Do parents have to go to the transfer student orientation?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Virginia Tech
1

<p>I've been planning to attend orientation with a friend who is also transferring. We were planning to drive there early morning and leave late afternoon. Now my parents voiced quite stubbornly that they want to go too, but their schedules are in conflict with my friend's. Thus we would have to attend different days. If I go with my parents, I'd leave my friend to go alone another day and have to stay another day to allow my parents to rest at a hotel.</p>

<p>What I want to know is how different do you think the the transfer orientation is to a regular student orientation?</p>

<p>I attended the VCU student orientation last year with my parents and can easily say that they forgot everything they heard.</p>

<p>Perhaps I am just being selfish in wanting to go with my friend?</p>

2

<p>Orientation is really for the students. IMO, parents are only there as the interested payor of tuition and fees. Regular student orientation covers two days: first day is all the general college information, student IDs, group rah-rah activities and a sleep-over in a dorm. Day 2 (morning) is when students meet with academic advisors and request classes for Fall semester. (the above was the orientation for DS last year). I think that there’s a sample itinerary for new student orientation on the VT website (perhaps for transfers as well).</p>

3

<p>I transferred from VCU to Tech in 2010. The transfer orientation is just a day long (from 9-5ish) and there isn’t too much extra programming like at freshman orientation. Personally, I don’t think parents attending are necessary, but that’s up to you.</p>

<p>If not much has changed, this is what happened when I went, and you can decide based on this schedule:

  1. Sign in, get free tshirt, go to opening program. Probably around 1.5 hours, admissions may talk about demographics and acceptance rates, some administration/faculty/etc talk about Tech, transfer orientation guides (TOGs) are introduced, there is talk about academics, and a skit from the TOGs.
  2. Break out into orientation groups. Introduce/talk to each other, do icebreakers, play games, eat lunch, etc. In my group we just did some basic talking and a Q&A with our TOG because no one was really into icebreakers.
  3. Go back to Commonwealth Ballroom and maybe hear some more talk about academics. Get broken into groups by college/major.
  4. Follow college group to another building, hear the Dean or some higher up faculty in the college welcome you and speak about their academics. Then get broken up into major.
  5. Major advising and course registration.
  6. End - get your student ID and visit other relevant offices (registrar, housing, financial aid, etc) if necessary. Can also go to the bookstore to buy books, take tour, etc. Nothing that you have to do though.</p>

<p>If your parents choose to attend, you’ll probably be together at the start and then get back together during the college info session and major advising/class registration part. Orientation itself might not be worth going to, but there are some general programs and events they can go to and people to talk to while you’re doing your own thing. They could also check out campus and Blacksburg since it’ll be fairly calm, but it’s definitely not necessary and most likely not extremely useful for them to go.</p>

4

<p>So I pushed for more compromise and was finally able to schedule the visit the same day as my friend. Unfortunately, my parents don’t understand me well enough to know that I normally think logically. They do not wish to go anymore, expressing their thoughts with the tone of disappointment. Now they think I don’t care about them, when our conflict of interest (as I have discovered after analyzing our argument) revolved around our personal opinion of the orientation. I, uncaring of the orientation yet knowing I was attending regardless of their decision, hold the event in low priority. My parents, with desire to see the campus and become informed of possibly important information, regard the orientation of high importance.</p>

<p>Sorry to burden anyone with reading this, but I had to outlet somewhere before it roots any further in my mind.</p>

5

<p>I drove my son to Blacksburg, because I didn’t want him making the long trip on 81 from Northern Virginia by himself, but I didn’t go to orientation. He never expressed to me that he was the only student there without a parent, but then he didn’t say much about orientation as a whole either.</p>