Is Brown’s Open Curriculum more flexible than Emory’s general education requirements?

Yes. Brown’s Open Curriculum is substantially more flexible than Emory College’s general education curriculum because Brown does not require students to complete a set of distribution categories outside their concentration. At Brown, students largely build their own academic path, with the main university-wide academic requirement being completion of a concentration and its associated requirements. This makes it especially easy to take courses across fields simply because they interest you.

A Brown student concentrating in computer science, for example, could spend significant space in their schedule on history, visual art, public policy, or a language without needing to satisfy a prescribed science, social science, humanities, or quantitative distribution checklist. Students can also pursue interdisciplinary or student-designed concentrations when an established program does not fit their interests, subject to faculty approval.

Emory College offers meaningful room for exploration, but students must complete General Education Requirements in addition to their major. Those requirements cover areas such as writing, quantitative reasoning, language, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and physical education. Many courses can overlap with a major, minor, or preprofessional plan, so the curriculum is not rigid; however, the required categories take up more scheduling space and direct students toward particular academic areas.

The practical difference is that Brown gives you more control over both what you study outside your major and how deeply you pursue those interests. Emory still supports interdisciplinary study through majors, minors, electives, and programs across its schools, but its general education structure provides more built-in breadth than Brown’s student-directed model.