<p>I got here this Tuesday as a freshman (I guess most people call them "first-years" here though), and it's been a busy week so far.</p>
<p>Move in was surprisingly easy: I was dreading lugging up all my baggage to the third floor of my dorm, but there were so many students from the athletic departments to help carry stuff up that I hardly had to carry anything! My room is a double, like most rooms around here (although there are a few singles). It isn't a super nice new looking room, but it isn't crappy either. </p>
<p>We had to attend a bunch of mostly worthless opening speeches to the freshman class given by various important people at the college, like the president and various deans, etc. Some of them were good speakers, but the ones who were good speakers were pretty brief, so most of the time the people that were speaking were long winded and boring. At least most of all the boring speeches are over for now though.</p>
<p>That night was spent eating popsicles in the common area of our dorm and just talking with people and exploring dorm area.</p>
<p>The next day (Wednesday), there were some more boring speeches, and we could have lunch with the professors from various departments. So I had lunch and talked with some professors from economics, computer science, and mathematics. It was pretty helpful to ask for suggestions on what courses to sign up for and stuff like that, as course registration was the following day.</p>
<p>Wednesday afternoon, they had placement tests for foreign language classes, math, chemistry, and biology, but you don't have to take them if you place out of the class with AP credits.</p>
<p>That night, they had the OC, which is just a spoof name for Oberlin College (OC = Orange County also). The OC was a play about the importance of having safe sex. It was funny.</p>
<p>Thursday morning we had to attend a presentation about the Honor Code-- not incredibly fun, but I guess it's just one of those things you have to do.</p>
<p>Thursday afternoon, we had advising sessions on registering for classes. The first meeting was where they explained most of the process to us in groups of around 20-30 students. A few hours later, we had advising sessions in smaller groups (my group had 3 people) with our assigned advisor, who is often someone from the department in which you intend to major (but often many people do not know what they plan to major in, so their advisors I think are often the teachers of the First Year Seminar that they signed up for). In this mini group, the advisor will answer any more questions you have about registering for classes and give input on what they recommend for your schedule. </p>
<p>Later that day, course registration occurs (but only for some people. It seems kind of random who they pick to register the first day, but everyone else registers the next day, so they are at a bit of a disadvantage in choosing their courses as many of the classes may have filled up the previous day). You register using the online system PRESTO in the computer lab area. 3 to 5 classes per semester is generally the norm, I think. I didn't get all of the classes I wanted, but I had alternates, and I can probably take the classes that I wanted next semester.</p>
<p>After registering, there was some freetime, and I played some frisbee (the ultimate frisbee team seems pretty big here), hacky sack, and just talked with people. That night there was a presentation given by some upperclassmen about what life is like at Oberlin, how they adjusted here, what they enjoy doing, etc. Some of it was good and informative, and some of it was boring and made me fall asleep (it should be noted that I am very tired this week as I have not been getting much sleep at all since there is so much to do and many people to meet). </p>
<p>That night I just talked with some people and had fun. </p>
<p>That brings us to today, Friday. This morning I had an advising session again with my assigned advisor. This time instead of being a small group though, it was an individual appointment. At the meeting they basically cover any questions you may have about the schedule you chose yesterday, and they recommend any changes if they can think of anything bad about your schedule.</p>
<p>Then I started typing this post, so it better be helpful!! lol</p>
<p>One thing I forgot to mention: we had a meeting in our dorm floor in the first few days, and the RAs (RAs are upperclassmen who stay in your dorm [I am in an all freshman dorm] and make sure nothing dangerous/bad occurs) facilitated some introductions for everyone on the floor. They also had votes to see when quiet hours would be, and told us some basic rules about dorm life, for example, you can't have too many people in your room because of firecode, you can't smoke in your room because of the fire alarms, etc. We have 4 bathrooms on the floor (an unusually high number), and we decided that 2 of them will be all gender bathrooms, and there will also be a male and a female only bathroom. The all gender bathrooms make it easier for transgender people to choose and feel comfortable about using the bathroom I guess, and they are also convenient if you don't mind sharing with the opposite sex.</p>