<p>My daughter commences as a first year in September 2011. She is attending the International Student Orientation in August 2011. Should parents attend? Is it useful? I was thinking of getting my daughter to arrive on her own and then show up couple of weeks later to see what additional assistance she requires. Any comments you can provide would be appreciated.</p>
<p>I’ve never been to International student orientation, but my impression is that most students do not go with their parents, largely because of the expense of travel. You could call the office of the dean of international students though and ask if they have a schedule for orientation yet. If there are parent-friendly events, it should say so on the schedule. </p>
<p>I think it would be fine to send her on her own, and then maybe you can come and visit her during Parent’s Weekend.</p>
<p>Most people do not have their parents with them at ISP - unlike regular orientation, there are no events geared towards parents. At the very least, there weren’t any last year. Coming a couple of weeks later might be better, that way if she’s missing anything she’ll have access to someone who can drive her to the mall, etc. It’s also nice to have family come and visit so soon as an international - for me last year, orientation when all the other first years arrived with their families was tough because it really hit me that my family was so far away. The one person I do know whose parents came with her stayed in a hotel and she stayed with them at night while partaking in ISP events during the day. She said that she regretted not being with everyone else because we really did bond in our spare time over tax workshops, intro to American culture (yes, they did make us attend that), etc.
I’ll be one of the ISP leaders this year, so if you have any more questions about ISP, please do feel free. I look forward to meeting your daughter in a couple of months!</p>
<p>My parents are coming with me for ISP, and staying for a week. They innitially just wanted to drop me off at Smith cuz we thought it wouldn’t take long to fly from Vancouver to Boston. But it turned out that there isn’t any direct flight between the two cities so we need to spend 6 hours waiting in the airport for connecting flights. It takes 10 hours in total so we figured that my parents should stay for a while, take some rest and tour New England after the tiring trip.</p>
<p>We are renting a car so they can drive around the surrounding areas when Im at the orientation.</p>
<p>I know 2 students whose parents (both of them) are coming along. My dad may come to fetch me at NY but that’s only because he will tentatively be in the US for a business trip in end Aug and it doesn’t seem very disruptive if he takes a 2hr flight from chicago and be missing from work for 2 days. If he’s not in the US than I’ll be by myself, which isn’t too worrying :)</p>
<p>I know parents who came to Noho with their kids but they didn’t really attend the events per se. It’s nice to have parents help with moving in and stuff, but it’s also nice to be able to focus on being able to bond with all the other international Smithies completely, which wouldn’t be as much of an experience without the sensation of suddenly being on your own. I’d say sending her first and then visiting later would be an excellent plan.</p>