The College of Brown University is the undergraduate school of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, in College Hill,

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

. Founded in 1764, the College is the university's oldest school and the seventh-oldest institution of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after compl ...

in the United States. Compared to its peers, the College is distinguished by its Open Curriculum; adopted in 1969, the Open Curriculum permits students to study without any course requirements outside of their chosen concentration (major). Admissions is among the most selective in the United States, with an acceptance rate of 5.0% for fall 2022.

History

On March 3, 1764, James Manning and

Ezra Stiles Ezra Stiles ( – May 12, 1795) was an American educator, academic, Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author. He is noted as the seventh president of Yale College (1778–1795) and one of the founders of Brown University. According ...

filed a charter to create the College of Rhode Island. Their mission, as stated in the charter, was to prepare students "for discharging the Offices of Life" by providing instruction in the Vernacular Learned Languages, and in the liberal Arts and Sciences." Manning became the College's first president in 1765, and five years later the school moved to its present location on College Hill on the East Side of Providence. In 1850, Brown President

Francis Wayland Francis Wayland (March 11, 1796 – September 30, 1865), was an American Baptist minister, educator and economist. He was president of Brown University and pastor of the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island. In Washington ...

wrote, "The various courses should be so arranged that, insofar as practicable, every student might study what he chose, all that he chose, and nothing but what he chose." However, the College did not make any major institutional changes for over a century. In 1969, the Open Curriculum was implemented, eliminating

distribution requirements In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

and allowing students to take any course Satisfactory/No Credit. In addition, the University eliminated pluses, minuses, and D grades in the letter grading system. The current Dean of Brown's College is Rashid Zia, a class of 2001 Brown graduate. Previous deans have included

Maud Mandel Maud Mandel (born June 14, 1967) is an American historian and academic administrator. She is the 18th and current President of Williams College, the first woman to hold that role. Mandel was previously a Professor of History and Judaic Studies an ...

and

Kenneth Sacks Kenneth Sacks is an American historian and classicist, noted for his work on Ralph Waldo Emerson. Currently he serves as Professor of History and Classics at Brown University, where he was previously Dean of the College. A graduate of the Universi ...

Academics

Degrees granted

The College offers two different baccalaureate degrees:

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

(A.B.) and

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

(Sc.B.)

Dual degree programs

In addition to traditional degree programs, Brown offers a number of

dual degree A double degree program, sometimes called a dual degree, combined degree, conjoint degree, joint degree or double graduation program, involves a student's working for two university degrees in parallel—either at the same institution or at diffe ...

programs.

A.B./Sc.B.

Students have the ability to graduate in five years with both an A.B. and Sc.B. degree, provided that requirements for each degree are met. This is distinct from a double concentration, when students only receive one degree.

PLME

The Program in Liberal Medical Education is a single eight-year program that allows students to complete both an undergraduate degree (A.B. or Sc.B.) from The College and subsequently an M.D. degree from

Alpert Medical School The Warren Alpert Medical School (formerly known as Brown Medical School, previously known as Brown University School of Medicine) is the medical school of Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island. Originally established in 1811, it ...

. Admission to PLME is highly competitive; in 2015, 90 students were granted admission out of an applicant pool of 2,290.

Brown-RISD

While students at the College have long been able to cross-register for classes at the nearby

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

, it is now possible to complete a degree from Brown and a B.F.A. from RISD concurrently over a five-year period. Students must be admitted to both institutions separately in order to matriculate.

References

External links

Official Website of The College of Brown University
{{Brown University Brown University 1764 establishments in Rhode Island