Reply to where would you want your kid to go if given the following choice: Brown or Trintiy/Columbia Dual BA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, this must be a very tough decision.

You've received some good comments on this thread.  Pls consider one academic issue --

Brown doesn't really have a long list of core requirements and major requirements.  Only a few distribution requirements are in play, and one can elect no major and only a concentration.

Columbia is one of the two (the other is UChicago) US universities with the most intensive distribution requirements.  And Columbia is a 5-course semester, not a 4 course semester (like Brown and Harvard).

Pls have your DC make sure that the Trinity/Columbia 2+2 program takes into account the fact that, at Columbia, in every one of their undergrad colleges (Columbia College, Barnard, Engineering, and GS) the core courses and major together typically occupy 3 years of the 4.  Will your DC be 100% assured that the Trinity/Columbia program doesn't involve the possible risk of a 5th year?  
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Just to clarify, Brown has [b]majors, but they're called concentrations. It's no different from majors at other colleges and the difference is simply terminology[/b]. As with any major, a Brown student needs to [b]complete the distribution requirements the concentration demands[/b]. Students do have the option to create their own concentration subject to a proposal and approval by the university and relevant departments but most students do a typical concentration.

This double BA with Trinity seems like a brand new program and there is inherent risk in that because we don't know all the kinks yet and how they would play out. It seems to me that to be able to achieve a double BA with Trinity while meeting Columbia's core requirements you will actually end up doing the reverse of what the typical Columbia undergraduate does, spending your first two years at Trinity studying what is effectively your major, and then when you matriculate at Columbia, you spend the last two years completing all the distribution requirements, which leaves you minimal time to take additional courses in your major. If you're a history specialist, you'd have minimal time to study history in your last two years of college, which would be a negative to me. [/quote]

But PP, Brown has no general distribution requirements, and the core requirements in a concentration can be partially avoided if an undergraduate declares "interdisciplinary with a XXX minor concentration."  Brown is proud of these features -- see https://www.brown.edu/academics/college/concentrations/

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That doesn’t change the PP’s post. What the student wanting to do an interdisciplinary study is effectively creating his or her own concentration, which will be subject to approval and a outlined proposal of what courses the study will cover.

You won’t be declaring a biology concentration and just picking what you want to study and avoiding the regs. You have to propose what a course of study combining biology with other classes in lieu of any of the reqs and get it approved. The university provides a great deal of flexibility but there are limits.

When we toured Brown the subject came up and it was also mentioned that the university had looked into the classes students were taking and found that the vast majority were already taking a range of courses that would meet the general distribution reqs at most colleges. While I’m sure the Brown system can lend itself to abuses most don’t abuse it. But we are getting off topic here. I am cautious as to how the Columbia and Trinity dual BA works out in reality given the strict distribution reqs at Columbia. Ironically this kind of joint BA looks like it’d be a better fit with the Brown curriculum’s flexibility. [/quote]

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