My D and I will be attending the NSO later this week. Any valuable information from parents who attended this event will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Just in case you hadn’t seen it yet, here’s the link with schedules for students, schedules for parents, parking and housing information, and more: https://orientation.psu.edu/up
@dygibbs Do the NSO homework (AP classes / Duel enrollment, etc.)
There have been mixed reports about advisors. Does your D know what she will be majoring in? If so, she can go to the “Recommended Academic Plan” for her major. Print it out. If she has any AP/DE classes that will count for freshman year, look at what else she can take. You can go into lionpath as a guest and start looking at classes and start building a schedule. There are even some who go as far as putting them into the cart and then registering when the Advisors take the hold off.
I don’t know if you have to go that far, but it helps to have looked at classes and started to figure out what makes sense - what is she interested in, what are ETM (entrance to major) classes she will need, etc. You can even see what classes are open, which have waitlists, and what may makes sense for her.
She will do that part without you, so if you sit and talk with her and have a conversation about things she is interested in, it will help her. Sometimes the advisors have good reasons for recommendations, sometimes not.
Thanks, @bodangles and @lucyvanpelt. We are aware of the NSO website. She has completed her NSO homework, except for the submission of her final HS transcript. I wanted to get reviews and thoughts from parents who attended the NSO.
@dygibbs I am a parent who attended. I’m glad to hear she has completed her homework - since my D’s roommate had not, she was doing it at midnight the night they spent in the dorms.
- Have her take a fan if the weather looks hot. My D's room had a box fan, but I don't know if rooms all do? Maybe just a small desk fan that she can use at night if hot?
- I would encourage her to hang out with other incoming freshman on day 1 during NSO late night.... on day 2, eat breakfast with them ... and walk to day 2 orientation sessions together. Seems simple? My D's roommate left the room at 7am, went to her mom's hotel room to shower, and then didn't hang with other incoming freshman. It is a great opportunity to make some new friends - take it!
- One other suggestion is to go to the HUB immediately upon arrival - before you check in to your room. Get your ID then. Most students go to Pollock, get settled in their rooms, and then go to the Hub. The line will get long. If you do the ID first, you will avoid a long line.
- We opened up the PNC account at home and avoided that line. If you live in a town near a PNC, I would encourage that.
have fun! make a friend!
We were just there the last two days. I found it surprisingly informative even though I’m an alum and we were there for 2 different visits previously. They do a pretty good job of keeping it interesting for the parents. Kids on the other hand, my son found most of the sessions “boring” but that’s what you get from an 18 year old boy. However, he had a good roommate which made him feel like being randomly assigned a roommate might not actually be terrible. I thought they could have done a better job with helping the kids get to know each other. Another friend’s son’s orientation had sessions of “speed meeting” where they rotated kids having three minutes each one-on-one to get to know each other. It’s hard for some kids to break the ice and being directly put with someone like that helps. The nighttime “after dark” really wasn’t that organized with lots of kids just roaming around. I agree to encourage your kids to do as much with other kids as they can. My son had a really positive experience with his advisor. She gave him some good tips on which classes to take first, etc. and helped him build a schedule based on times he is most productive (no pre-10:00 am classes - he was thrilled!)
Just returning a few hours ago from the NSO. Yes, @JSchoolorbust, the majority of the sessions were informative, and like your son, my D found the most of the sessions boring. The line at the HUB wasn’t long when we arrived, and she opened her PNC account which will be linked to her current credit union account (there are no branches in the State College area) to avoid fees. My D and others went to the Creamery on Friday night but didn’t say much about the other after dark activities. She went to breakfast on this morning, but she isn’t a big breakfast person, so I will have to revisit her meal plan. We may change it from #3 to #2 plan at some point. She enjoyed the luncheon for the Lenfest, Maquire, and Bunton-Waller Scholars.
She will be in the Smeal College of Business for Marketing. From the schedule builder on LionPath, she had several examples of what she wanted her class schedule to be. She wanted morning classes, and was able to schedule 3 of her classes from 8 - 10 am, Monday thru Friday, but was somewhat disappointed that there is a 5- hour gap between her morning and the 2 afternoon classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday because of scheduling conflict.
Anyway, I was pleased with NSO. Thanks to all for your advice and suggestions. Just 7 more weeks to go until Move-in Day.
Hi dygibbs, could you elaborate a little on the PNC/Credit Union linking? We were thinking of not getting a PNC account and having our child just use the CU card to make withdraws at the CU in the HUB. They are not the same CU but allow fee free transactions since it is CU to CU. However, if there is a way to get the additional access points that PNC would have AND still keep fees in check, we’d be interested in that. We are a CU type family. 
@ww4397, we are a CU family, too. But our CU has branches only in Philadephia and surrounding counties, with a very limited number of surcharge-free ATMs in its network in State College. Also, the closest shared CU branch near PSU is about 15 miles away. Linking her CU account with a PNC account will allow money transfer between the two accounts, and will increase the number of ATMs my D can use with the addition of PNC’s surcharge-free ATMs. Plus, her LionPlus ID can linked to the PNC account and used as an ATM card.
Thanks for the reply, @dygibbs.
So, you’ll transfer funds from CU to PNC periodically, or when needed, to keep the PNC account sufficiently funded to cover expected withdraws? Or, can you keep just a minimum balance (if there is one) at PNC and then each time an ATM withdrawal is made it will pull funds from the CU account automatically, without any need for someone to make the periodic transfers form CU to PNC?
Thanks.
@ww4397, the PNC student virtual wallet has no minimum balance requirement or monthly service charge for active students for six years. Therefore, I will transfer funds from CU to PNC periodically.
First - I agree 100% with those above about arriving a bit early and taking care of student ID / LionCash+ first. We showed up at the HUB around Noon and there was no line at all. Apparently some who showed up later weren’t even able to get their ID on Day One due to the lines. Thanks for the tip!
Second - This won’t help much this year, but I’d say it’s very important to go to NSO as early as possible. Remember that freshmen are already at the end of the line for registering for classes, and those in the mid-July NSO sessions may have some real scheduling issues. We went the week of June 25 (five days after HS graduation) and there were already a ton of sections full; my son ended up with an evening Chem class and a very spread out schedule.
Overall, NSO was worth attending. We didn’t learn anything earth-shattering, but I think it’s a good opportunity for parents (and students) to get more comfortable with University Park prior to classes starting in August.