Freshman Orientation

<p>Throwing this out there in case someone has an answer. I was looking at the orientation dates on the OSU website. </p>

<p>How do they schedule Honors & Scholars students first when some of the dates are the same for everyone?</p>

<p>When you go to select your classes, do they set it up right there or do you select it there and then they build the course schedule once everyone has been to orientation?</p>

<p>I would like us to go on the earlier dates, rather than the later, but am not sure we will be able to. S is in scholars-will he still have a good chance of getting into wanted courses if we go to a later H & S orientation date?</p>

<p>I am sure I will have many more questions to come as it gets closer.</p>

<p>My recommendation is to go to the earliest orientation that you can because you will be scheduled at that time. You might not have as many choices if you take a later orientation and some classes are already filled. Don’t worry if you don’t have your AP scores in time because you can get your advisor to adjust your schedule after your scores come out. </p>

<p>My son was engineering honors. I think we attended an honors orientation. At that time we went to a presentation where the engineering advising staff explained the class options and then asked the students to fill in a form with their selections and take it to their assigned advisor who would then do the actual enrollment online. He was an honors student and had the option of signing up for the first year engineering honors sequence but he could have opted to take the general sequence instead. Regardless, there was no question that he would be able to enroll in the engineering classes that he needed. However, if he had wanted to take a general education class in another department, he could have been closed out of sections with the more desirable time slots. He did not technically have priority scheduling until his second quarter enrollment when he was able to enroll online himself. Your orientation may be different if your son is in a different college or is not honors.</p>

<p>For the honors kids, the priority enrollment kicks when you register for second quarter classes. On Buckeye LInk on the Student Center, at some point during the quarter, you can check when your next enrollment window will open. At that time, you can log in to the online registration system and choose classes. It seems confusing at first but the kids get the hang of it quickly. The honors enrollment opens earlier so my son has never had a problem getting the classes he wants. However, I don’t think that the scholars get priority registration at all.</p>

<p>To my understanding Scholars get priority scheduling within their “rank” as in freshmen can schedule before other freshmen. Honors get priority scheduling univeristy-wide. So yes, one of the benefits of Scholars is a certain level of priority scheduling.</p>

<p>But-that still leaves the question: Do they need to be at the first of the dates to in fact get scheduling before someone who is not in H & S?</p>

<p>It is advantageous to go to the earliest orientation regardless of whether you are honors, scholars, or regular. I don’t think priority scheduling applies to the very first registration so the only way to maximize your choices is to go early.</p>

<p>Registration for Fall classes will open as early as April 30 for current students (not incoming students). Often for introductory classes, there are a fixed number of seats available divided among multiple sections. The sections starting at desirable times tend to fill earlier than those at odd hours. So if an entering freshman of any status (scholars, honors, or regular) wants to take a class like Psych 100, he would only have a choice of those seats that are not already taken by current students who registered in April/May. </p>

<p>The incoming freshmen get their stab at what is left beginning at orientation. As the orientations progress, those in later sessions will have more limited choices as the seats fill. In other words, the classes fill on a rolling basis regardless of honors/scholars. At the first registration, H&S don’t really get “priority” registration. In subsequent quarters, I know that freshman honors kids start getting earlier registration windows but they still register behind honors upperclassmen.</p>

<p>That said, most of the introductory classes have many seats available and I am sure your advisor can get you into any classes that you need to have even if it is not the section/time that you want it.</p>