UNIVERSITY

BROWN

UNIVERSITY

CONCENTRATION

ADVISOR HANDBOOK

CONTENTS

THE CONCENTRATION ADVISOR’S ROLE 2

ADVISING FUNDAMENTALS 3

Advisor Orientation 3

ASK: Brown’s Electronic Advising Tool 3

Focal Point: Brown’s Concentration Search Tool 3

Advising Resources 3

DEVELOPING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY 4

Outreach to First-Years and Sophomores 4

Individual Advising Meetings 4

Departmental Undergraduate Groups 4

Concentration Declaration Day and Other

Departmental Gatherings 5

THE CONCENTRATION DECLARATION 6

Pre-Declaration Meetings 6

ASK and the Concentration Declaration 7

Special Curricular Opportunities 8

Combined and Concurrent Degree Options 9

Prerequisites, Placement and Pre-Brown Exams 9

Transfer Credits, Study Abroad Credits

and Exchange Credits 10

Studying Abroad 11

Tracking Student Progress 12

SUPPORTING YOUR CONCENTRATORS:

DELVINGDEEPER 13

Fellowships, Internships and

Research Experiences 13

Progress toward Graduation 15

Academic Standing 16

Advisees Separated from the University 16

Enrolled Advisees Who Are Not in

Good Standing 18

Brown’s Writing Requirement 18

MEANINGFUL OUTCOMES 20

Senior-Year Projects 20

Honors in the Concentration 20

Latin Honors 21

Prizes 21

Clearing Seniors for Graduation 21

Extra Semester Permission 21

Commencement Festivities 22

Tracking Your Graduates 22

CONCENTRATION ADVISING CALENDAR 2021-22 23

RESOURCES 26

THE CONCENTRATION

ADVISOR’S ROLE

ank you very much for serving as a concentration advisor.

It is an important job, and doing it well — particularly in

the current moment — can have a transformative impact on

the academic experience (and future lives) of our students.

As a concentration advisor, you are responsible for

delivering information about your academic program to

current and prospective undergraduates. More broadly,

as the primary academic advisor for your concentrators,

you play a key role not only in providing academic advice

and guidance but also in nurturing a sense of belonging,

connection and self-ecacy in our students. In light of the

increased pressures on your time, we have prepared this

handbook to make the job a little easier for you. It provides

an overview of the issues that you will typically face during

the year, along with best practices culled from exceptional

advisors across the University.

Brown’s Open Curriculum is one of our great assets,

embodying a philosophy of education that places

intellectual weight on a student’s right to choose. e

choice of a concentration thus represents a major event of

undergraduate academic life; the process of “declaring” is

something both students and advisors should take seriously.

Students must account for courses they will take and

also — more crucially — write an essay defending their

concentration choice. You can make this process more

meaningful for students by taking the time to meet with

them to talk about their essays. ese initial encounters

will set the tone for your advising relationship.

You can also make a student’s choice more meaningful by

clarifying the dimensions of your discipline. What are its

basic aims, or modes of inquiry? How do the requirements

reect these aims? e answers may seem obvious to you,

but many undergraduates have only begun to explore

your eld. Our hope is that Brown students will expand

their intellectual horizons while deepening their analytic

capacities through the work they do in a discipline. You

can play an important role by explaining disciplinary

distinctions to students. We also suggest that you

encourage your concentrators to pursue independent

research, write an advanced paper, complete a creative

project or draw together some aspect of your eld’s

intellectual traditions through an integrated series of

courses. Your encouragement will go a long way toward

challenging students to get the most out of their education.

Closely monitoring your students can serve as another form

of encouragement. Electronic tools such as ASK (ask.brown.

edu) will aid you in this work. Some students may ask you

to evaluate courses they have taken elsewhere in order to

receive transfer credit from Brown or to satisfy concentration

requirements, or both. Juniors and seniors may have

questions about your honors program and timeline or need

help formulating a capstone project. Please also consider

pointing all of your concentrators toward research and

fellowship opportunities, internships and other experiences.

ey will certainly need you to clear them for graduation,

whether in the fall or spring semester. is booklet contains

suggestions for managing all of these tasks.

Aer a period of disruption, distancing and other challenges,

perhaps the most important thing you can do as an advisor is

to get to know your concentrators. Because so many Brown

undergraduates are self-motivated, we may mistakenly think

that they neither need nor want our advice. e past year

has reminded us all of the importance of community and

of mentoring relationships. Students regularly report that

thoughtful mentoring from concentration advisors has been

essential in helping them choose courses, nd fellowship

and research opportunities and even select career paths. In

other words, your eorts to reach out to concentrators and

to connect them with other students and faculty in your

department will make a dierence.

Besenia Rodriguez

Deputy Dean of the College for Curriculum and Co-

Curriculum

Rashid Zia

Dean of the College

ADVISING

FUNDAMENTALS

AdvisorOrientation

e College oers an orientation session to support your

work as concentration advisors. ose of you who serve

as directors of undergraduate studies for your department

or program will also be invited to a series of gatherings

throughout the academic year. During orientation, you

will be able to ask questions, share advising tips with other

faculty and review ASK, the electronic advising tool. If you

cannot attend the orientation, you may view a recording of

the orientation and download key materials by logging into

ASK and clicking “Materials” from the le toolbar.

ASKBrown’sElectronicAdvisingTool

ASK (short for “Advising Sidekick,” at ask.brown.edu) is

an electronic advising tool that allows you to access student

information, including your concentrator’s declarations,

internal academic records, course enrollment and transfer

credit approvals and a portfolio of past work. In addition

to viewing student records, you may customize several

key features, such as the advisor assignment method. e

advantage for you and for our students is not only greater

convenience but also greater continuity of information.

Advisors are able to view students’ work all the way back to

the summer prior to matriculation, and thus have concrete

evidence of students’ growth over time. An electronic

record also allows your department to document and keep

track of approved exceptions or other nuances as advisors

change due to sabbaticals and other transitions. A set of

user guides with screenshots and instructions is available

at brown.edu/go/askhelp.

FocalPointBrown’sConcentrationSearchTool

Most students will begin their research on Brown’s various

concentrations by visiting the undergraduate programs

website (brown.edu/undergraduate_concentrations). Focal

Point allows students to explore the many intellectual paths

they can take at Brown. e site provides summaries of

concentration oerings, enrollment statistics and the career

paths taken by recent alumni, linking to data gathered by

the Center for Careers and Life Aer Brown (CareerLAB)

and the Oce of Institutional Research.

Please be sure to email focal_point@brown.edu if there

are changes to your concentration that should be reected

on the site. Note that the listing of requirements connects

directly to the University Bulletin, which reects the ocial

requirements as approved by the College Curriculum

Council. Any changes must be approved by the council.

AdvisingResources

DeansoftheCollegeandStudentSupport

Academic deans are available for individual consultations

with students and advisors every weekday. For the latest

schedule, visit the College website (or reach out to college@

brown.edu) if you are not sure whom to contact.

If you have concerns about a student’s health or well-

being, in general, you should contact Student Support

Services (located at 42 Charleseld St.) at 401-863-3800

or studentsuppor[email protected], or Counseling and

Psychological Services (CAPS) at 401-863-3476. Starting in

Fall 2021, CAPS will begin to provide services out of 450

Brook St., joining its peer departments in the new health

and wellness center.

AcademicSupportServices

Academic Support Services can help students with time

management, exam preparation, study skills and more.

Academic Support oers workshops that can aid students

in navigating time management and other strategies —

whether they are on Brown’s campus or among the small

number of students approved to study remotely.

DEVELOPING A SENSE

OF COMMUNITY

Students at Brown value community and, during the recent

period of social distancing and remote learning, providing

them with opportunities to cultivate meaningful social

connections has been more important than ever. You can

enrich your students’ experience of the concentration by

helping them make connections not only to your discipline

but also to you, to other students and to faculty in your

department. Such connections begin in individual meetings

and continue through a whole range of group activities —

even if they are virtual — as described below. In addition,

visit the Curricular Resource Center website (brown.edu/

go/crc) for suggestions.

OutreachtoFirst-YearsandSophomores

Each year, the College sponsors the Academic Expo

during Brown’s New Student Orientation, to expose

incoming students to the range of courses and

concentrations available to them. In the late fall semester,

the College typically holds a concentration fair that allows

you as an advisor to meet with prospective concentrators

and to answer questions about requirements. For both

events, we encourage you to invite a current concentrator

(perhaps a member of the Departmental Undergraduate

Group, if one exists in your concentration) to begin

building connections among students. Information about

the concentration fair will be sent via email from the

College early in the fall term.

