<p>My son is starting Amherst in the fall and doesn’t know a soul there. He doesn’t see that as a problem because he is very outgoing and feels he will just meet people at orientation. I, however, think it might be a good idea to at least have some contacts beforehand. My friend’s son who will be attending a different school has already “met” some classmates through Facebook.com. My son said that you need an Amherst email address to go on that site and that he has not received his yet. Any freshmen out there who has gotten his yet? If so, did it come in the mail or did you have to call the school? Also, do Amherst students use Facebook.com as a way to meet each other? If anyone has any info on this matters I would appreciate your imput. Thanks.</p>
<p>Amherst '10s have already received their email addresses, a couple hundred of them are online at facebook already.</p>
<p>Facebook overall is an... interesting way of meeting people. It's a great idea for roommates, when you get those in august, and finding people with similar interests. You tend to not get to really get to know people too well on facebook, and orientation really is a great way to meet people. Nothing but freshman there for 4-5 days, lots of downtime to go exploring, and people on your floor/dorm to get to know. But again, facebook is a good option too. I remember going last year during orientatigon and already having people to go meet the first couple of days because we had been facebook friends.</p>
<p>Overall, facebook=good/useful but not essential</p>
<p>Thanks. My son never got his email address. He will call tommorrow for it.</p>
<p>They should have sent an email to your current email account with instructions on how to access it.</p>
<p>If not, your email address should be (First Initial)(Last Name)<a href="mailto:10@amherst.edu">10@amherst.edu</a>. Your password should be the same as the one you used to log into the Amherst site everywhere else.</p>
<p>So if your name is Bill Smith and you've been using the password "example", it would be something like this:</p>
<p>Email: <a href="mailto:BSmith10@amherst.edu">BSmith10@amherst.edu</a>
Password: example</p>
<p>More instructions on how to access your account can be found here:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amherst.edu/it/students/new/%5B/url%5D">http://www.amherst.edu/it/students/new/</a></p>
<p>Have your son post here and start a thread about who is going? He will get a lot of responses, I am sure.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. My son had a password at one time, during the application process, but it has long been forgotten. I think he will have to conact the school to get it ironed out. Don't think he will post on cc. Good idea, though.</p>
<p>I am Amherst '10.</p>
<p>I am not sure if all email addresses are the same format. Mine was:
(FirstInitial)(MiddleInitial)(LastName)<a href="mailto:10@amherst.edu">10@amherst.edu</a></p>
<p>I don't think anybody is really expecting to make some friends on facebook, but rather to get an idea of people that we will want to meet during orientation, as well as providing ourselves an outlet for any nervousness or anxiety about going to college. A 200+ person group of people about to experience the same changes that you are is a nice venue for that.</p>
<p>Before we got our email addresses, a few of us were posting on this forum and that was an almost-as-good-way of finding people to talk to.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. We finally got it resolved with the school and he got his email address and I think he is now on facebook. I have suggested cc to him but, maybe because it was my suggestion, he has not chosen to post on this site. I am sure he will be ok once he starts school. I think this is more traumatic for me than him! Good Luck this fall!</p>
<p>Don't worry about son. My D went last year without knowing a soul, and after contact with roommate, it appeared that she still didn't know anyone! Needless to say, she has many friends, and she and about 5 friends all applied to and will be rooming in the same dorm this year, and my D was not a social butterfly, and lived in sub free housing, and made lots of friends. Your son will, too. One enterprising young man last year started a website for Class of '09. Perhaps someone can do that for this year's class, too???????</p>