<p>For those of you who've been, how is it?
Also, how common is it for parents to go? I was going to go alone but read somewhere that parents are recommended to come</p>
<p>Here’s an old discussion on that topic with lots of opinions-
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/498862-parents-orientation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/498862-parents-orientation.html</a></p>
<p>stylar, it is not necessary for parents to attend. For families who choose to save the $$, it’s fine. The students go off with their OAs and then have a pretty busy schedule of cool events and sessions with their majors, and there are a lot of fun activities on campus, too. You’ll be staying in a residence hall and eating all your meals with other new frosh so you won’t miss seeing a parent there, and the kids at Orientation are uber- friendly. Really. </p>
<p>Parents who are curious for more info from USC will find it a wonderful event to attend, if time and travel permit. Lots of details about the campus medical center, pharmacy (transferring Rxs) policies, housing and food plans, bikes and locks, plans for the student center under construction and other future campus plans, advice and rules for parking permits and campus shuttle, Greek life, so parents will get more information than they expected. </p>
<p>For instance, I learned how we can get out of paying for the USC medical insurance (our S is already covered on our family policy). All students are billed for this but taking a few steps right there saved us over $300/year. I’m not saying you can’t do such a thing from home (you can!)–but I would probably not learned the fine details of something like school med insurance (which I also learned is different from the mandatory USC health fee) and I can guarantee my S was not listening to/retaining that sort of minutia when there were friends to make and concerts to attend. </p>
<p>As far as school scheduling goes, some kids are completely on top of this for themselves. But some can get kind of like deer in the headlights when so many options and choices are put forth. So how much you may want or not want your parental units to contribute to putting a schedule together is up to each student. What is too-helpful to one freshman, might be lifesaving to another.</p>
<p>Last year, my S was in two programs that had conflicting times for advisement on the first day of Orientation and both REQUIRED that he attend their sessions. The same conflict happened for course registration the second day of Orientation. TO insisted students had to register with them and SCA had the same requirement because both programs used D-clearances for their courses. There are relatively few new Trojans who are in both SCA and TO, but it can be a little frustrating to try to be in two places at once. TO class descriptions are only distributed in TO advisement so you absolutely need to get those in order to select a class. And SCA gives its students their required schedules (telling which semester they must take which pre-reqs in order to be on track for graduation) in their own session. I wish they would change this–and perhaps they will. But since it was kinda crazy last year, a parent could attend one advisement session while the student went to the other. While this particular conflict wasn’t the end of the world, it did help to have a parent there. The good news is–you can go home, settle down, and work things out in the end even without a parent right on the scene. If you need to drop or add a class after the dust settles, it’s really easy. If you need to call and advisor later, you absolutely can.</p>
<p>has everyone received been able to log in to register for orientation? i still can’t even though i submitted my deposit 7 business days ago and created my usc email account last week</p>
<p>Has USC emailed you, telling you to sign up for orientation, yet? You can only access the orientation site until that email. If you haven’t received the email yet, I’m sure you’ll get it within the next few days.</p>
<p>My son did orientation without a parent last year. He returned home ecstatic about USC, having met such amazing people there. I am sure I would not have seen him much if I had attended. But I know that many parents did attend, and that’s fine - I’ve never heard a student complain about a parent being there. For me, though, the CC community was unbelievably helpful with info such as the TO/SCA conflict Madbean described. If your parents don’t go with you, be sure you discuss schedule stuff before hand, and have a parent you can reach during the registration process in case you need some advice.</p>
<p>I’m going to be going to orientation by myself and I am in both SCA and TO (fun I know). Any advice on what to expect during the registration process or how to deal with the conflict?</p>
<p>swoopes2</p>
<p>You need to check your usc e-mail. you should have created this in your first steps of the orientation process.</p>
<p>Two things about orientation:</p>
<p>First, my D didn’t have an especially great time at her orientation. Among other things, her host was unenthusiastic and left her alone in the room for the evening. Fortunately, my D figured that was just one person and not representative of the student body. She is now finishing her second year at USC and absolutely loves it.</p>
<p>Second, as I recall, orientation is a good time for parents to buy tickets to the football game during Parent’s Weekend in October. My D’s roommate’s parents tried to buy some during move-in and they were sold out.</p>
<p>I don’t think they have hosts during orientation - that might have been Explore where your D had the indifferent host. My S roomed with some other new students, and they had an upperclass orientation leader who was really helpful and made sure everyone was taken care of. </p>
<p>qzar - the TO people told my S he needed to be in their group to do the actual registration, so he did what they told him. But he made sure to check in with the SCA people to let them know why he wouldn’t be sitting in the room with their group for registration. I don’t think it’s a problem if you’re in one of the larger SCA majors like production or crit studies, but there seems to be this odd little turf war between TO and SCA when it comes to their first-years. The only substantive scheduling issue you need to be ready to decide on is how aggressively to tackle the TO classes. The official word is that you should take them as early as possible so that you can get into the SCA major sequence in a timely way. My S took 2 TO core classes plus TO writing his first semester, along with a film class and a freshman seminar. People thought he was crazy to take on that much work. It was fine for him, but he’s pretty good about knowing when to quit working.</p>
<p>My S roomed with new freshmen for Orientation and they were all friendly. He had met some kids in his day sessions and everyone (!) exchanges Facebook info and cell #s. So by dinner time, they all kind of texted and FB’d and let each other know where they’d be. If you are a student who is typically a little slow to socialize (nothing wrong with that at all!), you may want to just re-invent yourself for that first day. Why not? Just smile at someone that looks like your type of person in your Orientation group (maybe 25 kids or so) and say hi. I think everyone there feels pretty open to meeting new people so it isn’t as awkward as this sounds. Most likely, others will approach you. The idea would be to get their numbers or ask if they could call you when they go to dinner. In any event, there are hundreds of kids feeling just like you so don’t worry.</p>
<p>FauxNom, I agree with your take on the TO vs. SCA “turf war”. LOL. They are only trying to help “their” students and each has so much to tell the kids they want first crack at you. My advice is to make sure you get the info from TO (which will include the class details for all the COREs. They have different themes, reading lists, and profs. The good news in TO is that the great majority of profs are phenomenal. But you may prefer the subject matter or books in one class over another. Or need a certain time of day or day of week. </p>
<p>The trick with registering for TO classes at Orientation–have all your decisions made BEFORE you show up to registration. As soon as you enter the room, there will be computers to use and those who are still juggling schedules will not be the first to get online and sign up. The system opens only a few spots in each of the TO courses each registration day in order to be fair to those with later reg dates, but that means some very popular classes get “locked out” in a short time. </p>
<p>Most TO kids are advised to take 2 TO classes first semester: CORE 102 and CORE 111-writing. As for SCA Production and Crit. Studies majors, they are encouraged to get their GEs (or TO CORE) classes out of the way as soon as they can. Like FauxNom’s S, some take 3 COREs–but that is a very very heavy load. Get ready to work hard right off the bat, but also, to be inspired and enriched and have your head explode with ideas–in a good way.</p>
<p>It’s not that 3 COREs are not possible, but for freshman year, there are still a lot of adjustments to college, so don’t overdo it. My daughter never studied late in high school had to do some overnighters in the library because she took 3 TO classes for her first semester.</p>
<p>I did create my USC email. I did it the day after i submitted my deposit, so a little over a week ago. I got another email today saying “make your USC orientation reservation”, which i also go last week. However, I still can’t log into the site</p>