IndividualAdvisingMeetings

Regular oce hours are the usual way that advisors meet

with current and future concentrators. Plan to set aside

about two hours per week for this purpose, and post the

times on your department’s website. Creating calendar

appointment blocks with your oce number or links to

Zoom or Google Meet can be particularly useful (be sure

to enable the waiting room feature if you are holding one-

on-one appointments via Zoom). You’ll encounter the

heaviest trac at the beginning of the semester and during

the advising period during fall and spring preregistration

(late October and early April each year). e advising

period is a time when prospective concentrators will

want to discuss the possibility of declaring, and other

students may come with dierent concerns. e issues

will vary by semester level. New concentrators might be

interested in research opportunities or may be considering

an undergraduate certicate. ose who hope to study

abroad in future semesters may need to gure out how

to fulll concentration requirements at a university

outside the U.S. First-years and sophomores may be

eager to get concentration requirements fullled before

they have ocially declared and will seek your counsel.

Your guidance can help them plan for and balance these

requirements with other goals they might have and enable

them to continue exploring beyond the concentration.

You can ensure a stronger relationship by requiring your

concentrators to check in with you each semester. At the

very least, you should require all seniors to meet with you

at least once each term so that you can ensure they meet

concentration requirements and clear them for graduation.

DepartmentalUndergraduateGroups

A Departmental Undergraduate Group, or DUG, is a group

of students who meet regularly to help other concentrators

in the department connect with one another, with faculty

and with alumni. DUGs enhance the sense of community

in a concentration in a variety of ways: by hosting events

with concentrators, prospective concentrators and graduate

students; by organizing guest lectures; by participating in

concentration fairs; and, in some cases, by contributing

to departmental newsletters, websites and undergraduate

academic journals. Some of the most successful projects

have been organized collaboratively by departmental

faculty and DUGs. Anything that brings your concentrators

in contact with one another and with your faculty will

help cultivate an intellectual community and make your

department a welcome home for undergraduates.

A recent review of DUGs has revealed some best practices.

Many DUGs highlight and encourage students to pursue

undergraduate research, helping to facilitate relationships

with faculty outside the classroom and showcasing student

work. e Middle East Studies DUG, for example, hosts

an undergraduate paper series that provides a forum for

students to share their independent research on the region

across disciplines. In previous years, the Math, Urban

Studies and Modern Culture and Media DUGs have

organized or helped departments organize conferences

that bring together undergraduates, faculty, alumni

and other scholars and practitioners. DUGs can also

serve as a useful resource for chairs and concentration

advisors by serving as a vehicle for collecting feedback

about the student experience or communicating

important information between declared and

prospective concentrators.

With over 70 active DUGs, we have almost reached the

goal of having a DUG in every concentration. If your

department does not have an active DUG, you might try

working with your students — ideally juniors — to create

one. If you have eager students in mind, you might direct

them to the DUG coordinators, student staers at the

Curricular Resource Center who advise their peers about

the range of resources available at Brown. ey can learn

about DUG best practices and connect with DUG leaders

in related elds.

Each DUG is eligible for matching funds from the College.

Up to $700 in matching funds is possible for concentrations

with a large cohort; awards from the College range

from $150 to $700. Funds matched by the concentration

contribute to the total budget amount for the DUG. To

apply, your DUG must have one or more student leaders,

a faculty sponsor (which may be you) and a list of activities

with an associated budget. Every DUG is expected to hold

about two events each semester and no fewer than four per

year. One of these should be a social event welcoming new

concentrators. Funding requests are submitted online by

the DUG leader(s) and faculty sponsor via UFunds (ufunds.

brown.edu) by mid-October (for fall activities) and by

early February (for spring). We recommend that you work

closely with your DUG to ensure continuity from year to

year, and to learn from your students about how they can

help create a stronger community in your department. For

more information about DUG events and funding, visit

brown.edu/go/dug or contact the director of the Curricular

Resource Center, whose contact information is listed in the

resource addendum that accompanies this booklet.

ConcentrationDeclarationDayandOther

DepartmentalGatherings

e beginning and the end of the year are oen good times

to bring concentrators together with members of your

department. In a typical year, many departments hold

welcome-back get-togethers in the fall; some host holiday

gatherings aer classes have ended in December. While

these events are not necessarily your responsibility to

organize, you can make a dierence by sending an email

to concentrators reminding them of the date and time and

inviting them to be present.

Concentration Declaration Day (CDD) is a campus-

wide tradition that celebrates an important milestone

in the life of every Brown undergraduate — declaring

their concentration and formally joining their chosen

academic community. Dozens of concentrations have

held CDD receptions in April and early May, bringing

together new concentrators, professors and upper-class

students for mixing and mingling. Some combine this

event with celebrations honoring graduates. In such

events, honors students oen present brief accounts of

their work and share valuable tips about their process, and

the challenges and rewards of undertaking such projects.

ese community-building events have the added benet

of allowing students to learn rsthand about pathways

for engagement within the concentration for juniors and

seniors. In the coming year, we hope to have participation

from even more concentrations. If you and your DUG are

interested in jointly hosting a CDD event, begin by reaching

out to the director of the Curricular Resource Center.

THE CONCENTRATION

DECLARATION

All students are required to declare a concentration

before their h semester. is culminating event of the

sophomore year — the ocial beginning of your advising

relationship with concentrators — is also your rst major

responsibility as an advisor, and it can typically consume

a fair amount of time during the spring semester. Given

a modest increase in the number of students who chose

to take a personal leave in academic year 2020-21, the

concentration declaration deadline may fall in late October

for a greater number of students. is section discusses the

process in more detail, and oers suggestions for how to

manage it.

Because we want students to be deliberative and informed

when they choose their concentration, we expect them

to have met with you before completing a declaration.

is can mean a lot of meetings for you, especially if your

concentration is large. Needless to say, it is important to

start early so that students have ample time to meet with

you while pondering their options. You can encourage

prospective concentrators to begin sooner rather than

later in a number of ways:

Schedule and publicize special “declaration day” oce

hours early in the spring semester.

Ask faculty in your department to announce your oce

hours in key gateway courses, and encourage prospective

concentrators to make appointments early. Post the same

message online.

Require concentrators to submit an early dra of their

declaration. e deadline will motivate them to begin the

declaration process sooner than they might have otherwise;

it also promotes a more thoughtful approach to the

entire process.

Ask your DUG to hold a concentration declaration

workshop for prospective concentrators, and have

students sign up for oce hours at the workshop.

ese suggestions prompt students to think about

the relationship of their aims and aptitudes to your

concentration, and help draw them to you well before

the declaration deadline.

Pre-DeclarationMeetings

Your initial meeting with a prospective concentrator

should focus on the student’s intellectual interests and the

concentration’s requirements. You might ask, for example:

What do you nd compelling about this concentration?

Do you consider it a bridge to something you will do aer

college? Will it be necessary or desirable to take one or

more courses during summer session? How do you see your

interests in the classroom possibly connecting with your

interests in community engagement? Does it make sense

to study away or abroad given your interest in this eld?

Finally, and most basically: Will you be able to complete

the concentration in the time you have remaining at Brown?

Many students face the task of choosing a concentration

with some trepidation, feeling that they are making an

irrevocable life decision. As a concentration advisor, you

can remind your students that their concentration choice

does not determine the rest of their life. For instance,

majoring in biology now does not eliminate the option

of law school or social work at some point in the future.

You can also help your concentrators understand how the

competencies and modes of inquiry they develop in the

course of completing your concentration, along with other

elements of a liberal arts education, could be attractive to

employers and graduate schools in a range of elds and will

equip them to succeed in their careers and lives regardless

of the paths they take.

If aer this rst meeting the student decides to declare,

you should ask for a dra of the essays in the concentration

declaration, described in more detail below. By asking for

a dra, you’ll be able to gauge the depth of the student’s

seriousness and require revisions to the essays and course

list, if necessary.

Before meeting a second time with intended concentrators,

ask students to bring a copy of their internal academic

record at Brown and, if relevant, a copy of transcripts from

previous schools or study away/study abroad institutions.

