Best Freshman Orientation Programs

We all know how important it is for new students to feel welcome and at home at their school. Which schools have most interesting, inclusive and fun orientation programs?

Tough to answer since I only know my own and my kids ? and don’t have a basis for comparison. Both were awesome. (Cornell and Purdue).

Freshmen go to campus early and have a week long orientation at Purdue called Boiler Gold Rush (BGR). Lots of fun stuff and activities, time to learn campus, school traditions, buy books, make schedule changes, do roommate agreements, go to activity fairs, the career center, and lots of trust building/bonding activities. My D’s year, they broke a Guinness book of world record for most people consecutively blowing whistles. She had a blast.

My husband and I were actually talking today about our orientations to college many moons ago. He went to LaSalle and I to Temple Ambler. He had a one day orientation and for the life of me I can’t remember having anything at all. We just dropped our oldest off at Haverford, and I’m very impressed with their program. Freshman come a week early for Customs Week, but Customs actually extends to the entirety of freshman year with extra support and inclusion. My daughter felt very at home and welcomed right off the bat. When she went to boarding school last year she had an adjustment period where she didn’t feel she fit in with her classmates or the school. She called today to share her surprise at not feeling that way at all at Haverford.

I’ve read Rice does an exceptional orientation week before classes starts. If anyone has a video, please post.

Dartmouth’s orientation trips are often one of alums’ most memorable parts of their experience. Really well done.

Colby’s is required of all students and is set up exceptionally well to make sure everyone has plenty of familiar faces and some nice initial bonds by the time classes start (and the experiences all take place in small groups off campus in the wonderful outdoors of Maine.)

I’m a fan of schools that make this mandatory-- I can think of schools that have good offerings but a stigma because "cool kids don’t need programs to make friends ".

Rice hands down!

I have to vote for Williams College.

The first week and a half is devoted just to getting to know your classmates, your school, and the local area. This year, First Days run from Monday, August 26, until the first day of class on Thursday, September 5. By the time classes start, you will be at home in your new college.

You will be part of two “families.” First, you will be part of your “entry,” a dorm cluster of 40 freshman and two volunteer Junior Advisors chosen by their peers. During First Days, you will do formal getting-to-know-you activities together. These will begin a whole year of being part of your entry. All year, this group will be there for you to navigate the challenges of the first year together.

Your second “family” will be an Ephventure group, with whom you will have lots of fun doing intense bonding activities for 3 and a half days, such as a 3-day backpacking adventure in the mountains, or visiting numerous cultural and natural sites in the immediate area and doing other fun group activities like cooking dinner for a local family. (My son, a sophomore, is leading an Ephventure group of first-years right now!)

Your entire class also all will have read the same book over the summer and come together in small groups to discuss it.

You also will attend typical orientation activities, meet with your advisor, and check out all the clubs you can join at the Purple Key Fair.

The orientation programs and freshmen entry are part of what makes Williams so great. It’s a welcome to the community.

Agree that no one can really compare more than 2 or 3, and even then only based on feedback from kids (very few students will go through more than one). My only experience is that Purdue’s BGR was tremendous for my D. Quite a change from being dropped off at CMU a few decades ago and figuring it out for myself.

Bear Beginnings/Convocation at WashU is one of the best freshmen orientations.

Yep. I suspect many (if not most) of the top colleges have orientations that are pretty similar. @TheGreyKing’s post about Williams sounds strikingly similar to the orientation programs at my alma mater (discussions of summer reading, freshman orientation groups, outings and outdoors adventures, etc.).

Larger schools like UCLA often have multiple orientations spaced out over the summer, which is a very different experience from the entire freshman class participating in orientation at the same time.

I seem to remember that your student is enrolled at Rice? If you are looking for videos, the school usually posts major school events on YouTube.