<p>Cuz it is. jk but seriously brown values personality and character and breeds both personal and academic excellence. Isn’t this better than snobby academic rotor at HYP?</p>
<p>Hi, GrammarBot here. I noticed you used several terms that are not actually a part of the English language. Furthermore, punctuation was missing from your second sentence and, if I am not mistaken, there is a definite article noticeably absent from your final sentence. Please correct these errors so your post can foster a community filled with intelligent conversation. After all, any swine can play a tuba, but only humans can distinguish “that” from “which”. Always vigilant, GrammarBot.</p>
<p>Zulatooka,</p>
<p>I’m afraid you have neglected a key point to human intellect: the very pillar that supports and defines language.</p>
<p>You say grammar is what makes us human – the very grammar imitated by a simple computer program. What truly makes us human, self proclaimed GrammarBot, is our ability to use language as a tool for communication of thought, idea, and emotion. We are human because “wut”, despite not being found in the dictionary, is a member of the English language. It carries its own message, a message not recognized by a computer program (or the dictionary).</p>
<p>U may find this sentense atrocious, but i find it ground braking. Every second hundreds of humans are expressing their creativity and individualism by posting in a manner they find fitting. </p>
<p>Our language is not shaped by its rules, its rules are shaped by our language.</p>
<p>Sincerely,
Human.</p>
<p>LMAO; this thread made my day. I had thought I was the only one with absolutely nothing to do today, but it seems boredom is a common malady yet. 
To put my two cents in, though, I’m with rickscott… nobody needs more schoolmarmish rule-nuts lecturing (or putting out sanctimonious and didactic admonitions) on Grammar or Register or such topics. Not in this context…
Anyway, good luck to everyone who’s hearing from Brown this afternoon (or evening for internationals)… even “GrammarBot”… ;)</p>
<p>[The</a> grammarbot (grammar robot or grammar bot)](<a href=“http://sepwww.stanford.edu/sep/jon/family/jos/grammarbot/grammar.html]The”>The grammarbot (grammar robot or grammar bot))</p>
<p>Of particular interest are the two sentences halfway through the web-page; they are right above “Audacity runs amuck”.</p>
<p>Okay, as a hippy dad, i have a problem…i know Brown matches my ideals and liberalism and probably what I want for my daughter as well as she would, and is by far the administration I respect the most of respecting student expression and freedom—this of course implies I am an idealist, which I am, but i do know this is NOT an ideal world, where money for grad school was no object and one could learn until one finds their passion—but do kids go into Brown disorganized and come out with a cohesive view of the world-or do they just come out having enjoyed the experience, smarter for it but not practically experienced to get a job in the really tough economy?
I get the impression that the “happiest” students may be partly that way as they do not have to take classes they hate as dad or mom’s money is waiting to protect them, but for the ones who had their FULL (or really full) need met and know mom and dad are not their to support them after Brown, do those kids find they have to pick a path leading to a career or face loans and poverty unless they are headed to Med school? I mean a law degree is no guarantee and half the kids with one now are 200k in debt. A CS degree is guaranteed good income for 20 years or 15 if they outsource you–but a good while if you can put up with that career in a cube or are lucky enough to be the founder of freakbook (my preferred name for it)…
“Do as I say not as I did daughter”. I wound up doing what many Brown students likely do anyway as I took pre-med could not hack the pressure in 400 student state school lecture halls- then philosophy-complete disillusionment clearly, then psychology (self analysis-abnormal psych–is it me?) then, yep dropped out, and worked in the Walmart of its day for 2 years-after that sort of fun but impoverishing and enlightening experience I got whatever out of my system, then realized poverty awaited so had to take 2 grueling years of engineering (having covered all my electives in 1st 2 years) to get my 4 year degree in 8 years (like Belushi in Animal House), living with family in between. </p>
<p>Not what I want for my daughter and hardly what I would expect from her to happen in a school like Brown-although it could mirror the same realizations, just maybe less painfully. </p>
<p>I know this is hardly the story of most Brown grads and maybe its exactly why Brown is set up as open and take what you want, flow where mind takes you, but I have seen that there are many who seem to have degrees from Brown (a sampling of tour guides etc.) in a lot of interesting stuff that does not necessarily place them in good spot for a career(IMHO)? I am all for being renaissance people and not just living to make a large living or think of college as a place to gain a trade without learning your place in the world first, but in this economy can you afford to be all that open about the open study plan?
