Choose Your Own Adventure: Life at Brown University

Gan Chong Jing
Oct 27, 2020
8 min read

Updated: Nov 7, 2020

By Gan Chong Jing, Class of 2023

The ethos of Brown University is simple: that the most rewarding college experience for a student is one that they create for themselves. This principle was what drove Brown students to push for reform in the school 50 years ago through dialogue with the administration and protests, resulting in the creation of the Open Curriculum. The Brown we know today was quite literally created by the voices of its students, and that is a legacy that persists till today.

The Open Curriculum

Through the Open Curriculum, general education requirements/core curriculums were abolished, allowing students to craft their own curriculum. Although students still have to fulfill their major (or at Brown, concentration) requirements to graduate with a degree, outside of those requirements, you can choose whatever courses you want to take both within and outside of their concentration (excluding, obviously, courses with prerequisites). Think of it like having a free pick of as many electives as you want, and from whatever area you’re interested in. If you're not sure what courses suit you, during the first two weeks of every semester – called Shopping Period – you can try out any class you like to figure out which ones you want to take, and confirm your course selection only at the end of shopping.

As a result, even though Brown’s largest concentrations lean toward the sciences and social sciences – computer science, biological science, economics, and international and public affairs – many of these students supplement their course load with a wide array of disciplines across the arts and humanities, and so Brown also has a strong offering in its humanities departments. You can even cross-register courses at RISD. Many students explore a huge breadth of disciplines before settling on their concentration, and it’s common for students to switch their concentrations halfway through their education as well.

In the spirit of encouraging personal exploration and enrichment over mindless competitiveness and an academic rat race for results, Brown does not calculate student GPA, merely assigning letter grades (A, B, C, etc.) for each course. Brown also gives students the option to take classes pass/fail through the S/NC system. This system is designed to help Brown students to explore classes and disciplines outside of their comfort zone, or pursue their own individual array of academic interests, without having to worry about their grades taking a hit. (Of course, this system is not entirely effective, particularly for students who are pursuing highly competitive pre-professional education paths, for whom letter grades are especially important for future job/school applications, so S/NC grading is hardly ever an option)

Culture

Brown’s sadly soon-to-be-removed, but much beloved sculpture turned the people’s mascot, Blueno. That a strange, humongous sculpture of a blue bear with a lamp in its head would become the school’s adopted figurehead speaks volumes of the spirit of Brown’s student body.

It’s a common conception that Brown has a very laid-back, almost too laid-back and relaxed culture as a result of the Open Curriculum. And while it’s definitely true to some extent that students worry less about their courses, Brown still is rather academically demanding. Based on Brown’s calculation of semester credit hours, courses should require a minimum of 12 hours of work per week – 4 hours in the classroom, and 8 hours of out-of-class work, and in my experience, classes can often exceed that by a few hours. On top of that, you have additional hours required for projects, papers, and studying for exams, or whatever other graded components the class has. With four courses, that’s a minimum of 48 hours per week, if not much more.

Nonetheless, most Brown students will tell you that academics are not the most valuable part of their college experience, but rather their extracurricular activities, which cover a really broad range.

Brown has a deep history and strong culture of student activism. There are many student advocacy groups fighting to spread awareness and effect change within the Brown community for different social causes. Moreover, advocacy groups have power to influence the administration to make Brown more socially inclusive and just. For example, students can work with professors to create courses that address certain social causes, and many have even successfully lobbied for curricular reform and restructuring (see, for example, the environmental justice movement at Brown, or for something near and dear to home, the Southeast Asian Studies Initiative!) Outside of advocacy, there are many service organisations, initiated and led by students, that work to directly aid marginalised groups in the immediate Providence area. The campus is always lively – with people protesting on the main green or holding other awareness or fundraising events. When you’re hungry for a snack, there’s bound to be a group out there selling cookies for a good cause.

Because Brown so strongly prioritises exploration and self-discovery, clubs and societies at Brown tend to be interest-based in admission and welcoming to all, rather than competitive (there are some obvious exceptions, like competitive varsity sports). The arts are really well-represented – there are so many different theatre groups and musical groups (and way too many a cappella groups to count), and multiple visual/literary arts publications. It’s strengthened by Brown’s proximity to RISD, which doesn’t have many extracurricular opportunities, so many RISD students come over to Brown to join arts-related groups and contribute their talent. A full list of student organisations can be found here.

Day-to-Day Living

So pretty...truly putting the Wah! In Wah! University (College Hill, Providence)

Brown is perched on top of a hill aptly named College Hill in the city of Providence, Rhode Island. The neighbourhood on the hill is incredibly affluent, filled with quiet, quaint and pretty Victorian and colonial style houses that you can spend whole weekend afternoons wandering around. Alongside many of Brown’s preserved red-brick buildings, the hill feels like a preserved slice of bygone days of America’s past, but at times, it can also feel like a bubble of privilege. Walking down the infamously steep hill and crossing the Providence River, which wraps around the base of the hill, you arrive at Downtown Providence, which is a historical puzzle piece of preserved colonial buildings, modern, and post-modern high-rises jutting out of the cityscape around them. The downtown area feels more metropolitan, with plenty of eateries and shopping abound as you walk further into the Jewelry District and to Federal Hill. (While some of these places might be a bit of a walk, it’s made considerably easier by the fact that Brown ID lets us take the bus for free!)

