For students in their fourth semester, the March 17 deadline to declare a concentration is rapidly approaching. While some students have stuck with the interests they selected on their application to Brown, others end up choosing different concentrations than they initially intended.
All students vying for admission are required to submit intended concentrations as part of their application to Brown. But according to Brown’s website, the University does “not admit students by academic interest” and does not have quotas for concentrations.
“A prospective student’s intended concentration is considered as one factor among many as part of Brown’s individualized, holistic review of applications,” wrote University Spokesperson Brian Clark in an email to The Herald. “We seek students who demonstrate academic excellence and intellectual curiosity across a wide scope of academic interests.”
When Mae D’Ambra ’26 came to Brown, she “didn’t feel built for STEM,” she told The Herald. “It was something that I never saw myself doing.”
But her first-year self would be “really surprised” to know that she now studies health and human biology — not political science.
D’Ambra is far from alone in her decision to change paths part way through college.
“Brown leaders have no expectation that students limit their academic exploration solely to the concentration they considered as a prospective student,” Clark wrote. “The flexibility afforded by the Open Curriculum encourages students to choose the path that best supports their goals.”
The Herald looked at data from University press releases and previous reporting to analyze what the incoming first-year classes since 2014 have ranked as their top 10 intended concentrations, and compared this to publicly available data of graduates’ concentrations. Here are our six key takeaways.
History is consistently popular among graduates, despite rarely making the top 10 intended concentrations
For the past nine years, history has consistently ranked in the top 10 most popular concentrations, ranging from 63 to 87 graduates per class. But since the class of 2018, it has only been featured in the top 10 intended concentrations once.
Seth Rockman, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of History, said he’s not surprised that prospective students aren’t immediately drawn to history.
Rockman believes many high school history classes are taught poorly and said that “the kind of learning that you do in a college-level history class is a revelation for most students.”
He thinks the department’s introductory-level courses are more “interesting than (those of) many other departments,” citing the quality of teaching as a key factor in keeping students engaged.
“We are simply out-teaching many other disciplines on campus,” he said.
Public health has gained popularity among graduates over time, but still remains outside top 10 intended concentrations
Public health has recently experienced a surge in popularity, more than doubling its total number of graduates from 35 in the class of 2015 to 75 at its peak with the class of 2023. Patricia Risica, the director of the public health concentration, also credits this growth to their introductory classes.
“High school students and younger students just don’t get enough exposure” to niche areas of study like public health, she said. Risica believes it takes coming to college to discover the possibilities in those fields.
Risica said PHP 0310: “Health Care in the United States” and PHP 0320: “Introduction to Public Health” give a broad overview of the concentration while showing students the subtopics they could specialize in later on.
Biochemistry and molecular biology remains outside the top 10 for graduates, despite its popularity among admitted students
Biochemistry and molecular biology has been consistently popular among applicants, despite not making the top 10 for graduates at any point in the past nine years.
Associate Dean of Biology Undergraduate Education Toni-Marie Achilli PhD’14 said that prospective biology students receive substantial pre-declaration advising, which can result in shifts in their concentration plans. Collectively, Brown’s biology departments offer eight unique concentrations, according to its website. Students may find that a specific biology concentration aligns better with “the set of courses (they) would like to take,” Achilli said.
While the biology concentrations vary in content, “students can achieve the same goals with these concentrations” in terms of post-graduate plans, Achilli added.
Sadie Elliott-Hart ’24 entered Brown as a prospective biology concentrator, but ended up switching to urban studies. Elliott-Hart wrote in a message to The Herald that she “chose biology thinking I wanted to be a field researcher.” But after she gained more laboratory and data analysis experience, her interests evolved.
Elliott-Hart is now working as an environmental educator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. In their work, their early interest in biology still shines through: They “teach in after-school programs around New York City and partner with organizations on composting and gardening initiatives,” they said.
Achilli said her office is less concerned about the numbers of students pursuing each concentration and more focused on connecting students to high-quality experiences in biology. “We just want to capture anybody who wants to be here and give them the best experience we can,” she said.
The number of computer science concentrators has more than doubled over the past nine years
Since the class of 2017, computer science has had the most graduates of any concentration.
Clark wrote that academic departments are provided with a list of admitted students by intended concentration each spring. Departments “know how many students have been admitted, along with their names and contact information,” he added.
Tom Doeppner, the vice chair of the Department of Computer Science, said the department has measured its growth, in part, by the number of introductory courses it offers. It used to offer just one class, he said. Now, it offers four.
He thinks this growth is partially due to the job prospects.
Doeppner has been at Brown since 1976 — three years before the department was founded in 1979. As such, he’s seen the growth of the concentration firsthand. Nowadays, many students come into Brown with some previous programming experience, he said.
“People are attracted to (computer science) in high school,” Doeppner added.
Completing concentration requirements can be a barrier for students who change paths
Due to switching concentrations in her second year, D’Ambra has struggled to complete some of her concentration and pre-dental requirements, she said. To catch up, she took a summer course and a course at a community college.
For students like D’Ambra who switch concentrations during their time at Brown, a shortened timeline to complete requirements comes with additional challenges.
JB Zhu ’25 transferred to Brown from Haverford College as an intended international and public affairs concentrator before switching to applied math in his sophomore year. To make the requirements more manageable, Zhu opted to earn a Bachelor of Arts instead of a Bachelor of Science.
Completing requirements after switching concentrations is “certainly doable,” Zhu noted. But it’s “probably only doable at Brown.”
Students changing concentrations may face different challenges depending on the department.
Since the history concentration requirements are flexible with “no single course that is required for every concentrator,” students who enter the concentration later are “not doomed,” Rockman told The Herald.
While few students struggle to complete their public health concentration requirements, Risica said certain courses have limited enrollment. In the case that “we have students that need a class to graduate, I will literally go and ask the faculty myself if that student can get in.”
In biology, many of the introductory courses are uncapped or have a larger number of seats available, Achilli said. But she noted that she sees “a little bit of bottlenecking (with enrollment) at advanced-level courses,” though her office tries to help students get into the courses they need to graduate.
Larger concentrations face challenges with advising
In the Department of Computer Science, advising can be especially challenging.
Occasionally, advisors will end up with about 200 advisees at once, according to Doeppner. When the department was founded, they had one concentration advisor for all students, he said. Now, every member of the faculty is expected to advise students. Younger faculty members — who have traditionally taken on a smaller advising workload — still advise around 30 students.
“It’s tough to really have the time to see everybody,” Doeppner added. “You try to identify who are the people that really need some powerful advice.”
In public health, the eight advisors each have 20 or fewer student advisees, Risica said.
In history, six members of the faculty serve as concentration advisors at a time, and each has 15 to 30 advisees, Rockman added.
D’Ambra said her concentration advisor has been “super proactive and super helpful.”
“There are a good amount of advising resources,” Zhu said. To supplement the advice he gets from his concentration advisor, he’s sought guidance from informal advisors.
“They certainly have good advice,” he added. “You just have to be the one looking for it.”
Ciara Meyer is a section editor from Saratoga Springs, New York. She plans on concentrating in Statistics and English Nonfiction. In her free time, she loves scrapbooking and building lego flowers.
