Hello everyone! I was talking to some friends and realized so many schools had different things for their freshmen orientation.
So what school are you going to and what does it plan for Orientation?
I am going to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and I will be an incoming freshman. Our’s is basically a full day process, which starts around 7:00 AM I believe (too lazy to look it up), and I believe there is a lunch in the middle of it. However, there is an optional weekend long event which I will be attending called “Power Up Weekend”. It is basically a weekend where you stay in the dorms and do activities to get you accustomed to the campus life and team-building.
I’m going to Case Western in the fall, and most students arrive on campus one week before classes start. Parents can stay for the first two days to help move in and go to sessions, but after that there’s a lot of the stereotypical orientation activities and games played.
What’s unique is that we have to option to arrive on campus 3 days earlier than the rest of the freshmen if you opt to do the ‘adventure’ program. You have to pay extra, but get to pick a theme (camping, volunteering…) and engage with other students of similar interests before orientation even starts.
My University holds a general two-day orientation - essentially the first day is just information sessions and presentations from various programs, departments, the administration, etc. The second day deals primarily with advising, course registration, and “ice breaker”/team building exercises with groups of students within your college/major.
My Honors College holds a weekend trip to a local island where we’re assigned roommates in special dormitories on the island. Meals are provided and there’s various “adventure” type activities (rock climbing, hiking, team sports, and so on.) There’s also a movie night and “arts and crafts.” The trip is entirely free of charge for the students, which I think is really nice. I wasn’t a huge fan of the trip itself (it was so damn hot and there were so many mosquitos) but the concept was great, lol.
My University, American U, has a two day orientation called Eagle Summit which is held during the summer. You have multiple dates to chose from but it is all done before you arrive on campus. They have you take ID pictures, get use to the campus layout, learn about academic policies/help policies, etc. Once you arrive in August, you have a ‘‘welcome week’’ which is mainly exploring the college, making friends, and exploring Washington DC.
To be honest, I feel like it is an unneeded extra expense and I wish that they would hold the two day event during Welcome Week instead of in the summer.
William & Mary does a week long orientation right before school starts. Most of it consists of presentations by orientation leaders, student performers, and administrators. But there are plenty of “fun” events as well. Since you are with your freshman hall at the time, there at a TON of mixers with other halls, ice cream socials, free giveaway events, pep rallys, serenading the President, touring the campus, flash mobs, magic shows, and many other things that I cannot remember right now. It is a fun but exhausting week. I think it makes sense to have it right before the year rather than during the summer and it leaves time to build lasting relationships that way too, rather than people you will probably never see again,
I am going to Drury University and they do a 3-day orientation for incoming students. We move in to our dorms in the morning and throughout the next 2 days we attend a bunch of presentations/talks/meetings and then we have a bunch of activities: bowling, out of campus dining, ice cream night, games out in the field, ice skating, the Greek festival, the student organizations’ festival, a chill/games/bingo night, and it all ends with a festival and a fireworks display created by a professor and student volunteers. I can’t wait! 
Hopkins has a three day orientation period a smorgashboard of events including; department introduction meeting (like an introduction lecture by the department director), meeting with your faculty advisor, sexual harassment presentation, security walk, acapella showcase, dance showcase, and a variety of club sponsored events. Most of the events are voluntary - with the exception of the department stuff and sexual harassment presentation - but most students go to a lot of the events in an effort to make new friends.
@preamble1776 What school is this?
MIT has a roughly week-long REX (residence exploration) where dorms and FSILGs put on a ton of events, and at the end of REX, students who wish to switch from their temporary dorm can request to do so. Then each dorm has its own in-house rush.
At the same time, students can decide to ASE certain subjects, and/or take the swim or boat tests.
There are also other lectures about GIRs, safety, diversity, sexual assault, etc… (the usual college stuff).
They also reserve the New England Aquarium for a night.
The University of Texas at Austin has a 3 day orientation. Overall Day 1 is introductions, Day 2 is advising, and Day 3 is course registration. Day 1 and Day 2 are filled with meetings with about UT life or your academic planning, but there also various social activities as breaks from traveling across hot Texas summer.
As far as I know, UT offers a downloadable pdf of the schedule and a orientation app.
@blackwidow22 this sounds awesome - My son is going to Drury University too. Where did you get all the orientation info from? He is coming from Zimbabwe!
Purdue has a one day STAR (Student Transition and Registration) program which is not optional. They also have a week long program called Boiler Gold Rush which is the week before classes start to get the students socialized and familiar with the campus. It is not mandatory but my D would recommend it. D2 (class of 2016) is attending Ohio university. They have a two day BSO (Bobcat Student Orientations). They have 3 outdoor pursuits programs for incoming freshmen that are optional which include backpacking in the Dolly Sods Wilderness, rockwall climbing in the Red River Gorge area in Kentucky and canoeing in the Minnisota Boundry waters.
WPI has what we call NSO (New Student Orientation), which is a series of activities over the course of the four days between Freshman move-in and the start of classes. It includes team-building with floor mates, campus orientation activities, introductions to your major, and lectures on time management and making the most out of your years at school. There are also evening performances by theater and comedy groups, and the year’s biggest Activities Fair. It finishes with one of the most important ceremonies in a WPI student’s career, the Bridge Crossing, where the whole class walks across a bridge on campus and officially becomes the “Class of ____”.
@zimmum how great!! Is he starting in August too? Here is the link: http://www.drury.edu/fye/fall-transfer-student-orientation-schedule
I’m an incoming freshman at Rhodes College in Memphis, our orientation is a two day event in late June. There we register for classes, meet with professors, and listen to various talks about college. Here’s the schedule if you’re interested: https://www.rhodes.edu/content/tentative-schedule-open-rhodes-2016-0
Loyola New Orleans has a three-day (or, more so, a two-night two-day) orientation in the summer, and then fall orientation (equivalent to “welcome week”) before classes begin.
The first night is basically a welcome session. The next day is a series of lectures, and the last day is scheduling classes. The itinerary is rather vague so I’ll have to report back with more details