<p>I have officially enrolled at UMD and have been spending some time trying to figure out when to go to Freshman Orientation. I am in College Park Scholars but have no real intention to go to the "Scholars Only" orientation dates. Instead I have narrowed down a possibility of June 3-4 and June 17-18, the second one being preferred. (June 25-26 is also a possibility) </p>
<p>That said, am I correct in assuming that the later your orientation date is, the more difficult it will be to get the classes you desire? My primary question is that with so many dates for orientation going right into July and August, will that 2 week difference really have any affect on class availability?</p>
<p>I hope someone has some sort of answer for this inquiry, thank you for your time</p>
<ul>
<li>John</li>
</ul>
<p>Will 2 weeks make a huge difference? Well, as long as they both are in June, probably not too much. </p>
<p>If you look at available seats online now, you might panic that no seats are available in a particular class. However, they do reserve seats for freshman and open up a few seats in the most popular intro classes for math, science, etc at each orientation. </p>
<p>So, will you still get the classes you want? Most likely, but just may not be the times you would prefer, or it may mean “sweating it out” on a waitlist. Honestly, the waitlist is NOT a big deal. People constantly change their schedules around throughout the summer, so seats do become available. Also, for certain classes (the big ones), when the waiting list gets to a certain number, they may also add an additional section to accommodate students.</p>
<p>However, there are some classes that you may want for a gen ed that there are only a few seats left. If it is not a class that is specifically required for your major, but rather it is an elective that is just one of many choices to fulfill gen ed, then those classes will not have seats that are reserved for freshman. In that case, it’s first-come, first-serve.</p>
<p>Any reason you don’t want scholars orientation? Sure, it is not necessary, but it is nice because there is a high potential for meeting possible roommates that are in your program…</p>