How to Write Your Supplemental Essay About Brown's Open Curriculum

The most important essay on the Brown Writing Supplement is this one: 
​
Brown’s Open Curriculum allows students to explore broadly while also diving deeply into their academic pursuits. Tell us about an academic interest (or interests) that excites you, and how you might use the Open Curriculum to pursue it. (250 words)

Why College? essays are always tricky, because they require you to do research about the school, instead of just yourself. But this one doesn't ask just about Brown, but also the specific pedagogy that makes Brown so unique. 

Want to know more about Open Curriculum? Contact me!

But what can you say about Open Curriculum that the other 38,674 high school seniors who are applying to Brown won't also say?

The first thing you need to do is understand Why This Question?

In short, the purpose is to make sure you are someone who will thrive under Open Curriculum — which, in Brown's own words, is "a tremendous responsibility."

There are different kinds of intelligence among the world's top high school students, and their intelligence manifests itself in different ways. 

Some students are great because they will work tirelessly to achieve any goal. They thrive under structure and pressure. With the right direction, they can accomplish anything.

Others are great because they have been unusually self-directed and proactive in the pursuit of their learning. They have connected what they learned in one class or internship to something entirely different. They thrive when given the freedom to explore. 

I believe either kind of student could succeed at Brown, but someone who is more self-directed will likely get more from the experience. 

Beyond the ability to develop a personalized course of study, the freedom to study what you choose, and the flexibility to discover what you love, Open Curriculum also offers these tools and features: 

• Shopping period, which lets you test out courses before you commit to them. This helps you decide if your curiosity is worth pursuing.
• Student-centered. This deviates from traditional views of education.
• "Learn how to learn." By taking courses in different departments, you will learn how to learn through very different lenses and frameworks.
• Action-oriented. Research, collaboration, and hands-on learning are important features of a Brown education. 
• Allows students to find purpose and meaning. You can take what you want, and drop what doesn't resonate.
• Less emphasis on grades/easier to get good grades. Because more people are taking classes with no prerequisites and exploration is encouraged, it's easier to get good grades at Brown than other schools. (But obviously, this isn't a secret—employers, graduate schools, med schools, law schools, etc., know this, too.)

Now that you know this, it's time to brainstorm your essay. Remember: the purpose of the essay isn't to teach the admissions officers about Open Curriculum. They already know, and 80% of this year's applicants are going to re-explain it to them, anyway.

The purpose of this essay is to help the Brown admissions team understand you. So start by brainstorming about yourself. Here's an example, assuming I'm the same student as the one in How To Write Your "Optional" COVID-19 Essay:

​1. What is interesting/special/unique about me that I didn't have a chance to share in my Personal Statement? 

• I've spent four years studying Latin and one year studying Greek. I don't know if I want to major in classics, but it's been a huge part of my life.
• I'm late for almost every class — because I'm always staying late having interesting discussions with my teacher from the previous class. 
• For my senior project, I am writing a full-length play; I have already written and directed one full-length play for my school's drama club.
• I loved AP Stats and AP Biology, but I don't know what I want to major in yet. 
• I read a lot.

Now that I have this list, I can start connecting it back to Open Curriculum. Here's a sample essay:
​

“Eva, you’d make the best surgeon! I can always see your tips!”

Only the rarest compliment makes me blush—but coming from Dr. Moranto, a retired physician whose insights about Medicare, bioethics, and preventative medicine keep me lingering in his classroom long after AP Biology ends, my cheeks vasodilate the color of the liver I just excised.

Moving to the gizzard, I ask about cross-species virus transmission—which extends into lunch, and ends with a surprising declaration: 

“More than anything else, human history has been shaped by mosquitoes.”

I rejected this, so he recommended some extracurricular reading: The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator. Despite the word “History” in the title, I assumed the book was scientific—it’s about Culicidae, after all, and was recommended by a biologist. 

And yet… the book was about every class I’ve taken. 

Learning how classicists collaborated with pathophysiologists to uncover malaria in ancient texts—how Alexander the Great was  posthumously diagnosed—I saw new usefulness in the “dead” languages I study. 

Seeing how mosquitoes shaped Judaism, early Christianity, and the spread of Islam, I had to rethink everything I thought I learned in Old Testament.

Mapping outbreaks to trade routes and commerce, I saw my cost-benefit analyses from Business Principles through a new lens. 

Understanding how hurricanes cause explosions in pest populations, I realized how farms and economies continue struggling long after initial storm damage—suddenly, AP Economics felt wildly oversimplified.

These conversations. This book. That is why I crave Brown’s Open Curriculum: not only to actively design my course, but also to learn from students and professors in completely different fields. I want to collaborate in ways I can’t currently imagine, with people whose only shared trait with me is our deadliest predator.

​
​

Let's figure out why YOU need Open Curriculum!

This essay is fantastic, because without womansplaining what Open Curriculum means, I've shown how I would benefit from it. I've shown creativity, engagement, and original thought process. I've also shown an important relationship I have with a teacher (which is hugely important: if you want to get into Brown, you can't have good recommendations -- you need to have great ones). 

It's also fun, interesting, and memorable. I had fun writing it, and I think that shows. 

Paved With Verbs makes college essays fun. (Seriously!)

For more advice about how to approach supplemental essays, I recommend reading How To Write Your Stanford Intellectual Vitality Essay, as the advice in this post is valuable no matter what schools you're applying to, and will help you organize and prioritize the traits, extracurriculars, and accomplishments you should highlight in your essays.

And if you want more help with your essays, check out my rates and services, then contact me.