Orientation Angst--Did the Chosen School Lose Luster?

Parents Forum
81

<p>
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Again, we keep a VERY tight lid on students attending our summer program- they are not allowed to leave campus during the 3 days they are here, and if they do and are caught, it is a judicial issue.

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If that's not sketchy, I don't know what is... if I was going to orientation and I was told I wasn't allowed the basic freedom of leaving my dorm I wouldn't be the happiest person.

[quote]
Also because of their small orientation groups, it's noticeable if they are missing. In the fall, there are more students here all at once, and how can you guarantee that 1700 students are attending programs?

[/quote]

Why should you have to? For the most part, entering freshmen are 18 or almost 18.</p>

<p>Now, I'm an entering freshman myself and I'm really looking forward to orientation (supposedly it's great at my school). But if I got an attitude like this, I'd be seeing red flags waving everywhere. I'll go to all orientation events because I want to, not because I'm being forced to.
I get why things like meeting with an advisor is mandatory, but team group meetings? Not so much.<br>
Maybe I'm just a very independent person or very headstrong, but this seems ridiculous to me (fortunately I am looking forward to all of the 'babying' that will happen with orientation).</p>

82

<p>I can't speak for every school, but where I work all students are assigned an adviser through the advisement center, and a faculty adviser in their major. That sounds pretty personalized to me. Believe it or not, many faculty members are not as concerned with proper advising as they should be; they know their major information, but sometimes little more. Again, not always the case, but not uncommon. In my experience, with online registration these days, many students never take advantage of all of the advisement resources available to them after the first year. Having additional faculty available is really an academic issue, and this expectation would have to come from that side, not student affairs. </p>

<p>Again, I find it hard to believe that it is absolutely mandatory to attend an orientation at a school if it is a financial hardship for a family. If they can't pay for a flight, and other travel expenses, why not explain this to the school, and I am sure something can be worked out. We strongly recommend orientation, though it is not absolutely required. Advisement can be done over the phone in these circumstances. The fee is required, as it covers the Week of Welcome, in addition to summer orientation. </p>

<p>Much of the orientation cost goes to the money we have to pay to house and feed the students for the 3-days and 2-nights, pay the faculty and staff, etc., and all of the fees collected are not even enough to cover this cost, thus supplemented by an office budget. It's very expensive to run a program. </p>

<p>Our program is done for more personalized attention, and not necessarily because it is cheaper, because if it was done in the fall, we wouldn't have to pay to house students, as they would already be living on campus, which would cut a lot of costs.</p>

83

<p>Everyone at the CMU's School of Computer Science has the same freshman advisor. They take the placement exams and go over schedules with him over the course of the summer. It seems to work pretty well. The orientation events, which are a lot like camp, are certainly not required though there's pressure to participate.</p>

84

<p>Most of the students at D's orientation at OSU were in-state. One of the deans had compiled a list of the out of state students present in the auditorium and had the OOS students stand up state by state while she made up a little story about all of them taking a road trip to school. It was very well done. </p>

<p>OSU's Honors orientation has large group sessions as well as those broken down by college: arts, humanities, sciences, business, nursing, engineering, architecture, etc ... there are 13 different colleges in all. When the students arrive, they are given a list of any credits they've been given for AP scores or previous college classes. The quarter system is the hardest thing to get used to (and President Gee is working on that). :) The normal quarter course load is 3 or 4.</p>

<p>Orientation also had a good info session on the nitty-gritty aspects of paying your Tuition and Fees.</p>

85

<p>It is not necessary to attend the orientations. But most parents and students feel that really should and want to do so. This is a big step in life and to miss out on the orientation and information seems to be unwise. THe shame is that the students who least can afford to miss out on this orientation are often the ones who cannot financially afford to do so. Kids who are on heavy financial aid may get vouchers for transportation at some schools, but not all of them. I know S's school gave travel "scholarships" to visit upon acceptance which was great. Many schools do have orientation for freshmen a week before school officially starts, and perhaps that is the preferable way to go. I did not see a lot of personalized attention at the orientations I attended. It would be even more personal if all the profs were on campus. The room assignments were not even out on some of the orientations so a lot was not specific. The profs were not around, so it was really more a general policy sort of orientation that I would hardly call personal. It looked to me that the job was being given to students rather than faculty members, so it would be a lot cheaper.</p>

