my end all win all either.</p>
<p>I don’t have much to say about the music program, simply because I don’t do music so I’ve never looked into it, but no—the marching band is not limited to music concentrators…it’s open to most people. They don’t take themselves too seriously and like to have a lot of fun. And yes, they do perform and skate on ice at some of the hockey games!</p>
<p>You don’t even have to know how to play an instrument to join the Brown Band!</p>
<p>I was wondering about the department of Egyptology. I have looked through the website, courses, ect. but I was wondering if there is actually any significant interest amongst the student body. Are there usually enough students to run most of the courses? One reason I decided to apply to Brown and will attend next year is because of the unique opportunities available in Egyptology (and Sanskrit through classics) and I guess I just want to make sure that there are others who share this interest.</p>
<p>They are certainly offered each year, but they’re not super popular as concentrations or anything. There aren’t a ton of people on campus in Egyptology, though combining in things like archaeology and ancient studies there’s definitely a larger intellectual community.</p>
<p>
I’ll take this question. :)</p>
<p>Fortunately for you, the Egyptology department at Brown has rapidly expanded in the last year or so. Although it goes by the absurdly long name of Egyptology & Ancient Western Asian Studies, it’s really attempting to emulate the larger and more established Near Eastern Studies departments elsewhere.</p>
<p>There are currently 5 professors in the department – an Egyptian archaeologist, two Egyptian philologists, a Near Eastern archaeologist, and a specialist in Mesopotamian astronomy. The department also hired an Assyriologist to start in the fall, but the person has not yet been announced. There are currently four graduate students in the program (two first years, two ABD); that number will be up to six next year, with the two new students admitted this year. I’m not entirely sure how many undergraduates are currently majoring in Egyptology, but I think there’s 3 or 4.</p>
<p>The Egyptology courses at Brown vary considerably in size. Some of the introductory archaeology courses can have upwards of 40 students, whereas the language courses can have 5 or so students. It’s best to look at the course schedules to get a sense of what’s offered.</p>
<p><a href=“Page Not Found”>homepage;
<p>I’m interesting in double-concentrating in Literary Arts and Theater. Can anyone give me an idea of where these classes would take place, and where the theaters are on campus? (I don’t speak map–it’s an issue.)</p>
<p>They could take place anywhere on campus-- rooms are generally assigned based on where there is space, and while departments will sometimes hold classes in their own buildings, there is pretty much no space in 68 1/2 Brown St (where LA is) for classes. Leeds Theater/Lyman Hall where Theater and Performing Studies is housed (on Lincoln Field behind Solomon) I know nothing about.</p>
<p>Chances are you’ll have classes in any of the buildings with smaller spaces-- Sayles, Wilson, JWW, Smitty-B, etc.</p>
<p>Perfect, thanks!</p>
<p>Hi, thanks for a great thread.</p>
<p>Regarding the discussion around the politically liberal atmosphere at Brown: I have Brown on my short list, along with BC (conservative student body by comparison) and Tufts (middle of the road somewhere between Brown and BC). Tufts is low on my list due to aid issues, but I am still working the numbers like hell…</p>
<p>So, to my question: I have been told by a couple of college-age people – one who went to Brown and graduated last year, and one who is a senior at BC this year and who has a couple of friends at Brown – that Brown’s atmosphere is one of “assimilate or perish” when it comes to one’s position on the political scale. I realize this is likely an over-the-top description of what to expect, but still, it has caused me to put liberal/conservative bent into my decision matrix. </p>
<p>I have a relatively conservative outlook on things, and while I have never had an issue interacting with the various viewpoints I have encountered among the various people I’ve interacted with during high school, I realize that college tends to take things up a notch in terms how vocal and outspoken students become in their views (and possibly their intolerance of views they see as unacceptable).</p>
<p>I am not so naive as to think my views will not change and morph as I grow from being a sheltered 17 yr old high school student into a 20-something person whose eyes get opened to new views. But I don’t want to do it under duress, or feel ostracized if I don’t immediately pick up the “Free Mumia” sign during my first semester and start marching.</p>
<p>Are my fears groundless? Is there any validity to my concerns about having to contend with a liberal atmosphere while trying at the same time to settle into my new life away from home?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any input.</p>
<p>^2nd. Haha that is one of my few reserves about Brown as well. I’m not close minded, but I don’t like feeling pressured on my beliefs either. (questioned is okay, just not alienated and pressured.)</p>
<p>Assimilate or die is total nonsense at Brown.</p>
<p>Here are a few threads about this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/554062-can-conservative-love-brown.html?highlight=liberalism[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/554062-can-conservative-love-brown.html?highlight=liberalism</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/658604-bdh-opinion-brown-student-liberalism-brown.html?highlight=liberalism[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/658604-bdh-opinion-brown-student-liberalism-brown.html?highlight=liberalism</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/642069-liberal-atmosphere-brown.html?highlight=liberalism[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/642069-liberal-atmosphere-brown.html?highlight=liberalism</a></p>
<p>Has anyone taken the Peter Pan bus from Boston Logan to BU??</p>
<p>Thanks modestmeoldy. The links helped to dispel some of my concerns. </p>
<p>I am planning to be at Brown next week for an accepted students 2-day-overnight, so I’ll be able to get a better feel for things for sure. I’ll be bracketing that 2-day experience with a BC 2-day earlier in the week, and a Tufts day at the end of the week, so by the end of next week I hope to have a pretty good feel for where I feel most comfortable. Then I need to address the balance of “comfort” vs “personal growth” and see where things end up. (If I *really *wanted to be comfortable, I’d just do another 4 years at my high school. :-))</p>
<p>What is strking me full force now is how academically I cannot go wrong at any of the three schools (prospective math major, I think) since I have tossed out the ones that didn’t look to match my interests in that area, and now I’m down to the touchy-feely aspects of the choice, and that’s proving to be as important and much harder to quantify. Never ask a math geek to make a soft decision! Oh how I wish I had a crystal ball to allow me to look forward and see how I’d fare at each school by end of sophomore year… </p>
<p>Thanks again modestmelody.</p>
<p>The only other thing I’ll throw in for Brown is that the one guy I know that was a math concentrator is going to UChicago for econ next year… pretty baller.</p>
<p>I hope ADOCH and the other accepted student’s days help you out. ADOCH was not a great experience for myself, but from the current student side, I’ve felt that each other year has been awesome.</p>
<p>cafesimone-- I didn’t take the Peter Pan, but I have friends who take it to NYC and seem to be just fine with it.</p>
<p>cafesimone, my son takes the PP bus from Providence to NYC all the time (and I think the Greyhound as well). The bus stop is walkable (down the hill from Brown) but I believe there is also a free bus or trolley that goes there. My son walks it. Buy tickets online ahead of time to get discounts. Cheap deals to certain major cities (like NYC, probably Boston but not sure). </p>
<p>I doubt there would be trouble taking the bus to Logan but Logan is a big place so beforehand, look online for a terminal map and know your way around. I haven’t been there in a long time, but there used to be a bus that looped around from terminal to terminal. It was no problem for me to navigate as a college student on my own even in the old days.</p>