Welcome, @map888! My kid’s Thematic Option too! (Too recognize him, see above)
Just paid the deposit, so S is officially a Trojan!
Thanks for all the helpful info on this board with special thank you to @WWWard and @CADREAMIN USC should give you both tuition waivers for answering so many prospective student questions and being such knowledgeable advocates for the school
Welcome to the Trojan family @Naevia and thank you for the kind words! Whew - time for you to breathe a sigh of relief and know your S will have a wonderful 4 years!
@map888 Congrats on another Trojan!
@decision18 We loved that Dornsife dean! He had such a great way of communicating and engaging both the students and the parents. I wonder if my daughter will cross paths with the other kids of the parents here! My daughter is doing FSH, not TO, and she is choosing not to live in McCarthy (she’s hoping for Birnkrant). The kids should all have a CC get together LOL. Mine would probably rather die.
Welcome @map888 and @Naevia, here’s hoping all of our kids are super happy at USC!
@Naevia you’re welcome. Congrats and welcome to all those committing to the Trojan Family!
Well, son finally decided to withdraw from USC last night at 11:56pm. USC has been his favorite but we can’t get the finances to work. Hopefully, his withdrawal will open up a spot for another deserving student on the waiting list.
@bogeyorpar Well ya hung in there as long as you could, sorry to hear it didn’t work out. But there are so many great schools out there. And ya never know, maybe he will meet his soul mate where he is going, because he went there. It happens! 
Best to you.
What makes sense for parents to be involved in during the first week? Drop off is a little different if our D is in McCarthy (earlier than the rest).
@Notthehospital There are some good discussions on this on the USC Class of 2022 Parent Group on Facebook. My son will also be in McCarthy. We are coming in on Sunday night from So Fla, and planning on staying through Convocation on Thursday morning - everyone says it is a do not miss (if it’s possible to attend). We’ll either take the red eye out Thursday night, or leave Friday morning.
How important is it for a parent to attend orientation? My son is a confident traveler and would be fine attending by himself if the parent session isn’t critical - trying to save on a second expensive plane ticket to LA and two more days off work.
@Naevia Personally, I don’t think it is important to attend at all, particularly with big expenses or sacrifice involved. I went to the first one and found the info sessions to be things we had heard on tours or online. I see how parents that don’t know anything about the school or weren’t that involved in the process could benefit, but nothing earth shattering is revealed there. It’s generally a day make you feel good and comfortable about sending your student there. The student gets critical info, the parents, not so much, but you can bond with the school or other parents maybe. Frankly, after the first info session or so, my goal was to find other things to do during the info sessions (hello bookstore). Did get a water bottle at the lunch, wooohoo. Nice day but not necessary. For the next two I just showed up at end of day (because we drove in).
Thanks @CADREAMIN . I would probably end up finding any excuse to avoid the info sessions, too. I’ll skip this trip.
@CADREAMIN or anyone else who might know. Are the off-campus orientations much different in content than on-campus?
Funny- maybe it’s because I only have 1 kid and this is it but I’m really looking forward to being on campus for orientation. I’m excited for the whole program! Timing worked out well to because we already had a trip to LA planned for some other events so we just tacked on 2 days.
@TreeAlum Totally get that! I wasn’t saying no one should attend, a lot of parents do go, and a lot don’t because of time or money constraints. I was answering @Naevia in regard to having to pay for an expensive flight and missing work, and a “confident traveler” says a lot about a new freshman. We drove in and didn’t miss work to attend, so not a big deal for us. As a parent, it is a great time to get to know the school and hang out on campus, it will make you feel good about your student attending USC. But I just didn’t find the information sessions like safety and how to pay for college that worthwhile, so I don’t think the parent misses critical info, so while a lovely thing to do, it’s not mandatory. Others may really like the sessions and find them informative. The student and parents are separated throughout orientation just fyi.
@JohnGaltIII For the student, I think it is super important to attend at USC if at all possible. They make a lot of friends at orientation and when they come back in the fall, they really feel like they know what is going on. So while the student will get the basics covered like registering for classes at an off-site orientation, missing that overnight and spending time with other students in their school/major - and just getting the lay of the land, can’t be replaced at an off campus orientation. The regional office campus welcomes are different and can be fun to attend off site, but I strongly encourage to attend orientation at USC if at all possible.
@JohnGaltIII we are attending off campus. It is simply too expensive (both in time and money) to justify going to LA. We ar
My D and I are flying down Sunday for a Monday-Tuesday orientation. We’re in NorCal so flight is short and cheap. I booked a hotel in Santa Monica so while she’s at orientation, I’m going to get a 24 hour solo vacation. I’ll stay at USC as long as I want and then have some beach time!
My daughter attended orientation off campus. We did not go with her and it did not inhibit her ability to make friends at all. She made her good friends in the dorm freshman year.
^^^Absolutely - it’s fun and a wonderful opportunity for the students if they can go, but it isn’t practical for everyone for all kinds of reasons. After their first couple days on campus, those that didn’t attend will have caught up with everyone that attended. For those that have more trouble going away to college, it can be a good warm up for them and validation that they made the right choice. Any chance for them to meet people is good and they will also meet new USC friends at off campus orientations as well. Finding different channels to meet different people, like these events or joining clubs/organizations or participating in dorm events etc., early on is beneficial to the social experience. Of the people I know personally, where the college didn’t work and the student transferred, it was not the academic but the social aspect that was the biggest factor. It can be good to diversify social introductions early to hedge against an unfortunate room mate or floor pairing.
@CADREAMIN We are from New Orleans so that is a decent cost to go there for orientation. How many usually attend the regional orientations? And while you are being so kind as to assist we new parents, when do dorm assignments typically come out?