<p>So I know that after the "March through the Arch," students and parents will be led to different orientation schedules for the rest of the day. </p>
<p>My question is, how entertaining/helpful is the parent orientation? Is it beneficial for the parents to stay? I'm worried for my mom, who will be all alone to find her way through the campus.</p>
<p>And what about the next day? Do parents actually bother to go through all the Interest Sessions?</p>
<p>And is there any time during the move-in day for the students and the parents to say good bye? Will they be together during dinner?</p>
<p>I'm just trying to figure out when it would be best for my mom to fly back.</p>
<p>Honestly, the less time she spends at orientation the better for both of you! We moved my daughter in early, unloaded her stuff and then took her shopping to Staples and BB&B (we rented a minivan) for things she needed, ate together and left. We didn’t go to any formal orientation sessions. She was happy and excited so we were content to leave her.</p>
<p>The day we dropped off our son went much the same as amtc’s - we moved him into the dorm in the morning, ran out to pick up a couple of items and eat lunch, and at 4:00 or so he headed off to his first “mandatory” orientation event (we said our goodbyes at this point) and we headed off to hear a speech for parents by the University president, after which we left. We didn’t attend any of the parent orientation lectures (which didn’t seem all that interesting) and there wouldn’t have been any need for us to be there a second day. If President Schapiro is speaking during orientation, I would recommend that your mother go to hear him!</p>
<p>We are planning to move S in in the morning, set up the room, eat lunch, march through the Arch, say goodbye, listen to the speech and leave. The schedule for the next day didn’t seem necessary for us to attend.</p>
<p>I will be there with my husband and we are going to go ahead and attend the sessions since we live in the deep south and are still learning about the Midwest area in general, too, and will hang out in Chicago for a day before we leave (just in case S has forgotten something and needs a store run - that happens a lot). Please have your mom PM me and she is more than welcome to attend the session with us for the company if she wishes. Good luck to you next year!</p>
<p>We moved my son in last Sept. in the late morning, organized his room, did a Radio Shak run, took him to lunch. Then he left for student orientation, and my husband and I went to a couple of the parent sessions separately (not the speech) which we thought were very helpful. Then met up with our son again to say goodbye, and went to the President’s evening reception for parents, which was great – out on the lawn behind Norris, delicious food. Sat with another couple, really enjoyed it. We did not come back for the second day of parent sessions, since between the two of us, we’d covered almost all of them. And our son was ready to “move on” without us…a good thing, I guess.</p>
<p>MidwestMom - Thanks for the feedback on the President’ reception. We will definitely look into that, too. Yep, I definitely think once the move-in is established, our son will be ready for the transition and to get started. It seems that when all of their friends on the semester system have already left and they continue to wait a few more weeks, the boredom factor without buddies at home really gets them stoked for a change. My S was fortunate enough to meet, live and perform with some of the students from the Bienen School at Tanglewood and another summer music festival, so he has already started getting to know some folks. He is very excited about being at NU! I am thrilled for him.</p>
<p>One other suggestion – before you leave your student on campus, you may want to have your child sign NU’s form to allow you to talk to an NU Health Services doctor about their health and another form to have NU mail your student’s grades to you. If your child is 18, federal law prevents the university from giving you access to your child’s health and grade info. without your child’s signature. (Also be sure to waive the pricey NU health insurance if you have your own insurance for your child.)
These forms may have been emailed or sent home before we went to orientation, but I didn’t hear about them until I attended the parent sessions.
I was glad we had the health form signed when my son got very sick in the fall quarter, and the NU doctor initiated a call to me to discuss his health and recommend new asthma meds. Of course my son could’ve signed the form when he went to Health Services, but I was glad to have it done in advance, in case he was too sick to sign. (BTW, the NU docs were wonderful. We had our home doctor duplicate the NU-recommended prescriptions so our insurance would cover them.)
You also may want to ask your child for his CAESAR password (which must be changed periodically), so you can see your financial account, schedules, grades, etc. online.</p>
<p>You don’t need to ask for a CAESAR password, I don’t think - students can set up a “guest account” that allows parents to get in and see any number of specified pages/accounts/etc. CAESAR isn’t really a big deal, but if you have a kid who is twitchy about parents being “in his stuff”, then this would be the best choice. It allows him to pick the pages you see, so that you can see what you want/need, as well.</p>
<p>Ditto on the guest access account. I set one up for my mom so she could pay bills and whatnot, but after 4 years of incessant (and I mean incessant. Even my dad got fed up with it) nagging about grades, I am not allowing her access to my grades. I don’t want the phone calls home about a halfway-through-the-quarter “OMG U HAVE A B+ NOT ACCEPTABLE”.</p>
<p>I will fly in w/D to get settled - but it’s not a major stress since she is a musician/boarding school grad and so is familiar with travel like most of 'em - in fact logistics will be easier than past years! However, I want to get around campus a bit since I am curious and have seen only a tiny bit for one hour and D only flew in for audition - couldn’t attend Wildcat Days, etc…this will be the occasion to hear the admin speeches. I wish everyone’s student good luck - NU seems like a wonderful university!</p>
<p>Is your daughter planning on a music major in the Bienen School? We are amazed by the music faculty at NU, and we loved the two visits we had to the school. The music admin folks were great.</p>