Brown in the foreground, leading downhill to Downtown Providence in the middle-ground (bonus game: guess which building is called the Superman Building and which is the Rhode Island State House. Answers at the end.)

Following the Providence River as it curves eastward away from views of the Providence cityscape and downtown, you’ll eventually find yourself amid beautiful paths lined with trees for walking or running along the waterfront, be it the south-tipping India Point Park or the north-leading Blackstone Boulevard.

I feel like the Providence Tourism Board at this point, but it’s so pretty.

While it’s all very glamorous, it must be said that these neighbourhoods are disproportionately wealthy in comparison to the rest of the city of Providence – for example, the median income in College Hill is three times that of the Providence average. The further you walk from College Hill, the more sobering this disparity becomes, which also fuels many student service groups’ involvement in aiding the underserved and disadvantaged groups in Providence. I’d encourage all students to involve themselves in whatever capacities they can, if only to gain a better understanding of the role that our school plays in our larger community, beyond the bubble of our college experience.

With all that said, most miserable, work-bogged students lack the time and will to make frequent journeys down the hill or away from College Hill. That’s why most students find themselves repeatedly patronising the line of relatively budget-friendly eateries and cafes along Thayer Street, right next to the main campus. While Thayer Street is bustling with students every day of the week, some more adventurous people might brave the arduous walk south for choice selections at Ives and Wickenden (psst – please get yourself some baklava at Aleppo Sweets).

Cheap and choice comfort food from Thayer Street, from left to right: Falafel and burrito bowls from East Side Pockets, khao soi from Heng’s Thai Rotisserie, kimchi jiggae from Soban Korean Eatery, and soy garlic fried chicken from Den Den Korean Fried Chicken.

C’mon. (Aleppo Sweets)

Which brings us back to the Brown campus! If students aren’t busy filing to and fro different buildings for classes and activities (the longest walk between two different classes will take over ten minutes), you might catch them huddling around desks in the SciLi, a lone twelve-story brutalist monster of a library that juts out in the low-rise College Hill landscape. Despite being twice voted as the ugliest building in Providence, the SciLi is near and dear to any student who’s pulled an all-nighter in it nearing midterms or finals. Or, when the weather allows it, camping out on the green lawns of the college to study, play sports, and just soak in the sun.

The SciLi, pronounced ‘sigh-lie’, which is what you’ll say about your hopes and dreams about college by the end of it. Just joking.

While beautiful and rich in history, Brown’s college life is soured for some by its living situation, specifically with regard to food and housing. It’s not that the food at Brown is really bad – it’s consistently mediocre with some real lows and some rare highs (beef broccoli!!!) (but definitely not as kind with regard to vegetarian/vegan options), but Brown forces students to stay on the rather expensive meal plan for a minimum of two years, albeit with slow reductions over time. Most students inevitably flock off-campus to Thayer for some kind of variety, but also hesitate to let their expensive meal credits go to waste.

The same problem lies with Brown’s student housing, where it is mandatory for most students to spend six semesters (or three years) in on-campus housing, rather than the usual two semesters that many other schools have. While there are very valid reasons for this policy – to prevent students from flooding the surrounding housing market and driving out local tenants who need it more – it doesn’t help that some of Brown’s student housing offers less than savoury living conditions, such as really high numbers of students sharing common bathroom and kitchen facilities, or dorm buildings with layouts that resemble prisons (no joke, some buildings in Brown are designed to be riot-proof). Not to fret, though, most people manage to upgrade to favourable dorms by their upper-class years with strategic housing groupings and ballots.

With all that being said and done, living at Brown is still undeniably beautiful – seeing the fiery colours of fall, the snow-covered streets in winter, the first blooms of spring, is something that I would gladly accept for awful housing. And, with its close proximity by train or car to cities like Boston and New York, it’s never impossible to duck out of the campus over the weekend for a breather. There’s so much more I still haven’t explored in Providence, and can’t wait to do so for the rest of my years at Brown.

Winter! Pretty! /incoherent frostbitten noises/

A Note to Prospective Applicants

While the freedom that Brown proffers students academically and otherwise is definitely alluring, it definitely isn’t for everyone, and many people struggle to find direction and focus amidst the dizzying array of choices. The free-spirited exploration that Brown offers is particularly suited to people who have multi/interdisciplinary interests, not merely within but also outside of the academic field, but also people who have the will and self-motivation to carve out their own niche and forge their own path. Best of luck with your applications!