For maybe the first time ever, the student at the front of the Phase II registration line was already set with four classes. When Ricardo Zarate '13 arrived at Moulton Union at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, he was not planning on spending the night, but said he thought sleeping over would make a good story.
"I came here to print something and figured I would just stay," Zarate said.
"It seemed like a good idea," he added. "I wanted to be able to say I was the first person in line at Phase II."
Zarate spent the night, along with five other students, to get into The Politics of Development, a class taught by Assistant Professor of Government Ericka Albaugh.
"I was up to 3 a.m., but then I slept," he said. "I feel like I am going to keel over any second now."
The handful of students who camped out in Moulton, some of whom brought sleeping bags while others used couch cushions, all looked weary by 7:30 a.m. Wednesdasy morning when the Office of the Registrar opened.
Though Lancaster Lounge was full by the time Cote arrived, she said the "six or seven" registrar staff members were able to get 165 students through in the first hour.
"We cleared the place out by 8:30 a.m.," said Cote. "The fact that we can do 165 in an hour, to me, is great."
After the frenzy of the first hour, the atmosphere calmed down significantly.
There was "a little bit of a flurry around 9:30 a.m., but since then it was just a couple people here and a couple of people there," Cote said.
"Last year we did 412 students," by the end of the first day, said Cote. "A wild guess this year would be 425—just a little bit more than last year," she said.
Cote expected that "60 percent of visits" would happen in the first day. "There will probably be a few tomorrow [Thursday] and a few on Friday," said Cote.
According to Cote, most students have to go to Phase II because their "classes or labs are full or they have to rearrange a class to get into a lab they need to take."
But, said Cote, there are also "many cases where students have not checked the prerequisites for a course."
According to an e-mail sent to the student body by Associate Registrar Jan Brackett on Wednesday, "252 course requests were denied because the student did not have the course prerequisite or a signature to override the prerequisite [and] 32 course requests were denied due to another course rule."
An additional "79 course requests were denied due to a time conflict," stated Brackett's e-mail.
One student said she thought she had to go to Phase II registration for this reason.
"It's probably my fault in some way," she said.
Liz Fox '12, who was trying to get into Liberalism and Its Critics as well as History, Reason, and Freedom, arrived at Moulton at 12:45 a.m and said sleeping over was not unpleasant.
"It was less than painful," she said of the experience.
"I slept for a couple of hours," said Fox, who was third in line. "It's colder than you'd think though."
According to Fox and Zarate, most people spent the evening working or sleeping.
"But there were some people watching an Origami DVD for a while," said Zarate.
One first year student said he was very productive despite the tension that surrounds Phase II registration.
"I wrote a whole paper tonight," said Ryan Holmes '13, who also listened to "many Beatles albums" to make it through the night.
Music seemed to be a source of solidarity for the students who stayed in Moulton overnight. Registrar Christine Cote said that when she arrived at Moulton Union at 7 a.m., the first few students in line had written songs about Phase II registration and were singing them for the office staff.
"When you are here at five o'clock in the morning you have to do something to entertain yourself," Cote said.
Despite the sleepless hours spent on the hard floor of Moulton Union, most students were happy they had stayed over night.
Fox, who was surprisingly chipper for having only slept three hours, said she had no regrets.
"I just wish I had brought more coffee," she said.