Has anyone ever been to the NSO at penn state? If so what do you do while you’re there? Also, for the overnight stay do you room with a random
Here is the schedule overview for NSO. http://orientation.psu.edu/up/schedule
I assume that you are either roomed with a random roommate or you room by yourself. That question I don’t have an answer for, though my D has been wondering the same thing. Hopefully someone else can answer that part - everyone is required to go to NSO, so I’m sure others have more experience! My D has NSO on May 31st…
NSO was a new program 2 years ago for my class, so my answer is based off of what I did. But heres a rundown from what I remember
Day1:
-You arrive (around noonish?) and go to North Halls to check in and get a room key and a meal card
-go to your assigned room (You are put in the north halls in random rooms. some are supplementals with multiple roommates, others are normal 2 person rooms) , put your stuff down, and go meet your parents
-Go to the ID office and get your ID card
-set up your access account and webmail
-go to the bookstore and get the book they want you to read
-Get lunch with funds on your meal card in the HUB
-go to an information session in 100 Thomas on the school in general
-after the info session you split off into groups without your parents as assigned on your NSO tag you got at check in
-Go to a student orientated presentation about how college is harder than high school and you really have to actually study, and how most kids who enter college get lower grades than they expect in their first semester
-your student group leader brings you to somewhere quiet on campus and spends the better part of an hour and a half talking about things you might feel weird having your parents with you (staying safe at a party, penn states sexual abuse resources, etc. ) and they let your group (usually like 15-20 kids) have an open forum to ask anything they might be curious about.
-I think after that it was around late dinner time and they led you to the place to eat, and after that you had free time until an 11:30 curfew that the dorms would lock after. They had things like campus tours, games, and other activities to do with people you met during the downtime
-Get back to your room before 11:30, hang out with your roommate if you think hes cool, otherwise go to bed.
Day 2:
-Wake up, go check out of your dorm and return the key (I had my dad meet me early to drop off my personal items with him in the car so I didn’t have to lug them around for the rest of the day)
-Go get breakfast
-Go back to 100 Thomas for a presentation on finances and paying for college
-depart that meeting with your parents to go to the college to which you were admitted for a presentation
-sit through said presentation
-After the presentation they will bring you to meet an adviser who will help you schedule your first semester classes. If you are undecided this is a bit longer of a process because they help you pick out a broader schedule, if you are directly admitted to a major they more or less just tell you what to schedule
then you’re done. Depending how long it takes to schedule classes, you’re finished anywhere from 1pm to 3pm.
Personally I felt like making it a 2 day venture was unnecessary but that’s just my opinion. They did it so people could potentially make friends at NSO but i’ve yet to meet anyone who made a real friend during it.