<p>Has anyone's daughter been disappointed because they couldn't get into the group they wanted already?</p>
<p>My d logged on at 9:15 am and already her 2 top choices were filled! I feel bad for those trying to sign up towards the end....</p>
<p>My daughter registered at 9:05, uneventfully, so she assumes she got her choice. She did get the following email on her Smith account:</p>
<p>Hello Class of 2015!</p>
<p>Orientation Group registration is well underway! 225 members of the Class of 2015 have registered in the first 20 minutes of registration!</p>
<p>The program will not allow you to resgiter for a group that is full, so if you get the screen that says “thank you” for registering then you can assume that your registration was asuccessful. I will send a confirmation email out to each person once their group is full, starting next week.</p>
<p>Rae-Anne
Rae-Anne Butera
Associate Dean of Students</p>
<p>I’m sure it’s a little discouraging, but try to keep in mind that Orientation groups are not a huge huge deal in terms of the greater context of her whole first year. Also, this is probably going to end up being one of those “everything happens for a reason” things. She may end up meeting someone at one of the other orientation groups (one of the ones that was not her first or second choice) that ends up being her best friend for the rest of college. Tell her to hang in there and keep her chin up.</p>
<p>They also started the “trial registration” thing today. Apparently a lot of people are having problems with that too. Hope they fix things soon.</p>
<p>My daughter was off at work and by the time she tried to register at 7:30 pm almost everything was full. She’s not a first gen college student, so the remaining offerings seemed either irrelevant or not inviting–the “wellness” description advised the importance of sleep, for example. I can’t imagine a lot of 18-year-olds flocking to that one!</p>
<p>Seems like a better way to do it is to see where the interest lies. My D is very interested in the arts and will miss out on an opportunity to learn about the arts because only 50 (of 708!) will get that group. This isn’t a good way to “orient” people and get them started on the right foot. I’d love to see them go to a system that looks at how many people are interested in a subject, rather than shoe-horning students into something they have no interest in–knowing that others are getting information they would LOVE to have.</p>
<p>Again, I’m sure it’s disappointing, but the orientation groups are just a few days out of the beginning of the year and they’re far from being a crucial part of orientation. She may discover when she gets there that she doesn’t really want to go to the group sessions and may just end up hanging out with her new friends. Or she may go and surprise herself by making new friends there that she otherwise would never have met (they can bond over how irrelevant the group is, if nothing else!). </p>
<p>Also, I know a lot of 18 year old college students who would love to sleep all day, you might be surprised if your D becomes one of them! Wellness isn’t such a bad seminar. A lot of college students do not indulge in healthy work-life balance practices. They don’t get enough sleep, they don’t eat well, they drink, and especially at schools like Smith, they put a lot of pressure on themselves to do everything really well, which can lead to stress. So getting a little crash course in wellness at the beginning of the year isn’t such a terrible thing.</p>
<p>Slots filled out quickly last year when I was choosing groups too! </p>
<p>For the most part, all of the orientation groups are solid. I know a few people who did the wellness one and loved it! Considering the huge change from homelife to being a college student, your daughter might find the wellness group extremely informative and balancing for a hectic life to come.</p>
<p>Also, if the Wellness group is run by Emily Nagoski, it is going to be fantastic. She’s wonderfully smart and engaging and has a great sense of humour - her Women’s Sexuality class last fall filled up so much that they had to change classrooms and everyone raved about it.</p>
<p>It is led by Ms. Nagoski!</p>
<p>Are we supposed to get a confirmation email after we register for a group?</p>
<p>Not until sometime next week, I think.</p>