You will need this information in order to nalize the list

of concentration courses they have already completed as

well as the courses they intend to take. Review this course

list along with the nal version of the declaration essay.

ASKandtheConcentrationDeclaration

Students are required to complete the concentration

declaration in ASK. e declaration consists of three parts.

e rst is an essay representing the intellectual rationale

for the concentration. It should articulate the student’s

goals in the concentration in relation to the broader

learning objectives of a Brown education — including the

goal of improved writing skills. e second part is a list

of courses already taken, and those that will be taken in

the future, to realize these learning goals. e list should

be realistic: Although students are not obliged to take

every course on the list, they do need to have a reasonable

plan for completing all required courses by the end of the

eighth semester. e nal section allows students to discuss

additional academic goals outside the concentration and

projects or research they hope to accomplish.

In ASK, concentration advisors and department managers

may customize what their prospective concentrators see

upon starting a declaration in your eld. For instance, you

may add unique messages, concentration-specic questions

and “Course Attributes” that require students to specify

which requirement a particular course will satisfy. Some

departments have their own worksheets for this purpose

but please keep in mind that such forms do not substitute

for the ocial declaration in ASK.

e concentration declaration functions as a contract

between you and the student and, by authorizing it, you

become the student’s ocial advisor for the remainder of

the student’s time at Brown. Once this occurs, the student

may preregister for the next semester. Although students

are the ones responsible for ling on time, you might want

to remind them of the deadlines.

Please review the deadlines for fourth-semester students

to declare their concentration on the academic calendar

(brown.edu/about/administration/registrar/academic-

calendar) as these deadlines will be slightly dierent

in 2021-22 than they were during last year’s atypical

academic calendar.

Students may change their concentration at any time,

under the condition that they complete all new

concentration requirements by the end of eight semesters.

Students who cannot complete within eight semesters

of enrollment may consider petitioning the Committee

on Academic Standing for an optional ninth semester,

discussed later in this handbook.

DeclaringaSecondConcentration

Students at Brown are allowed to “double concentrate”

if they can complete requirements for two concentrations

in the standard eight-semester sequence of study. Some

concentrations limit the number of courses that may

overlap with a second concentration (oen, the maximum

is two courses). (Note: e maximum number of

concentrations a student may declare is three.) Who should

do this? ose who have intellectual passions spanning two

distinct areas are good candidates, but even they should

leave room for other kinds of study. Too oen, students

double concentrate for the wrong reasons (e.g., because they

think it will improve their chances of getting into graduate

school). You might therefore discuss with them the costs

and benets of declaring a second concentration. For

many, the cost of limiting course selection will outweigh

the perceived benet of listing two concentrations on

the transcript. Students who get the most out of their

Brown degree oen study just one discipline in depth and

many others along the way, drawing out the connections

among subjects. ose destined for graduate school can

easily highlight such intellectual connections in their

applications, even without a second concentration.

If a student is determined to add yours as a second

concentration, the student must declare the concentration

in ASK and you must approve this declaration by the nal

day of classes in the student’s penultimate semester of

enrollment. is deadline is published on the academic

calendar. e process for declaring a second concentration

is otherwise exactly the same as the process for declaring

the rst concentration. Note: A student may not declare

a second concentration in ASK while the rst declaration

is pending. e student must have the rst declaration

approved by the concentration advisor prior to beginning

a second declaration.

A student who chooses to double concentrate will earn

one baccalaureate degree with two concentrations. is

student’s transcript might list “Bachelor of Science: Sc.B.-

Geology-Biology and A.B.-Math” or “Bachelor of Arts:

A.B.-Africana Studies and A.B.-English.” (If one or both

of the concentrations is a bachelor of science program,

the degree earned will be a bachelor of science.)

SpecialCurricularOpportunities

UndergraduateTeachingAssistantOpportunities

e majority of Brown students teach in some capacity

during their time at Brown, primarily as undergraduate

teaching assistants (UTAs). Teaching requires the ability

to listen and discern student understanding, communicate

complex ideas, make decisions in the moment, and model

expert-like thinking. Typically UTA positions are suited

for sophomore to senior students, but some instructors

welcome rst-year student UTAs. If your advisees nd

a particular course or instructor exciting, suggest they

investigate whether or not they could apply to become a

UTA for that course. If an advisee is hesitant to apply due

to inexperience, the Sheridan Center for Teaching and

Learning oers teaching support for UTAs, such as the

UTA Orientation. e UTA is a paid position and may be

an alternative work experience for students interested in

honing their communication and problem-solving skills.

Undergraduatecertiﬁcates

Brown undergraduates may elect to pursue an integrated

combination of courses, co-curricular and experiential

learning — in addition to their concentration — in the

form of an undergraduate certicate. Undergraduate

certicate programs are pathways developed by one or

more academic units and approved by the College

Curriculum Council. Together, these experiences

contribute to a student’s academic and personal

development, deepening their understanding of an area

of interest and helping them to acquire skills for life aer

Brown. Certicates may complement a student’s existing

concentration or may represent an entirely distinct area

of interest. Incorporating feedback from many faculty

discussions on the topic, the College Curriculum Council

thought carefully about the contours of this program,

weighing the opportunity for this structured work

while maintaining the exibility necessary for students,

with the support of an advising team, to cra their own

liberal education. According to the certicate guidelines,

a student’s concentration and certicate may not have

substantial overlap (each certicate has a list of excluded

concentrations and students may count no more than one

course toward the certicate and their concentration), nor

can certicate programs be developed in areas in which a

concentration already exists.

Students declare an undergraduate certicate in their

h or sixth semester — aer they have declared their

concentration — yet early enough to enable planning of the

required experiential learning opportunity. e deadline

for students to declare is by the last day of classes in their

sixth (or antepenultimate) semester. To ensure that students

are being planful and making intentional decisions, they

must have completed or be enrolled in at least two courses

toward the certicate at the time they declare the certicate

in ASK. Students may only declare one certicate and may

not declare a certicate if they are double concentrating.

Current certicate options and additional information

are available at brown.edu/go/undergraduatecerticates.

EngagedScholarship

Brown’s Engaged Scholars Program enables students

who are passionate about communities and the challenges

they face to design courses of study and action as part

of their concentration requirements. e program is no

longer accepting additional students; however, students in

any concentration may now declare in the new Engaged

Scholarship Certicate. All students already accepted into

the Engaged Scholars Program are being supported through

to graduation, so if yours is among the participating

concentrations, one of your responsibilities may be to

advise concentrators pursuing the program.

If you have an advisee pursuing the Engaged Scholars

Program, start by familiarizing yourself with the

program’s four core requirements and your concentration’s

expectations for these students. You may choose to provide

advising around your concentration’s particular approach

to engaged scholarship and/or refer your advisee to the

designated ESP faculty advisor for your concentration.

Sta on the Swearer Center’s engaged scholarship team

can share a guide for participating departments and

concentrations (available upon request by emailing

engaged-scholars@brown.edu) and consult with you

about advising students who are seeking to integrate

their coursework with outside-the-classroom learning

opportunities, such as community-engaged research.

ey are also happy to address any questions about the

transition from program to certicate and ways for the

Swearer Center to continue supporting engaged

scholarship opportunities within your concentration.

CombinedandConcurrentDegreeOptions

CombinedBachelorofArtsandBachelorof

ScienceDegrees

While approximately 20% of Brown students choose to

complete a single baccalaureate degree with more than

one concentration (either an A.B. or Sc.B., as above), an

even smaller percentage choose to graduate with a single,

combined A.B.-Sc.B. degree, which requires a minimum of

38 credits and nine or 10 semesters of enrollment. Students

who follow this path organize a ve-year program of study

that must include one concentration in math or the life or

physical sciences, and one concentration in the humanities

or social sciences. e combined degree option allows

students to complete both courses of study concurrently

while taking advantage of the Open Curriculum and

exploring a greater range of courses outside these two

disciplines. is student’s transcript would list, for

example, “Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science:

Sc.B.- Computational Biology, A.B.-Archaeology and the

Ancient World.” e benet of this combined option over

the choice to double concentrate is that students have

greater exibility to take additional courses beyond

their concentration requirements.

Students interested in pursuing this ve-year option

must declare their intentions before the end of their h

semester. In rare cases, students who miss the h-semester

deadline due to qualifying extenuating circumstances may

seek approval from the Committee on Academic Standing

to join the program late. All cases where exceptions are

sought must be resolved before the end of the petitioning

student’s sixth semester. Petitions from seniors will not

be considered by the committee.

