<p>Our daughter has asthma. When she went to college, we wrapped the (non-plastic) mattress provided by the school in plastic drop-cloth sheeting we had brought from home, duct-taped it sealed all around, and put a nice mattress pad on that for her to sleep. </p>
<p>The concern was about dust mites/mold spores in the mattress. She also brought her own pillows, same reason.</p>
<p>As far as the meningitis vaccine is concerned, get it! Meningitis thrives in settings where young adults who do things like sharing bottles/cups live in close quarters–such as prisons, army barracks, and—colleges.</p>
<p>D faxed her immunization form last summer. Then, about a month into the semester she got a warning letter that she wouldn’t be able to register for spring without it??? She ended up walking another copy over to their office and watching over the woman’s shoulder as she updated the system. (so make sure that you keep a copy, just in case…)</p>
<p>RE: UMD insurance…if a student is covered under their parent’s policy, you probably wouldn’t get the UMD insurance, unless it is some insurer that doesn’t cover service in the College Park area for some reason. However, I believe that if you’ve got your own insurance, if you go to the Health Center, that you’ll have to file the insurance yourself–I think the only one they do automatically is the UMD coverage.</p>
<p>I’m having an issue waiving the umd insurance on the website. Is anyone else having this problem? Also, I’ll be doing a residential program at UMD this summer. Do I need a parking pass or not? Sorry to go away from the topic but it’s kinda related…?</p>
<p>Neocutey24 – I know the website they gave on the pink info. sheet they passed out at the parents orientation has the wrong link. I believe it’s firststudent.com now. If you’re still having issues, you can call the business office at the health center: 301-314-8165.</p>
<p>You will need a parking pass whenever your car is parked in a lot or garage on campus (unless you’re at a meter, then you pay the meter). DOTS (Transportation Services) tends to give out tickets like candy at Halloween.</p>
<p>Thanks, fresh42jazz! And in case anyone else needs to know about the passes, you can get a weekly pass, a monthly pass, a semester pass, an annual pass…I really appreciated that. Kept me from putting out money I don’t have. :))</p>
<p>All right. So, going back to the original intent of this thread…</p>
<p>Orientation for us went pretty well. It pretty much went exactly how everyone else said it went. Though it was really, really hot (96-98 degrees, I think?) on the days I went. So especially if you have orientation in July, be prepared to do a lot of walking in the sweltering heat. And bring sunblock. That’s something that I conveniently forgot to do.</p>
<p>One note about scheduling…for me, it wasn’t as bad as some people said it was. You register with your orientation groups, which are divided by colleges. In my group (Arts & Humanities), it went pretty smoothly for most people, I think. The only real frustration that most people encountered was the fact that some classes were full. For example, apparently MATH140 is nearly entirely full (which is why I’m glad I have Calc BC to exempt me from the math requirement for my bio major).</p>
<p>Another thing about scheduling…the scheduling program on testudo is pretty stupid. And by that, I mean it can’t really handle anything too complicated. When you add classes, it does not generate suggestions or automatically move classes around so that everything fits. You have to go do everything manually. That’s why the registration process for most groups (including mine) took forever. A lot of people had to sit there and do a lot of planning/manipulating to get their schedules to work out.</p>
<p>There’s also a program under testudo, office of the registrar, called that does a lot more in terms of showing options, etc. I believe it was written by a UMD student a while back. </p>
<p>In the engineering school if an engineering class is full (like ENES100), they can force you into the course. If it’s a math course (or a generally big lecture), usually you can show up on the first day and ask the professor if s/he will let you off the waiting list. Most professors are nice and will say yes. Smaller courses, like honors seminars and core courses that you do not specifically need for your major, you could have less luck with, but I wouldn’t worry yet. They want you to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>After orientation, you can drop and add courses to your heart’s desire at home. Just be aware that other Orientation Programs are still going on, so seats will continue to be taken, even as new ones are added.</p>
<p>ReadyToRoll: I don’t know of any reason one would get the UMD insurance if covered by parents’ plan, unless the parents’ plan doesn’t qualify (there are requirements listed when you fill out the waiver). Or there are individual insurance plans available by organizations like Blue Cross/Blue Shield that offer qualifying coverage that is less expensive than the UMD plan (depending on the options you get). I talked to the Health Clinic folks quite a bit last year while determining whether it was necessary for DS to get the UMD insurance, and they said it is really offered only for those students whose parents have no insurance coverage.</p>
<p>The immunization form is due August 1st, but you don’t need it for orientation and the only thing they’ll do if it’s late is block registration for spring semester until you turn it in.</p>