<p>When are you going to orientation? If you've already gone, can you share your experiences with those who have yet to go? If you have specific questions for the Orientation Office, their phone number is
301.314.8217 Email: <a href="mailto:askorientation@umd.edu">askorientation@umd.edu</a>.</p>
<p>After failing to register online and being told several times that there were no slots for the July 1-2 date, … I’m now in. :)</p>
<p>I’m going June 16-17.
Even though I’m in the scholars program, I’m not going to a scholars orientation because I’ll be out of the country during the other humanities orientations.</p>
<p>Has anyone gone in previous years to a non-scholars orientation even though they were in scholars? I’m hoping not to miss anything too important.</p>
<p>I’m going to the Honors Orientation on June 7th and 8th. I leave the day after I graduate HS. Fun haha. I’m excited but right now I’m all focused on graduation.</p>
<p>^ I’m graduating tomorrow, in the Comcast center on the campus of UMd. My high school is like a 5 min ride away …</p>
<p>it’s like it’s destiny you’re going to umd!</p>
<p>docchix3 – I went to a non-scholars orientation even though I was in scholars. They’ll still give you the information you need (and you’ll get your scholars shirt!) at orientation. The only thing you’ll really miss out on is meeting other students in your program and your program director, but you all will be spending all of service day together anyway.</p>
<p>Ah okay, well thank you! That is a relief.</p>
<p>I just came home from my honors orientation today. It was a lot of fun but very exhausting. The heat was killer!</p>
<p>They had us stay in Cumberland for the night, where we fortunately had air conditioning (blasting at full force!) to stay cool. We got three free Maryland tee shirts. The first day included a lot of walking around campus, getting our pictures taken for our university ID cards, specific information for our programs, and general information about campus life and whatnot. The orientation aids wrote and performed hilarious skits about various things from recycling to dealing with roommates that had everyone laughing. The entire evening was down time. There was an hour to either swim or tour the gym and then movie/chilling time until midnight. </p>
<p>The second day we were up and ready by 7:45 to eat breakfast and then sign up for classes. Sign-up was fairly easy, the advisers basically did the work for us with our input. Signing up for the honors seminars was pretty tough since they only open five or so spots per orientation. All of the good ones were gone by the time I got around to registration. After that we had lunch, visited Byrd Stadium, rubbed Testudo’s nose for good luck, and got our ID badges. </p>
<p>Overall, a nice experience. It was a shame about the heat though, it had everybody groaning. Everybody was extremely nice and well-versed on the ongoings at UMD.</p>
<p>Great overview. I’m sure that others will find it really helpful. Is there anything you think that others should do (or bring) when they go? Anything you wished you’d known before you got there?</p>
<p>Thank heavens for the A/C in Cumberland. The heat/humidity can be brutal.</p>
<p>I think just bringing everything they ask for on the orientation page ([University</a> of Maryland - New Student Orientation](<a href=“http://www.orientation.umd.edu/freshmanoverview.html]University”>http://www.orientation.umd.edu/freshmanoverview.html)) covered everything. Definitely don’t forget to take the math placement exam and make sure you bring immunization stuff (either the form they have or personal records).</p>
<p>Make sure you have comfortable shoes to walk in, since there is quite a bit of campus to cover. Don’t forget shower shoes like I did!</p>
<p>Other than that, it was pretty straight forward. Just do as they say on the website and you’ll be fine. </p>
<p>Oh, and if you’d like to see a schedule of events, go to [University</a> of Maryland - New Student Orientation](<a href=“http://www.orientation.umd.edu/dates.html]University”>http://www.orientation.umd.edu/dates.html) and click on whichever link suits your program.</p>
<p>Amy this is gaurav hi! :d</p>
<p>My son just got back from orientation and found the class registration frustrating. Apparently, registration for the engineering school was done in a group of 20 with virtually no individual attention. He didn’t seem to think there was anyone to really assist him in electing seminars, etc. Not knowing his AP scores made it really difficult because he didn’t know if he needed to sign up for Chem. He signed up for Chem and then someone told him there were only 8 spots open for Chemistry. I can’t think this is right, but it shows the level of confusion. Now he is worried that if he drops Chem because he gets a 5 on the AP test, all other interesting classes will be full. I guess this is the disadvantage of going to a big public university.</p>
