At this time last year, I was a naive first-year and thought I would get a place in each of the classes in my Banner shopping cart. I figured that if something went wrong and I wasn’t able to register for a course, I would definitely be able to take it the following year. No problem.
It was with this mindset that I entered shopping period. I made the mistake of shopping LITR 0110E: “Screenwriting I,” LITR 0110A: “Fiction I” and ENGL 0180: “Introduction to Creative Nonfiction.” I figured I would be able to take at least one of them.
As I arrived to each class, I found I had to sit on the floor or stand outside the classroom because so many other students were also trying to get in. These classes weren’t first-come, first-served. If you weren’t the miracle student who was able to register on Banner for some of these classes, you had to enter your name in a lottery, which would determine the order of the waiting list. The lotteries are usually held on the first day, and even getting a good number doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a spot. You have to show up to two or three more sessions before you find out and are able to register on Banner. I ended up being nearly the last name called for each class.
I had to waste more time on classes I had no chance of getting into, time that I could have spent looking for other classes. But the professors gave me hope. “Lots of students don’t show up to the second session,” they said. So I showed up to the second and the third — and I didn’t get into any of them. As other, older students learned of their misfortunes, they looked unsurprised. They had been trying to get in for multiple semesters, and they resigned themselves to trying again next semester.
But last spring I was prepared. I had yet to take a class in the literary arts department, a department I was seriously considering for my concentration. I emailed professors in the weeks before the semester’s start and was told most of the time that I had to wait until the first day of shopping period to put my name on the waiting list. “Ok,” I thought. “Hopefully, I’ll finally be able to get into a class. Hopefully.”
I shopped the same three classes again with friends who were also hoping to get in. Of course, none of us was able to register on Banner. We gave up on Screenwriting the first day, as it is a class many students show up to but can never actually take. There is only one section and it is capped at 10, which is great for registered students but terrible for everyone else.
So we tried Fiction I. We shopped all four sections, which were each capped at 17, but we were unsuccessful. I went to two or three sessions of multiple sections before giving up, having again wasted my time.
But after about my third session of a creative nonfiction class, I was told they had space for me. It was an upperclassman section, but I didn’t care — at least I was in.
I loved the class, but none of my friends were able to enroll. In fact, they were unable to take any writing classes, despite shopping just as much as I had. They all had to scramble toward the end of shopping period to find classes in which they weren’t too far behind.
As I look for classes I want to shop next semester, I have little hope in anything in literary arts. Introduction to Creative Nonfiction, which is in the English department, ended up being one of my favorite classes last year. But is it really worth showing up to two or three sessions of classes you probably won’t get into? I now realize most of these classes are reserved for concentrators, but what if I’m not sure yet and want to test the waters? Do I have to concentrate in literary arts or English in order to take a class in those departments? Or do I have to wait until I have the privilege of being a senior to do so? I don’t understand why we don’t have more sections and professors for classes in high demand. Our literary arts department has a great reputation, and students want to take these classes. Why is getting in so hard?
Jessica Montes ’16 can be reached at jessica_montes@brown.edu.
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