<p>This has been most informative. I feel like we have a whole new set of questions to ask when we do our college visits.</p>
<p>I hear you about one person's dream prof being another's nightmare. And so it is with advisors. My son's advisor at High school is considered a favorite, but she has not done a very good job for and with him. At college, my son had a terrible advisor initially, but was able to switch and things were much better. My D was assigned an advisor who had no info, no knowledge, no interest in the program that my daughter was in. He was a wonderful guy, personality wise, but was of no help, and my daughter was reluctant to dump him because he was so "fun".</p>
<p>Don't mean to drag on a post if it was not the poster's intention, but I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with freshman orientations. Which ones are particularly noted at helping freshman become acclimated to their surroundings? I have often found them exceptionally long, with the kids not knowing what to do and ready to get in to the swing of things after about day 2 or so...</p>
<p>Pomona and I believe the other Claremonts do a wonderful job with this. There is a 4/5 day outing sailing, hiking, canoeing, ultimate wilderness, Intro to Southern Ca., beach camping and more to choose from. The students stay close with their small group 10-12 students with 2 sponsors. They also are different sponsor groups on their hall so have a lot of bonding experiences, and do a lot together the first few weeks.</p>
<p>I don't have other first-hand data points with which to compare but I thought Smith's was very good: structured enough that you knew what was when/where/why, not so rigid that you couldn't bail on things you wanted to skip in favor of something more important to you...like going to Herrell's for ice cream. It was fairly clear from the events as to when it was okay for parents to be there and when it was time for them to already be gone. I did not see faculty and admin breaking out any crowbars as the time drew near nor did I observe any need for same.</p>
<p>I think Haverford has an especially good orientation system now that I recall - involving the Customs system and all that. Hah, I answered my own question.</p>
<p>Columbia's is partly designed and run by students. It looked fun and thorough, with many events on and off campus but a lot of the first years seem to avoid many of the events, taking off for the neighborhood bars with their newfound friends. It lasts a week and the students really seem to be hankering for classes before it's over so that things begin to feel more real. Kind of a shame. I think they should hold it again at the beginning of the sophomore year when the kids can really appreciate it!</p>
<p>I fear my daughter experienced a bit of hard luck at her school's orientation, as she did not really connect with any of the students, so I worry about others having the same experience. This is not to say she doesn't know how to make friends, but I will say she got very nervous and called us second guessing her choice. It was a very stressful time, and I wish it had gone better. However, within a few days of classes beginning, she had formed a group of friends that she still associates herself with today. I think that orientations are just way too long - does one really need 7 days to understand a school? The academics, in my opinion, foster a better environment than 7 days when the freshman don't know what to do with themselves and who to do it with.</p>
<p>My son loved Williams orientation. (They booted the parents out pretty fast, which was fine.) The first couple of days were spent with the kids and their junior advisors getting acclimated, tested and indoctrinated. The schedule also offers a lot of social activities. Then they go off on one of several excursions. Many kids choose the 4 day backpacking trip in the Berkshires, a real bonding experience. My son enjoyed it so much he went back sophomore year as a leader. After the trip they have a day or two to meet their advisors and then classes start. By then they have already established two social groups from their dorm entries and their orientation trips.</p>
<p>The school has a pre-orientation 5-day Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) trip where freshmen spend 5 days unwashed in the woods (which has bonded a many of people), hiking, canoeing, cycling, eating green eggs and ham then coming back to sing the Alma Mata and dance the Salty Dog Rag,</p>
<p>The official orientation was 12 days of 165 events, including library tours, movie screenings, concerts, midnight frisbee and various academic, religious and social discussions. Freshman move in 1 week before everyone else, so the first seven days the only students on campus are the freshmen, RAs and students that put together events for orientation so they are really celebrated those first days and are the center of attention .A major part of orientation focuses on preparing freshmen for academic life at Dartmouth. Orientation also includes placement testing and presentations on academic policies and academic open house events helps students to familiarize themselves with the location of the departments, while also allowing students to converse with professors about upcoming classes.</p>
<p>Some students feel that 12 days is entirely too long and are excited to begin classes, others feel that the 12 days gives them the opportunity to really know the lay of the land and bond with their fellow students.</p>
<p>To add to what Sac said, Columbia offers an optional pre-orientation trip of about four days, before the week of orientation. They have a choice of hiking, biking, or canoing. Both of our sons went on the canoing trip, though they have managed not to meet, then or since. It was my S's favorite part of orientation. A lot of their orientation is introducing them to the city, to learn how to get around, what's available, etc. There was an allcampus party at Madame Tussauds in Times Square, and my S also went on a student run trip to the Met Museum of Art. Overall, I think he also found the week too long, though as Sac says, he could probably make more use of it in the future.</p>
<p>The unwashed part of the pre-orientation canoe trip was the part my S had trouble with -- that and a little case of poison ivy! Still, I know he is friends with at least one of the students he met on that trip. The rest of the orientation was similar to what others describe: a mixture of social and academic events. They were divided into orientation groups and the student leader sent him a postcard before he arrived. Departments described their placement procedures, there was an activity fair, there was a club night in a club rented for the occasion etc, etc. At the end of the week, they signed up for classes. I was impressed with how much they offered. I just think the social part would actually be more fun AFTER they have friends, but I have a kid who is not the type to bond for life in a week. Maybe a month. It was too much imposed sociability for him. As with everything else, different strokes for different folks.</p>
<p>I fear neither of my children were willing to go camping, they just aren't the outdoorsy type. I told them they were being close minded, but they would not relent! Anyways, they survived without it and had no trouble making friends without the pre-orientation week.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd College
1. Son received a list of roughly 20 freshman seminars - topics ranged from rock climbing to string theory. Students ranked the seminars in order of preference, and were assigned accordingly. The seminar instructor was their advisor for the first semester.<br>
2. All freshmen at Mudd take the same classes (with very, very, very few exceptions), so advisor approval was not required. He was required to meet with his advisor for approval of second semester courses.
