The Brown University Pre-Baccalaureate Program is a highly selective program for rising or recently graduated high school seniors ready to undertake the rigors of credit-bearing, undergraduate study. Pre-Baccalaureate students — known as Pre-Baccs — enroll in classes alongside Brown undergraduates in the university’s Summer Session. Courses available to Pre-Baccs are those open to first and second-year undergraduates, and span the natural sciences and mathematics, the social sciences, and the humanities. The program attracts serious-minded students from across the country and around the globe. Their interests are as varied as the Brown curriculum, and they share a commitment to learning and serious study.
Summer Session courses are equivalent to semester-long offerings, compressed into a fast-paced seven-week summer schedule. There are six weeks of course-based instruction with one additional week to prepare for final papers and examinations. Pre-Bacc students may only enroll in one or two online courses.
All courses are taken for Brown University credit and may provide students with advanced standing once they enroll as an undergraduate in a college or university. In most courses, students are evaluated by an A, B, C or NC (no credit) grade. In some courses (noted in the individual course descriptions), students may instead choose to be evaluated on a satisfactory/no-credit basis, rather than a letter grade. Students may also request that their instructors write a narrative Course Performance Report on their behalf, which in many cases becomes useful when students apply to college.
