<p>I hung around the last 20 minutes of the back-to-Smith party on Sunday when I went to pick up D. I missed the Smithie whose Dad reads College Confidential.</p>
<p>One of the nuggets was new to me: is Pre-Orientation now mandatory? If so, I wonder why.</p>
<p>The other new thing sounds as if it has Mini's hand behind it: all new first-years have to receive an (on-line?) educational presentation on alcohol abuse. I suspect it's aimed a binge drinking but, not having seen it, couldn't say for sure.</p>
<p>Pre-O is now mandatory but you can choose to not do it if you have a valid reason (work, internship, preseason athletics, etc.).</p>
<p>We had to take the online AlcoholEdu course by Aug 17 and the minimum passing score was a 75%. If you didn't pass, you'd have to retake it until you did or you wouldn't be able to register for classes. We did the first part already and we'll be doing the second part in October. The course is aimed at binge drinking but as I did the version aimed at non-drinkers, I can't tell you much more.</p>
<p>Edit: Now that I think about it, I don't think there's anything that says that pre-o is mandatory. It does seem that way, though from all of the stuff that they've sent to us.</p>
<p>That's a really good idea about the alcohol ed. program. Last year, we had a serious tragedy with a new student over winter weekend, and while details were not released, some kind of substance abuse may have been involved. </p>
<p>If you do drink, do it responsibly, don't do it if you're on any kind of medication (including allergy or cold meds), and don't overdo it. Listen to the sage advice of this upperclasswoman, and please, please, be careful.</p>
<p>I'm of mixed feelings about pre-O being mandatory. Somehow, it just feels like more of a PITA if you're coming from a distance though I don't know that I could make that stick objectively. There were no pre-O options that really grabbed D, either.</p>
<p>Pre-orientation sealed my D's love for Smith. She made her closest friends during those first, low-pressure, high-socializing first days. While I don't agree that it should be mandatory, I believe that new students should try to participate.</p>
<p>As for the alcohol course, most schools are doing it these days.</p>
<p>"Pre-Orientation now mandatory? If so, I wonder why."</p>
<p>It’s now mandatory b/c statistics indicated the retention rate was much higher for the women that availed themselves of the preorientation option. </p>
<p>“Each member of the Class of 2011 / needs/ to register for one preorientation program. It is your head start in transitioning to the Smith community. Each program provides opportunities for new students to form social connections that will enhance personal and academic success while at Smith.”</p>
<p>the major problem i had with pre-o (and the reason i didn't do it myself, though i was a leader for 2 years) is that it starts on a weekday. my parents just couldn't get the time off work to take me up, and it would've been expensive to pay for me to travel to smith by myself, then have them drive up with my stuff.</p>
<p>while i know this isn't an issue for everyone, it probably is for some folks. i hope they start pre-o on a weekend from now on if they're going to mandate it. </p>
<p>plus, isn't there some fuzzy logic going on among the smith administration over this? an argument could be made that pre-o doesn't cause retention; it's just that the people who choose to do pre-o (those with the money to spend on it and to miss a few days of work, sufficient excitement to come to smith early instead of spending more time with friends from home, etc) are the type that are less likely to transfer anyway. so forcing pre-o wouldn't help in that sense.</p>
<p>Stacy, we're having the same problem with the limited times students can move into the dorms-- both on weekdays. As both my husband and I are educators, we cannot skip classes to take our D and her stuff back to Smith. The logistics of it have been challenging, to say the least. Next year, we may request early access to get around this scheduling difficulty.</p>
<p>My d. (a Kahn Fellow like Stacy, and from the same house) has specifically been invited to move back in on the weekend (she'll arrive tomorrow.) Our only complaint is that they took an awful lot of time to inform her of this, so she had already made arrangements for "breaking and entering" (she's got a friend who....)</p>
<p>AlcoholEdu is actually, as these things go, pretty effective, provided it is universally required, and subject to occasional refreshers. No, it doesn't eliminate all alcohol problems, but it has been scientifically shown to reduce dangerous incidents.</p>
<p>Another nod to pre-O logistics being more of a pain.</p>
<p>There are some questions that divide close and distant Smithies. D put her foot down about a Smith club restructuring an event taking place prior to the start of school...those close in could have changed the dates they'd drive up but for those with air tickets purchased two months in advance it would have been a major pain. Fortunately, D is the student chair of the group and her foot held the day. :)</p>
<p>Well, pre-o started on a Sunday when I did it...my parents said goodbye at roughly three and drove seven hours home so my sister could start high school the next day. </p>
<p>I agree with moving in on weekends. Both my parents work full time and can't take off a few days in the middle of the week just to drop me off every year. I've been able to move in over labor day weekend the past three years due to training for my on-campus job, but otherwise we'd be paying the $25/day to get me moved in on Saturday.</p>