The Independent Study

Last semester, I went to a dean to petition for two independent studies which I wanted to add to my schedule. One was a Russian Literature class about the influence of the KGB in modern Russia, with Professor Claude Carey. The other independent study was about opening an Indian restaurant in Providence that my two friends and I have been working on for a year now.

While the dean supported my argument that I should be able to add these classes late in the semester because I have done the work, he was skeptical of the professors. He told me that the two professors, Professors Carey and Hazeltine, were infamous for giving easy As for their many independent studies each year. There was a question of their accountability for giving students essentially GPA inflators.

This did not shock me. Independent studies are guaranteed As if you do the work. Professors are not held accountable for their grading standards, which varies drastically from person to person.

Yet, it was disappointing to hear the dean talk about these professors in a slightly incredulous tone. To me, professors like Hazeltine and Carey foster what a Brown education should look like. They teach students how to think for themselves by setting their own guidelines and benchmarks. They hold students responsible for maintaining quality work or else the students are only cheating themselves. Most importantly, these professors strongly encourage their students to take the non-traditional path of thinking. The latter is what Brown should emphasize more in an undergraduate education.

I applaud Brown for having such a liberal- and undergraduate-focused academic policy. I enjoy that all our classes are taught by scholarly professors, not teaching assistants. I enjoy that we have pass/fail courses, no GPA, no class rank, etc. I enjoy that we control our own education much more than any other school in the nation.

However, a major aspect of my early undergraduate education has been very disappointing. The biggest problem is that it was too theoretical, too ridged. For example, many classes, especially several of the seven economics classes I have taken, just regurgitate the information in the book. Whether professors used PowerPoint slides, the chalkboard, or transparencies, the lectures were straight from the book. It was disappointing to show up to class when I could just read in my dorm. As a result, I missed classes and spent more time on intellectually stimulating activities such as City Brothers, writing, and other extracurricular activities.

Additionally, several classes seemed too focused on petty weekly problem sets and monthly midterms. As a result, students only focused on doing well on graded works and not on the bigger concepts of the class. Rather than using the time to apply their knowledge to their surroundings, students were too stressed over problem sets or another daunting midterm. The romance of mixing theory and practicality was therefore lost.

There are several drawbacks to rigid classes that test memorization and theory rather than understanding and application. In the article, “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education” by William Deresiewicz, the author stated, “[Students at elite colleges] are products of a system that rarely asked them to think about something bigger than the next assignment. The system forgot to teach them, along the way to the prestige admissions and the lucrative jobs, that the most important achievements can’t be measured by a letter or a number or a name. It forgot that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers.”

While many deans or alumni pride themselves that Brown teaches students “to think,” they are only half right, according to Deresiewicz. Rigid class structures and curricula only teach students how to think analytically for career purposes, nothing greater. “But a humanistic education is supposed to mean something more than that, as universities still dimly feel,” Deresiewicz stated.

In contrast to rigid classes, several classes such as Professor Hazeltine’s famous engineering courses relied almost on complete class discussion and our own intellectual analysis. These classes emphasize theoretical intuition as well as real-world application. Some of these classes are easy As, but it should not raise eyebrows for the classes’ accountability. These professors want students to focus on learning, not on the final grade.

As a result of rigid classes, I sought out professors who would encourage me to think outside of my comfort zone and create my own intellectual discovery. This year, I found those professors in Hazeltine, Carey, and my chemistry research advisor, Professor Jason Sello. Thankfully, Brown is filled with talented professors like these who will always take the time to help students find intellectual stimulation missing in rigid classes.

These professors have shown me the greatest benefits of an undergraduate education through our independent research or independent studies. They taught me to counter the often too theoretical or structured class syllabus by helping me make my own classes. Consequently, this unleashes my enterprising and creative talents while I still learn theoretical and practical concepts. Furthermore, the rest of my courses have dozens of students and a grading scale. Theses independent studies, in contrast, have an infinite grading scale and work that few students experience during undergraduate school. To me, my most prideful knowledge and coursework has come out of these original independent studies.

I ended up speaking to the head dean about the two independent studies that I wanted to add very late this semester. I was armed with about 200 sheets of papers showcasing my hard work to dispel any belief that the courses were not of academic rigor. Ironically, he didn’t even look at the stack papers. He quickly signed the permission form and then we had a 10-minute conversation about the restaurant industry and his experience with Indian restaurants in New Haven, Connecticut.

The dean never doubted the integrity of the independent studies. He just cared that we were eager to learn and refused to take the conventional route in our education. That attitude and encouragement seems like a step in the right direction for a true Brown undergraduate education.