Preliminary approvals are granted to students who are

very close (within two to three courses) to nishing at least

one of their concentrations before the end of their h

semester. ese students must then seek nal approval

in their seventh semester. Upon successful review of

the academic record, these students will receive a nal

approval to be combined-degree candidates. Exceptional

students may be allowed to complete the combined degrees

in nine semesters, rather than 10, but they must meet all

requirements and have the approval of the Committee on

Academic Standing. Contact Dean Oludurotimi Adetunji,

the combined-degree dean, for more information.

ConcurrentBaccalaureateandMaster’sDegree

e concurrent baccalaureate and master’s degree program

allows exceptionally capable students to combine their

last year or two of undergraduate study with graduate

study, resulting in the simultaneous completion of both

a baccalaureate degree and a master’s degree. Eligible

students will have achieved a record of academic excellence

that demonstrates depth as well as breadth. Entrance

requirements into this program are numerous and quite

specic. Interested students are advised to acquaint

themselves with program guidelines early in their college

career and to contact the deputy dean of the College for

academic advising for more information.

Fifth-YearMaster’sPrograms

Brown’s h-year master’s degree program allows

undergraduates to pursue a master’s degree in select

departments in the year immediately following completion

of their undergraduate degree. Eligible students must

apply for admission to this program before they complete

the baccalaureate degree. A list of participating academic

departments and other information is available on the

Graduate School’s website. For more information on this

program, please contact the Graduate School.

PrerequisitesPlacementandPre-BrownExams

Many academic departments oer one or more gateway or

foundational courses that every student must either take

and earn credit for at Brown or place out of before taking

higher-level courses. Some departments oer placement

exams and/or accept the results of Advanced Placement

(AP) tests or International Baccalaureate (IB), A-Level or

other pre-Brown exam results (or even other non-Brown

college-level study) for course placement and/or course

prerequisites. Test-based credits are also recognized by

some concentrations as substitutes for concentration

requirements. Students can pull test-based credits on

their internal record into their concentration declaration

course plan in ASK to use for concentration purposes,

where you can approve them as a substitute for

a requirement.

As a concentration advisor, you are responsible for

oering advice around course selection and placement

and for vetting student requests for substitutions to

concentration requirements, so it is important for you

to be familiar with the rules of your department and

concentration(s). Please see additional information

on approving non-Brown work for concentration

substitutions below.

TransferCreditsStudyAbroadCreditsand

ExchangeCredits

With the appropriate permissions, Brown students may

apply course credit earned at another institution toward

their Brown degree requirements. U.S. citizens and

permanent residents of the U.S. may petition the College

to study full time or part time at a regionally accredited

two- or four-year college or university in the U.S.; students

studying on F-1 visas may petition to study full time at a

two- or four-year institution in their home countries.

Students who wish to receive transfer credit for non-

Brown courses taken aer matriculating to Brown to

apply toward the 30 courses required for their degree

must submit a request in the transfer credit section of ASK.

Requests are routed to an academic dean, who approves

the institution, followed by a faculty member in a relevant

academic department depending on the subject the student

proposes to study. In most departments, the director of

undergraduate studies is the faculty member responsible

for approving transfer credit, a role known as transfer

credit liaison. e transfer credit process is described in

greater detail on the College website.

ProcessforApprovingNon-BrownWorkfor

ConcentrationSubstitutions

As a concentration advisor (distinct from the role of

transfer credit liaison, who approves courses for transfer

credit), you have authority over which non-Brown courses

may count toward the concentration based on the criteria

set by your concentration. is means you can approve

a non-Brown course for concentration credit even if that

work is not eligible for University transfer credit or for

assignment to course equivalency and therefore cannot

be recorded on the student’s Brown transcript. A course

worth three semester credit hours taken elsewhere that

did not result in a transfer credit is just one example. A

course taken during study abroad cannot be reassigned

to a Brown course equivalent and is another example. e

concentration declaration in ASK, however, allows students

to manually add non-Brown work (including courses taken

elsewhere, a practicum or internship experience, evidence

of language competence, etc.) to their course plan for your

approval — even if such work does not appear on their

Brown transcript. You can approve this non-Brown work as

a substitute for a concentration requirement in the student’s

concentration declaration (see instructions in the ASK

user guide). As a concentration advisor, you only have the

authority to approve a course for actual transfer credit if

you are also the transfer credit subject liaison of record for

the academic department by which that course or courses

similar are taught. If a student initially created a manual

entry for a non-Brown course that later results in transfer or

study abroad course credit on their transcript, they should

update their concentration declaration and select that

course from their internal record into their course plan to

replace the manual entry.

We recommend that you advise students who are planning

to take courses elsewhere to count toward concentration

requirements to get your approval in advance, and to

consult with the sta responsible for approving study away

(academic deans of the College) or study abroad (Oce of

International Programs).

Approvals of substitutions should be recorded in the

student’s concentration declaration in ASK; this provides

a useful record for you, the student and any other viewers

and is especially useful when the approved substitute does

not appear on the transcript. We suggest preapproval

or a conditional preapproval whenever possible. While

retroactive approval has the advantage of providing you

with full information about the course and the student’s

performance, it poses the disadvantage (to the student) of

undertaking coursework that your concentration, another

academic department, or the College will not recognize

and/or transcript.

We encourage concentration advisors whenever

possible to avoid treating prerequisites as concentration

requirements and to refrain from expecting students

to seek and obtain transfer credits for prerequisite or

introductory courses, especially for work completed

prior to matriculation to Brown, and when students

have already completed a higher-level course.

StudyingAbroad

Brown oers undergraduate students the opportunity to

study abroad through a wide variety of academic programs,

some oered directly by the University and others

sponsored by institutions that Brown approves for academic

credit. On average, 400 Brown students study outside of the

U.S. each year and are transformed by their experiences in

the most positive and profound ways.

As a concentration advisor, you should encourage your

students to consider studying abroad early on. It is never

too early for a student to attend a Study Abroad 101 session

or meet with an Oce of International Programs peer

advisor or study abroad advisor to begin exploring their

options. In addition, many academic departments have a

designated faculty member who serves as the departmental

study abroad advisor and can be an additional resource for

students. As a starting point, students can begin reviewing

the various program options on the Oce of International

Programs website.

One particularly unique opportunity is Brown’s Global

Independent Study Project (GLISP), which allows students

studying abroad to pursue a directed research project

under the guidance of a Brown faculty member. Because

such projects are tied to students’ academic interests, they

can help a semester abroad become a more integral part of

the concentration. e hope is that projects begun during

a semester away might even become the basis for a senior

thesis once the student returns to campus.

Once a student selects a program and begins the application

process, they will meet with their concentration advisor

to discuss their academic plans. Information on the

University’s transfer credit approval process for study

abroad can be found on the Oce of International

Programs website. Students can request concentration

credit in the student’s concentration declaration in ASK

using the “manual entry” feature (see the ASK user guide

for approving non-Brown work: brown.edu/go/askhelp).

Please note that a select number of study abroad programs

will be oered for the 2021-22 academic year, with the hope

of resuming additional programs when possible.

Office of International Programs

brown.edu/oip

GLOBAL INDEPENDENT STUDY PROGRAM

BROWN.EDU/OIP/PROGRAMS/GLOBAL-

INDEPENDENT-STUDY-GLISP

TrackingStudentProgress

As mentioned, the concentration declaration functions

as a contract with the student. Any changes to a student’s

plan must be entered there, so that all advisors can track a

student’s progress toward graduation. Your concentration

may regularly allow certain substitutions for required

courses, or, alternatively, you may require concentrators

to petition for such substitutions. Whatever your method,

it is critical to document any authorized substitutions to

preclude future misunderstandings and to have a record

for a later advisor in the event that you step down. is

will be especially important as a student enters the nal

two semesters of coursework. ASK allows you to share

information about concentrators with other advisors

and to keep all of it in one place and from year to year.

SUPPORTING YOUR

CONCENTRATORS:

DELVINGDEEPER

As concentrators approach their h semester, your role as

an advisor will no longer be narrowly focused on the choice

of concentration and whether or not a student can complete

it. When meeting with your concentrators you will probably

want to know more about their goals and aspirations.

Some questions you may want to ask are listed below.

