<p>Ours did it alone. We dropped him off and took a 2 day vacation in Lake Placid.</p>
<p>We did not go to our son's orientation either. Dropped him off and went on a vacation like originaloog. I had read everything they sent us, plus the college web site has anything else we needed to know so we did not hang around. He was practically pushing us out of the dorm room anyway.</p>
<p>It's nine hours away by car, not by plane.</p>
<p>HELPMEGETIN - it is fairly common for incoming students to go to orientation without a parent. Sounds like your parents have enough faith in you to let you go by yourself;). Orientation is more for the student and less for the parents - and most likely you wouldn't spend too much time with a parent because of the busy schedules that most colleges have during orientation. It is/can be a pretty expensive process to go visit a school - go back for orientation - then on move-in weekend again. Going by yourself certainly can help in the $$ picture.</p>
<p>If you are staying on campus for orientation (which you should be) - you will most likely meet alot of other kids - and even may get 'adopted' by one while you are there as well :) That happened to us at orientation - we did 'adopt' a gal who was by herself - and a friendship began ;)</p>
<p>Make sure that you have all of your ducks in a row in this process - flight info - important phone numbers available - how you will get to the campus from airport, etc... - and make sure you give your parents a copy of everything as well - before you go. Just make sure to keep them in the loop of how it all is going to work out.</p>
<p>as an adult who did do orientation by myself, I think it depends on the child, knowing how out of place I felt being the only kid sans parents, it was difficult for me, not whining about it now, but parents had no clue as to the whole process, had an older sibling that was a kid that wanted nothing to do with parents being there, (major conflicts between them) I was the polar opposite and "needed" my parents with me, and it was an awkward experience. Now living on the other side, if my child made ANY inkling whether it be ever so slight of wanting me with them, or not with them, I would honestly go the distance for them if needed. I would go, make myself scarce if that was what they wanted, or be there if that was the choice. </p>
<p>HOwever, the orientation I attended, had many parent/kid activities so that made it that more awkward.</p>
<p>OO a 9 hour drive can certainly end up being a 9 hour flight LOL - tho hopefully not :D</p>
<p>HELPME - make sure to have your cell phone good and charged up - and travel with a charger also - so you can keep in touch.</p>
<p>Helpmegetin, if you "want" your parents to go you need to talk to them. They may be assuming since you "picked" a school so far from home you were telling them you wanted to create distance. My son is 2 plane changes or 18 driving hours away from us and we were very clear with him what this meant in terms of visits, trips, help we could give him. Neither my husband or I travel enough for business to rack up "freqent flier miles". To "get" there for many working parents entails taking time off from work and cost. For our family those are the trade-offs. If any of our children stay in-state in the future, we can certainly drive easily creating a situation where it is more feasible to fit into the work vacation/personal time schedule as well as the budget and we are clear with the kids about this. Believe me, kids that make the choice to go so far from home are making a statement to the parents, whether they think they are or not. Your dad may or may not be disappointed by your decision not to stay closer to home like your sister, but he may be misterpreting your signal about putting some distance between you and the homefront.</p>
<p>I went to my Orientation myself. At my alma mater, even if your parents are there, they will rightfully stick them in parents' activities so that the students can experience Orientation properly.</p>
<p>UW-Madison SOAR has a great parents' program, definitely worth it for parents- as is the dorm room and food experience. I still remember the poor man from Boston who brought his student son, parents and the rest of the family for a Wisconsin vacation but had his van break down in Chicago. I know one can read the booklet at home, but having a chance to ask questions and see the campus without feeling out of place was worth it, even to an alumnus. Other campuses are obviously different in their approach.</p>
<p>Remember that you are separating from your parents at this stage and every school will be treating you as the decision maker, parents are kept out of the way (this was nicely made clear to us in our sessions). Your father would be more useful when you need to say your goodbyes at the start of the school year.</p>
<p>I took the train up to Boston and went to the BU orientation without my dad. Most parents had told him that the programs all gave information that could be easily accessed online. So he decided to stay home. It isn't like any of the attending students had more than 5 min to see their parents over the 2 days anyway. Would have been completely unnecessary for my dad to be there if he didn't want to attend the parents activities. College is all about independence and learning to get by on your own. Orientation is the first step in this process and while it is ok for parents to attend, it really isn't necessary.</p>
<p>It is a very good idea to look at the online catalog and whatever literature the college has sent you to get some tentative ideas of what you might want in a course schedule before you arrive for orientation.</p>
<p>And it may help to get your parents' input into this -- especially if they went to college. Your older sibling might be able to help, too.</p>
<p>My son went to orientation almost clueless about course selections and ended up taking the chemistry course intended for pre-meds (i.e., the hard one) to fulfill a distribution requirement. Given his major (computer science), he could have and should have taken the easy version of chemistry or some other less demanding science course, but he didn't know any better.</p>
<p>Having a parent at orientation would not have helped with this (the parents didn't even see the kids throughout the orientation program). Doing a little research in advance would have. </p>
<p>Try not to be quite as naive as my son was.</p>
<p>When son #1 went to summer orientation at UCLA I don't think any of the L.A. parents went. I think there is a difference between Admit Days and orientation and it sounds like your parents did go with you to see the school when you were deciding. Let me give you another perspective. You're the last kid which means your parents are at a different place in their parenting experience. It sometimes takes having a few kids (I have four) before you realize that your kids are more capable than you think. So sometimes parents go to all these things with the first or second kid and then later realize that it might have been overkill. I have no doubt that his business commitments are a factor but he may also be saying, "This is it, you're growing up and I trust you to figure this out." Your parents are probably, as with many things, more relaxed this time around. None of which means they don't love you as much as your sister. But if you really feel you need a parent there, you should say something.</p>
<p>^Unless, like me, none of your siblings have ever gone to anything but a JC before. ^_^ I think that's a big part of why my parents are going with me. I'm the first kid in the whole 4-year university sense.</p>