New Student Information

Typical Courses Taken by First-Year Students Interested in Exploring Engineering

Everyone comes to Brown with a different background and aspirations. The suggestions on this page are intended only to help you to understand some of your options. There are many ways to start the engineering curriculum, and your advisor will work with you to design a program that fits your goals.

First Semester Courses

During your first semester, you could consider taking the following courses:

  • ENGN0030 (Introduction to Engineering)
  • MATH0190 or MATH 0200 depending on student preparation
  • A science course depending on student interest (CHEM, BIOL, PHYS, CS, NEUR). Please consult with your advisor.
  • An elective from the humanities and social sciences. Please consult with your advisor.

Second Semester Courses

For the second semester, you could consider taking:

  • ENGN0040 (Engineering Statics and Dynamics)
  • MATH 0200 or MATH 0520 depending on student preparation
  • A science course depending on student interest (CHEM, BIOL, PHYS, CS, NEUR). Please consult with your advisor.
  • An elective from the humanities and social sciences. Please consult with your advisor.
  • Some other ENGN courses may be open to qualified first-year students, such as ENGN0520 - Circuits and Signals.

Course Information

Review some brief information and suggestions about these courses by subject area.

Make sure you discuss your choices carefully with your advisor to ensure that you prepare correctly, leave yourself maximum flexibility, and preferably are not registered for a semester filled with only heavy math and science courses.
 

Computer Resources and Recommendations

Our recommendation would be to plan to use the Engineering Resources (our Computer Labs, which have desktop computers, and MyApps, a cloud virtual desktop platform) to access the needed software for your Engineering classwork.  That will meet all your needs, but if you decide to purchase a laptop for convenience and flexibility, there may be at least a subset of applications you can run. Currently, most engineering applications are Windows-based, but many run properly on a Mac with Parallels or other Windows emulators, so that need not be the deciding factor.  The Brown Bookstore provides on-campus service for the laptop models they sell.  

The University's Office of Information Technology has written an article with recommended hardware and information about purchasing a laptop.