Attended L&S orientation last week and I’ll add my two cents. The students are put into groups with others in the same major.
For the parents, most of the time you are sitting in an auditorium. You walk a short distance to the dining commons to eat and then back to the auditorium again. The meals are very early and your student will be in there the same time as you for all meals. Some students ate with their parents but the majority sat with their orientation groups.
At the end of the day parents walk to the ARC and back. Some parents didn’t realize the ARC was so far away from Scrub Oak (Tercero) - especially in the heat. UCD should have made accommodations to transport parents with mobility problems as there were a few in our group who had difficulty with the walk. The second day parents are in the same auditorium and walked a bit to get to the Faculty Advisor Meet & Greet but otherwise sat all day.
As far as what to bring, check the weather in advance. The week before it was 107. Our first day was around 100 but the second day was 88 which was rare. Make sure your student has lots of class options and does his/her research about GE classes before arriving. Your student should have a laptop rather than a phone or iPad for class selection.
Regarding the Family Program:
Surprisingly, I thought the History of UC Davis was well done. The speaker was pretty interesting
Family Networking was a waste of time. Hang out in the dining commons or wander around campus instead. They basically had No Cal people in the back of the room, So Cal people in the front and Central Cal and out of state in the middle and told us to mingle with each other for an hour.
College Orientation - They let us know that the courses were listed as closed on Schedule Builder but that they would open seats that evening. That evening it only showed one open spot in each class. Students trying to sign up for big classes like calculus, chem, bio, etc. started panicking. When the time came to actually sign up for classes (everyone submits their choices at the same time - 4 pm) there was more than one spot in each class but not very many spots. The rest of the information can be found online but it is not all in one place. If you are someone who had already read through the various pages of the UCD website then it was probably redundant. If not then the presentation was probably informative.
Student Health - Student must give WRITTEN permission at EACH visit for parents to find out anything about what was discussed. They cannot sign a blanket permission to cover all four years. For emergencies, students are taken to Sutter Hospital in Davis.
We have Kaiser insurance so were approved to waiver out of UC SHIP. The Kaiser facility in Davis has primary care, OB/GYN and eyecare. They are open M-F and don’t have an urgent care. For other services, the closest Kaiser hospital and clinic is in Vacaville. The bus to Vacaville is free with a student ID.
Even though we waived out of UC SHIP, any UC Davis student can use the student health services for a minimal cost ($15-$20/visit). https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/about/common-fees The pharmacists will help guide students and let them know if prescriptions are cheaper if the student goes to Rite Aid or Kaiser and uses their personal medical insurance.
Financial Aid has been covered if you went to open house or a local reception. Accounting was important and I didn’t think the presenter was all that great. She used the power point from 2015 that is on the website at http://afs.ucdavis.edu/our_services/student-accounting/documents-folder-not_used_by_navigation/sa201orientation.pdf
You can’t set up your auto pay until after you receive your first bill in August. I think it would be more efficient if they had people there ready to help new parents set up direct payment at orientation. They want your money. Why not make it easier for parents to pay? Parents had lots of questions about 529 plans but they ran out of time so the speaker, along with a large group of parents, went outside to answer questions.
Deferred payment plan (auto bill) only covers tuition, housing, health insurance and document fees. If your student charges anything else to the account (ex. orientation costs, student heath visits, prescriptions, etc), you must log on and pay for that separately.
Aggie Parent Association - Not a very good presentation.
Aggie Family Experience - Might not be worth the time in the heat but they had several hotels, a couple of large apartment complexes, Davis Creamery, Woodstocks, the bookstore selling shirts, hats, etc. Lots of give-aways and freebies.
Day 2
Student Housing and Dining - Students will find out their roommate and room in mid/late August. You will also receive dimensions of the room. Odd room numbers move in on the 23rd, even on the 24th. They are starting construction on Cuartro so less students (670) will be living there. They will break ground on Tercero 2 dining commons in the winter (?).
Advisors Meet & Greet - Poorly organized. Not all majors/depts present. Many advisors didn’t know the answers to parents questions. They were all very kind and receptive but just not equipped with much information. It was crowded. Would have been better if they did this in two sessions instead of one large session.
Aggie Student Perspective - 6 kids stand at the front and they ask if anyone has any questions for the students. Could be great if parents have good questions. Could be bad if there are no good questions.
In my opinion, the rest of day two was just filler.