<p>DS was able to review the course catalog and schedule a couple of weeks ago and has already mapped out a schedule. Registration is in July, done online. He chose his dorm room (and roommate) about a month ago. Orientation is the week before classes but he will already be there for his sport so we will have avoided the mad rush of move in. Downside is nobody to help move in, but since DH is the one bringing him for move in I am off the hook there. I will come for parent orientation about a week later.</p>
<p>We also went through the graduation requirements and made a list of mock classes and a schedule before we went. She went to her major building and they talked through everything in a big lecture hall with parents and students. It taught her a lot and the three of us were able to throw in our opinions on classes. Then she went off with her list to register. She was stressed and anxious, but met a girl freaking out as well and the two of them giggled and freaked out and the orientation people helped them through it. </p>
<p>I would agree it was like summer camp.</p>
<p>I had a child who had orientation before school started and one who went to a session during the summer. Either way is fine, but I think it alleviated a lot of stress to have done it during the summer. My sons orientation was a week long and it said it was way, way too long. </p>
<p>Thank you for the nice welcome! Thank you for the tips about orientation - very helpful. I will share them with my daughter. She’s in a nursing program, so she has a list of what she is supposed to take, but looking at the actual times to make a schedule is a great idea! And that it’s like summer camp - I love it. We’ve been to the college several times and were told that the parent orientation would be a repeat, so we’ll leave her there - cue the tissues - and take her sister for 2 days and 1 night of sightseeing. Interesting that orientations are run so differently depending on the college. Now I’m off to read - apparently 875 pages!</p>
<p>Orientation during summer? Hmmm. I’m thankful that Cornell will have their orientation few days before the actual start of classes. Plane ticket from Cali to Ithaca can be expensive.</p>
<p>I am also surprised to learn of all the detailed orientation days at different colleges, and how they help build class schedules etc At UPenn, orientation is a few days before classes start, students are already registered for their courses by end of june. From what I know, orientation days at Penn are mostly social days, allowing them to get to know the campus, services and the community better. Am I missing something?</p>
<p>Graduation rehearsal yesterday, and they distributed the special senior edition of the school newspaper. I always like seeing where kids are going. Turns out there will be 9 kids from DS’s high school who will be at college with him. </p>
<p>No surprise that of the approximately 450 seniors, around 1/3 will be going to college in Virginia, most at UVA. But the rest are scattered all over the US (and even the world), with 97 different colleges represented. There are 4 going to foreign universities, including one going all the way to Australia! 23 students are going to the opposite coast, with 10 of them at Stanford. 52 will be at Ivies, 12 at MIT, but only 1 at Cal Tech. Three are deferring enrollment and taking gap years. And every service academy will enroll at least one student.</p>
<p>Pretty interesting range of schools for these kids.</p>
<p>No surprise that your son’s school, 2014novamom, has all those kids going to the Ivies, Stanford and MIT. It is an awesome STEM school. Most of my son’s graduating class is staying in VA, too, although one is heading to Cornell (he is a nationally-ranked polo player), one heading to West Point and one heading to the Merchant Marine Academy (he will play basketball there). The two big schools this year are CNU (we must have a dozen kids going there) and Coastal Carolina (just say the word beach and they all run). Son '14 visited both schools and liked both schools. But he never wanted to go to college with everyone from high school. </p>
<p>The college shopping continues. Sent a few things to my folks’ home since we’ll visit there soon. Did not want them sitting on the front porch for days. Son '14 lets me handle all the shopping – he is not much of a shopper unlike his brother who loves to spend my hard-earned money! We’ll hit the outlets when we visit my folks in SC – I would not be surprised if my mom, who usually does not come with us, decides to tag along. This is the youngest grandson, so he may benefit from being the youngest and garner some extra things. My dad loves taking him shopping, because he always wants to select nice things to wear – last time, it was ties! But if this makes my folks happy…</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Son '14 is awaiting word from his college track/cross country coaches regarding summer workouts. Since he figures the word “run” will be a big part of the workouts, he got up early the other day and did nearly 12 miles before the heat hit. Then, he volunteered at a summer track camp at the opposing high school because many of the guys on the team there are good friends. This weekend, he’ll referee a big soccer tournament, which will give him spending some money for college.</p>
<p>Last final exam here today. Senior lunch on Monday and graduation on Tuesday. I can’t believe it. He wore a nice shirt to school today. Said he wanted to look nice for his last day. He’s a funny guy. Younger son still has finals Monday and Tuesday, then he’ll be a senior. Yikes! S14’s college has orientation along with move in. Classes will be arranged in July after final transcripts and AP scores are received.</p>
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<p>I went to Penn myself back in the day (those few days before classes started were beyond fun as I recall and it’s where I made most of my friends that year), so I was surprised by the orientations scheduled from late May through August for the large state flagship my son will be attending. I’m guessing this is mostly a function of the sheer size of some of these schools. I’ve been told there’s just no way to provide a proper orientation to 5,000+ students across a 1,000+ acres without spreading them out over the summer. It’s does create a fair amount of stress for OOS families, however. Aside from the cost of traveling to campus twice, it’s a huge time commitment. </p>
<p>Are there any big universities with a large number of OOS students that have found a better, more efficient way to do it?</p>
<p>Re: orientations - UCSB does required two-day orientations throughout the summer. Students sign up for the dates that suit them, but the earlier dates are better because students meet with their advisors and enroll during orientation and it’s first come/first served for classes. Parents are also welcome to come, and are in a different program than the students. I’ve opted to go. We will be in the first session: June 30/July 1.</p>