<p>I think those people waiting to do orientation until later (after getting AP scores) will have a better time, at least with registration.</p>
<p>Also, the first week of classes, people (especially sophomores and up) will do a lot of dropping/adding classes, so even if he has to be on a waitlist, there’s a good chance he can get what he wants. I think it’s especially true for more advanced science and math classes. People get into the class and realize that it’s over their head and drop it right away.</p>
<p>Maybe someone familiar to engineering can speak to the registration frustration.</p>
<p>@ kendalldaines: all engineers have to take chemistry regardless of what credit they earned. CHEM135 (chemistry for engineers) is a requirement for all engineers.</p>
<p>My son was told during registration that if he got a 5 on the AP test, he wouldn’t have to take Chem. I guess we’ll find out if whether this is true, although it might not be relevant (if he gets a 4). I imagine (hope) that if he were in a major where there was more flexibility, he would have had more help in registering. But, it wasn’t the best experience for him. </p>
<p>My advice would be to get a general notion of classes you might want to take before you actually go to registration. Then, armed with some knowledge, you might be able to make better use of this opportunity.</p>
<p>I got back from Honors Orientation today. </p>
<p>Here’s how it went:
Yesterday - very organized check-in, both at Cumberland Hall and at Cole Field House (a bus takes you there). Got a free UMD Honors t-shirt. We had a welcome from Mr. Dorland and then they taught us the UMD Victory Song. Then we broke up into our individual colleges and each group had 1 or 2 student guides depending on the size. We learned all about CORE courses and our major’s courses, it’s kinda confusing.
Next we had lunch, then back to doing things with your major. You’ll spend a lot of time with them. Then we got a presentation on Residence Life and Dining. They also showed us a funny school spirit video. Then we went to more major-related stuff, then each Honors Group (University Honors, Gemstone, DCC, etc.) split up. It’s basically just a social hour. For University Honors they had ice cream and fruit and cake for us.
After this we got a little break in our dorm then we went to dinner. They had pasta, lasagna, and pizza for us at Cole Field House. After dinner they did some really funny skits for us, then we went to the Eppeley Recreation Center, then back to the dorms. </p>
<p>2nd day: Woke up early, had a choice of McDonald’s or a bagel for breakfast. Then we took our pictures for our ID cards. Next, off to register for classes. Now my group was pretty small. And yet I still barely got any advising for this. They basically said ok, now just start signing up for classes. I had no clue what I should take this semester or not, or how to time things, or anything. And I didn’t get much help until the end when I was just kinda staring blankly trying to fix my now messed up schedule. In the end, I somehow came up with a nice schedule with nothing back to back. I even got my 2nd choice seminar. (I’d suggest getting this done first, because the good seminars will fill up FAST).
After registration, we learned about campus safety and then we got more t-shirts and then went to Byrd Stadium. It was pretty cool. We also got our ID’s then. </p>
<p>All in all it was fun and I’m glad my schedule worked out. I just wish I got more help since I didn’t know what I was doing. Gooo Terps!!!</p>
<p>Do you have a roommate for orientation if you spend the night at Cumberland? If yes, does the school randomly pick one?</p>
<p>Roommates are assigned as people come. The person who arrives before you or after you is your roommate.</p>
<p>You can also pair up if you met someone you wanted to room with during Orientation…the whole roommate assignment thing was very casual. DS told me that advising in the Engineering program as a whole was poor, even when you’re full time student. He attributed this opinion to several friends who are in that department (he is in Arch and the better advising is a big reason he’s decided to stick with his Arch major).</p>