Shopping period: the best of times, the worst of times. We understand that finalizing your schedule is not an easy task. If you’re agonizing over the decision to drop a class, look no further. Consider us your own personal MeikleBlog. You’re welcome.

By now, your advisor has supposedly discussed with you the S/NC grading option. A number of adults and upperclassmen have probably told you that if you take more than a few of your classes S/NC during your four years at Brown, you won’t get a real job. Besides, why take a class S/NC if you were smart enough to get into Brown?  Well Mr. High School Hot Shot, there is a lot more behind this semi-caveat in the grading system than the principle that an English concentrator can take an introductory physics course for shits and giggles and vice versa.

I’m personally taking two mandatory S/NC courses as a freshman. One of them is an introductory writing course that takes place three times a week at 9 a.m., and it is my favorite class in my life thus far.  The other is a seminar open to all undergraduates on Gender, Science and Society, where last week we read an article about female primates orgasming in relation to reproduction, talked about it for two hours and called it a day.  Did I mention that my final exam for this seminar is an in-class workshop on editing a Wikipedia article?  At this point you are probably overwhelmed with jealousy, but you too can experience the wonder of S/NC.

First off, there are some things to clarify.

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Every now and then, I see a movie I wish I could get my hands on and remake with my own flair.  The movie doesn’t have to be unexpectedly bad, it just needs to be open to some re-envisioning.  Hey, the lives of armchair directors may be comfy and covered with a thin layer of Cheeto dust, but that doesn’t mean we’re wrong.  And since we’re at a school with a rich creative history, we can take our musing a step further and say, “I should totally remake this at Brown.”

So, which popular movies would be vastly improved by a relocation to our campus?  Here are four that would certainly benefit from getting the College Hill treatment: [Read more →]