So what are the "easy A" classes at Brown?

BrownAlumParent
Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:10:41 +0000

About anyone who puts a modicum of effort and interest into ENGIN 9 will do quite well. And for most students it is actually a really interesting course. My student (science concentrator) loved it and ended up TAing the next semester. Hazeltine is taking a sort of back seat now, but the co teachers taking over the reigns have been “reigned in” by him in their efforts to try to make it “harder”. Just having taken a Hazeltine course is sort of part of the Brown fellowship in future years. (Like having been at Brown “with Ruth” will be.) Having also been a Hazeltine student long ago, (and a TA, although I took ENG 6 (not offered for many years), as well as a small seminar class with him) my student had lots of Brown alums besides me urging to have the “Hazeltine” experience.

Other “lighter load” classes to balance out some tough courses can often be something that you are very interested in or have some foundation that other students might not have. My Brown student took econ (a math lover) and found the course others found tough, an easy one due to calculus grounding. Considered a double concentration and then found the next econ courses with less math boring. Also had “fun” with a language class that already had a lot of background in, but not enough to really be in the next level up. Again was doing something actually interested in learning more about.
If one is a good writer (sounds like easily writing might be not so easy for your son, but these often attract a number of “non writers”) many of the the “narrow themed” lit classes in comp lit or English or even language depts (the ones in translation) can be “fun” classes, but he should pick ones he truly enjoys the topic of. The sci fi one is popular. During shopping period many of the profs will outline what they are going to expect re number of papers including length, number of books (and you can look up how long to gauge your reading commitment) to help decide what fits the schedule in terms of other course work. Shopping a few alternatives is the perfect way to pick up the “fun courses” outside of a concentration.