<p>I'm taking a vacation this summer, and I'm going out of the country, so I'm wondering when I have to show up in SD for registering and those things. I'm going for 3 weeks, and I'm afraid of missing something important, like orientation or registering for classes or whatever. Is it in July or August? Would it be safe to take a vacation from late June to about mid July?</p>
<p>Registration for classes at SD is all online. Prepare for an internet connection around late August/early September. I had a friend register for classes while vacationing in Australia, but she had to wake up at 5 for her time 
I believe most orientations are in either June or September, but to be sure you could do some sleuthing around the websites for each of the colleges at UCSD.</p>
<p>Like momosky said, registering is done online with Webreg at your mytritonlink account. So make sure you have an internet connection on that day or ask someone else to do it for you. You probably wont miss orientation as orientation is usually early to mid September. If you do however miss it, there are make ups or if you miss it completely it is no big deal. If it is “mandatory”, the only parts that might be mandatory are the hour long talks they give about the same old honor policy of no cheating or sexual harassment speech, but I know people who have skipped orientation so they might just give you a pamphlet or let you skip out on it entirely. You will miss out on getting your student ID card, however I got mine without going to orientation, in fact it’s easier that way. At orientation you’d have to sit and wait in a long line to get yours whereas you literally just could go to the office (as long as you know where it is) and get yours in minutes. For the most part, orientation was boring, dull, and the food they provided was very poor. Not trying to get you too cynical about UCSD as it’s a great school, just that their orientation is pretty uninteresting nor helpful. So definitely don’t sweat it if you end up missing orientation, unless you like sitting in a cramped room for hours listening to talks about bureaucratic school policies and professors talking about themselves and their degrees/accomplishments.</p>