As shopping period kicked off Wednesday with a sunny start, the Main Green came to life with clusters of students catching up and sprawling out between classes.
“The weather is nice,” Carlin Smith ’18 said while sitting in a circle on the grass with a group of fellow first-years.
The group had been relaxing there for hours, said Samantha Altschuler ’18, another member of the group taking advantage of the sunshine.
While first-years got acquainted with campus and each other, upperclassmen had some welcoming words for them.
“It’s great to see so many new faces on campus,” said Tucker Iverson ’16.
“It’s a little weird,” said Chandler Carter ’15, who returned this semester after studying abroad in London last year. “It’s different … but it’s good seeing people I haven’t seen in a while.”
Students of all years spent the day figuring out their course loads for the semester.
Matthew Spiegel ’18, who already knew three classes he was definitely taking, said he was busy all day shopping for a fourth. “Music theory was a lot of fun,” he added.
Neil Pandey ’18 also said he was looking forward to shopping classes, most of them in the Department of Computer Science and Department of Mathematics. “This is my first time taking CS,” he said, adding that he decided to explore computer science because “it sounded interesting, and it opens up a lot of opportunities in the future.”
But different students approached shopping period in different ways: Though Altschuler said she felt it was a good concept, she said she is “too stressed out of a person” to shop extensively and would worry about finding new courses.
Ling Song ’18, however, packed her first day of shopping period with classes, beginning with ECON 0110: “Principles of Economics” at 9 a.m.
“I’m going to go to a lot of classes to try to take advantage of (shopping period) because I have so many things I want to do,” Song said. “Brown lets me pursue all of that.”
Besides economics, Song also shopped classes in the Department of Chemistry, School of Engineering and Department of Modern Culture and Media.
“It’s hard to manage my schedule and plan everything out,” she said.
Familiar with the often frustrating process of course registration through Banner, upperclassmen expressed relief that the process went fairly smoothly this year.
Carter, who is concentrating in modern culture and media, said the highlight of her day was not having registration issues.
“Last year, I was all ready to register for classes, but then I got locked out” of Banner, said Phoebe McAuliffe ’17, who was able to register for all her classes right away.
Smith said she knew some people who were “freaking out” because they did not get into their desired classes, but added that she “luckily got into all the classes I wanted.”
“I’m loving Brown at the moment,” McAuliffe said. “They let me take what I want.”
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