Orientation and housing

<p>Now that our kids are starting to get their housing and orientation info, I thought I would start a new thread! Do any of you have any thoughts as to what day you are going to pick for Orientation or what dorm your kids are thinking about? To be honest we have not even looked at it yet, prom was last weekend, then D is going to Atanta for a big band competition this weekend and then the Spring play at school is next weekend! I’m sure they probably fill the slots for both housing and orientation as they come in to the office. Would love to hear what ya’ll are thinking!</p>

<p>My D has her packet and is looking at the options. She is leaning toward Mayne and Clements. She saw both of those when she visited. They are a little farther from the theatre that Dunlap. I think there are two close to the theatre but they are closer to the library and student center. She thought both were nice. No date for orientation yet. She has been cast in the equity course for Grease at the MUNY so things will revolve around that somewhat. Her prom is next weekend. But then isn’t life constantly busy for these guys. She started a site on face book for the class of 2011. Does your D have face book? If so, tell her to look it up. That way they can talk and meet some of the other students. Does you D have her dorm choices yet, or orientation date?</p>

<p>wow, congrats to your D! We have not picked a date for orientation but I'm thinking either the first one or the very last one right before school starts since we live out of state. Too bad Wicked is going to be in Columbus the week before the first orientation date! :( I was hoping we could take it in while we were up there for orientation. My D does not have facebook yet just myspace but she is going to join facebook next week. What is the name of the group your D started?</p>

<p>Just a note for those of you who may be considering D-K...some of the basement rooms apparently do not have closets. I haven't been in D-K, but I ran into some out-of-state parents last year who were doing some unanticipated shopping to buy an extra dresser/storage unit for their daughter, since the room didn't have enough. The kids my daughter knows who live in D-K love it, but I thought I'd pass on one family's experience, FWIW.</p>

<p>My daughter attended the last orientation for out-of-staters last year, and although she didn't like not knowing her classes for certain until the last minute, she found she had no problems getting into the classes she wanted. And she did like moving in a day early (as did I)...far fewer crowds, so unloading the car near the dorm and parking were absolutely no problem. </p>

<p>My daughter lives in Clements, has most of her classes at Battelle and thinks the dorm location is ideal. It's not just proximity to Battelle and the student center that she likes...she also like being just a block away from town (specifically Schneider's for midnight donut runs and Graeter's for ice cream)!</p>

<p>Hope this helps...</p>

<p>thanks for your help, it's great to know about the closets! But then, LOL, my D probably wouldn't know what to do if she were in a basement! We can't have basements where we live. :D</p>

<p>NanE I sent you a pm about the site. It is Otterbein Class 2011 but listening to my daughter explain became a little confusing to me so it is all in the PM. Any decisions on dorms yet. We still haven't picked an orientation date. We are thinking about trying to make the trip and see Dolly since is runs over a holiday weekend. Its funny my d has contact with three boys but hasn't heard about any of the girls other than you D yet. Have you heard anything?</p>

<p>Just another thought to tuck away for future reference...</p>

<p>I found it very helpful to know my daughter's student ID number and password to CardinalWeb, which will be made available to your student later in the summer. I had my daughter's permission for this, and it has come in handy when I wanted to check financial aid info, payments received, etc. On two occasions this year, I had questions about what I was seeing and was able to promptly ask my daughter to find out what was going on with her account. These weren't OC problems per se (in one case, an outside scholarship she had been granted had still not be received/credited by late November, so my daughter was able to follow-up before the beginning of second quarter), but it was handy to be able to know what was going on in the financial area. It was one of those things I wouldn't necessarily have anticipated in advance, but I'm glad my daughter was willing to provide me with the information since it's saved me time (and angst)!</p>

<p>mezzomom - thanks for all of your pointers. They are very valuable to us newbies. Did you do most of your Ds shopping after you got to
OC or did she take most with her. If you bought things after she got there what kind of things would you recommend bringing/buying?</p>

<p>2BRN2B, we only live 5 hours away, so we did most of the shopping at home and packed the car to the gills. That way I could stock up on consumables when they were on sale (laundry soap, toiletries, etc). My husband did make a quick drive down with a small bookcase from my daughter's bedroom during the first week of school; there was plenty of shelving in their room, but they decided to use the existing shelving as a pantry so needed more room for books. They use the top of the bookshelf to hold my daughter's keyboard, so they can do some piano practice in the room (my daughter's keyboard has earphones, so they can practice without causing distractions for one another or other hall residents).</p>

<p>My daughter's roommate lives only 30 minutes from campus and provided a fridge, so we didn't have to deal with that. However, that's one thing I'd buy locally if I had to, since I drive a compact car. What I'd do with it over the summer is another question, but I'm hoping not to have to deal with that for awhile :D!</p>

<p>We also saved car space by NOT sending a printer with my daughter. She ended up having to buy software to be compatible with the dorm printer, but it was at a huge discount through the bookstore so well worth the expense. She's found that using the dorm printer has been virtually no problem; the one time the dorm printer was down for a couple of days, she was able to e-mail a paper that was due and print out a hard copy later. Her professor had absolutely no problem with that solution.</p>

