Bowdoin’s Class of 2028 began their first year much like the first years before them—the frenzy of settling into their bricks and the excitement of a new year, full of endless possibilities. However, the College’s changes to first-year class registration and orientation programming caused the Class of 2028 to experience a starkly different introduction to Bowdoin.

One of these changes included spending time on campus to acclimate to the College before leaving for Orientation trips. Prior to this year, first-year students left for O-trips right after arrival day. In a previous interview with the Orient, Associate Dean of Students Khoa Khoung elaborated on the decision to make the schedule change. “We decided that having a day for students to be on campus, to feel grounded, before sending them out into the woods of Maine or other communities, is just better overall for students’ experience,” Khoung said.

According to Khuong, the decision to make the first-year course registration happen before orientation was made in an attempt to limit the first years’ stress.

“Previous years chose courses during orientation, which just didn’t make sense because students were very stressed coming in, not knowing what courses they are going to be in,… and it’s just a whirlwind,” Khuong said. “Having course registration happen over the summer removes a lot of that stress from orientation.”

Registrar Martina Duncan ’97 echoed Khuong’s sentiment in an email to the Orient.

“I really liked that students had a provisional schedule before they came to campus and before meeting with their advisor,” Duncan said. “I feel like it gave some structure that had been missing. This method gave incoming students a chance to think through their schedule without the pressure of the first day of classes being right around the corner.”

Students from the Class of 2028 registered for classes on Canvas after watching a series of videos that introduced them to the College’s curriculum.

Students were instructed to select five unranked choices for potential first-year writing seminars within a ten-day window. After taking their placement exams, they went into Round 2, which is separated into three buckets of subjects. Then, students picked three courses within those subjects—a top choice and two backups. In another subject-bucket, they did the same thing with three different courses. Finally, they were instructed to pick a choice for each distribution requirement. Students were randomly assigned a course from their selections in all three buckets, along with their first-year seminar.

Grace Tetreault ’28 said that while she found the new registration system confusing and, at times, difficult to navigate, she appreciated having her classes picked before orientation.

Leah Kiros ’28 remarked that she felt the online video tutorials did not adequately prepare her for registration.

“I’m happy to have done it now, because almost all of my friends knew their schedules,” Kiros said. “By the time I was picking my schedule, I felt really late to the game. Just comparing [Bowdoin] to other schools, a lot of people knew what their schedule was, or had an idea of it, even before high school graduation.… I don’t think that the tutorials accurately prepared us, but I don’t know how they could have prepared us. It was just a weird system.”

Axel Nzi ’28 appreciated the new system for its convenience.

“When my advisor told me that they changed the system this year, I was very surprised, because I thought I was having a hard time,” Nzi said. “I couldn’t imagine what it was like before [the new system], trying to figure it out the day before classes started. So yeah, I’m pretty happy with [the registration process]. It wasn’t what I originally thought it was going to be, but it was good.”

Along with the incoming students, the new Senior Vice President and Dean for Student Affairs Jim Hoppe also began his time at Bowdoin.

Dean Hoppe expressed his appreciation and admiration for all of the volunteers who helped make orientation possible, along with the engagement and energy of the first years.

“I was impressed with the way the first-year students engaged at the different events; there was good attendance,” Hoppe said. “People were asking questions, people were having conversations, and those, I think, are all positive signs.”