<p>If you can swing it financially, I do not recommend attending Freshman Orientation Session #7. </p>
<p>The experience is not the same as the earlier sessions. </p>
<p>Students are not housed together on Lower Campus like they are in the earlier sessions, but scattered across freshman housing, including those unlucky enough to end up at Newton. You could end up (as my DD did) the only student (including no RA) on her entire floor for 3 nights - taking the bus over to campus. </p>
<p>Classes fill up too. They’ll hold open spots in classes, but you won’t get the ideal section times - how about a Chem lab on Fridy night from 6-8? </p>
<p>And don’t send (USPS, UPS or FedEx) your stuff ahead expecting to pick it up on Saturday or Sunday so you can move in to your dorm room. The Post Office is closed on Saturday and Sunday and you don’t have time on Monday or Tuesday to get it.</p>
<p>Hi stanford78, I’m an international student in Shanghai and I’ve planned to sign up for Session #7, mostly because it’d be inconvenient if I attended the earlier sessions, as I’d have to travel back and forth. When you say that “students are not housed together … like they are in the earlier sessions,” can you elaborate a bit more? What do you mean by this exactly? I was under the impression that housing was decided before orientation, and that the session we attended would not affect which room we’re assigned. And is it possible to register for classes before orientation via the website or something? I’d hate to have all the preferable class times taken up. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>There is no way to sign up for classes before. You will be able to get into classes, but maybe not the classes or sections or professors that are preferred by most students.</p>
<p>For every orientation session except the last, you are housed in a dorm on lower campus. The whole dorm is full of incoming freshman attending your same orientation. Since you are all together, it’s really easy to form friendships. For session 7, you are housed in your dorm room that will be your permanent housing for the year. While you lose that sense of community, you get to move in before the rest of the freshman class. You might be the only person on your floor for a few days until everyone else moves in. For some students, that can be scary or lonely.</p>
<p>Note, however, that for typical frosh courses, like writing/english, BC reserves slots for each orientation. And yes, that could mean a poor lab section. But heck, that happens for Sophomores too. My D could only register for an Organic chem lab on Thursday evening. Fortunately, students add/drop through the first week of class, and in my D’s case, she was literally on a plane to return to Boston for the semester start. Since she had paid for the internet access on the plane she noticed that a different chem lab opened up, and she snagged it from 39,000 feet.</p>
<p>“Stuff” happens in the registration lottery.</p>
<p>Chocosoap - I would imagine that coming from Shanghai for anything other than Session #7 would be out of the question. So just be forewarned about how Sesstion #7 differs. By Session #7 everyone will know their housing assignment. But students who come to the earlier sessions won’t be housed there. They will be housed in a sophomore dorm being used just for that purpose - freshman orientation. Those who come to Session #7 will move into their dorm rooms. But you won’t have a lot of time to get settled because the orientation activities take up most of your time. You’ll have time for that after orientation during the move-in period for all freshmen that immediately follows.</p>
<p>There isn’t any way to sign up for classes earlier than your orientation session. And I agree with the other posters that you’ll generally be able to get the classes you want/need, but you may not get the “preferred” professors or sections or labs. And, yes, things do change during the drop/add period. My DD was able to get out of the Friday 6-8PM chem lab into something a bit more civilized.</p>
<p>With respect to getting your “stuff” to campus, we used UPS to get it there. Knowing what I know now, I would’ve simply had my daughter pack extra bags and take them with us on the plane at whatever the airlines charge per extra piece of luggage. It would’ve been less expensive than shipping (and I bet a LOT cheaper than shipping from China) and she would’ve had everything with her when she arrived and “moved in” to her dorm room. I figured this out when we ran into another BC freshman at our hotel and she arrived with 8 suitcases!</p>
<p>I hope that helps.</p>
<p>^^another alternative, which I have used with both of my kids, is to ship ground to the hotel. No fuss, no muss.</p>
<p>Yes. That’s an excellent alternative. Had I known about the Post Office situation that’s what I would’ve done too.</p>
<p>to be fair, the “post office situation” is similar at many colleges, and probably has gotten worse as many students order their books online, so the college mail rooms are deluged with packages right before classes start.</p>
<p>Well, to be really fair - they could easily figure out how to have extended weekend hours the weekend before freshmen move into the dorms.</p>