Are there fellowship or internship experiences that

they should consider, and that can amplify

coursework in the concentration?

How are they planning to work on their writing

abilities in their nal two years?

Have they thought about pursuing a senior project,

whether required by your concentration or not, and/or

a certicate program? Do they know where to nd

more information about these opportunities?

Are they considering post-baccalaureate study?

Do they want to take time o before pursuing

graduate work?

How many faculty in the department know them

well enough to write a letter of recommendation?

Students report that the most meaningful advising

encounters have emerged through conversations like

these — when discussions of a concentration program

expand to include broader questions. As you begin to

work with your juniors, we encourage you to take your

conversations to this next level.

FellowshipsInternshipsandResearchExperiences

All students should be encouraged to pursue opportunities

outside the classroom that enhance their curricular work.

Valuable experiences include working in laboratories

or doing research for credit or compensation, pursuing

internships and participating in a fellowship program.

Students may apply for awards both at Brown and at

the national level, working closely with members of

your department.

e College oers student funding for research, teaching,

course development and other experiential learning

projects both on and o campus. ese experiences have

a strong impact on Brown students, enabling them to

expand and apply their learning and to develop deep,

lasting relationships with mentors across a variety of

sectors. Nonetheless, we know that these opportunities

have not been equally accessible to all students. In recent

years, the College has been working to address the

disproportionately low rates of rst-generation, low-income

and historically underrepresented applicants for these types

of experiences. Despite focused outreach — and, in some

cases, even with dedicated funding — minoritized students

have been less likely to apply than their counterparts.

is is particularly concerning in light of research that

suggests the important role that research, internships and

other high-impact practices play in closing equity gaps by

enhancing students’ sense of belonging, among other gains.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the College

developed a pilot program designed to support increased

student need overall and also to facilitate greater access for

our most minoritized students. e goals were threefold:

(1) to make summer funding more accessible and equitable

by making it easier for students to nd opportunities and to

connect with faculty;

(2) to simplify the application process for students

and faculty;

(3) and to establish a single deadline and application

process for all College-funded opportunities, including

Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRAs)

and LINK (for low-paying/unpaid internships).

SPRINT, for Summer/Semester Projects for Research,

Internship, Teaching, now serves as the umbrella

application platform for all College-funded experiential

learning opportunities, including LINKs, UTRAs and

other awards oered by the Center for Careers and

Life Aer Brown (CareerLAB) and the Swearer Center.

For more than two decades, students have been able to

apply for funding with faculty as research partners.

is structure remains. However, under the SPRINT

umbrella, for reasons of equity and access, the College

strongly encourages faculty to post positions to which

students may apply directly. Allowing students to apply

for faculty-posted opportunities allows our funding to have

a greater impact, supporting new as well as existing faculty-

student connections. We hope that as a concentration

advisor you will facilitate connections between students

and your faculty colleagues and invite and encourage

students to think about themselves not just as consumers

of knowledge but as nascent producers of knowledge.

is type of encouragement can have a profound impact

on our students’ sense of possibility as well as belonging.

Beyond opportunities to work with faculty, SPRINT awards

provide funding for internship experiences for unpaid or

low-paying internships across a range of industries and

within and beyond the U.S.. Students may also access

BrownConnect (brownconnect.brown.edu) to make alumni

connections. You might consider asking BrownConnect’s

director for (limited) faculty access if you’d like to see what

students see. Note that students should begin researching

these opportunities as early as October, since most

application deadlines are in January and February.

CAREERLAB

brown.edu/careerlab

Concentrators should also be encouraged to learn about

national competitive scholarships such as the Udall (for

juniors committed to careers in environment protection,

policy and advocacy), Goldwater (for juniors committed

to careers in research science), Truman (for juniors

committed to careers in public service) and Beinecke

(for juniors in the arts, humanities or social sciences

who are planning to attend graduate school). In addition,

concentrators should be made aware of fellowships such as

the Fulbright, which provides funding for one year of study,

independent research or English teaching in one of over

160 countries around the world, and the many fellowship

opportunities for graduate study in the U.K. We encourage

advisors to familiarize themselves with the many national

competitive fellowships for undergraduates and share

information about those that are particularly pertinent to

their concentrators through department listservs and with

their DUGs. For more specic information or to brainstorm

about how to encourage concentrators to consider these

awards, advisors are invited to reach out directly to Linda

Dunleavy, associate dean for fellowships, or Christopher

Carr, assistant director of fellowships. For a complete list

of Brown-supported awards, advisors who specialize in

fellowships and internships and research experiences at

Brown and beyond, consult the fellowships

at Brown website.

brown.edu/academics/college/

fellowships

ProgresstowardGraduation

While your primary job is to ensure your students are

meeting concentration requirements, as the main academic

advisor for your concentrators you are also responsible

for shepherding them through their degree completion.

Although Brown’s Open Curriculum oers students

enormous freedom to shape their own course of study,

every Brown undergraduate has four basic obligations

to fulll before graduating. With the exception of

concentration requirements, the University registrar and

academic deans will be in touch with students who are not

on track to meet graduation requirements, but you should

discuss with your concentrators any issues or plans that

might be aecting their ability to meet these requirements

in eight semesters.

To meet the requirements for degree completion,

students must:

Complete at least 30 courses. A maximum of 15 transfer

courses and no more than four summer courses (at Brown

or elsewhere) and/or Wintersession courses (taken only

at Brown) may count toward this requirement.

Complete a concentration leading to either the bachelor

of arts or the bachelor of science degree (a small number

of students will complete a ve-year combined bachelor

of science and bachelor of arts degree, discussed earlier

in this handbook).

Complete at least two writing-designated, English,

comparative literature or literary arts courses: once in

their rst two years of study and a second time between

their h and seventh semesters. (More information is

available below.)

Fulll the eight-semester enrollment requirement (also

known as 32 enrollment units, four of which are accrued

in each full-time semester of enrollment), four semesters

of which must be in residence at Brown during fall and/

or spring semesters. Approved study during the school

year at another institution in the U.S. or abroad may also

count toward this requirement. Students who successfully

complete four summer and/or Wintersession courses

at Brown — and who have completed all other degree

requirements — may request a waiver of the eighth

semester of the enrollment requirement.

AcademicStanding

Academic standing is determined by the number of

courses completed at Brown and via approved transfer

credit. At the end of each semester, the Committee on

Academic Standing, consisting of faculty appointed by

the Faculty Executive Committee and academic deans,

reviews the academic progress of all students in academic

diculty. Students who fall one or two courses below

academic progress requirements are placed on Academic

Warning or Serious Warning, which includes a notation

on their internal academic record that does not appear on

the ocial transcript.

A student who has become so decient in their coursework

may be academically suspended, typically for one year.

Students with missing or incomplete grades or with

special permission from an academic dean to take a nal

examination in the subsequent semester (an “ABS”) can

receive a pending status that may be improved upon

satisfactory completion of outstanding work by the

University’s deadline. Exceptions to academic progress

rules may be made when documented disabilities and/

or health or family issues signicantly interfere with a

student’s ability to focus on their studies. In such cases,

for instance, a student who might normally be eligible for

academic suspension could, with approval from a Student

Support Services dean, be approved for a “Medical Leave

in Lieu of Suspension”; in other instances, a student with

extenuating circumstances might be separated for a shorter

period with a status known as “Refused Registration by

Action of Dean,” oen pending completion of additional

work, as an alternative to suspension. Additional

information about the various types of separation and

status is available in the handbook of the Committee

on Academic Standing, accessible to members of the

Brown community via web-authentication from the

College website.

brown.edu/academics/college/degree/

policies

As an advisor, you have access to view your concentrators’

academic standing via students’ internal records in ASK.

In recent years, the Committee on Academic Standing

has also begun notifying rst-year, sophomore and

concentration advisors via email if their students are not

in good academic standing.

AdviseesSeparatedfromtheUniversity

While not actively enrolled at the University, a student

who has (1) taken a personal leave for work, service, travel

or other personal reasons; (2) opted for a “medical leave” or

a “medical leave in lieu of suspension”; or (3) been placed on

academic suspension, refused registration or not completed

degree requirements aer eight or more semesters of

enrollment (a status known as “enrollment satised,

requirements pending,” also discussed later in this guide)

will continue to appear on your roster of concentration

advisees in ASK. In such cases, you may be called upon —

by either an academic dean or the student themselves —

to consult on the student’s remaining concentration

THE OFFICE OF

INTERNATIONAL

PROGRAMS OFFERS

OPPORTUNITIES FOR

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

ABROAD.

requirements and available options, per your program’s

policies, for fullling these with non-Brown work. In

short, your role in these instances is to advise the student

on a revised pathway to completing the concentration

that is consistent with your concentration’s policies and

procedures, and then to approve any substitutions in

ASK. Your outreach to those students who return aer

a separation of a semester or longer will be an important

part of their transition back to the University and to

the concentration.

