Orientation groups

<p>hey so during orientation, how are groups picked out? i've heard that people with the same majors are in the same group, and i've also heard groups are chosen randomly with people with different majors. i was just curious since if they picked groups based on majors and i want to change my major, would i seem like left out if my group dealt entirely with that major where as i want to do something else? do most people change majors during orientation as well?</p>

<p>I haven't heard of orientation groups? Where did you hear about this?</p>

<p>Grouped by majors. It's so that your orientation councelor can be more helpful and that's all. You do the same activities as everyone else and a good portion of the time you don't even have to be with your group. You'll also have a meeting with your department's councelor. You can go to any department you want that allows other students; some are only for people that have declared it.</p>

<p>How do we change our major at orientation?</p>

<p>While at orientation, be sure to tell your Orientation Counselor that you would like to change your major and he/she should be able to help you out with changing you major.</p>

<p>so can we immediately change our majors on orientation and is it possible to change it before so maybe ill get into a group with my intended major? im just worried that i want to change my major and itll be weird with people in my group who are going in different directions than me. </p>

<p>also, so we tell our orientation counselors that we want to switch our majors and they direct us to the department counselors, who will immediately switch our majors? so its that simple and your major is changed? so these orientation groups practically have nothing to do with your major, they are just to get to know each other and the school ?</p>

<p>I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head. I would assume the orientation groups are just to get some basic information.</p>

<p>The groups are meaningless. The only purpose is so that your councelor can answer questions that you may have that is major specific.</p>

<p>oh, so your counselor is like an expert at that specific "major" for each group? from your experiences, do people really ask a lot of questions to their OCs about that specific major or what? what if i want to switch to another major, will that counselor be able to answer questions fully pertaining to another major or only to that one specific major labeled for that orientation group?</p>

<p>Well, you do have academic and non-academic counceling time with your councelor (about 20 minutes each session). So that would be the time that most people would ask questions. Of course you could always talk to them any other time if they're not busy.</p>

<p>You will also sign up for classes with your OC and therefore they can help you decide on what courses to take.</p>

<p>It's actually quite common that not everyone in the group has the same major, though they are quite related. Even though they may not know all the specifics about your major, they will definitely try their best to answer the questions and perhaps refer you to another OC.</p>

<p>It's not that big of a deal unless you're totally switching sides (north to south campus or v.v.)</p>

<p>ucapplicant05, what do you mean when you say its not that big of a deal switching sides from north to south or v.v.)? a problem concerning switching orientation groups or majors or something?</p>

<p>north campus = social sciences and humanities</p>

<p>south campus = sciences and math; engineering</p>

<p>so north and south campus are where the orientation groups are split up? what if im doing science and i want to switch to a social scienes major? do they put me in a new group or nope?</p>

<p>yeah, i'm switching from a south campus major to a north campus major...i'd definitely not want to be in an orientation group designed for south campus kids. can i change my major before orientation?</p>

<p>Make sure to keep an eye out for when the sign ups come out. The sooner your orientation the better. I signed up first last year on the first day it came out then the site went under construction haha, so I was first orientation! Anyway, I totally forgot what I was going to say too.</p>

<p>OK. Really, the groups are meaningless.</p>

<p>They're mainly for organizational purposes and making it easy for the OCs to answer really specific questions.</p>

<p>The core of the orientation programs are for everyone. There's general speeches to everyone. There's workshops of your choosing --- you don't have to be with your group. The only times you have to be with your group, it has NOTHING to do with your major.. like the campus tour.</p>

<p>It only affects any occassions when you're one on one with someone. OC's are fine answering questions regarding college in general or GE classes and the like. They may not know all the tidbits about your specific major, but they can easily pull up the standard lists of classes you need to take and etc. Your OC could easily refer you to another OC for the time being. And the one other thing that it affects is your meeting with the departmental councelor. Again, not a big problem. A lot of the departments allow any student to just go to their slots while some of them restrict it to their students only. However, departmental councelors are available during the entire year anyways.</p>

<p>So the point is.. relaaax. If you insist to change groups, talk to your OC the first day or maybe call the orientation program up before then.</p>