<p>They will send us an e-mail about signing up sometime in May according to the site. Not sure when we know the date we get. I asked how long the program takes and if we need to spend the night . People said it was an all day program, but nothing in the evening. I’m not sure when we will know the date we are going in order to get a hotel room.
Hopefully some of the parents and or students who have done this before will shed some light for us!</p>
<p>Well the summer orientation program, SOAR, is optional, as is WOW week. Being out of state, I did not attend SOAR, however, I heard I did not miss out on much. SOAR is an overnight event that takes place at cal poly later in the summer. Students have the option to stay in a dorm room (which they get to themselves), or just stay in hotel with their family (if you chose to stay overnight). Basically, they just tell you how to register for classes, but you don’t actually get to modify your schedule until later in the summer (freshmen are automatically assigned three classes usually, but you can try and add or switch classes. I’m not sure what else is done during SOAR, but if you can’t make it, you won’t miss too much. Just be sure you learn to use PASS, I wish I had learned earlier…</p>
<p>WOW on the other hand, is an event I’d encourage incoming freshmen to participate in. It’s a lot of fun and a good ice breaker. You get to meet new people and do fun activities around SLO. You are assigned a group with two leaders and about 12 other students, who are usually also from your dorm. All the activities with your WOW group are optional (but most people chose to participate in everything), so if you don’t want to do something or take a break, you can just hang out in your dorm or something. Some popular activities wow groups do include: kayaking, hiking, hot tubbing, campus tours, going to the beach, seeing shows, going out to eat, and playing games.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great info NTKS17! When i asked about SOAR, they said it was a one day thing and didn’t mention the overnight stay. WOW will be a bit shorter this year, but I think it will be the same amount of fun for the students. I haven’t hear how much it costs yet. I hope they let us know so we can prepare for another expense this summer. Cal Poly has a lot of fun activities for new students and parents!</p>
<p>Maybe they changed SOAR this year to be shorter. They shortened WOW, but not by as much as some people thought they would, so it should still be good. I’m not sure on the cost of SOAR, but I know WOW is about $200, but that’s because you’re pre-paying for a lot of the activities and things like entertainers who come do shows during that week for WOW groups to see. However, whenever my wow group went off campus to eat, we each had to pay for our own food.</p>
<p>Hey parents, particularly the first timers, on Sept. 13th your s/d’s will want you to get them to their dorm room, unload their stuff and then, get out of town? (Do not dare make his/her bed!!) Your job will be done and she/he will not want you hanging around. Unless the distance is too great, I would not even plan on staying overnight; certainly not in SLO. Get in, get out. (FWIW, my son found SOAR to be fairly useless and WOW to be a blast!)</p>
<p>Our family plans on staying over Sunday night and then leaving after our son gets settled in his room on Monday. The parent meeting will be during Soar when the students are learning about scheduling. That’s what I understand. Thanks for the advice about not hanging around too long on move-in day. I’m sure we will know when our son is ready for us to go.</p>
<p>WOW! $200 is quite a bit of money. I have heard that they have a lot of great activities, so it will be worth it. Sorry to hear that SOAR isn’t really worth it. I will wait to hear more about it when they send out an e-mail for registering.</p>
<p>Is SOAR the same as orientation? If they have sessions for parents, I would suggest that all first time college parents go. I went to the parent sessions when my older son went to Boulder and I came back with the some great information.</p>
<p>Ditto on the get out of dodge advice! </p>
<p>We plan on staying Sunday night and leaving after we drop of S on Monday to head out for a mini vacation. We will be empty nesters. I can hardly believe it.</p>
<p>Are your S’s or D’s living in the themed dorms? I really think my S should live in Tenaya (business major) but he is afraid of getting a triple.</p>
<p>SDMom56, we will also be doing a bit of vacationing after the Monday drop off. We plan to spend Tuesday sightseeing around SLO and then drive Highway 1 up to Oregon and then up 101 as we wind our way back home to Seattle. My wife and I have talked about doing this drive since we got married. Now we are going to do it!</p>
<p>Yeah, you get three on campus meals a day, but most people don’t use them all so they roll over to the nest week (the first week of classes). Most people aren’t aware of this (I wasn’t until the person sliding my card told me I had like seven meals left except it was the last day to use them so they went to waste). So you should keep track during WOW and then be sure to use any unused meals the next week to get your money’s worth.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m new here and don’t know the fancy options for quotes or even smiley faces but. . . .</p>
<p>Gopter states: Hey parents, particularly the first timers, on Sept. 13th your s/d’s will want you to get them to their dorm room, unload their stuff and then, get out of town?</p>
<p>While I agree with the sentiment, I will be staying over until Tuesday. That way if D decides she really really still needs. . . . (fill in urgently needed item), I can still run to the store - (she won’t have a car) and then drop of item during the dark of night, with stealth and discretion, leaving no footprints or evidence of parental presence. (insert smiley face).</p>
<p>dietz199, your plan sounds exactly what I had in mind when my son started in fall 2008 - I did not have to put it in action, but it made me feel better knowing it was an option!</p>
<p>i will be a freshman next year and i agree with gotpeter.
if we need anything else, we’ll figure it out…After all we’re reaching an age where we need figure things out for ourselves, on our own.
My dad will be staying over sunday night and leave monday afternoon.</p>