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<p>Also, at many orientations you register for classes. Orientation wasn't required for my college, but if you didn't go that meant you had to wait until the first day of the semester to register for classes, and you'd probably have a tough time finding spots in classes you needed to take in order to start working on major/core requirements. So, while some orientations may not be mandatory, at many they mix in one or two hours of important information/activities with all the other bonding-type events.</p>

87

<p>This is a sample of last year's O-week "planned" schedule.</p>

<p><a href="http://oweek.rice.edu/emplibrary/Schedule-Minuteman.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://oweek.rice.edu/emplibrary/Schedule-Minuteman.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>However, every college (dorm) has it's own events, so it varies. Also there are also so many more events not listed on here that many O-week groups (3 advisors and about 7-12 freshmen) do outside this schedule. For example, my o-week group 2 years ago always did something late at night and I never came back to my room earlier then 2 am. Something included going out to a diner, haning out at advisor's room watching movies, and even visiting the beach an hour away. O-week at Rice is unique, and probably one of the best orientations in the country.</p>

88

<p>
[quote]
Again, we keep a VERY tight lid on students attending our summer program- they are not allowed to leave campus during the 3 days they are here, and if they do and are caught, it is a judicial issue. Also since they are not registered students until the last day of orientation, they are considered guests of the university and we take their safety very seriously (my staff is on duty until a late hour by the only un-alarmed exit in the residence hall.) Also because of their small orientation groups, it's noticeable if they are missing. In the fall, there are more students here all at once, and how can you guarantee that 1700 students are attending programs?

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</p>

<p>You can't guarantee it, and I don't know why you would want to try.</p>

<p>The moment classes start, these kids are going to have more freedom and responsibility than they've ever had before. Does treating them like 12-year-olds during a summer orientation really prepare them for that?</p>

89

<p>NEVER judge a book by its cover. Freshmen often have buyers remorse this time of year. A lot of it is fear of failure, both academic and social. </p>

<p>Orientation is always full of blowhards and braggarts. Ignore them.</p>

<p>Going to college is a HUGE adjustment. Learning how to study, how to manage time, how to manage your personal life, how to manage your laundry and all the housekeeping stuff.</p>

<p>Some fail miserably and its got NOTHING to do with SAT scores.</p>

<p>Most of the time, freshmen do fine until Thanksgiving..then dorm drama sets in, finals, weather changes and sick of cafeteria food and the REALITY of college life: papers due, irritating people, unjust professors, etc.</p>

<p>But you gotta endure.</p>

<p>Its unpleasant in the winter....big time. More kids filling out transfer papers and whining, and just being homesick and full of self doubts. But the sun comes out, the moods change and life DOES get better.</p>

<p>You have to pick your friends wisely: hang with people who are either like you or are amiable and non judgmental. Hang with supportive people who are disciplined when it comes to school work.</p>

<p>At the end of the rainbow is a college degree......a HUGE accomplishment. And NOBODY can take that away from you.</p>

<p>All this silly "whose school is more prestigious or higher ranking" and who has the highest SAT scores is nonsense.</p>

<p>I dropped off my D last September. The President of the School gave a speech and said, "when you leave your kids here with us, they will be somebody...but moreover, when they graduate, they will be fully grown and really somebody."</p>

<p>And THAT is what college is about.</p>

<p>It has NOTHING to do with SAT scores. NADA.</p>

90

<p>
[quote]
orientation101 writes: I can't speak for every school, but where I work all students are assigned an adviser through the advisement center, and a faculty adviser in their major. That sounds pretty personalized to me.

[/quote]
Having gone to well-known large state school in CA back in the day (hint: final 4 in basketball the last 3 years), I can tell you that my "advising" consisted of exactly two letters. One before I started college my frosh year telling me what credits I had received for my AP tests, one before the last quarter of my senior year telling me what requirements I had left to fulfill to get a degree in June. That's it. No assigned faculty advisor. No assigned department advisor. No assigned advisor from some mythical (on my campus) advisement center. </p>

<p>Sure, there were people you could go talk to if you took the initiative; but if you didn't, you wouldn't hear from a soul. Oh, yeah; if you weren't a junior or better you had to see a grad-student counseling assistant (not even a full-fledged counselor) by scheduling an appointment with whoever was available when you showed up at the window to ask to see someone; and even then they usually tried to steer you to talking with one of the undergrad "peer" counselors to answer your questions (if you don't believe me, see College</a> Counselors)</p>

