Orientation Info

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
1

<p>Just returned from a FULL day of orientation in HI. It was interesting & I opened a joint checking & joint savings account with my son, as well as a money market account at USC Credit Union. Should be receiving free 1st book of checks soon. They waived the $9 fee to open the accounts today.</p>

<p>Son was also able to confer with advisor & register for all his classes. We're happy the kids are being given credit (in engineering) for AP US history, so they won't have to take one of the general ed courses--type 4 or something.</p>

<p>They talked with the students about financial health & responsibility. They also talked about FERPA (privacy issues), & how to share info. They gave LOTS of handouts & contact info (hard to digest everything that was discussed).</p>

<p>One of the main messages of the day was having good discussions with your student about what s/he wants/needs/expects. Also discussing expectations about Move-In Day & the time thereafter. They have TONS of activities planned for all the students from that day on, so they suggested it may be best not to PLAN on the student's presence thereafter.</p>

<p>They gave us an updated FAid/Merit Aid printout, to help us plan college payments. They also gave the students & parents info about housing assignments (building only). They will be mailing out a questionaire soon & then roommate assignments in early August so students will have a chance to e-mail/contact one another & agree on who is bringing what to the dorm.</p>

<p>The Orientation t-shirt was OK, but I believe it does say Orientation 2006 on it, but can't really remember too clearly (we didn't buy one). It was maroon with yellow lettering.</p>

<p>All in all, I was glad I attended the Orientation with my son. Some families had both parents attend, but for us, having just me & my child was enough. I'm not sure, but don't believe there were any students at our sessions without at least one parent, tho parents aren't really NECESSARY (but I found the info helpful).</p>

<p>For engineering, they said if you double-major, you will likely end up taking 5 years to graduate, since engineering has so many requirements. If you're going to take 5 years, you may wish to consider the 3/2 program & get a bachelor's & master's in engineering instead. The associate dean of engineering suggested you may wish to consider a minor (which only requires about 5-6 courses) instead or perhaps just taking courses you LIKE, since there are so many requirements already in the engineering program. I believe it's easier to double-major if you're in Letters & Sciences or other areas.</p>

2

<p>himom,</p>

<p>can you find out what catagory he received credit for with the US history?<br>
thanks in advance...</p>

3

<p>For ENGINEERING majors, their school will give Category 4 credit if you received a 4 or 5 for AP US exam. If you only received a 3, you only get credit but it doesn't satisfy the Category 4 requirement.</p>

<p>The value of these credits is if you take summer school & get some credits (like 3) but the USC equivalent is a 4 credit course, you can use one of the AP "general" credits to bump up the credit count to 4 credits. It's a "cushion," but won't help toward the 16/32 credits you need to keep merit scholarships.</p>

<p>Hope that helps. It's a bit fuzzy for me, but the students are all clear about all of this & the advisors are very helpful as well.</p>

4

<p>thats interesting...because the transfer booklet says that cat IV ge's must be taken at USC.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, it's a special "Engineering students only" exception. Each school has authority to decide how it handles requirements & waivers, within USC parameters. Engineers have SO many required courses, it's nice that they get a break in this (tho son is fond of history & does well in it--who knows he may take some courses in it anyway).</p>

6

<p>it's a very nice exception too. the cat IV is "science and technology" so it is sort of odd that engineering majors can waive it with AP us history, but it's odd anyway that engineering majors have to take a GE class in "science and technology" :)</p>

<p>Apparently HIST-200gm (american history) is a very popular course that satisfies both cat I GE and the "diversity" requirement. I'll probably take that in a future semester.</p>

7

<p>It is odd how engineers would have to take MORE science & tech without this "exception." I guess if engineers who got their 4s & 5s in AP US History take American History, they'll enjoy that class & get out of two requirements too. My son will likely take it, since he enjoyed AP US very much.</p>

8

<p>I forgot to mention, engineers who haven't gotten 4 or 5 on AP US history can also satisfy the cat IV requirement by taking an additional cat I, II, or VI. This can give some flexibility to those wanting to take more history or social classes, or you can still take the regular cat IV classes as well.</p>

9

<p>Okay, so are there exceptions for business students that anyone knows of? I have already taken 6 hours of US History. Can that maybe satisfy the Cat I requirement?</p>

<p>Also, does anyone know about the Cat III requirement? The transfer booklet (and other info that I have) says that you have to have a lab with the science class taken in order to satisfy the requirement. However, I read on CC where students have satisfied that requirement with the AP exam, when that does not include a lab. Anyone know about this?</p>