Brown University Admission

Jan Tullis is a Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence and Professor of Geological Sciences. She received an AB in geology from Carleton College in 1965 and a PhD with distinction in geology from UCLA in 1971. She joined the Department of Geological Sciences at Brown University as a research assistant in 1970, became assistant professor in 1971, and rose through the ranks to promotion as full professor in 1989.

Jan has chaired the Department's Undergraduate Program committee almost continually since 1981, where her substantial efforts in course, concentration, personal, and career counseling of undergraduates have contributed tremendously to the quality of education for undergraduates. She is also a strong supporter of women and minorities in the sciences and is very involved with Brown's Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) group.

In my many years at Brown I have been deeply impressed at the commitment and creativity that students bring to their education here. Brown’s open curriculum and diversity attract a unique set of students and professors.

In my own undergraduate studies at a small liberal arts college, I enjoyed the small classes, but there was very limited diversity of students and faculty as well as research opportunities. In my PhD work at a huge state university, faculty gave little effort to teaching, and the many renowned research programs were not available to undergraduates. Brown combines the best of both worlds: the faculty here are nationally and internationally known for their research, but they are also deeply committed to teaching, and they value being part of a learning community that involves undergraduates as full partners.

Brown students bring an amazing energy and curiosity to the classroom. Unfettered by distribution requirements, they take risks and explore a broad range of disciplines. Science students take courses in philosophy, ethnic studies and creative writing; humanities students take courses in planetary geology, sustainable living and entrepreneurship. Students with diverse backgrounds come together to create special group independent study courses, to compete in electric car building, to initiate and administer an outdoor leadership program at a Providence alternative high school.

The open curriculum at Brown has made me a much better teacher. With no distribution requirements, if I hope to persuade students to take a geoscience course so as to better understand the powerful and yet fragile Earth they live on, I must be a committed, creative, and engaging teacher. My students have been my best teachers; from them I have learned how to be more effective - and how to have more fun! The payoff for all faculty here is the privilege to be part of a vibrant community in which education is mutual, collaborative and multidirectional.

For students, the education at Brown is enhanced by the many opportunities to pursue interdisciplinary studies. Multidisciplinary courses and research opportunities are available in areas as diverse as the Brain Science Institute, the Watson Center for International Studies, the Cogut Humanities Center and the Environmental Change Initiative. There are partnerships with the Rhode Island School of Design and the Trinity Repertory Theater Company, as well as universities in other countries.

Brown offers abundant and diverse opportunities for students to get involved in research, working closely with a professor during the academic year and/or summer, starting as early as freshman year. Many professors, especially in sciences, have grants to support this research, but there are other sources of support as well, notably Brown’s UTRA program (Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship). This research may lead to presentations at national or international meetings (such as the Vernadsky planetary science meeting in Moscow) and publications in premier journals, but it always enhances the educational experience by providing a personalized, hands-on, in-depth exploration of a topic, guided by a professor-mentor.

I have found that science students at Brown are very special in the breadth of their interests; most get involved in cutting-edge research, but they also take full advantage of the wide range of educational opportunities here. A very substantial fraction of ‘hard core’ science concentrators also complete a concentration in the humanities or social sciences, out of a genuine desire to gain a broad worldview as well as specialized problem-solving skills. For example in my own field of geoscience, the 2007 graduating class of 21included 6 who completed a second concentration, in fields ranging from Visual Arts to Hispanic Studies to Classics to Music. Several of these students undertook creatively interdisciplinary senior theses that combined elements of both their concentrations, for example translating into sound the patterns and frequencies of global climate change over the past 5 million years.

Brown students also are impressive in their unusual dedication to service and community outreach in a wide variety of ways, many of them organized through the Swearer Center. Overall their energy and ideals create a vibrant, diverse community on campus, while also reaching out to the local community and the larger world community. They continue to inspire me, and one of my greatest thrills is staying in touch with the students I have gotten to know here in the years after they leave Brown, and hearing about all the many ways in which they find to use their Brown education to make a difference in the world.