<p>And from what I've heard from current students, the advising system is still pretty much the same.</p>

91

<p>Last summer we went to my Ss orientation. They offered 7 date choices but reserved the 3 days before the start of school for students who came from a significant distance. I assume that was to alleviate the extra expense of traveling twice in such a brief period of time. BTW my S didn't love his orientation either. Not his first choice of schools and he thought the kids seemed shallow. His "roomates " talked degradingly about girls. He is in fact transferring for sophmore year but ended up enjoying certain aspects of the school and made some nice friends. Bottom line is that it is always an adjustment. This time his new school holds orientation for freshman and transfers just before the beginning of the year. I have high hopes that he will be happier overall and will adjust more quickly this time.</p>

92

<p>my orientation did a couple of sessions over the summer then one right before school for kids who lived far if they couldnt do/didnt want to do the distance twice. i went to one in the summer and had a blast. i loved my orientation group and had fun at the activities and discussions that we had.</p>

<p>i acutally pumped up college so much after orientation that i was a bit disappointed after the first week of actual school. things didnt fall together so perfectly. my roommate wasnt as compatible as she seemed, i worried about hanging out with the same 10 people for the first month or so and later found out we werent such great friends, and had to start over making new friends at the end of the semester. went on a program in feb that was kind of like a freshman reflection time trip thing and saw it as another orientation. best weekend of the year and totally turned things around, had a great 2nd semester.</p>

<p>i think it could go either way. orientation really isnt a good representation of how college is going to be anyway. that being said, im SO excited to go back for sophomore year and have it blow freshman year out of the water =)</p>

93

<p>God, I'm so glad I go to Rice. This will be the second year I'm helping with O-Week, and I cannot wait.</p>

94

<p>Mine had the opposite effect. It made me so much more excited! =D</p>

95

<p>I flew across country for my son's orientation and did not regret it or feel put out about the expense. When he applied to schools across the country, we knew as a family we were taking on extra expenses.
I liked the summer orientation. It gave time to come home after, talk about the orientation, plan better for the fall, etc.</p>

96

<p>I groused about the expense of traveling to summer orientation at my son's big state U (we are out of state), but it was well worth the cost for us and for him. He's ready to hit the ground running--has his course schedule, turned in his book order, got his ID, met with his advisor, saw more of campus than he had seen before, met kids from his dorm, etc. The program was excellent for parents and for students. He got all the classes he wanted, though we went to a late orientation. It helped that he went with a relatively long list of course preferences. (Also, they were adding sections of popular course due to high enrollment.) Knowing that all these details are in place will make his first week there (when they have yet another orientation) more enjoyable.</p>

<p>A comment that is slightly OT: All large universities are not alike, so why do we have to perpetuate the stereotype that there is no personal attention? Advising seems excellent at my son's school, and they encourage you to build a relationship with your advisor from the beginning. You can fall between the cracks anywhere if you are not pro-active about your own education. No one holds your hand in college. (Historical note: The "advising" at my own well-known LAC years ago was horrible.)</p>

<p>This doesn't answer the OP's question. We'll see whether the "luster" of orientation wears off. Somehow I don't think it's going to for my son.</p>

97

<p>We liked summer orientation. S went to a 2-day session in June at his large west coast private and he had an amazing time. The school seemed so welcoming and the kids were really charged up to be attending and to meet each other. My H didn't come along, but I was happy to attend the parents track and the school does a fine job of including us all in their family. S got a great schedule (kudos to the school for managing registration so that freshmen were rarely locked out of classes) and met some cool kids. And S found himself walking around campus feeling like this would truly be his home for the next four years. I think this experience has eased his mind as he spends the rest of his summer relaxing and gearing up for the fall.</p>

<p>Of course, I'll keep fingers crossed that he feels just as happy about school next year and beyond.</p>

98

<p>OH MAN MY ORIENTATION WAS AMAZING!!! Words can't even describe how AWSOME it was !!!!!!!!!!</p>

<p>The staffers (people that were with us) were the most AWSOME people ever. It was a 2 day one night event and our hall made-up cheers, watched a talent show, screamed, hung out in the dining halls and had SO much fun. </p>

