- Hi, my name is Ana Saul-Sykes
and I'm the Director of Admission
for Special Programs, Brown University.
I want to start by telling you
about one of Brown's most defining features,
the Open Curriculum.
The Open Curriculum was instituted in 1969
as the direct result of student research,
planning, and activism.
Unlike many colleges in the US,
Brown does not have a core curriculum
or required distribution requirements
that all students must complete.
Despite not having a core curriculum,
most students end up completing
what would be considered a core at other schools,
but do so out of their own volition.
Brown's Open Curriculum allows students
to play an active role in their education
by giving them freedom to explore
and design their own program of study.
It means that each undergraduate has the opportunity
to create their own unique academic experience.
Since students are able to choose exactly
which classes they want to take,
everyone in the classroom has chosen to be there,
because they're truly interested in the course.
This creates a much more dynamic
and engaging classroom experience.
While we don't have general education requirements,
Brown does have some requirements
that students must fulfill in order to graduate.
Students must declare one concentration
by the end of their sophomore year
and fulfill the requirements for their chosen concentration.
Brown offers approximately 80 concentrations
and also gives students the option
to design their own concentration.
Students must pass 30 Brown University courses
before they graduate.
Each course is equal to one credit.
Students must take two writing-designated courses.
These courses are offered across many different departments,
so while they may not necessarily be a literature course,
they each have a significant writing component.
The Shopping Period is an integral part
of the Open Curriculum.
Brown offers over 2000 academic courses every year,
and for the first two weeks of every semester,
students can shop for the four or five classes
they will ultimately end up taking that semester.
With Shopping Period, you get to make an informed decision
about every course you take.
You can look at the syllabus and consider whether the course
and professor matches your learning style
before committing to the course.
It eliminates what we call back row syndrome.
Every student in each class has chosen to be there
and will be engaged and passionate about the material.
Many students will divide and conquer during Shopping Period
by attending classes and reporting back
to their friend groups.
Another critical piece of the Open Curriculum
is the Satisfactory/No Credit grading option.
One of the ways that students take advantage
of the Open Curriculum is
through the Satisfactory/No Credit rating option,
which encourages students
to explore unfamiliar academic interests.
Students can elect to take any course at Brown,
either for a grade, A, B, C, or no credit,
or Satisfactory/No Credit, also known as SNC.
Other schools may refer to this as pass/fail.
On average,
students will take one out of every five courses SNC,
which also includes some courses that are mandatory SNC.
The vast majority of your academic transcript
will be made up of letter grades
The experience of Brown's Open Curriculum
is best expressed by our students.
- I've taken classes in 16 departments
at Brown since I've been here,
including history, which is what I study.
I've done like three courses in economics
and three courses in education.
I took a class in neuroscience,
I took a class in public health,
I took environmental science, I took computer science.
Truthfully, I've probably fulfilled
general education curriculum almost anywhere else,
but because I got to pick it,
I was so much more invested in being in those classes
instead of feeling like I was sort of dragged there
and I could do it at whatever order and speed I wanted to,
so some of those courses I took freshman year
when I was still trying to decide what I wanted to study.
And some of those I'm taking now,
like I'm in a philosophy class now,
even though I'm not a philosophy concentrator,
because it's my last semester
and I wanna just do new things.
- Do this all out on your own.
Brown has a strong network of advisors to support you.
Every first-year student is assigned an academic advisor
and a Meiklejohn peer advisor.
Advisors help students navigate the academic experience
at Brown and use the Open Curriculum
in a way that works best for them.
Faculty and staff are not required to be advisors,
but many volunteer to do so because they genuinely want
to work with first-year students,
so advising groups are typically very small,
around five to six students.
The Meiklejohn, or peer advisor,
provides a student perspective on the ins and outs
of course registration and can offer advice
in course options as well as student life.
After your first year, you'll continue on with advising,
go to a concentration advisor.
The Open Curriculum leads to especially engaged students.
Because students are choosing to be in their classes,
their level of the investment is especially high
and the conversations tend to be dynamic.
The "Wall Street Journal" ranked Brown
among the highest in student engagement
of schools in the Ivy League.
All faculty are leading educators,
teaching in classrooms or in labs.
The student to faculty ratio is six to one
and 70% of our courses have 19 or fewer students.
Because classes are small,
conducted in the seminar style,
and all of our professors teach,
it means that students are easily able
to exchange ideas with each other and with faculty members.
Beyond the traditional classroom setting,
students engage in field work and research assignments
through community partnership.
Community-based learning and research, or CBLR,
is a course designation available across the curriculum.
Courses must meet four criteria to earn this designation.
First, they must involve collaboration
with one or more community partners
to investigate an important social change or problem.
Second, they incorporate in-depth
community-based experiences,
typically undertaken outside of the classroom
into the learning and/or research objectives of the course.
