How did Shopping Period hurt you?

No matter how you feel about your first-semester here at Brown, I'm sure you'll understand the essence of the literally revolting sensation I was confronted with when I arrived back on campus. First semester, I picked classes not knowing the hellscape of essays, homework, and exams that was awaiting me. Don't get me wrong, Brown classes are interesting and worthwhile. However, that doesn't make the thought of doing it all again any less terrifying, and that's not even the worst of it. You know what the worst of it is? It's arriving on campus, realizing the amount of work ahead of you, and then being told there are two weeks of scheduled havoc (read: shopping period) during which you will have to sit on the floor constantly and CAB will be the only social media in your life. As shopping period ends, I reached out to some of my fellow students to find out how they felt about this peculiar chaos."It's violently disgusting," freshman Oscar Harris shared over text. As one of the people I know tackling both a humanities and hard science concentration (don't ask him which), he's in an unusual position. When asked to elaborate, he replied, "Every class has either a lab or a discussion section and every single class is sneaky as fuck about it."Obviously, shopping period hasn't been kind to this poor, overly-ambitious boy. His double concentration situation may be unique, but it certainly doesn't make him the only person hurt by this shopping plague. Some students have been struck with a case of what I'd call 'shopping fever.' Lucinda Lynton '22 recounts, "Last semester, I shopped 18 classes so I thought to myself, 'it can’t get any worse' and 'I’ll be better at the second go.' Oh, how wrong I was! I shopped 24 classes this semester. My final addition was an hour before the add/drop period ended, so now I’m kinda in deep shit with catching up on everything."When asked what her worst memory was during this shopping spree, she shared that it was "simply looking at all the books I need to read and catch up on." One particularly gruesome detail was her attempt to catch up on 200 pages of history reading only to not take that course. She described that moment "fairly traumatic." In my opinion, that is deeply traumatic.The intensity of shopping period isn't the only cause of campus misery. Freshman Alana Baer felt that some of the ethics of shopping period were a bit unfair."MCM is mean," she shared over coffee, "Sunday screenings are evil."Baer also raised qualms with the Literary Arts department, whose writing seminars have no beginner level unless you're a freshman fortunate enough to win the lottery. In addition, she shared that all the smallest English classes are filled before freshmen even get a chance to preregister! They are left to watch their fate be picked out of a hat for the waitlist because, for some reason, every English professor wears hats now.Other students shared their own variations of this horror story. Many remarked on the overwhelming amount of choice that made them legitimately afraid to shop more classes. One friend of mine, when I asked him to come to a lecture I thought he'd enjoy, leaped out of his chair and burst through a Ratty window before crawl-sprinting away on all fours. I also witnessed students rip syllabi to shreds in an attempt to obtain some course information when the professor clearly underestimated the volume of students desperate to fulfill a course requirement. Another sight was students stacked on the floor three criss-cross-apple sauces-high. Clearly, choice has gone too far.However, even in this dystopian landscape, there was some light. Freshmen Jackson Saia, an engineering concentrator, shared, "I didn't shop any classes this semester... I had 3 required classes for Engineering to take, so I took those. Then I picked a FYS that sounded cool and stuck with it cuz it was cool... BAM."Perhaps what we all can learn from these past two weeks is that shopping period can be chaos. However, that chaos is largely reserved for students with minimal course requirements. if you're ever looking to cut through the concentration stress, consider a STEM concentration. Trust me, after that, you'll never have to worry about shopping period again.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