For more information about any of these advising programs, reach out to advising@brown.edu.
The College
Advising By Year
First-Years
To ensure that first-year students have the guidance they need to make informed choices, the University assigns each student two advising partners–an exploratory advisor, who is a Brown faculty member or administrator, and a Meiklejohn peer advisor.
Exploratory advisors provide a broad perspective on educational pathways, a sounding board for options and opportunities, and a connection to resources when challenges arise. Peer advisors offer a student perspective on course registration, prerequisites and the like, and are also well versed in Brown resources and opportunities.
Meiklejohn Peer Advisors
Meiklejohn peer advisors provide first-year students with an informed student perspective on Brown's curricular options and student life in general. Meiklejohns are paired with exploratory advisors and meet with a small group of assigned advisees throughout the year. The program embodies Brown's belief that student perspectives on educational opportunities are a necessary complement to faculty perspectives on learning.
1st Year at Brown
The College offers an online workshop to introduce incoming students to Brown's advising culture and to prepare them to more effectively navigate the Open Curriculum. Located in Canvas, Brown's course management system, 1st Year at Brown (1stY@B) teaches students essential skills and advising concepts to help them construct their academic pathways during their first year and beyond, including how to:
- build an advising network;
- develop successful learning strategies;
- engage in self-reflection during their transition to college, and
- consider what it means to join a diverse learning community.
Our hope is that this online workshop will give new students a shared language and additional tools to engage in conversations with their first-year advisor, Meiklejohn, and others in their advising network at Brown.
First Readings Program
The First Readings Program provides incoming students with a common intellectual experience that introduces them to academic life at Brown. Students receive their first reading over the summer and write to their seminar leader on an aspect of the text that they find compelling. During Orientation, students meet in small groups for seminar discussions led by faculty and administrators.
Sophomores
Most sophomores continue with their first-year exploratory advisor to benefit from a two-year advising relationship. In the rare instance where an advisor is no longer available, deans in the College can assist the student in connecting with a new advisor, and can provide supplemental support during academic advising hours.
The Matched Advising Program for Sophomores (MAPS)
MAPS pairs second-year students with junior and senior mentors for one-on-one and group-advising support related to concentration declaration, research opportunities, internships and general academic counseling. In addition to one-on-one peer advising, MAPS organizes group events and panel presentations geared toward all sophomores, as well as focus groups that provide a forum for MAPS participants to discuss the opportunities and challenges unique to the sophomore year at Brown.
Questions? Email mapsatbrown@gmail.com.
Information about advising and a host of other sophomore topics is available in the student-written Guide to Your Sophomore Year.
Juniors
Having reached the halfway point of their Brown experience, juniors begin to build deeper academic relationships and begin to determine how to make the most of their remaining time at Brown. Juniors should consider the following tips.
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Reflect on your values, identities, and experiences
Taking a moment to step back and reflect upon your college experience so far can be helpful in developing a plan for the next part of your education. The Reflection Guide for Juniors and Seniors is a targeted way to decide how to use the open curriculum and co-curricular experiences in a way that is authentic to who you are and who you want to become.
Meet with your concentration advisor
Now that they have declared a concentration, juniors have a concentration advisor instead of an exploratory advisor. This advisor, a faculty member in their chosen discipline, will track their progress toward the degree. Students can log in to ASK to find their advisor's name. Juniors are encouraged to reach out as soon as the semester starts to connect with their advisor. They may wish to ask about a thesis or capstone; it's not too soon.
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Complete Writing Requirement Part II
All Brown students are expected to work on their writing across their four years. Students are asked to demonstrate that effort at least once before the end of their sophomore year and again by the end of their 7th semester. We encourage students not to wait and to consider taking a WRIT course outside their concentration.
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Cultivate a mentor
It's important for students to connect with faculty besides their advisor. Finding a mentor, either in their concentration or beyond, can be vital both now and in life after Brown. Students might think about the professors who have inspired them. They might consider going to office hours in the fall to ask them about their current projects or explore what academic or professional interests they have in common. The effort students put into developing these relationships will have positive benefits in the future as they apply for jobs or internships.
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Visit Center for Career Exploration and the Curricular Resource Center
Students might be thinking about job opportunities and should stop by the Center for Career Exploration to meet with an advisor. Junior year is a good time to re-evaluate goals for life after Brown. The Curricular Resource Center also has a wonderful fellowship, internship and research advising initiative (FIRe) that is well worth exploring.
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Study Abroad
Brown offers a number of different ways to study abroad and over 500 Brown students study outside of the U.S. each year. In addition to semester abroad programs, students can participate in faculty-led travel courses over the summer and winter breaks as well as Brown’s international and domestic semester internship programs. Application dates for spring semester abroad and winter travel courses are quickly approaching.
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Join a DUG
Finally, as a junior, students can take on an important leadership role by joining a Departmental Undergraduate Group (DUG).This is a great way to develop relationships with faculty and connect with alumni by inviting them back to Brown to share their experience navigating the professoriate. For more information about DUGs, visit the Curricular Resource Center.
