<p>My daughter is excited about starting Dickinson in the fall of 2013. Does anyone have any recommendations regarding preparing for her fall enrollment, or advice to ensure a positive transition to Dickinson?</p>
<p>I have a few thoughts, although they are not necessarily Dickinson specific. But they worked well for my D at Dickinson.
- She had a choice of being in housing that was grouped with her freshman seminar class. It turned out to be a very good choice – that was were a lot of the serious students lived. A large percentage of her friends (and she was also) were Phi Beta Kappa. She said they almost all met in that freshman housing group. So if your daughter has an interest in being with the more serious academic students and they still offer that option, she should consider it. (But don’t make her if she doesn’t want to!).
- My D was kind of at loose ends her first semester, she had a lot of free time on her hands because she had been soooo busy in high school. And – <em>poof</em> – all those clubs, leadership responsibilities, etc. were gone. But she joined a few clubs, and by second semester was busy again. So encourage your D to try a few clubs when she gets there. My D made a lot of friends thru those, too.
- Leading to my next point… encourage your D to build friendships outside her roommate. Although D and her roommate got on okay for the first month or so, they ended up having some pretty significant issues. D moved to a different room with the blessing of her RA and the housing department at winter break. After that, no more issues. But it helped that she had made friends in her classes, her clubs, and with others in her dorm. Don’t count on your roommate to be your BFF. Gravy if they are, but assume they may not be. That was the only big bump in her freshman year, and having other friendships helped her through it.
- I did some research ahead of time on the web, and went around Carlisle after dropping her off to pick up some gift certificates to some restaurants, a book store, movie theater, etc. I wanted to encourage her to get off campus freshman year into the community a bit (no car, so most were in walking distance). Got them in amounts so she could take a friend along to most of them. Then I got a box of nice cards and sealed them in with the cards and a little note, with a month on the front of each envelope. Mailed them all to her and told her to open each envelope on the first of the month. She loved this, and it helped her explore Carlisle (although she does say one of the pizza places I picked was “sketchy”, and she was glad she took a male friend!).
- Registering for classes was a little stressful, D did not get everything she wanted that first semester (or even first year). It all worked out fine in the end, so don’t stress too much if she has that issue. My D used RateMyProfessor.com to help pick her classes for first semester (after that I think she just asked around on campus mostly). She was willing to take early sections to get the prof with the best ratings (sometimes the 8 am sections were all that were open). BUT, she is a kid with the self discipline to get up early… this would never work with my second kid, so your milage may vary. Not a good plan if your kid may not get up for them.</p>
<p>I hope your D has a great experience!</p>