How does the workload at Brown compare with Carnegie Mellon?

For most students, Carnegie Mellon has the more structured and consistently demanding workload, while Brown offers far more room to shape the intensity and breadth of an academic week. CMU’s requirements are especially heavy in programs such as computer science, engineering, design, and the sciences, where sequential courses, labs, projects, and problem sets can make several courses demanding at once. Brown’s Open Curriculum removes general-education distribution requirements, so students have unusual freedom to balance difficult major courses with classes in entirely different fields.

At Carnegie Mellon, a standard semester is built around course units and a full load commonly translates into substantial work outside class. Many students describe regular weekly cycles of programming assignments, technical problem sets, lab reports, studio work, or group projects, depending on the school. The pace can be intense because prerequisites and required courses often need to be taken in a particular order; dropping to a lighter schedule may affect graduation timing, especially in tightly sequenced majors.

Brown students still work hard, particularly in STEM, economics, pre-med coursework, and thesis-based concentrations, but they can more readily adjust their semester. A student can combine two demanding technical courses with discussion-based or exploratory classes without needing to satisfy a long list of core requirements. Brown also allows students to take courses Satisfactory/No Credit, subject to its policies, which can make academic exploration feel less high-stakes.

The key distinction is predictability versus autonomy. CMU is more likely to require sustained, deadline-heavy work tied closely to a professional or technical curriculum. Brown can be equally rigorous in a self-designed schedule, but it gives students much more control over how many intensive courses they take at one time and how much space they reserve for electives, research, arts, or other interests.