<p>FYI, you may now sign-up for an Orientation Session on the BU website – wasn’t supposed to be available 'til tomorrow, but it’s up now.</p>
<p>Thanks. I just signed up for the first orientation date. </p>
<p>I’ve heard that I can take the writing placement test on Wednesday rather than Thursday, but does anyone know when and where I do this, and whether I have to let them know beforehand?</p>
<p>You don’t. You just show up to Orientation, they give you a schedule, and you just show up. There will probably be a group that will walk over together. It’s usually in either the Jacob Sleeper Auditorium in CGS or the Tsai Performance Center in CAS.</p>
<p>How do you register? I am so confused… I cannot find the appropriate link and I really want to sign up.</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to Boston University’s Orientation Website](<a href=“Orientation”>Orientation)</p>
<p>I’m having trouble setting up an ACS account. Anyone else having issues?</p>
<p>I think it’s pretty dumb that they’re charging an extra $100 for guests. My parents really want to come, but is it even worth that extra cost? I mean we already have to pay like $210 for the actualy Orientation fee…it doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>They charge for a lot of things, sak09. They charge if you want to stay more than one night in the orientation session housing. They charge for FYSOP. They charge for Common Ground. I just noticed that during the school year there is an extra charge for access to the university computer network, which you basically have to have. Whew.</p>
<p>This is one parent who will not be attending parent orientation.</p>
<p>you really should go. 100 bucks for 2 nights stay in Boston is very cheap. Plus parents get to stay in StuVi, which is really really nice. You’ll also learn a ton of valuable info and maybe figure out why it’s worth your money for you kid to go here. Your kid, meanwhile, is being fed and housed for 2 nights and a few days too.</p>
<p>Sucks, but it’s the way college goes I guess.</p>
<p>It’s pretty common to charge and, btw, a charge for network services is also common, though the name varies. Almost all schools have been increasing fees as a way to keep tuition look like it’s not growing as fast. Even state schools.</p>
<p>BTW, there’s no compelling reason for a parent to go to orientation.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses, BUBaily and Lergnom. Lergnom, I kinda figured there was “no compelling reason for parents to attend orientation” but it’s nice to hear somebody say it.</p>
<p>BUBaily, if a kid stays for 3 nights during orientation and attends FYSOP, etc, <em>and</em> the parents attend orientation, we are talking something like $600 minimum on top of travel expenses from home. </p>
<p>Some of us are engaged in a degree of struggle and sacrifice even to send our kids to such an excellent and expensive school…</p>
<p>Interesting about how colleges raise fees to make it look like tuition is not going up so much. Makes sense. </p>
<p>Another thing I’ve noticed about BU is a sort of wooing of accepted students with “orientation fun”…and colloquially worded welcome e-mails offering a video re-mixing contest (not even sure what that is). Perhaps such things are designed to reduce “summer melt” and/or second thoughts about attending the university.</p>
<p>The current freshmen my son talked to when he visited said that orientation is basically a tedious drag. I’m sure that’s true at just about any school.</p>
<p>No offense to anybody, but “Common Ground” sounds a little bit babyish to my son and me. However, I can see it (and FYSOP) as pleasant experiences that BU offers to counteract the stress and tedium of placement tests and presentations about rules and registering for classes and all.</p>
<p>Perhaps a lot of large private universities offer such things these days, but it’s a whole new world to grandma-age me! :)</p>
<p>CG isn’t babyish. Kids say they really enjoy it and, really, people should take any opportunity they can to get into Boston before they have school work. This is a major tourist destination but the Freedom Trail stuff barely scratches the surface. </p>
<p>FYSOP - and alternative spring break - are more in tune with the entire community service ideals that kids now grow up with - and which many high schools now require. One of my kids did these and said it was fantastic, particularly alt spring break (which means going somewhere with other kids in a van to work on some project). </p>
<p>Orientation is a mixed bag. The big thing is registering for classes. The rest includes some boredom and some fun stuff. I’d say it’s better without parents. Better to get over the separation stuff as fast as you can. </p>
<p>And FYI, I’d recommend visiting NOT on special weekends but at some time relatively early in a term - or any time before work piles up. The absolute best time to be in Boston is the fall. The weather is often glorious - winter here sometimes comes early but just as often holds off until January - and, having lived here for decades now, I still feel something magical about fall in New England. This is the time, if you have a car, to get out into the country, to pick a pumpkin or apples and simply enjoy the beauty. </p>
<p>Around campus, what you absolutely need to do is cross over to the Esplanade and run, ride, blade or walk. It’s 2 miles from the footbridge behind Marsh Chapel to Community Boating, with the loops over the Mass Ave Bridge (to or from MIT) and over the Longfellow Bridge or past the Science Museum are 4 to 5 miles. It can be strikingly beautiful, especially on misty mornings.</p>