<p>$105 seems like a pretty steep price, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Is Orientation really something that is considered useful to parents?</p>
<p>Anecdotal advice welcome. :)</p>
<p>I’m not exactly sure if its useful but I’m considering it. Only my Dad tho. It might be better for your family to explore Santa Cruz while you do your Orientation.</p>
<p>I’m thinking of giving my dad the $105 to do whatever in SC while I do the Orientation…or maybe I’ll just use the $105 for a Hotel there. As you can tell, I’m debating whether or not to bring my Dad.</p>
<p>I would say the main benefit of bring your parents is for them to know more about all the different aspects of UCSC and be able to meet the college advisers. Like for example, if your parents are doing a loan for you, then it might be worth it for them to come along and be able to talk to Financial Aid Advisers there.</p>
<p>I say, its up to you.</p>
<p>Yeah, what exactly does the $105 pay for?</p>
<p>The $105 parent fee pays for a barbecue (hamburgers, hotdogs, water), 5-minute speeches from a few faculty, and a few ironic workshops on UCSC’s effort to prevent alcohol and drugs on campus given to parents. It is mostly for parents who want to get to know the University that their child will ultimately attend.Both of my parents went. They liked it enough.</p>
<p>The main reason to attend orientation is to sign up for classes early and get the chance to meet new people (although YOU need to make the effort to meet new people). I had a fun time when I went because I met a couple nice guys.</p>
<p>I didn’t take my parents to orientation and I was perfectly fine with it. I just didn’t really like the idea of being seen with my parents, but maybe that was a slightly immature part of me, haha. I didn’t really think about the money back when I went, but I now kind of see it as a waste for bringing your parents. You can probably wait a quarter and then give your parents your own tour of campus. I did that during winter quarter and I think they were a bit more impressed when the tour came from me. I showed them around my dorms, C10, the dining hall, some of my friends, McHenry library, and some other places (took about an hour for the whole thing). I took them out to lunch downtown afterwards and then they took me home for winter break. Total cost = $25 for lunch.</p>
<p>Just like Cali said, you are there to sign up for classes and meet new people. Your parents are just there to get a peace of mind of what actually goes on at school and also to take a look around.</p>
<p>Do you have to sign up for a particular orientation day? and if so how?</p>
<p>There are multiple orientation days, so you want to try to sign up for the earliest one so you have more choices at classes. I believe there was an orientation link in the student portal that listed the available days.</p>
<p>depends if you are a transfer or freshmen.</p>
<p>I’m leaving my parents at home most likely.</p>
<p>I’m bringing my mom, I wanted her to understand why I chose Santa Cruz so I figured the best way would be for her to see if for herself.</p>
<p>One cool thing about bringing your parents is that they get to go on a tour of the dorms and (at least my year) I didn’t. So make sure you both have cameras because I know you’ll be really curious to see your living situation for next year. Also, because you’ll be splitting up, make sure you both have cell phones. You might get super lost in the Kresge woods like I did hahah.</p>
<p>You can always venture off and take your own tour of the dorms. I found a few C10 students who were interested in what our dorms actually looked like, so we just went over to C10 and waited for someone to let us in. The only issue is that students won’t be living there, but rather camp students (leadership, cheerleading/dance, etc). C10 was fortunately occupied by some cheerleading camp, so they let us in and we got to take a look around. Otherwise, the UCSC virtual tour shows what all the dorms, residence halls, apartments, and dining halls look like.</p>
<p>Oh. I’m pretty sure Porter at the time was unoccupied since all the furniture was stacked up next to the building and the B building was under construction…I was just saying why my parents came…</p>
<p>Really? Usually students who choose to stay for summer session have to live in Porter. But maybe they gave the parents a tour of an unoccupied building there. I think most parents just want to come to really see where you will be staying for 4 years. Also if they are paying your tuition, they kind of want to know what they are paying for :P</p>
<p>Summer session housing was at College 8 last summer, not at Porter (at least according to the summer session website before it was updated for 2010). This year summer session housing will be at College 9. I wish they were housing summer session students at Porter ):</p>
<p>The only thing I think that is worth it for a parent (it is totally not worth it to bring both) is that they can tour your college dorm and see at the rooms and stuff other than that not really worth it.</p>
<p>how do they know if you’ve paid or not? My family really cannot afford to spend $105 but I would love to see my sister off… do they give you a wrist band or a stamp or something?</p>
<p>I think it would be wise to bring a parent.</p>
<p>@yvonneliuu They would probably have a printout of people that have paid and would check to make sure. I would rather give my own tour of the place than pay $105.</p>
<p>My orientation was almost 2 years ago, so I might be wrong/things could have changed, but I think the only thing they have to identify you is a name tag. When you first arrive, you go to a sign-in table and receive some stuff (including your name tag). </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure if you drop your sister off and then wait an hour or two (basically when speeches end and tours start), then you can probably join her. I mainly suggest this because it becomes a little bit chaotic once the tours start and I highly doubt they will notice you join her group.</p>