<p>I got accepted to the january start program at the University of Rochester. The admissions office said that i can study abroad in Arezzo, Italy for the first semester. Do you think it is worth going here over some lesser school like dickinson college and Lafayette college. I'm worried that when i start in January that i will have a hard time making friends and that i will miss some of the intro classes. I want to major in science and i know that this school is amazing when it comes to the sciences. I loved this school, but the january start program is negatively affecting my decision. My credits will transfer so im not worried about that. However there are only 20 - 30 kids going on the trip and i am also concerned with the fact that i might not make friends with these kids and that i would be stuck with them for my whole first semester. Does anyone know if a lot of freshmen are going on this trip? I know this study abroad program is offered to all grades and not only freshman. Does anyone think it negatively affects your college experience, like missing out on orientation. Thanks!</p>
<p>It’s one term. Do the trip. Start in January. Life will be fine. </p>
<p>Many years ago a dear friend started in January. Took her a few weeks to settle in. Other people knew the ropes and showed her what to do.</p>
<p>You’ll make loads of friends in January. You don’t miss orientation; there’s a separate orientation for January students. They live in the same dorms. Everyone’s pretty friendly. And Greek rush occurs second semester, too. By the end of the semester, no one will remember (except maybe you) that you started in January.</p>
<p>Arezzo is a great program, and all four courses count as your humanities cluster. So you can jump right into sciences second semester, and not worry about the cluster. And you’ll make a lot of friends on the trip as well.</p>
<p>This is in response to your concerns about course work and your interest in sciences. It is a real issue with January admission because most of the science sequences start in the fall and continue in the spring, so missing the first course in the sequence requires either finding a course equivalent at another institution for the fall or waiting until fall 2011 to start the science curriculum, and that could mean taking an additional semester to graduate or missing out on research opportunities that September freshman are more in line for when the time comes. My son is trying to sort this out now. While the Italy program looks like great fun, it does not prepare students for 2nd semester bio, chem, physics, etc. You cannot simply “jump into” science courses in the spring semester. </p>
<p>I wish you well with sorting out your situation. I would contact UR directly about the personnel on the Italy trip, but you could just as likely make friends with students no matter what their year. And most folks report a smooth transition socially for January freshmen. I think the curricular issues are more important for students in the sciences.</p>