The Brown curriculum is based on the premise that a liberal education can be truly liberal and still be tailored to the individual student's goals and interests. It is the responsibility of your teachers and advisors to help you pursue those goals in a coherent fashion, without scattering your energies or concentrating them too narrowly. All incoming first-year students are assigned an Academic Advisor, a faculty or administration member with whom they meet individually during Orientation Program, again in the second or third week of Semester I, and periodically throughout the year. Academic Advisors are particularly suited, by their background and experience, to help you construct the foundations of a broad-based education. Otherwise, an effort is made to assign you an Advisor from an academic area in which you've indicated an interest.
Students usually meet with their original advisors during the second year also.
In addition, sophomores meet with Randall Counselors, faculty members who work particularly with sophomores to review their educational goals, and upperclassmen work closely with their concentration advisors in developing concentration programs and evaluating their progress. There are many other resources, both formal and informal, for academic advice, and students are encouraged to take advantage of all of them. A partial list includes the Faculty Fellows and upperclass Resident Counselors for each residence hall, upperclass Team Advisors and CAP Fellows who work with Academic Advisors and the CAP Program, the Deans of the College, and the Resource Center for information on independent study options, internships, and other extra-departmental learning opportunities. Often, those you turn to initially for academic advice can also be helpful with personal and career-planning questions, or can steer you to the right source. Other resources include the Chaplains' Office, the University Health Services counseling staff, the Sarah Doyle Women's Center, and the Third World Center.