<p>FYI, the sign up for orientation went online today..I hear the early days fill up quickly. Letters were to go out today. Get the jump, and sign up.</p>
<p>We just did....</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the heads up!</p>
<p>Does anyone know if it is highly recommendable that we sign up for an early date (e.g. classes fill up by the later orientation dates)?</p>
<p>You don’t get your schedule at orientation. You pick classes, and they send you your schedule later in the summer. i am not sure if there are any advantages to going early. We are going the first week, as d is hoping to have a summer job.</p>
<p>We went on nearly the last day two summers ago and there weren’t any disadvantages that we know of. DD chose classes and when she got her schedule, it was as she planned.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter which one you do like LINYMOM says. They don’t actually do the schedules until all the orientations are over.
AP results don’t come back until after orientation so it could change what classes you take. It’s no big deal because the advisors expect this and will work with you after orientation to get the right classes for you.</p>
<p>Ok, call me silly but I was shocked that as a parent I’m charged $35 to attend the NSO. I have gotten the feeling that UDel nickles and dimes everything but this one really took me by surprise!</p>
<p>When you pick your classes you don’t pick your desired time slots? that’s how it was when I went to college. (eons ago! lol!) or do you pick what you’d like to have and hope to get them. I wanted to go early on in the process to get her the times she wanted to hopefully get her home on a friday afternoon train from time to time.</p>
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<p>You do for every subsequent semester. For the first semester of freshman year, in order to be fair to everyone, UD decides which sections of the classes the student will be in. That way all the desirable slots aren’t taken by the earlier NSO attendees. I think it’s a great system.</p>
<p>Do most parents go to the Orientation? Do the kids really need to be there at 8am? If so, we wre need to sleep overnight-the hotel on Campus is booked-any suggestions?</p>
<p>Students will get their course schedule in August. You can change your schedule once the add/drop period begins (sometime before classes start-identified in the student’s UDSIS site). You will be told that freshman should not make changes in their courses without consulting first with their advisor but as long as you are switching into a different section of the exact same course you really don’t need to do this. This is done on-line in the students UDSIS site. It is easy to do. However you can only switch to a different section of the exact same course if slots are available. Unfortuneately for freshmen there are usually very few (if any) open slots in most courses to switch into. But it is worth a shot to at least look into if you are interested. But you need to do this as soon as you are allowed to when the add/drop period begins because other students will no doubt be trying to do the same thing (although most freshmen are not aware you can do this).</p>
<p>Most parents were at orientation, as far as I could tell. There are plenty of hotels around - not just the Marriott on north campus or the Embassy Suites by the stadium. Tons of mid-price options in the area (only 10 min away).</p>
<p>There is a brand new Sheraton South Wilmington. It opened about 4-6 months ago. Supposed to be a good option. Booked it for move in and parents weekend. Need to book now for orientation. Just a suggestion…</p>
<p>I believe most students go with one parent and the paper work says it starts promptly at 8am and will go through till 5pm. It suggests that if you are traveling 1+ hours a hotel stay either the night before or night of NSO is advised.</p>
<p>It looks like they are starting a little earlier this year at 8:00 am. with registration beginning at 7:15 am, so if you are coming from a distance it would probably be a good idea to stay in a nearby hotel the night before. When we attended there were quite a few students who had both parents attending. Is this really necessary-probably not, but then it is for most students a once in a lifetime event that IMO can be a rewarding experience to be shared/experienced by both a student and their parents (of course this is an individual decision). Others may have different perspectives on this. The afternoon sessions (from 2:30 on) related to dining, financial aid, billing etc. issues appear to be attended by many fewer students/parents than the morning sessions. Much of the information presented was sent by mail or is on the UD website so unless you have questions many parents don’t tend to find these sessions especially useful. Many students/parents are gone well before 5:00 pm. IMO the Resource Fair can be very informative, and this year it is scheduled at lunchtime whereas in past years (I’m not sure about last year) it was held at the end of the day. I suspect this was changed because so many students and parents had left early. It is my perspective that a number of students/parents leave after lunch once the student has met with their advisor, selected their courses, and got their UD ID. Best wishes to all at NSO.</p>
<p>Getting her UD ID was the highlight of the day for DD. Thanks for bringing that up. It’s a happy memory.</p>
<p>At the Trabant resources fair we also picked up a copy of MS Office for about half the price of usual. We also signed up for a joint PNC account at Trabant and by doing that, I was able to set her up for online access before school started and was able to transfer money into her account from my own Chase account. </p>
<p>We then went to the Apple store at the Christiana Mall and picked up a Macbook Pro, and saved almost $200 by taking advantage of no sales tax in Delaware.</p>
<p>(Note though that there are growing reports of new Macbook Pro being announced at the Developer’s Conf June 11, so if your session is before that and you or your child is an Apple lover and technophile, you may want to wait).</p>
<p>Is there any consensus about the math placement exam? My D and her future roomate thought very hard but I seem to remember other posts a while back saying not hard. Thanks.</p>
<p>I’d too love to hear people’s thoughts about the math test. My D was usually an A student in math but it is by far her worse subject. She was on a CP track for math and is now in basic trig but when she looked at the sample test she was nervous about taking the test! She will be taking it this weekend but I’m curious as to what is a “good” score and what others have scored.</p>
<p>i too, would like to know about Math exam. Perhaps a new thread with title will get a better response.</p>
<p>Based of my child who had taken AP Calc in HS, found it very easy.(Engineering major so math is a strength) Said it was up to pre calc/trig level. </p>
<p>Word of advice, don’t worry about it, over placement is WAY worse than being under placed.
Even after taking AP Calc and doing very well on placement exam got over placed decided to redo Calc I because didn’t want any gaps going into engineering.</p>
<p>Every year this issue crops up and some students/parents can go a tad bit “bananas” about it. A “good” score on the exam is one which accurately reflects a students aptitude/abilities in math. This is not an ACT/SAT exam where the goal is to score as high as possible. If a student scores artificially low (or high) this can be reviewed/discussed with their advisor at NSO. A better term for this “test” would be Math Placement Tool. As noted by the previous poster you really don’t want to be placed in a math course at a level beyond your abilities/past education. Courses at UD are very intense, these are not HS courses. At most a student might want to do is a brief review of basic concepts at their highest level of HS math education (especially if they did not take a math course their Sr. year). Otherwise IMO there is no reason to study in greater detail. Best wishes for placement at an appropriate level.</p>