10 things we learned during RISD Wintersession

Two of our bloggers came back in early January to take a RISD Wintersession course. Here are some things they learned. 1. Getting into a RISD class is hard.Brown seems to advertise heavily how close we are to RISD and how strong our partnership is with the school. In reality, it’s pretty challenging to find a RISD class that fits with your future Brown Spring schedule, get into one, and organize the logistics to be back here during break. RISD is much smaller than Brown and the number of classes offered is smaller, with few spots in each one. Cross-registering for a RISD class is done solely through emailing instructors (I emailed mine back in October). Some are very responsive, some you never hear back from. Instructors will consider Brown students after RISD students pre-register and after the RISD waitlist is settled, so it’s difficult to know for sure if you’re in by the time January rolls around. Like Brown, if you show up the first day and keep showing up, it’s likely you’d get into a class. It’s just a matter of getting back to Providence and gambling that you can find a class when you get here.2. Leg day every dayWalking up and down the hill every day for class or to work in studio is rough, but your emotional and physical grit seems to develop over the course of the term. Forget something in your room and have to run up and down the hill in 10 minutes? The hill’s tough, but you’re tougher. I’m in awe of the fact that RISD kids have to hike up, down, and around it every day lugging materials, fighting snow, ice, rain, and gravity. Tougher than adamantine.3. The campus feels like a ghost town at first, but you learn to love it.Upon arriving Providence in the first week of January, I was pretty startled by how quiet the campus is during winter break. Add living in Grad Center to the equation, which is where ResLife sticks a lot of early arrivers, and pretty soon I was wondering what year it was. To all the athletes at Brown: kudos for doing this every break. That being said, once I got into the groove of Wintersession, the solitude became pretty relaxing. You’ll learn to enjoy this rare time of reflection, and maybe connect with a few acquaintances that are also taking a Wintersession class. In fact, the two bloggers writing this did just that.4. The overlap is absolutely maddening.How do you balance shopping period with your wintersession class? Answer: You don’t, so read this because we figured it out the hard way. The overlap between the shopping period at Brown and the final week of your RISD class during which you are supposed to working on your final masterpiece is a different level of hectic, so prepare for that by stocking up on Red Bull and organizing your shopping cart in advance. The more prepared you are for the spring semester, the less crazy it will be. That means registering as early as possible for courses that are capped during preregistration and e-mailing professors right away to be put on the waitlist so you don’t have to hop back and forth between 10+ classes. Please, for the sake of your sanity, do this.5. The glory of owning a RISD ID.YOU FINALLY HAVE A RISD ID. Yes, your ID photo may make you look...questionable (why is the RISD card office camera the quality of an actual potato?), but you now have access to the Nature Lab, the RISD library, among other glorious RISD destinations. Plus, the RISD card design is way prettier than the Brown card. Flaunt that sh*t. Oh, and RISD ID’s have this cool thing where you can leave it in your card case/wallet/pocket and just wave it in front of the door scanner.6. RISD kids are very intimidating, and very cool.At Brown, there’s that running joke that you can easily identify the RISD kid in your class. The Urban Dictionary definition for RISD is hilariously: “Rhode island school of design, also known as that weird school near brown or the school where everyone is dressed as if they're in a circus.” Walking into the Met (RISD’s dining hall) with a friend just to check it out, it felt like I was scuba diving in another world. Students at RISD dress so vibrantly, so boldly, so very un-Brown. It’s one thing to see “that RISD kid” in your language class, but another to see the campus community in one place.7. That “I’m not supposed to be here” feeling goes away (mostly).Just as you can spot the RISD kid at Brown, I feel like it’s really easy to spot the Brown student at RISD. It was definitely intimidating walking into class the first day, feeling like everyone knew I was a Brown student. Imposter syndrome at RISD is very real, and I often found myself wondering if I was good enough to keep up with people in my class. However, despite that initial intimidation factor, the instructors and classmates I had were all very welcoming and excited to have Brown students in the class.8. Supplies add up.You’re at the RISD store, and suddenly it’s like that impulsive feeling you get when you’re at the grocery store. Buying supplies seems justifiable, and it definitely adds up with each assignment. Materials, printing, etc. can be expensive, so make sure this fits within your budget.A side note: buy a respirator before you start anything. The legit ones cost $30. I know, I know, it seems ridiculous to buy one of those hard-core respirators for a class that only lasts a couple weeks, but I inhaled insulation foam without one for a couple hours and that is going to bite me in the ass in a few years. Suffering for your art isn’t a thing, right?!9. RISD’s mantra is all about “making."RISD emphasizes “making” and the documenting process. If you end up taking a class, get ready to take infinite photos of your journey from brainstorming to final execution. It’s extremely important to document everything and showcase that during project critiques. You’ll come to learn that project critiques are a blessing and a curse; they are a mix of pride in your final product, genuine feedback, and nails on a chalkboard. But it makes all the difference if you explain the process you took to get to your result *hair flip*.10. The hours are soooo long, but soooo worth it.Yes, the two week overlap of RISD finals and Brown shopping period is insane, you endure some cold-af days being back so early in January, and might suffer from bruises carrying all your supplies up and down College Hill, but all that work is so worth it. There's something so satisfying, unlike the format of many Brown classes, of having tangible examples of how much you learned and accomplished in a term.Images via Kenji Endo '18 and Mandi Cai '17.