<p>Looking at the list of things incoming freshmen have to do over Orientation week, there's a lot of stuff marked mandatory, but how much of it is actually stuff you need to go to? I know I should probably go to my meeting with my advisor and also my individual college orientation, but what else?</p>
<p>seeing as we don’t personally have the itinerary…why dont you list things you plan on skipping?</p>
<p>none of it is really… I don’t remember a single orientation event I went to that turned out to be important</p>
<p>@campuscsi, I don’t have a list of things I plan on skipping, that’s why I came here ;)</p>
<p>Anyways, this is the list of mandatory events during Orientation Week according to the handbook we got:</p>
<p>Friday:
Meeting with RA
Meeting with Orientation Leader</p>
<p>Saturday:
New Student Convocation
“Events” for individual colleges
More RA and OL meetings</p>
<p>Sunday:
More college events
Summer reading lectures</p>
<p>Monday:
More college events
Summer reading discussion groups
Real Students, Real Stories (whatever that is)</p>
<p>Tuesday:
College events again
Another OL meeting/class photo</p>
<p>“more college events” seem to be just activities your individual college/major has planned out…it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go to as many as possible…</p>
<p>Thanks. Any opinions on the other stuff there too?</p>
<p>If you mean “have to go to” as in you’ll get kicked out for missing something, then most of it CAN be skipped. Of the things you mentioned, the things that are really close to the optional side are convocation, the reading lecture, the class photo.</p>
<p>optional side are convocation, the reading lecture, the class photo.</p>
<p>this ^^^^^^^</p>
<p>Alright, thanks.</p>
<p>but even some of the other stuff you may end up skipping if you oversleep :P</p>
<p>theres nothing that you’ll really get in trouble for not going to or anything, nearly everything is optional (except maybe your RA meetings, cause you’re going to have to deal with them for the entire year) but there are certain things i think i would recommend you go to and things that i’d say are pretty pointless</p>
<p>Friday:
Meeting with RA
^^go to this. boring, but you need to meet your RA and there are forms to fill out
Meeting with Orientation Leader
^^i’d say to go to this, just the first meeting at least, to see if your OL is cool or not. it gives you a contact–its possible they’re in your major/school, and some of the more chill ones will tell you about parties and stuff if you are curious. plus you’ll never know when you’ll meet them again, and you don’t want them to remember your name as the “kid who ditched me”…my OL happened to be in my sorority! and i have a couple of really cool friends who are OLs so you might get lucky, haha. plus you can meet some new freshman. I personally didn’t ever really talk to anyone in my OL group again, but i know people who met their best friends through it. </p>
<p>Saturday:
New Student Convocation
^^Optional, I think you should probably go to this if your parents are there. It was really kind of boring though. </p>
<p>“Events” for individual colleges
^^I would recommend going to these. I think at mine a got a lot of information about scheduling and opportunities, was introduced to my advisor, etc. Plus my major is tiny so i got to meet basically everyone in it and all of the faculty. The usefulness of these events might depend on your college though. </p>
<p>More RA and OL meetings
^^RA meetings are usually necessary, you don’t want to **** off your RA. You can decide for yourself whether you want to go to your second OL meeting or not. </p>
<p>Sunday:
More college events
^^Again, probably useful depending on your school
Summer reading lectures
^^Is this the big one in Barton? I don’t think i would go to that one again. It was very long and I was very tired. They don’t take attendance so its definitely “optional.” But if you really liked the book this year you might want to go, idk what it was. </p>
<p>Monday:
More college events
^^again…
Summer reading discussion groups
^^I’m assuming these are the little groups? I don’t think if anything would happen if you don’t go, but mine was with people from my hall so we just all all went to the study lounge and i wasn’t doing anything else so i just went. Haha i remember one of my good friends now trying to make some bs up, he was horrible at it. You are supposed to hand in your papers though, and I think that my person took attendance. </p>
<p>Real Students, Real Stories (whatever that is)
^^I don’t think we had this…so idk…</p>
<p>Tuesday:
College events again
^^again…
Another OL meeting/class photo
^^same about the OL meeting, it was raining for the class photo last year so i didn’t go, idk how it was</p>
<p>Wow, extremely helpful. Thanks.</p>
<p>So you can skip the summer reading stuff? - even the small group sessions and nothing will happen? S has a conflict with his sports practice and is trying to decide what to do.</p>
<p>its weird you would schedule a sports practice during that orientation stuff…</p>
<p>the smaller reading discussion thing was where we turned in our essays (IIRC). i’m fond of literary discussions so i enjoyed it. </p>
<p>my RA sorta forced us to go saying he’d look bad if no one went with him O_O</p>
<p>Thank you very much alamode :)</p>