Seniors
Seniors often report that their final year flies by, so we encourage students to be intentional about what they want to accomplish as they wind down their undergraduate career and look toward life after Brown (a plug for Center for Career Exploration and the resources they provide). We also encourage students to use the Reflection Guide for Juniors and Seniors to take a moment to pause and reflect upon how they want to spend their last year by crafting the academic, co-curricular, and professional experiences of their choosing.
Apply for a Fellowship
Brown supports nationally competitive fellowships that fund domestic and international independent research and travel, teaching, and post-baccalaureate work or study. We currently support 21 different awards, including the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Schwarzman, and Gaither Junior Fellows Program for seniors. Many of these opportunities involve an internal campus process by which students are nominated for the respective national competitions.
Finish Degree Requirements
Most importantly, students should make sure that they are on track to graduate. Students should check their course plan in ASK and connect with their concentration advisor to make any necessary updates and talk about rounding out their academic experience with that course they’ve always wanted to take.
Graduation Requirements Degree Completion Worksheet
Review your internal record and concentration declaration in ASK:
- Earn 30 course credits (of which at least 15 must be completed in residence at Brown)
- Earn 32 enrollment units
- Complete the requirements for a concentration
- Complete part one and two of the writing requirement
Frequently Asked Questions
Please email degreecompletiondeans@brown.edu and a degree completion dean will contact you shortly to develop a degree pathway that works for you.
While there are many pathways for credit recovery, some options include: returning to Brown in the summer, enrolling in the subsequent fall as a 9th semester, taking summer or semester courses at another institution (ESRP), or finishing incomplete coursework. If you are a 0.5’er, please view the FAQ on the Midyear Completion page for more information.
Yes. You can still walk with your class, though your name will not appear in the bulletin, and you will want to contact your department as soon as possible to see how they might include you in the departmental diploma ceremony. Here is a video to describe how walking at Commencement works. You will receive your diploma in the mail during the May after you have completed all your degree requirements. Learn more about being a 0.5’er and the Midyear Completion Ceremony on the Midyear Completion page.
If you receive an INC that is required to reach 30 course credits, complete the Writing Requirement, or finish a concentration requirement, you will earn your degree in the May after you complete the course. If the INC becomes unviable at any point, please reach out to degreecompletiondeans@brown.edu to find an alternate pathway to degree completion. If you do not need the course to complete degree requirements, your degree will be conferred and you have one year from the time that the course was taken to complete requirements, as long as the professor is still willing to receive and grade the work.
If you receive an ABS, please work with the course instructor, the registrar, and the ABS dean to schedule the exam as soon as the circumstances requiring the ABS have resolved. If the course is required to complete a degree requirement, you will earn your degree in the May after you have completed the exam.
Please read your emails and skim Today@Brown each day. You can also subscribe to the academic calendar.
Your second concentration declaration must be submitted and approved before the end of your penultimate semester (typically semester 7). There is a petition in ASK to fill out if you would like to be considered for an exception by the Committee on Academic Standing; however, exceptions are only made in extremely rare circumstances.
No. There are no exceptions to the Writing Requirement. All Brown students must complete it as it is laid out on the Writing Requirement website. Writing skills are transferable to every profession and employers seek out people who are able to communicate well. If you would like help determining a course that meets your needs, please email Dean Lindsay Garcia at lindsay_garcia@brown.edu.
Please use this link to learn more about Honors more broadly. Additional information for specific concentrations’ honors theses guidelines can be found by looking at your concentration’s page in Focal Point. This process typically has to be started in the Junior year, or sooner.
A Banner status of ESRP indicates that you have outstanding degree requirements but that you have completed at least 26 course credits during your 8 semesters of enrollment. When those outstanding requirements are complete, your status will be ESRC (Enrollment Satisfied Requirements Completed) and you will receive a certificate of completion from the Registrar's Office. The ESRC remains in place until the diploma is awarded the following May.
If you would like to talk this through in more depth, please email degreecompletiondeans@brown.edu.
Many employers and graduate programs will accept applicants who are ESRP, and have a remaining credit or two that they are in the process of earning.
Many students meet with someone in the Center for Career Exploration to discuss their post-Brown life. Others consider Fellowships. We currently support 21 different awards, including the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Schwarzman, and Gaither Junior Fellows Program for seniors.
If you are thinking about graduate school within a particular field, you might talk with a professor who researches in that discipline or your concentration advisor. For more information on Health Careers or Pre-Law Advising, click on the respective links.
Students and parents can order their yearbooks online. Any questions regarding yearbooks can be directed to liber@brown.edu. You can also email this address to find out when senior portrait days on campus will be.
Please visit the Midyear Completion Ceremony page.
Please visit the Commencement page.
After your degree is conferred, you will be automatically given an @alumni.brown.edu email address. If you continue working for the University, you may find this article about migrating your emails helpful.
Through the Brown Office of Alumni and Friends. You will be automatically connected to them, but feel free to connect at any time by emailing alumni@brown.edu.
Tow Prize
The Yat K. Tow Prize was established in 1991 by the family of Yat K. Tow '41 in his memory, and is funded by his family and friends. The prize is awarded to two students at the level of junior, senior or graduate student in May of each year.