EnrolledAdviseesWhoAreNotinGoodStanding

Each student on Academic or Serious Warning is assigned

to an academic dean and is expected to meet with this dean

to discuss course selection and a plan for utilizing resources

that may support the student in getting back on track.

A student who is on Serious Warning will also need to meet

with their assigned — or any other — academic dean to

obtain a “drop code” if they wish to drop a class in the f

inal four weeks of the term.

As a concentration advisor, your role is twofold: rst, to

discuss with your student a realistic plan for completing

concentration requirements, which may include an adjusted

timeframe and/or courses taken at another institution, and,

second, to connect your student to academic, health and/or

personal support resources if they are not already utilizing

them. e list of contacts accompanying this guide is one

useful place for you to start; the associate dean for junior

and senior class studies is another.

ShouldastudentonWarningtakeﬁvecoursesto

“catchup”inthenextsemester?

A student on Warning should choose four courses (not

ve) for the next semester, and should strive to nd courses

that are both interesting and manageable. While it is true

that a student on Warning can return to Good Standing

aer one semester by completing ve courses, the costs and

dangers of attempting ve courses, particularly for students

who have failed to complete four courses in one or more

preceding semesters, can be signicant. It is dicult to do

one’s best work in ve courses. Moreover, students who

attempt ve courses aer failing to complete four frequently

fail two courses in the subsequent term, placing them even

further behind. Caution students about taking on too heavy

a course load. It is more prudent to take four courses and

do well in those. Students who complete four courses in two

consecutive semesters will return to Good Standing even

if their cumulative count would otherwise place them on

Warning or Serious Warning.

Shouldastudentdropacoursetoavoida“C”ora“B”?

No. Dropping a class because of fear about a particular

grade should not be encouraged. is is true for

philosophical as well as practical reasons. Students can

become so focused on grades as a measure of performance

that they overlook Brown’s academic progress expectations

and nd themselves on Warning. If an advisee mentions

that they may drop a class because of fear of a particular

grade, the advisor can probe for reasons why the grade is so

important to the student. Oen it is because the student has

plans for the future (e.g., law school or medical school) and

believes these will be aected by a lower grade. Advisors

can work to dispel the notion that a “B” or a “C” in one

course will determine the student’s future. A referral to an

academic dean may also be in order. Deans are accustomed

to addressing such misperceptions and can help students

adjust their approach to their studies.

Brown’sWritingRequirement

A nal opportunity to emphasize with your juniors is the

chance to improve their writing. Strong writing skills allow

students to excel in all kinds of academic work; they lead

to signicant cognitive gains in their concentration; and

they are among the abilities most sought aer by future

employers. ere is every reason to urge your students to

take the time in college to work on these skills; they may

never have another opportunity like it.

Indeed, at Brown, this opportunity is an obligation.

Even though our curriculum, by tradition, leaves open

the question of “general education” requirements, the

University has nonetheless maintained a requirement for

the baccalaureate degree that all students demonstrate

the ability to write well. All students must work on their

writing at least twice — once in their rst two years of study

and again in semesters ve through seven. Students meet

the rst part of this requirement by completing any English,

comparative literature or literary arts course, as well as any

of the hundreds of courses across the curriculum marked

“WRIT,” for “Writing-Designated.” In semesters ve

through seven, students must take an additional writing-

designated course. Because the concentration is the focal

point of a student’s academic experience, it makes sense

that students should work on their writing in the course

of completing their concentration. A small number of

concentrations allow concentrators to upload to ASK work

completed in the concentration to meet this requirement.

Questions about this option may be directed to the deputy

dean for curriculum and co-curriculum. In this case, you or

a colleague would review and approve the work in ASK.

Even if your concentration does not accept written work

in lieu of a second writing-designated course, as an

advisor, you will want to steer students toward courses

that allow them to develop these abilities; indeed, you

should encourage them to learn how to express

themselves better in your discipline.

WRITING REQUIREMENT

brown.edu/academics/college/degree/

curriculum/writing-requirement

WritingChecks

On occasion you will see that one of your concentrators

has received a writing check: a check beside a course in

which the instructor has found the student’s writing to be

insucient. A checkmark visible to academic advisors then

appears on the student’s internal academic record next to

the course in question; the checkmark does not appear on

the ocial Brown transcript. While faculty referrals are not

required for students to have a consultation at the Writing

Center, students with a ag will receive priority support and

guidance about resources by Writing Center sta. e rst

check acts as a warning.

If a student receives more than one check during their

time at Brown, they will not be able to graduate until the

additional checks are cleared.

LifeafterBrown

Many of your juniors and seniors will be preoccupied with

the question of what they will do aer college. Don’t be

surprised, then, if students come to you with questions

about their future. You may feel that your life experience

does not equip you to help them. Yet you might be just

the person to prompt self-reection by asking your

students some “big questions.” Once they have begun to

articulate their short- and long-term goals and have given

some thought to the values, skills and interests they have

cultivated inside and beyond the classroom, they will be

better prepared to act on your referrals with a greater

sense of condence and purpose. You can then direct your

students to the advisors in the CareerLAB. Or you can work

with members of your DUG and CareerLAB sta to fashion

an event that will help your concentrators as a whole. To

arrange a consultation with CareerLAB, call 401-863-3326.

CareerLAB hosts a number of events throughout the year

that allow students to learn from and network with alumni

who have pursued diverse career paths. You might also

direct your students to use LinkedIn or BrownConnect

to reach out to Brown alumni who have concentrated in

your area.

As the question of learning outcomes dominates

national debates on higher education, and as some jobs

become scarcer, many people — including some of your

concentrators, perhaps — may be beginning to wonder

about the outcomes of the college experience: What’s it

all about? You have a unique opportunity to address that

question as your students approach the nal year

of the concentration.

MEANINGFUL OUTCOMES

e last portion of this handbook contains practical

information about the senior year, as well as ideas about

how you can encourage seniors to make the most of their

Brown experience.

Ideally, a student’s last year at Brown will provide a

meaningful culmination of their educational experience.

One form that such culminating experiences may take

is a senior-year capstone, widely recognized as a high-

impact educational practice variously instituted by many

colleges and universities, including Brown. Well-designed

capstones hold signicant promise for advancing student

learning as well as for assessing the rigor and coherence of

curricula at the college and departmental level. To that end,

in spring 2018, the College Curriculum Council conducted

a review of capstone requirements across the College’s

concentrations culminating in a series of recommendations

for increasing the academic rigor and learning potential of

the College’s various capstone practices. As a concentration

advisor and/or director of undergraduate studies, you

should familiarize yourself with the summary literature

review, ndings and suggestions published in the report,

available on the council’s website.

COLLEGE CURRICULUM COUNCIL

brown.edu/go/doc_ccc

Senior-YearProjects

If your concentration requires a senior project, either

for all students or for a subset such as Engaged Scholars

or bachelor of science candidates, then it is your job to

make sure students fulll this expectation. If you do not

require it, you may want to persuade seniors to take on

this intellectual challenge voluntarily. Better yet, you

could plant the seed with your juniors so they begin

planning early. Such a capstone experience might take

many forms: It could be a focused internship, a teaching

apprenticeship, a performance, an exhibition, a large

creative work, an advanced seminar paper, a laboratory

experiment or a thesis — in short, a substantive

contribution to the discipline. Whatever the form, the

capstone should lead undergraduates toward the kind of

intellectual engagement that faculty experience all the

time. For this reason, projects should be supervised by

faculty members who monitor students’ progress and give

feedback. By completing such a project, seniors will have,

in eect, already answered the question “What’s it all

about?” because they will have produced something that

reveals the impact of their studies to both themselves and

others. is kind of intensive intellectual experience can

also lead them toward outcomes they never imagined.

