The Best Classes to Take Your First Year at Brown University

Coming to Brown as a first-year can be equally as challenging as it is exciting. In the first few weeks of school, first-years have to navigate meeting new people, living in a dorm-setting away from home, and, of course, taking college-level courses. Brown’s open curriculum allows students to have unlimited access to all of Brown’s amazing courses; however, the open curriculum can be overwhelming if you’re undecided on your course of study or need help gauging the difficulty level of different courses. Here are my suggestions for some of the best classes to take during your first semester at Brown to allow you to ease into life as Brown student and set yourself up for success over the next four years: 

1. ENGN 0090 Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations: This is one of the most popular courses at Brown and for good reason! The class is taught by Professors Chaltas and Hazeltine, and Professor Hazeltine is a legend at Brown! He is over 90 years old and has been teaching at Brown for 66 years. Despite its engineering course code, ENGN 0090 is actually an entrepreneurship course. Professors Chaltas and Hazeltine use the Harvard Business School case study method to educate students about business and nonprofit management, and there are several guest speakers throughout the semester with expertise in the field. This is a great class to take first semester freshman year because it is a) iconic and b) popular so it will give you the chance to meet lots of other students. 
2. ECON 0110 Principles of Economics: Principles is another classic freshman year class. ECON 0110 aims to give students a broad understanding of micro and macro economic concepts and is a prerequisite for most other classes in the economics department. ECON 0110 is also a requirement for many other concentrations at Brown. Even if you’re not interested in economics, this is a great class to take to have a general understanding of economics. Furthermore, it may come in handy later if you want to take higher level courses in other departments or to fulfill a concentration requirement. 
3. “Gateway” Courses in any department: The gateway courses in any department are also a great choice for your first semester. History, IAPA (International and Public Affairs), English, and many of the humanities departments offer so many interesting introductory courses every semester. In some departments, these are clearly identified as “Introduction to…” but in other departments they are usually identified by the department code and 0100 or 0150 with a letter after it. These courses are super interesting and will help you build up your reading, writing, and analytical skills to take more advanced courses in other departments. 
4. First Year Seminars: This may be a cliche suggestion, but I truly think first year seminars are a great way to meet new people and get comfortable with college level classes. The one caveat is they are super long compared to normal classes, but it’s good to figure out if you’re comfortable with a 2.5 hour long course and how to handle them (because you will likely need to take them again at some point in your college career). Brown has so many interesting first year seminars, and they are relatively easy to get into during shopping period.