<p>Has anyone been to parent orientation? My son will be going to the freshman make-up orientation just before school starts. I will be taking him there (with all of his stuff) and am trying to decide if I should sign up for parent orientation. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>What school? Orientation can be helpful for parents especially those of us who want to stay around a bit longer (even though our kids are ready for us to be gone already).</p>
<p>I helped move DD in, went to some of the events, and then not to others. It was over by the end of the weekend and we were courteously asked to leave to let our kids acclimate. I learned many things that I wouldn’t have known otherwise, met people, so I could put faces to the names DD brought up at home. All in all, positive.</p>
<p>If your student is attending a summer orientation, you probably will actually sit through the parent program because parents and students are usually separated in the first five minutes, and there is little else to do unless you want to go to the movies or something. I went to one of these and was bored stiff. Anyone who has spent any time reading about the transition to the first year of college knows pretty much everything that will be covered at these events, except for a few details specific to the individual school (and those are on the web site).</p>
<p>If your student is attending an orientation that takes place just before the semester starts, you might get to one or two parent events, but you may find that your time is taken up with more useful things (“Dad, while I’m at [name of event], could you go to K-mart and buy me a couple of trash cans?”) If I remember correctly, when I went to an orientation of this type, I spent most of my time in my daughter’s room, assembling a fan and an office chair, and then I picked up some stuff for her at the local mall. In the meantime, she was running around to whatever it is kids have to run around to on the first day. I was then asked to make myself scarce, which I did.</p>
<p>I’ve signed up for an end-of-summer/move-in day Parent Orientation, although I’m not expecting to get a lot out of it. They’ve released the student schedule for the day but not the parent one yet. On the student version, it looks like parents are separated from the kids right after the “welcome program” and may meet them again for dinner. I’m anticipating eye-glazing sessions from a parade of administrators throughout the afternoon, with perhaps a nugget or two of helpful information. That K-mart run is actually starting to look pretty attractive!</p>
<p>DH and I chose to skip parent orientation for both our kids. They both chose in-state publics. They carpooled there with friends fr. h.s. Spent 2 days doing whatever was on the schedule and came home. Neither minded in the least that we did not go.</p>
<p>I attended summer orientation at Ohio State with my daughter three years ago. We were seated together for some events, in the same auditorium but seated separately for one event, and in different buildings for a few meetings. I thought the vast majority of it was valuable.</p>
<p>I will be heading to Belmont’s orientation at Belmont University tomorrow with my son. It will be interesting to compare.</p>
<p>Attended UCLA’s parent orientation with son (since those are staggered throughout the summer) but sent him off alone when it came time to head out to CA. Parents’ orientation was only one day and found it useful to meet faculty and staff, some of whom proved to be helpful during the four years he was there.</p>
<p>Four years later, H and I attended D’s orientation at Pomona since it was tied into moving-in. We were able to meet the president as well as D’s faculty advisor at a reception for parents, and learned about the school’s operations, etc.</p>
<p>I went to orientation at UNC a couple of weeks ago. The amount of information they give you is a bit overwhelming, but overall it was valuable. I was glad I went.</p>
<p>I will be flying up with my son in a few weeks for his orientation. I will sit through the parent part and hope that it is worthwhile, but I will make sure I have a new Sudoku book to keep me entertained just in case! ;)</p>
<p>We did the Parent Orientation with our daughter when she went off to school last fall. It was held on move-in weekend. As another poster said, VERY valuable information provided.</p>
<p>Other than a general ‘welcome’ session, the parents were separated from the students until a final ‘closing’. The panel discussions with deans/administrators were very helpful, and the information about Parent Resources was very well done.</p>
<p>My husband and I were very happy that we went…it made it much easier to drive away at the end of the weekend, as we felt we were leaving our daughter in a good place.</p>
<p>I am assisting S with his first year move in from CA to IL so yes, I will attend the parent programs on the move in day and then a few the following day. Since our prior summer tour of Northwestern U was in the rain and at the end of an exhausting college tour, I’m hoping that once the move in is done, this will be a more leisurely time for me to get a better fix on the campus and the town of Evanston … and meet one of the Class of 2010 thread moms, who also has a son attending NU.</p>
<p>I guess I should have mentioned in my post about not going to orientation that…</p>
<p>S1 chose to attend DH’s college(2.5 hrs fr. home) and S2 chose to attend my college (4 hrs. fr. home). Both big instate publics. We are truly a “house divided”,lol.</p>
<p>Since DH and I were pretty familiar with the schools,towns,etc. and the boys had friends to go with them, we decided it would be OK to skip the orientations since we’d be going with them a month later for move-in.</p>
<p>My S’s school charges the parents a fee for parent orientation, and it’s two days which therefore requires the parents to stay overnight (hotel, meals, etc). So we declined. From what we heard, it wasn’t really that useful anyway.</p>
<p>We attended the parent orientation for DS last year - at a small Catholic college. It was really a good experience for everyone!. It began with a family picnic followed by sessions for parents (when the boys went back to their dorm room to get it arranged) and ended with a Mass as a final good bye - such a nice way to initiate both the new parents and the new students!</p>
<p>I attended parent information meetings at my child’s school and they were extremely helpful to me as I got a good feel for what goes on at the school and the timing and prep for events such as internships, summer employment opportunities, studying abroad, job hunting and more. It gave me lots to talk with my son about and also helped us put together a rough sketch of a time line so he could make the most of his experience at school.</p>
<p>As you can see from the varied responses to the question, the answer really depends upon the school. Some schools don’t offer much in the way of a parents orientation and you can easily skip it (S1’s school), but other schools offer a lot of very valuable information for parents that you don’t want to miss(S2’s school.) Look over the program ahead of time (it’s usually mailed to parents or posted on-line) and then decide if you think it’s worth your time and money to attend.</p>
<p>We just got back from summer orientation - they did have a separate program for parents. Even though it’s both my husband and my Alma mater we both felt it was useful. You got some time with the program director of your child’s declared major to ask questions, a visit to the career center, etc. I was able to sign son up for a parking garage pass (before they ran out of spaces - parking on this campus is a royal pain) among other things. A lot of reassurances about what to expect from your kids during their freshman year, they talked about the resources available to kids that were struggling, study abroad, internships, etc. A lot of information son won’t think to pass on to us. It was a long day and they crammed a lot in but we felt it was worth it.</p>
<p>I did not attend Parent Orientation for my d’s freshman year at University of South Carolina, but I did attend this year for my d’s transfer orientation at Ithaca College.</p>
<p>I found the Ithaca College session more useful than I anticipated. It gave me a sense of the school (especially the administration), a better handle on her ability to complete her new program in three years, a chance to meet other parents of transfer students, and the opportunity to gather information on courses she should take, available career services and the like.</p>
<p>We attended the parent orientation when my daughter started college 2 years ago. The student mental health services did an excellent program role playing parent/child phone calls during the first months of college. They had us laughing and thinking about how to manage communication and separation during the transition and then gave us all the usual contact information. There was also a student services fair where we could talk with the various departments about services pertaining to your student. Our conversation with the panhellenic liason was very interesting. I thought going to the parent orientation was very worthwhile.</p>