Incidentally, the College has a modest amount of funding

to help support senior projects. Students should consult

with the College’s website on research opportunities.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

brown.edu/academics/college/

undergraduate-research

HonorsintheConcentration

An honors thesis is one type of capstone project —

albeit with a few more strings attached. Your department’s

honors program will dene the terms under which

advanced undergraduates may distinguish themselves

through in-depth coursework or research in the discipline.

Entry into such programs varies by department (although,

per the College Curriculum Council’s guidelines, no

concentration may use grade point average or limit the

number of courses taken Satisfactory/No Credit); check

the rules for your own program and make sure that they

are clear to you, as well as to your faculty and students.

Like the capstone guidelines, the College Curriculum

Council’s honors guidelines are available on the College

website. As with all other concentration requirements,

honors requirements should be published on your

concentration’s page in the University Bulletin.

Honors in the Concentration

brown.edu/go/honors

As an advisor, it is your responsibility to advertise your

department’s honors program to juniors, to review their

applications (sometimes in conjunction with an honors

committee) and to remind faculty members who are

supervising honors projects — and students who are doing

them — of the relevant deadlines. You can recognize your

honors students by arranging appropriate celebratory

events at the end of the semester. You might consider doing

this with all seniors who have completed capstone projects.

LatinHonors

A more conventional sign of honorable achievement in

a university education is the classical designation cum

laude, Latin for “with honors.” Less concrete than a

written thesis, it is determined not by the concentration

but by the College at the very end of a student’s career.

Brown grants only one honor at Commencement: magna

cum laude. e determination for magna is based on the

percentage of “A” grades and marks of “S with distinction”

that a student receives in all courses taken at Brown. By

faculty rule, this honor goes to no more than 20% of the

graduating class each year. e distinction mark is not

released outside the University and is not noted on

internal or ocial transcripts.

Prizes

Another formal recognition for excellence comes in

the form of end-of-year prizes. Some departments

have endowed monetary prizes, which they award at

Commencement to outstanding seniors. Most such prizes

are funded by endowments held in the College’s budget.

You should talk to your department manager about how

many prizes your department has, how they are awarded,

and in what amounts. e College has limited additional

funds to support the awarding of prizes in departments

that do not have any endowed prizes. Each spring the

College sends an announcement inviting departments to

apply for these premiums. For more information, send an

email to college@brown.edu.

ClearingSeniorsforGraduation

Perhaps the most ocial role you will play in the life of

your students will be to determine whether they have

completed the requirements for the concentration. is is

one of the necessary steps toward what we call “clearing”

seniors for graduation. In October and March every year,

you will receive a clearance form for each of your eighth-

semester seniors. e packet will include a list of courses

in which they are currently enrolled, together with a

copy of an internal record for all courses completed. e

registrar asks you to check the records and indicate whether

the student has completed or is expected to complete the

concentration (including the writing requirement) that

semester and, if not, what requirements remain. is is a

very good reason for you to meet with your seniors again —

not just to go over their records but also to review their

overall Brown experience.

Before you meet, be sure to check any anomalies or

substitutions against the student’s ocial ASK declaration:

Was permission granted to satisfy the requirements by

other means? Is there other documentation in the student’s

ASK declaration noting the substitution? If not, the student

will not be able to graduate and you will have to inform the

registrar. e registrar will record the names of students

who have not completed the concentration; that oce will

also notify them. You may want to discuss this situation

with the students yourself when you meet with them. It

may also be useful to strategize how they can complete

the concentration, either at Brown or elsewhere through

transfer credits. Keep in mind that all of these students —

even if they have requirements pending — can still “walk”

in the graduation ceremony, although their names will

not appear in the ocial graduation program. It is quite

common for departments to allow students who have not

completed degree requirements to participate in their

graduation ceremonies.

Aside from this ocial clearance process, you can view

these nal meetings as a time for seniors to reect on their

experience at Brown more generally. What was the most

useful thing they learned in your concentration? What work

are they most proud of? What work was most challenging?

Is there anything they would do dierently if given a second

chance? Asking such questions, even in an informal way,

can send a very good message that you are concerned not

only about their individual experience but also about the

experience of future concentrators. If you were to ask your

seniors, moreover, to take a moment to put these thoughts

in writing, both you and they might end up with a dierent

picture of the real “outcomes” of your concentration.

ExtraSemesterPermission

You may refer any student who cannot complete degree

requirements within eight semesters of enrollment to an

academic advising dean in the College. e student will still

be able to participate in Commencement exercises.

e student may be able to transfer in remaining

requirements from another approved institution with

a status known as “enrollment satised, requirements

pending.” Dierent policies govern whether students

may stay at Brown for an additional term depending on

whether they must or simply would like to do so. Whether

a student needs additional time at Brown or simply chooses

an additional semester of enrollment, the student should

discuss the appropriate petition process with the deputy

dean of the college for academic advising/chair of the

Committee on Academic Standing.

WhenNecessarytoCompleteRequirements

Students who have experienced an academic setback

(such as being suspended or withdrawing during the

term, or earning fewer than three credits in one or more

semesters) may request ninth-semester permission by

petitioning the Committee on Academic Standing.

Permission may be granted if the student needs to

complete concentration requirements that must be taken

at Brown. Students may be eligible for institutional

nancial aid during this additional term.

OptionalNinthSemester

Students may seek an additional semester (either full-

time or part-time) to supplement required features of

their degree programs, such as completing an honors

thesis course, a second concentration, a study abroad

experience for a junior transfer, additional courses not

required for the concentration (including courses that

satisfy or strengthen pre-health application requirements),

etc. Students seeking an optional ninth semester would not

be eligible for Brown institutional funds, although they

may be eligible for other kinds of nancial aid. Students

planning to submit an optional ninth semester should

consult the College website for additional information.

PETITIONS AND FORMS

brown.edu/academics/college/degree/

petitions

CommencementFestivities

Your department’s Commencement ceremony is the

last chance you will have to acknowledge the good work

of your students. Students who have completed degree

requirements receive their diplomas at the ceremony,

in the company of family and friends (those who have

not yet completed will receive their diplomas the May

following completion). You can help make this event more

meaningful for everyone who attends — and especially for

your students — by taking the time to acknowledge the

accomplishments of your graduates, reporting their honors

in the department program, narrating one or two of their

successes during the formal remarks, and announcing

their future plans. Everyone needs to be acknowledged for

good work, and a few well-chosen phrases, uttered publicly

by a faculty mentor, will be remembered for a very long

time. If the chair of your department presides over these

ceremonies, you can help them by providing information

about the concentrators you know best. And you should

make sure to attend the celebrations. As an advisor, it will

mean more to your concentrators than you can imagine if

you simply take the time to be present.

TrackingYourGraduates

When asked about the outcomes of graduates, most

departments have diculty coming up with more than

anecdotal evidence. Where did your concentrators end

up? Knowing the answer to this question can be a great

benet when giving concrete evidence of the success of

your program. It is not always possible to keep up with

Brown graduates, but making an eort to connect with

them before they leave campus can help enormously. e

advent of lifelong alumni accounts (rst_lastname@alumni.

brown.edu) makes this much easier. While students might

ignore a generic communication from the University,

they are likely to read an email query from someone in

your department, asking them what and how they are

doing. You might also have a member of your sta create a

simple database, poll colleagues about former students and

update the information. ese eorts will pay countless

dividends in the future. Indeed, keeping in touch with

your alumni, and learning about how their lives develop,

will give you all the more reason to invite them back for a

visit, so they can share their life experience with current

students. Departments such as comparative literature,

English and geological sciences have alumni newsletters,

blogs and forums that are also linked in Focal Point,

along with data collected by CareerLAB and the Oce

of Institutional Research.

STUDENT SAFETY OR CONDUCT CONCERNS

NatureofConcern ContactOce Phone

Potentialorimmediatedanger Department of Public Safety 863-4111

GeneralconcernsaboutaBrown Student Support Services 863-3145

communitymember

Psychologicalsupportneeded Counseling and Psychological Services 863-3476

Non-emergencymedicalcare Health Services 863-3953

Sexualassaultharassment On-call Counselor 863-3476

orrelationshipabuse Sexual Harassment and Assault Resources

Education (SHARE) Advocate 863-7895

AfterHoursContactInformation

DepartmentofPublicSafety

Emergency 863-4111

Non-emergency 863-3322

AdministratorOnCall 863-3322

(Nights, weekends, holidays)

CounselingandPsychologicalServices 863-3476

CampusEmergencyActionPlan

e University has a campus emergency action plan available online at brown.edu/health-safety/topics/re-safety/

emergency-action-plan. All faculty are encouraged to review the plan, particularly the instructions regarding “shelter in

place” situations. Brown’s Core Crisis Team, chaired by Russell Carey, continuously reviews our emergency plans and

preparedness to meet crises.