Third, they provide structured opportunities
for reflecting on the relationship
between classroom learning and real world experience.
And four, they create products or outcomes
that are shared with the community partner
and/or the broader public.
Brown offers tremendous opportunities for research.
Over 1000 undergraduates are engaged in research
during the academic year.
Between 600 and 800 undergraduates
do research each summer, whether through grants,
fellowships, or independent study projects.
Research is accessible to all students in all departments,
starting as early as your first year.
Undergraduates outnumber the graduate student population
by more than two to one,
which means that professors really rely
on undergraduate students to engage with them in the lab
or wherever their research is being done.
This means Brown students are often developing knowledge
and skills at the cutting edge of scholarship.
Our distinctive university college model enables students
to collaborate closely with their professors
on well-resourced, high profile academic pursuits.
Our undergraduate students aren't just doing grunt work,
but they are truly contributing to research
in a meaningful way, as a full and equal partner
with graduate students and faculty.
After they graduate, our students are able
to apply the skills they learn in their time at Brown.
Over the past five years, Brown has been
among the top producers in the United States
in Fulbright winners.
The Fulbright program is the US government's
premier scholarship program,
enabling students to conduct research, study,
or teach in over 140 countries around the world.
Participants are chosen for their academic merit
and leadership potential,
both things we cultivate at Brown.
Along the same lines, in the past decade alone,
Brown students have won a number
of Rhodes and Marshall scholarships,
both of which are highly selective academic awards
that fund graduate study in the United Kingdom.
Our graduates have also been very successful
in applying to pre-professional programs.
Our medical school admit rate
is double the national average.
Our law school admit rate is about 10% higher
than the national average.
CareerLAB, The Center for Careers and Life After Brown,
exists to support students through the transition
from undergraduate to professional life,
whether that means pursuing a Fulbright scholarship,
a graduate school program, or employment.
About 250 different employers come to campus each year.
Employers recruiting at Brown include, just to name a few,
Google and Apple, BCG and Bain,
Teach For America and City Year,
Brigham and Women's Hospital,
and the National Institutes of Health,
as well as Major League Baseball
and the Walt Disney Company.
CareerLAB also offers resume and cover letter workshops,
mock interview practices, and opportunities to brainstorm
about next steps post-graduation.
CareerLAB also helps students find opportunities
to prepare for the future during their undergraduate career.
Brown provides $3 million in financial support annually
for internships.
Oftentimes, these grants are given to students
taking on low pay or no pay internships
and are used to cover accommodations and travel,
allowing students to take on the internships
they are truly interested in.
Additionally, BrownConnect is a platform
that connects students to the global network of Brown alumni
and parents who may assist them in their search
for internship opportunities.
At Brown University,
we employ what is called a holistic admission process.
If you're unfamiliar with this term,
it means that when we look at your application,
we are taking an individualized and contextual evaluation
of your application and considering your achievements
and opportunities.
When it comes to your course selection,
we do not have a preference in terms
of which courses you take.
What we're going to do is look at what your high school
has offered you and what you've chosen to take advantage of
and challenge yourself with.
With regard to applying to Brown,
we offer two timelines under which you are able to apply.
The first is Early Decision.
The deadline for this process is
at the beginning of November.
You would receive the results of this process
sometime in mid December.
The other timeline is Regular Decision.
That deadline is in early January.
You would hear back from us at the end of March.
The Early Decision timeline is a binding process.
This means that the Early Decision timeline
is truly for students who know that Brown
is their first choice when it comes to their college career.
Regular Decision, however, is non-binding.
You would be able to have until May to decide whether Brown
was the right school for you, should you be admitted.
In terms of the pieces of the application,
you would be able to apply to Brown
with the Common Application.
Through the Common Application,
you would be able to access the Brown University Supplement,
which asks a few questions specific to Brown.
We also require your transcript.
With the transcript, we will look at all four years
and be regularly updated by your counselor
with your senior grades.
We also require letters of recommendation
from your school counselor or school counselor equivalent
and two teachers.
For first year applicants in this year's admission cycle,
Brown is test optional.
More information on our testing policy
can be found on our website
at admission.brown.edu/first-year.
A recommended, but not required piece of the application
is a brief video introduction.
You will be given the option to submit it
once you log in to the applicant portal.
This personal video introduction should have
a maximum duration of two minutes,
and it will be viewed by the admission staff
along with your application.
This video is an opportunity for you to talk directly
to the admission office.
Many students will give us a slice of life,
going through their daily routine,
or simply talk about whatever's on their mind.
The video introduction can be as simple
as you'd like it to be.
Many students will just use the camera on their phone
or the camera on their laptop to record themselves
speaking to the admission office.
Now, I'd like to turn it over to my colleague, Heather.