<p>Although the University of Michigan does orientations all summer, there is a late orientation session at the end of August, just before the other kids move in, for international or out of state students who can’t make the trip twice. My cousin’s daughter did this (she’s from Alaska) and it worked out great for them. Her mom flew in with her and shopped for her dorm stuff while her daughter was at orientation. Then during the official move in days following, they put her room together, explored Ann Arbor, etc. </p>
<p>BarnardGirl had orientation for a week before classes started. I thought that was kind of tough. We had exactly 4 hours to move her in and get off campus so they could start orientation. It felt very abrupt to just leave and have her head to a session. She hadn’t met anybody yet (because you meet folks at orientation first!). It was just all very rushed and we couldn’t even get her all unpacked before we left. She’s doing fine now, but it was stressful at the time. </p>
<p>Older son who’s at brown had orientation just before classes began. We got there early the first day and had him unpacked in a few hours, since all 4 of us did the move-in. Brown doesn’t have upper classmates helping out like other schools do. Son 2, from this thread, just heard he got into the pre-orientation program he wanted at tufts (they offer 4). So, he’ll arrive a week earlier than orientation to move in and then will do community service in Boston for a week. We’ll need to drive up twice, once on August 21 and then again for official orientation on aug 27. Then will help older son move in as a senior (!) on aug 29. After that, we’ll be empty nesters. Hard to believe.</p>
<p>Oberlin does orientation the week before school starts. They also include activities for the parents for 2 days and then kick us out. I like that better than the 4 hours Barnard Mom described! Registration for classes was earlier this month, I think…not sure since we weren’t involved with that. D did it online.</p>
<p>I prefer the model of orientation just before school starts. In addition to the extra travel/scheduling hassle, another disadvantage of the summer orientations is that the students don’t meet their whole class, just a small subset who chose the same date as them. </p>
<p>DS1 is at Cornell and they did orientation prior to classes starting in August. They registered for classes online during the summer without having met with an advisor – they just got emailed generic advice. They could meet with an advisor when they arrived if they needed to make any changes.</p>
<p>DS2 is going to UVM and we did his summer orientation already. It was nice for getting him a little more psyched about heading off to school there. He made some friends, and has stayed in touch with them, so he’ll have some friendly faces when he arrives.</p>
<p>DS did his orientation session this week. We liked that it was well organized and had an optional add-on program that was an orientation to the city of Philadelphia. We think it was also good that it allowed him to move past the high school experience early in the summer. It is an issue that they don’t meet all the freshman since there are about six sessions over the summer. Also they received draft schedules that are not worth much since he is likely to place out of two of them based on AP scores we’ll get in July. He did decide to do honors housing. Pros: huge, newly renovated, air conditioned rooms. Cons: They’re quads. All in all a good experience they do move in on a Thursday and classes don’t start until Monday so they will have unstructured time to get to know each other, buy books and such before classes start.</p>
<p>Orientation sessions happen 14 different times during the summer here, so those students coming from far away can sign up for the last session right before the official dorm move-in, but they actually get permission to move into their dorms earlier than everyone else. The caveat though is that the selection of classes dwindles. </p>
<p>Earlier I mentioned that when D signed up for her classes during orientation there were advisors circulating, but I failed to mention that the students had to also make 1:1 appointments with an advisor in their chosen major or through the university studies office at a later date. Out-of-towners got a 1:1 appointment during orientation after they did their own registration. D’s appointment was today. I guess it’s to make sure they signed up for the right classes, pre-req’s, etc… </p>
<p>One thing D did when setting up her schedule was check out the professors’ ratings on the rate my professor website. If the professor or instructor has consistent bad ratings, steer clear of that person if at all possible. </p>
<p>The good thing about going to one of the final orientation sessions at Son '14’s school is that the AP scores will be in, so he will not need to make wholesale changes (hopefully) on his schedule. My big concern will be if he can get a Calculus III class – right now, the pickings are slim. If some kids overestimated what they did on the BC exam, they will probably need to drop Calculus III, which would open some more slots. He probably will be out of most of the genEd requirements, thanks to AP/DE classes, so I suggested that he look for at least one fun class that he might enjoy. While it is nice to jump into a major, it is also nice to take a class just for the pure enjoyment – there is a health and wellness class online, I told him, that may be perfect for him since he is into physical fitness.</p>
<p>Since my son has been slow to warm up to his school choice (but is beginning to embrace it), I think mid summer orientation will be good for him. In the mean time, he just got a job bussing tables. His best buddy told him he was resigning so my S went in and applied on the day his friend resigned. He was hired on the spot…lol. He is also doing an unpaid internship with a local elected official who is running for our state congress, working on his campaign. He’s LOVING that. That fell into his lap because a former classmate is the other intern and recommended him for the position. </p>
<p>I like how College of Charleston does orientation – several options during the summer, but they reserve the last one (right before school starts) for those who live 700 miles away or more. So S and his buddy from HS are both going to that one.</p>
<p>Graduation day is here! Hoping for no fireworks from D or soon to be ex-H. I have my side of the family coming to celebrate. They promise to create a diversion if D starts in on how I ruined her life. The signal is Pellegrino. Example: D says “Mom I can’t believe you’re so selfish to leave Dad after all these years.” Me: “I think I’ll get some Pellegrino” then my nephew and his wife start an even BIGGER fight, leaving D high and dry.</p>
<p>Wish me luck.</p>
<p>Orientation was one day, 8-4. The gen ed curriculum is very, very different, so that did have to be explained. Advising in small groups and then students registered themselves online. I did like that a certain number of sports opened up each day for students coming to orientation. So, if you got the last day (Friday), there would still be some openings in every class. D happened to get the last spot in her design class, but the next day, when the next group of students arrived, more spots would be opened up. Because she chose a small school, there were a fair number of course conflicts. In the end, she was happy with what she got. </p>