CONCENTRATION ADVISING CALENDAR 2020-21

CONCENTRATION ADVISING CALENDAR 2021-22

See the full academic calendar at brown.edu/about/administration/registrar/academic-calendar.

Note: All times listed are Eastern Time.

FallSemester

Friday, August 27, 2021

-: a.m.

Concentration Advisor Orientation (virtual).

Your presence is required at this event.

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Fall Classes Begin

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Last day to add a course without a fee ( p.m. deadline)

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Last day to add a course, change from audit to credit, or

change a grade option ( p.m. deadline)

Monday, October 11, 2021

Indigenous Peoples Day. No University exercises.

Friday, October 15, 2021

Last day to change from credit to audit in a course

( p.m. deadline)

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Concentration declaration deadline for fourth-semester

sophomores and incoming junior transfers ( p.m. deadline)

ursday, November 4, 2021

Deadline for concentration advisors to approve fourth-

semester sophomore and incoming junior transfer

concentration declarations in ASK ( p.m. deadline)

Monday, October 25 through Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Advising period for spring preregistration

(Schedule extra oce hours for concentrators.)

Friday, November 12, 2021

Students on Serious Warning who wish to drop a course

aer this date must meet with an academic dean to obtain

a drop-code.

Wednesday, November 24 through

Sunday, November 28, 2021

anksgiving recess (begins Wednesday at noon)

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Last day for approved undergraduates in eligible

concentrations, who are in their seventh (or penultimate)

semester, to submit writing completed in the concentration

in ASK to complete part two of the writing requirement

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Beginning of Reading Period (optional and at the

discretion of the instructor).

Saturday, December 11, 2021

 p.m.

Midyear Completion Celebration (Salomon De Ciccio

Family Auditorium)

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Last day for advisors to approve second or third

concentrations in ASK for students in their penultimate

semester (typically the seventh semester) who are

declaring a second/third concentration ( p.m. deadline).

Last day for students in their ante-penultimate

(typically sixth) semester to declare an undergraduate

certicate in ASK.

SpringSemester

Monday, January 17, 2022

Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. No University exercises.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Spring semester classes begin.

Wednesday, January 26 through

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Meetings with seventh- and eighth-semester concentrators

to approve course schedules.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Deadline for students to complete fall semester incompletes

if the course is to count toward a student’s academic standing

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Last day to add a course without a fee ( p.m. deadline)

Saturday, February 19 through

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Long weekend. No University exercises.

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Classes resume. Last day to add a course, change from

audit to credit, or change a grade option ( p.m. deadline).

Friday, March 11, 2022

Last day to change from credit to audit in a course

( p.m. deadline)

Monday, March 21, 2022

Date by which students entering their h semester

and entering junior transfers must submit their

concentration declarations in ASK to avoid registration

hold ( p.m. deadline)

Monday, April 4 through Tuesday, April 26, 2021

Advising period for fall preregistration

(Schedule extra oce hours for concentrators.)

ursday, April 14, 2022

Deadline for concentration advisors to approve fourth

semester sophomore and incoming junior transfer

concentration declarations in ASK ( p.m. deadline)

Monday, April 29, 2022

Beginning of reading period (optional and at the

discretion of instructor)

Friday, May 6, 2022

Information about approved honors recipients due to

the Registrar’s Oce

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Classes end for courses not observing the reading period.

Last day to drop a course or to le for an incomplete

( p.m. deadline).

Last day for advisors to approve second concentrations

in ASK for students in their seventh semester declaring

an additional concentration ( p.m. deadline — any

declarations not “advisor approved” and recorded in

Banner by the registrar by this deadline will not be honored)

Last day for students in their ante-penultimate

(typically sixth) semester to declare an undergraduate

certicate in ASK

Wednesday, May 11 through Friday, May 20, 2022

Final examination period

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Commencement

Friday, July 1, 2022

Deadline for students to complete spring semester

incompletes if the course is to count toward a student’s

academic standing

RESOURCES

TheCollege GeneralInformation --

Rashid Zia Dean of the College

401-863-2573

Maitrayee Bhattacharyya Senior Associate Dean, 401-863-3488

Diversity and Inclusion

Sarah Mullen Chief of Sta 401-863-2539

CurriculumandCo-Curriculum

Besenia Rodriguez Deputy Dean,

401-863-3488

Curriculum and Co-Curriculum

Betsy Shimberg Senior Associate Dean, Co-Curricular 401-863-9556

and Experiential Learning

Oludurotimi Adetunji Associate Dean, Undergraduate Research 401-863-2411

and Inclusive Science

Christopher Carr Assistant Director, Fellowships 401-863-5924

and Student Advisor

Peggy Chang Associate Dean 401-863-2324

Director, Curricular Resource Center

Linda Dunleavy Associate Dean of the College, Fellowships 401-863-2538

Nirva LaFortune Assistant Director, 401-863-7436

Curricular Resource Center

Julie Lee Associate Dean, Academic Support 401-863-1640

a nd Transfer

Janet Peters Assistant Dean, Curricular Support 401-863-1404

Assistant Director, Academic Tutoring

Kathy Toro Health Careers Advisor 401-863-6246

George Vassilev Associate Dean and Director, 401-863-2781

Pre-Professional Advising

Michele Zager Associate Director and Academic Advisor, 401-863-9836

Brown-RISD Dual Degree Program

AcademicAdvising

Vacant Deputy Dean of the College,

401-863-6244

for Academic Advising

Carol Cohen Senior Associate Dean, Class Advising/ 401-863-2676

Personal and Health Issues

Gail Cohee Associate Dean, Director, Sarah Doyle 401-863-3402

Center for Women and Gender

Ludnie Deneus Assistant Director, Financial Advising

Vernicia Elie Associate Dean, Financial Advising 401-863-5671

Lindsay Garcia Assistant Dean, Junior/Senior Studies 401-863-2536

and Recovery/Substance-Free Initiatives

Anja Lee Assistant Dean, First-Year and 401-863-3057

Sophom ore Exp e ri e nc e

Chia-Ying Pan Associate Dean, International Students

Yolanda Rome Associate Dean, Class-Year Advising 401-863-2315

Kelsey Trimm International Students Program Coordinator 401-863-5142

EngagedandExperientialLearning

Vacant

Director, Oce of International Programs 401-863-2489

Mary Jo Callan Stark Family Executive Director,

Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service /

Associate Dean of the College for

Engaged Scholarship

Matthew Donato Director, CareerLAB 401-863-3327

Ashley Greene Assistant Dean of the College 401-863-5238

Director, Community Partnerships,

Swearer Center

Julie Plaut Assistant Dean of the College 401-863-6282

Director, Engaged Scholarship, Swearer Center

StudentSupportServices brownedustudent-support --

e Student Support Services sta is available to assist students with a wide range of issues and concerns (personal, health,

family, etc.). Deans are available to consult with individual students about their personal questions/concerns, providing a

sounding board to explore options and helping to connect students to the right set of resources, allowing students to succeed

and thrive in their academic pursuits. A 24-hour crisis service is available for students with personal or family emergencies.

AdditionalCampusLifeResources

Oce of the Chaplains and Religious Life brown.edu/ocrl 401-863-2344

Brown Center for Students of Color brown.edu/bcsc 401-863-2120

Global Brown Center for

International Students brown.edu/globalbrowncenter 401-863-1300

LGBTQ Center brown.edu/lgbtq 401-863-3062

Oce of Military-Aliated Students brown.edu/go/rotc 401-863-7682

Sarah Doyle Center for Women and Gender brown.edu/sdwc 401-863-2189

Undocumented, First-Generation College brown.edu/ui

and Low-Income Student Center

Health Services brown.edu/health 401-863-3953

BWell Health Promotion brown.edu/bwell 401-863-2794

Counseling and Psychological Services brown.edu/caps 401-863-3476

Donovan Program for Recovery/ brown.edu/go/donovan 401-863-2536

Substance-Free Student Initiatives

e College

Brown University, Box 

Providence, Rhode Island 