3. Son seems very happy with the advising; he feels his advisor is brilliant and quirky and can't WAIT to take classes from him next year (advisor is a string theory expert.) Son's only complaint is they won't let him take more than 19 credits next semester (which I think is a good thing!) However, as mentioned earlier in this thread, I think son got even more value out of the informal advising of upperclassmen in his dorm. Mudd still controls the second semester freshmen coursework pretty tightly, but at least he received some input on prof choice.
4. Regarding what questions to ask when evaluating a school - I would drill down into the ratio of students to advisors, the availability of the advisor throughout the year, and what strategy is used to match students to advisors.
5. Mudd also offered a pre-orientation outdoor program - 5 days backpacking in Yosemite. He forged some very close relationships with other frosh as well as upperclassmen that gave him a great start to adjusting to his new community.</p>
<p>Well here's my experience so far with my advisor. I'm a freshman.</p>
<p>I am currently attending Tulane University, more specifically Tulane College.</p>
<p>My advisor was Robert Carrier.</p>
<p>I am a premed. Before the fall semester even started i emailed him because we were not given any advice at all to where or what classes we should register for. When i emailed him with my schedule (Calculus, Gen Bio, Gen Chem, and english) He told me that i should drop general bio and general chemistry even though he knew i was going to do premed and become a cell and molecular biology major. Basically i disregarded this advice, or should i say incorrect statement. </p>
<p>Basically the only advising that the university required for class registrationw as for the spring semester. So i set up a meeting. At the meeting my advisor told me that I should take vietnamese instead of german. I proceeded to tell him that I am vietnames and that i have no interest in taking vietnamese and that german interests me. Then afterwards he told me that it was sad that i was not able to speak vietnamese (Which i can by the way.). That i should be shameful. Wow i thought in my mind. Because i am asian i ahve to innately know how to converse in my language. </p>
<p>Another event occurred with him. As a freshmen, class registration at tulane is very competitive because of the limited amount of sections. Well i tried registering for eeob 101/111. Because of my late registration time i was unable to register for the class that was 200+. So i proceeeded to drive up to Tulane. Please keep in mind that this is during rush hour traffic in new orleans (4-5pm) and that i am a commuter student who lives in metairie. So after battling the traffic. i had to walk around asking department staff after department staff where the ecology department was located, and etc. After walking around for about an hour, I then finally found the person in charged of registering more people into the class. But when i went to her office she was not there. Luckly, i chose to sit there for a few minutes and she returned.
After talking to her and almost begging her, she finally agreed to allow me to register for the class, but first i had to get a note from my advisor stating that i am premed and that i needed the class this year (I am trying for creative scholars). So i was so happy. I mean all i had to do was go to my advisor and ask him to verify that i am doing creative scholars. So after thanking her i called and set up an app with my advisor. </p>
<p>Mr. Robert Carrier was booked up for the whole week. So my app had to wait a week. So after waiting a week i finally met him and before i finished the question he told me no! 'I will not let you overload on credit' I told him gently that i was not overloading. If i were to take eeob 101/111 i would be taking 17 credits. Then i told him that I had talked to the eeob registration staff member already and that all she needed to let me into the class was a note from my advisor stating that i am doing creative scholars. (Creative scholars is a prog at tulane that allows you to apply to tulane med if you finish all your premed req's before the end of your 2nd year) He still stated No! I asked him why he couldn't just write a simply email or note verifying my position, and he stated that it was not his job to make my life easier. I then told him that i am doing creative scholars and need the class, but still he stated no. I mean i'm not asking him to talk to her. I have wasted a few hours of my life being stuck in traffic in the humid heat and walking and sweating. I have talked to her. I have took it upon myself to meet the registration person. I have done all the work. I was not like i was saying oh... mr. robert carrier... tulane won't let me register for a class i am required to complete this semester... please help me. All i was asking him to do was to write a note verifying that i am doing creative scholars. But then oh well that's life :( .</p>
<p>The premed advisor was no better. Well maybe not racial but she was aloof and really did not seem to care. </p>
<p>Needless to say after my experience at tulane i am now applying as a transfer elsewhere.</p>
<p>Hnbui, I'm sorry you had such a frustrating experience. I'm particularly troubled by your advisor's assumption about the language. Yikes! Would he think of telling a student with french ancestors that they had to take french? Or someone with a German surname that they had to take german? Just wrong.</p>