<p>I am now EXCITED to attend.</p>

99

<p>really long post! lol.
i went to orientation at the college i was planning on going to last year and it was absolutely awful.
i didn't like any of the kids i met; they were all from the same (suburban) area in our state and all dressed alike, etc. they also all seemed very "young" and in general were annoying. during the diversity parts of the seminar, they were really ignorant (this is a room full of 200 people, out of the 600 or so overall freshmen...it seemed like a pretty accurate sample, anyway.)
i met my roommate who seemed like someone...i wouldn't like. another fact that made me wary was that she came to school with a bunch of close friends, yet none of them wanted to room with her. and a few warned me about her mood swings, etc. when i was talking to them.
then i met my advisor/professor from my major department, who also didn't seem knowledgeable or helpful about certain things in his department. i talked to a couple of other professors who were the same way. another strike against the school.
a third was that the campus looked really run down and gross in the summer; they didn't cut the grass, etc. and the buildings we were in were a lot less nice than the ones they show on the tour.
the guy running the orientation session talked about how professors at the school would come and hunt you down at your dorm room to get your homework. at first i thought this was bull, but then according to some actual students i talked to, it does happen there. one even told me that a professor called her parents. being involved is one thing, but when you're in college, you should be treated as an adult. my teachers in high school didn't do that, ever. you were taught that if you didn't do your homework, your grade got lowered. simple as that. there was no chasing people around for it like kindergarteners. </p>

<p>one of my group leaders at orientation happened to be from a city close to mine, and i asked her her perspective on living on the suburban campus. she told me that even though she'd adjusted, it was really hard for the first year, and she had gone there with many friends from high school and had a car and stuff. she also said that unless you or one of your close friends had a car, chances were likely you wouldn't get to do much because you needed a car to get everywhere. (no public transportation, which was really weird to me coming from a city where we use it constantly.) i didn't even have a driver's license at this point, and i didn't know ANYONE going to the school except for a couple acquaintances (one girl i met at a scholarship dinner and my friend's cousin's girlfriend) and one girl from my high school that i wasn't friends with. </p>

<p>my dad emerged from the parents' section of the orientation with sticker shock. he told me that we could probably make it work if i really loved the school, but it was going to be hard on them financially.
after all the things i learned, i was really not happy at all about the school, and *i didn't want to pay $20,000 for a place that i didn't really love.
*
i ended up going to another state school in a more urban area that i'd put a deposit on (closer to my home, so i didn't get housing) where i had a scholarship that covered all but $3000 of my tuition. even though i didn't especially like the school that much, i'm still really glad i made the decision i did, even though it meant i had to live at home another year. i was on the dean's list twice and for my sophomore year (this year) i'm transferring to a school in another state where (hopefully) i'll be in the honors program. </p>

<p>my friends who looked down on me for choosing the school i eventually did last year? some failed out because they couldn't handle being away from home, some are transferring because they hated their schools. </p>

<p>moral of the story: LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCTS. if your inner voice keeps saying to you "uh oh" with everything you see, pay attention. you don't want to wind up someplace and realize you don't like anything about it.
on the other hand, don't overreact for little things. all of the above added up to help me make my decisions. however, if it was just one or two of them, i still would've gone. like i said, the money was the deciding factor that tipped my see-saw. for you, it might be something else. </p>

<p>so yeah. ridiculously long post, but i hope it helps.</p>

100

<p>I am rather happy with the way Marquette structured its orientation. All the freshman will move in on the 20th, and classes will start the 25th. There will be activities and community service opportunities before (we already have a schedule) but there will be time for us to get aquainted with our roommate(s), hall, etc.</p>

<p>Additionally, MU does 4 OPTIONAL Preview weekends every June. At Preview, incoming freshman have the opportunity to come stay overnight at campus, see their dorm rooms for the fall, meet awesome upperclassman, talk to advisors, financial aid, learn how to navigate the campus better, learn about possibilities for the fall, etc. and most importantly...meet future classmates! I really enjoyed going. It was fairly low-key, I came home with some friends, and help with my class schedule.</p>

<p>I'm glad I went to June Preview, and I'm really looking forward to my fall orientation. I think more schools should follow the Marquette format - everyone I've talked to really likes it. :)</p>