I know there are a 100 answers as all are different but in general, how many Brown grads simply have to go to grad school and cannot get good jobs because of their major–any metrics? Sorry if this is a silly question on last day but it gives me room to be happy or unhappy if she doesn’t get in, personally its my favorite for fit but she did not even nab an interview so who knows…good grades–typical stats of an admitted but the stats of an admit are also typical stats of a reject–so who knows…good luck all…</p>
<p>I want my daughter to be happy, and I know if she gets in she will be happy-and where she goes will be her choice…wlm</p>
<p>Grammerbot–don’t even think of it, your reply will be longer than my post-</p>
<p>HAHAHAHA this was too funny</p>
<p>Actually, I don’t believe those sentences are relevant. I was not the subject of your correction, I was writing in opposition to something you said.</p>
<p>“You say grammar is what makes us human”</p>
<p>We are talking about two different types of improper English, you’re a little confused about which one I am talking about.</p>
<p>To waitlistman:</p>
<p>I’m going to assume you’re not a ■■■■■. For some reason on these forums the question of “do Brown grads get jobs” comes up.</p>
<p>As far as tour guides go, many Brown grads don’t HAVE to get jobs right away. Those that do, on the other hand, tend to be very successful at it (and at going where they want). And the kinds of jobs we want aren’t likely to be outsourced anytime soon.</p>
<p>Example with CS (it’s what I know best): Brown is one of the main recruiting grounds for TripAdvisor (along with MIT, according to the driver who brought me to my interview), as well as Oracle and Microsoft (seriously here, it seems like 2/3 of our CS seniors are going to be in Seattle next year, with Microsoft or Google).</p>
<p>In terms of going to grad school: most of the people at Brown want to keep going to school. Liking school is probably one of the motivating factors that got us here (though it’s not universally true). That being said, I really don’t know any senior who wants to start working who isn’t doing something they’re interested in. Admittedly, I don’t know too many seniors, but eh. Is it more difficult for a History or Classics concentrator to find a job? Possibly, but I don’t know if that’s less true for Physics or Biology concentrators who don’t want to do pre-med. Anytime you don’t constrain yourself into a single track (i.e. programming for a tech company), it’ll make finding things more difficult, but likely more rewarding as well.</p>
<p>
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>
<p>Thanks for all those who replied in earnest. No I am not a ■■■■■…i am a parent, and really do have a hippy background although I missed the 60s as I was born in 60 i caught the tail wind of it. My fear of Brown is just I guess the fear every parent has about their kids spending 200k and winding up with a great knowledge of many things, but not a master of one enough to be an expert and land a job-it is a tough economy for the pure luxury of knowledge for knowledge sakes. I agree, to the CS major-clearly there are always jobs in that career but having spent 24 years in it I can tell you it is of diminishing rewards and other than start ups and getting bought and making a killing going to work for the likes of the fortune 500s is a nice stable income but no life that I would want for my kid or myself if I did it over again. So its hard to argue for income without passion. I guess that is the tradeoff, finding a passion and just following it to its natural conclusion-after all doing something you hate no matter the pay is frankly, a waste. I can say I have had a good life with a nice income from my field but if I could do it over again, I would have gone to a school like Brown, knuckled down in HS enough to have gotten in and then maybe I would have still gone into computing-it was my natural aptitude…but knowing how outsourcing has ruined the field, its hard for me to say I would do it over.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insights and good luck to all today. I think that Brown is not that different than other colleges except that the administration respects the students in the most liberal tradition and that is a tremendous statement about the school-i like it a whole lot. I might not like every notion of “open” but people there are smart enough to realize they have to eventually start to put some logical sequences together or be on the road to their PHD…which from working with, probably PHDs were the worst programmers-lol…too academic, not good at learning on the job…its a trade off but learning who and what you are in the world, and how the world runs is the most important part of college IMHO…
thanks again…
WLM—fingers crossed for a nice pile of choices but she has a few already and I would be happy with one or two more just to really weigh the choices…will know in short order…</p>
<p>*rigor i hate i touch autocorrect ;(</p>