<p>For students at Brown or anyone who knows:</p>
<p>I was at an information session the other day and the student there was talking about the 2-week “shopping” period for classes at the beginning of each semester. Is this experience overwhelming? Also, once the time is up and people have decided which classes they want to be in, can classes be filled up and students denied, or can everyone take whatever they want?</p>
<p>Yes it is. If you're very picky like me, it means lots of rushing around and comparing. But, if done correctly you should really be happy with your classes. Once shopping is done, it varies professor to professor but you can drop a class whenever until before exams.</p>
<p>Thanks. But will students be turned away if a class is too full or are there no limits concerning the size of the classes? I just want to know if anyone has experienced this as a problem.</p>
<p>Well, First Year Seminars are capped at 20 students and so far as the other classes, it really depends on the professor and their perogative.</p>
<p>For some seminars and the like, enrollment will be limited at 15 or 20 and selection will be made from application and seniority. Usually, it isn't much of an issue.</p>
<p>I haven't heard of anyone not being able to get into classes unless they are strictly limited ones, like a First Year Seminar. Shopping period usually isn't too overwhelming for me since the past two I had my classes already decided for the most part except for maybe deciding between two for my fourth class, but I know people who go to 5 classes a day for a week before they've decided.</p>
<p>I second BOTH fredmurtz and Moat. I had shopping periods that were sheer insanity because there were just a ridiculous number of things I wanted to take, or I had NO idea what I wanted to take, and both of those yielded a shopping period of 9-5 class every day. I also had shopping periods some semesters where I literally did not shop at all because either I was fine with what I preregistered for or (for one semester) I was mostly locked into a particular schedule because of my concentrations and the way that I had planned out my completion of those in the long term.</p>
<p>Frankly, I found the crazier semesters of shopping to be more fun! It's so cool to be able to see what's going on in other areas of academic life that you may not be able to find time to stick with for the full semester.</p>
<p>I think that the average situation, though, is that students will start the year with 2 or 3 classes set in stone, and then shop for 1 or 2 to complete it. Another thing that is relatively common is to stick with five classes for several weeks (even after shopping ends) and then drop the one that you are enjoying the least/doesn't seem to be the kind of work you are interested in or excel at or whatever.</p>