<p>for those of you who have been to oreientation...what did you think of it? live up to your expectations?</p>
<p>i was bored/tired most of the time.</p>
<p>im very happy with my schedule... all classes 11 or later, done by 5 everyday, 15 credits... and no classes friday (i actually have econ discussion at 10am on fridays, but im not gonna go cause i took IB econ in high school).</p>
<p>i thought they dragged it out FAR too much... food was good.</p>
<p>the gym is amazing... i signed up for summer membership. a mere $40 after you register for classes.</p>
<p>the dorms were nice... and the campus is awesome... nothing like the ghetto some people might lead you to believe... i left campus at 11 to go have some chilli at the Potbelly's restaurant right off of campus, and it was like any other area.</p>
<p>all in all, i cant wait for school to start.</p>
<p>My D. went to orientation last year. She met several young guys who she "clicked" with and they became good friends. (Friends only) She said she feels like they have known each other for years.
She is a quiet girl and made a point to really try to be friendly at orientation..looking at it as a chance to make friends and see the campus. Now she has a wonderful group of friends at UMD. </p>
<p>Her only complaint about UMD has been the food. She enjoys eating but would rather not eat than eat something that is just so so. She had trouble finding things to eat at MD. She rarely eats sweets (MD has its own dairy and she maybe got the icecream twice?) never drinks soda, dislikes fried food and in general she had some trouble. She thought the salad bar was not the greatest. The cafeterias also dont open till 11am on weekends.
From a combination of eating less...working out at the UMD gym, joining the fencing club and walking across campus..(big campus) she lost the freshman 15 she was supposed to put on. So she is really small now...healthy..but I dont want her any smaller.
She did say they roll out good food at campus events...She loves MD but really thinks they need to work on the food.</p>
<p>She is in one of the smaller honors dorms next year so will be by a different cafeteria which I hope works better for her.</p>
<p>Back to your question...her orientation worked out great! They also do the math placement then and help you select your coursework.</p>
<p>scagneas...when did you go to orientation and did u get all the classes u wanted? i dont go till mid july and im afirad everything is gonna be filled up by then</p>
<p>i went on the 20th - 21st, and i got all the classes i wanted. theyre starting to fill up... especially the honors seminars (which i guess you're taking, since you're a BK scholar... unless youre in gemstone like me, in which case we dont have to take those seminars unless we really want to).</p>
<p>i wanted to take the H-version of african american studies 100, but i couldnt cause theres only 5 seats and it was filled up... that was the only problem, but it really doesnt matter so much. id rather take the easy A :).</p>
<p>i am taking calc, theater, afro american studies, gemstone, econ, and global communities. all in all it worked out well.</p>
<p>i would be worried too if i were in your case... many of the classes are filling up... you can probably take the courses you want, but itll likely be mostly morning classes.</p>
<p>my guess is that youll be taking a lot of hard courses (somewhere else you said you turned down stanford for umd... i had a similar thing, with wharton) so id do some research at <a href="http://www.testudo.umd.edu%5B/url%5D">www.testudo.umd.edu</a> beforehand, pick out EXACTLY what classes you want, and then go in and just register extremely quickly so you can ensure yourself the best of what little courses may be left.</p>
<p>then again, they do time-release some popular classes (engl 101, calc, etc) just so everyone has a chance... or they just make the classes huge (ie my econ class.... 434 people, but still 150+ open spots)</p>
<p>just out of curiosity, what stuff did you do to become a BK scholar? i think i wouldve been invited for an interview but my app got delayed with the international education services office (im a md resident but i finished my last 2 years of HS in canada) and blah blah so i got screwed out of it. just wondering...</p>
<p>anyways, make sure you do some good research before hand... <a href="http://www.testudo.umd.edu%5B/url%5D">www.testudo.umd.edu</a>, click on "schedule of classes", and then click the fall 2005 link and you can either search by course code or browse by department.</p>
<p>good luck....</p>