So my family registered for orientation for june 6 (same day as me). It seems that family orientation only lasts for a single day. Would my family have to check out at a hotel?
Yes.
You mean check into a hotel? Yes, there would be no place for them to stay on campus. Wow, UT Austin orientation is short. I guess that the freshman class is so huge, they have to get the students in and out quickly.
@goingnutsmom Orientation is 3 days, family orientation is 1 day.
A year or two ago a friend of mine went to parent orientation and came home after the first day leaving her daughter behind. Another friend stayed in a hotel and made a mini-vacation out of it. She did not have any UT related activities or any meaningful contact with her daughter during those two days including when she registered for classes.
We are going to the June 6 orientation as well and will stay an extra night to enjoy the parent cook out and hang out a little bit. Our Longhorn will take the Megabus home on Wednesday night. Sort of a trial run for things to come.
We don’t go until July but, plan to drop DS off on the first day & head to the Hill Country for a couple of nights (also a kind of mini getaway!)
Oh, Ok. Well, 3 days of orientation is better but still seems short- UT Austin is such a big school to get acclimated to.
@goingnutsmom Move in day is the 19th and 20th, classes don’t begin till the 24th, they will have a few days to get to know the campus and where their classes are. For the freshmen they will have a bunch of things going on during that time as well, so they can make friends and explore. I’m not sure what a good length is for orientation, my daughter will be a freshmen. (first one in college)
They are really trying to peel the parents away from the kids after that first day. Having parents hang around would not be preferable. That is why they are specific about the parent day. 
I guess I’m use to giving students a week for orientation. But big schools would have a difficult time doing this. At my S’s school, the college president gave a speech after the drop off and parent activities then shooed all the parents away for the start of orientation. We were ok with that and took my S to dinner down the street and said our goodbyes afterward. He was ready to start his new life and I was ok with that- totally developmentally appropriate. Oddly, I didn’t cry but think that it will be different with my D’s drop off as it will leave us empty nesters.
My son lived in dorm on campus for 1st two years so he decided to leave his car at home and travel via Megabus. Let me say from a parent perspective, Megabus is very unreliable.
The kids will have meetings into the next morning depending on what department they are in. I know my student went until after midnight most days (engineering). I stayed at local hotel just in case and was glad I was available to help with securing classes on last day.