<p>Keep in mind too that OCs network is not fully-compatible with Apple/Macs. Some of the IT details can be found here: <a href="http://www.otterbein.edu/its/newstudents/index.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.otterbein.edu/its/newstudents/index.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Hope this helps...</p>

<p>Thanks Mezzomom for all the info! </p>

<p>Do you know if you can rent the fridge from the school? My oldest d rents a combo fridge/microwave from the school so we didn't have to worry about purchasing one and then storing it. </p>

<p>I also totaly agree with setting up a gaurdian account or having your child give you a password. Because of FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) your child, has all the rights. Even if you are paying all their tuition, even if they are still a minor, you have no rights to see their grades etc. I know, tough pill to swallow! This is the same reason VT could not contact the family of the shooter and let them know the school was concerned about his behavior etc.</p>

<p>2BRN2, I would strongly recommend buying everything at home and packing it in clear storage boxes that can be stacked inside of each other when empty. You would not believe how hard it is to find just the simplest things on move in day! Plus I agree with Mezzomom, you can start buying things at home now while they are on sale and save some $$$. It seemed like the months leading up to my first Ds departure to school, I was constantly buying something for her. It's amazing how much a college kid needs!</p>

<p>I "think" we are going to shoot for the date right before school starts, I think it is Sept. 6th, that way we won't have to make 2 trips.</p>

<p>Next year the college is doing something different with DK, they have changed the floors around so that the first (basement) and second floors are men and the top two floors are women. The top floor is also tripled rooms for upperclass women, so the only floor (so far that I know of) for freshmen girls next year is going to be the third floor. None of the rooms have closests, they all have two wardrobes, one for each person. The storage space in clements is much nicer and the rooms are bigger, but the atmosphere is more fun around DK.</p>

<p>If you have any questions I'm going to be an RA in DK next year and I'm a freshman theatre major right now. So feel free to ask away!</p>

<p>A big THANKS to everyone for all the information. We did go shopping and bought a few things last weekend. I decided a little at a time was a great idea. I am already trying to figure out how I am going to get everything in my car when it is time to move this girl to school! I also printed off the list from Otterbein's web page "what to bring” WOW there is a lot more to buy :) My niece and her roommate arranged for one to bring the microwave and one the frig and you are right that worked out really well for them.</p>

<p>Dorm room supplies and furnishings</p>

<p>Just thought you all might like to know that some stores have what they call a college/school service where you can preorder what you need and then pick up at their location nearest the school when you arrive for move-in. You don't usually pay until pickup. I know BB&B does this and we used it last year for our son. Everything worked out pretty well except for a couple items not being available. I would doublecheck that they have your complete order filled a couple days ahead, because our store rep didn't fill it until we called to say we were on the way. They still were extremely helpful and we could never have moved everything in 1 vehicle on the 9 hour trip. I didn't even know this service existed until we walked into the store last summer. Good luck to you all!</p>

<p>NanE, I'm not aware of any fridge rentals through OC...perhaps Vertpomme has some info?</p>

<p>2BRN2B, that OC dorm supply list is a little intimidating, isn't it?! I think you just have to know your kid...my daughter really didn't feel she needed much, but she's always been a minimalist compared to her peers. On the other hand, she couldn't bear to leave home without all of her shoes (and she could give Imelda Marcos a run for her money). I think her shoes took up more room in the car than anything...!</p>

<p>We don't offer fridge rentals at Otterbein. But if you do need to pick up any last minute school supplies, there is a bed, bath, and beyond 10 minutes from campus at Polaris. And last year they offered this really cool deal where you could order everything you need for school online, then pick it up at the store closest to your college, which worked really well for out of state students. They didn't have to try and pack the car for that long of a trip, but picked up everything when they got here. </p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

<p>I think D has it narrowed down to 3: DK, Mayne and Clemments. Do any of the Otterbein kids have a preference and why. If you had to do it all over again, would you live in the same dorm you are in now and why or why not. TIA</p>

<p>Hi NanaE,
My S is in the process now of selecting a dorm for next year. This year he is in Mayne. He is very happy there and has put it #2 on his list. Mayne has an awesome location and has been recently renovated. His 1st choice is The Suites - a sophomores-only dorm that opened this year. The girls I know are very happy at Clements. We toured it on an early visit to OC and it is very nice and quite similar is size and set-up to Mayne. S has friends at DK. It is popular with theater kids as it is just down the path from Batelle where they have many classes. From what I understand DK is older and many say it could use a "freshening up". S also told me recently that quite a few of his classmates are trying to get into the new Theater House. I'm afraid I don't know anything about it. Perhaps Dr. John could chime in?</p>

<p>I'll pass the info on to D! We are going to sit down this weekend and fill out all the paperwork and get it sent off. Now that the spring play is almost over she can FINALLY start focusing on her next big adventure and is getting excited to choose a dorm etc!</p>

<p>D just sat down to fill out her housing contract and I don't see anywhere on there where you can list first, second or third choice for a dorm. I just assumed ;) because my oldest D was able to choose at her school, you would be able to do the same at Otterbein. I guess it's just a random draw?</p>