<p>Can you guys give me a detailed, day-by-day breakdown of what happened during your orientation? I want to know what to expect at mine in a few days. Thanks!</p>
<p>Son and I just returned from orientation last week. Parents and students have different schedules, but they gave us a copy of sons schedule. Students schedules differ slightly based on the programs/majors they’ve selected.</p>
<p>Day One -
Welcome/check-in, pick up M-Cards, campus safety, tour, lunch, Money matters, placement tests - everyone takes Chemistry placement (it determines whether you take reg. chemistry or advanced (organic), language placement tests, Community, evening theater (do not miss this - it’s now mandatory, but son said it’s funny, entertaining and educational about U of M), optional social activities after play.</p>
<p>Day Two -
Michigan 101 - succeeding academically at UofM, joint session with parents, Campus involvement, study abroad, smart computing, libraries. Academic advising is in the afternoon and it’s broken out by area - art, business, engineering, honors, etc. You meet in a small group first, then have individual apptmts with advisors and in the evening you select the classes you want online, but don’t officially register til next morning. There are breakout meetings after dinner for the learning communities. Social activities in the evening.</p>
<p>Day Three - On the first day, you’ll get your schedule showing what time your registration meeting occurs on Day Three. This is when you officially register for classes. The timeslots are from 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. You’re free to go after you register, unless you’re trying out for marching band, which occurs in the afternoon.</p>
<p>Son had a lot of trepidation and excitement going into orientation. Overall, he had a great experience and he’s very excited about moving in in August. His roommate was never there - roommate had a large group of friends from his high school he hung out with and partied with, but son made other friends and still had a good time.</p>
<p>Hope this helps! Remember - this is the beginning of the time of your life, so go and have a blast!</p>
<p>False, you don’t need to take Chem. it’s not a requirement, so if you never plan to take it, don’t take the placement test. Waste of time.</p>
<p>I didn’t say you had to take the chemistry placement test…just gave him the orientation schedule, as he requested. There’s a lot more that goes on with all of this, including the placement tests you took at home, but didn’t get into it here. Op will discover this for him/herself.</p>
<p>do you register for classes online? or in person?
can i register before the third day?</p>
<p>You register for classes in person with an adviser. You can only officially register for classes on the third day and beyond. :)</p>
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<p>Honestly, since it has no bearing on what you can register for it’s a waste of time either way. Still though it used to be that you had to take it no matter what so it must have changed in the past few years.</p>
<p>If you plan to take chemistry at UofM, the placement test determines whether you take general chemistry or organic chemistry, which is more advanced.</p>
<p>Regarding classes, son looked at LSA requirements (his school) before we left and backpacked a few classes he wanted to register for, which helped him think through his class selections in advance. He could also see which classes were still open, which ones had waitlists, etc. After meeting with his advisor during orientation, he kept three of the four classes he backpacked and changed one, per her advice. And he was able to get the classes he wanted, including a fun freshman seminar he wanted to take. If you have time to do this before orientation, great. If not, don’t stress about it.</p>
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<p>It actually doesn’t do this. They simply recommend you take one or the other based on your performance. The results of the test do not bind you to anything. You could get every question wrong and still sign up for Orgo, or get every question right and still sign up for Gen Chem.</p>
<p>Right, but if you get every question wrong, your advisor will strongly advise against taking organic chemistry, and rightly so.</p>
<p>The placement tests provide recommendations to you and your advisor about what classes you should be taking. The advising director told the parents, however, that if you don’t do well on the math placement test, and receive a Definite Precalculus recommendation, they will not let you take Calculus. However, with the language test, you can actually place out of anywhere between 1 and 4 semesters of the language requirement in LSA. You get to take other classes instead of language.</p>
<p>On average, how many students are at each orientation session?</p>
<p>A few hundred at each one - lots of kids and parents.</p>
<p>A few hundred sounds about right - there is one session where all the kids and parents are together. It was in MLB 3 which holds about 500 people. It was crowded but not entirely full.</p>
<p>do we backpack classes at orientation or beforehand?<br>
also for the evening activities, can we do whatever we want? (go eat dinner, wander AA, etc…) or are there certain social events that we have to go to?</p>
<p>You will be able to register for classes on the last day of orientation, after meeting with your advisor a couple of times. There is a daily schedule of activities but my son says that when you are done with that, you can do whatever you want in the evening. Son played frisbee with new friends, others went out with kids from their hometown. I’d encourage you to meet new people and if you hit it off with them get their contact info to stay in touch until school starts.</p>
<p>You should be able to backpack classes before your orientation, as long as you can get on Wolverine Access. However, no one I know of actually did this. You’re given a solid amount of time (a couple of hours) to backpack/register under the supervision of advisors. I recommend looking at the coure guide for classes you might want to take, but don’t stress too much about actually backpacking them.</p>
<p>For the evening, you can indeed just do whatever, as well as during the times when there aren’t any orientation activities. I remember taking a lot of this time to explore campus and the city with a couple of friends I met. We ate at about 8 or 9 and wandered from about 10 PM until 1 or 2 AM.</p>
<p>None of the social activities that they offer you are mandatory, as far as I’m aware.</p>
<p>Going to orientation in about a week, I’m pretty excited.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what the process is on getting “permission” for classes? The course guide says you need permission from either an Honors advisor or the Math Department to take Math 295. Is that something the advisors at the orientation could help me with, or would I need to make a separate appointment ahead of time? For the record, this isn’t the same thing as getting an override - I have the right prerequisites, but for some reason I still need special permission to register, apparently.</p>
<p>You need permission from the math department. It is the same thing as an override, technically.</p>
<p>Shoot an e-mail to <a href=“mailto:math-permissions@umich.edu”>math-permissions@umich.edu</a></p>
<p>Source: [UM</a> Mathematics-Undergraduate](<a href=“http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/undergrad/index.html]UM”>http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/undergrad/index.html)</p>
<p>I guess I thought an override was only for when you didn’t have the right prerequisites. Either way, thanks! I’ll email them and ask.</p>
<p>Anyone else going to the May 13th orientation? I specifically tried to get the earliest one so I could try and get in all the classes I wanted. Looking at the course guide, I doubt that’s gonna happen, unfortunately. The intro EECS classes seem to be all filled up already.</p>
<p>Overrides for Math 295 are routinely given during orientation. One of the math advisers sets up shop during Honors orientation, and I’d say a handful of incoming freshmen not in Honors pop up from LSA orientation every day to chat with math guy. So for future reference, there’s no need to email the math department.</p>
<p>As for backpacking before orientation, it’s very rare that anyone manages it, and we the peer advisers teach you anyway, so there’s nothing to worry about. Backpacking doesn’t hold a spot in a class, so whether you backpack the month before or the day before, alternate schedules are a great idea.</p>