<p>480 miles from Miami to Tallahassee and 480 miles from Tallahassee to Miami. Over $200 in hotel bills and several days of lost wages for some parents and students. Why are students and most parents packing up for a 2 night stay in Tallahassee, just 2 months before doing it again? How do thousands of other universites manage to test, place and register freshmen just a few days before classes begin? Is there any study that compares students who attend orientation 2 months versus 2 days before classes begin? </p>
<p>It's too late to stop this collosal waste of fossil fuels for the class of 2014, but not for the class of 2015. BTW, FSU is not the only school that requires or encourages summer orientation for freshmen - UF, U of Michigan and many other state schools do the same thing. </p>
<p>If the USA didn't have such a huge appetite for petroleum, BP might not be extracting crude oil from over a mile deep, just 200 miles away from Tallahassee. BP is responsible for the oil spill and so are we.</p>
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<li><p>Virtually all schools have mandatory orientation, so not sure what made you single out Michigan. They can’t have all of the orientations 2 days before classes start because there are too many incoming students. Perhaps the schools you are thinking of that are able to do everything two days before do not have incoming classes of about 6000. While orientation is repetitive, the program is definitely a necessity. You realize it isn’t mandatory for parents to attend right?</p></li>
<li><p>WE are not responsible for the oil spill, and if I hear that come out of one more tree hugger’s mouth, I am going to pop someone. The blame rests solely on the greedy oil companies. They should have had more safety measures in place, or at the very least, a plan for the worst case scenario. Unfortunately, in trying to keep their already ridiculously high profits higher, they put the environment (and their earnings) at risk by not having these safety measures, and obviously the risk did not pay off. Blaming the oil spill on the consumer is the equivalent of blaming a plane crash on those who fly, when you instead should blame the airline for not paying to keep their aircraft maintained.</p></li>
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<p>SoBeDAD, if you’re that against it, register for the late orientation. E-mail FSU. The late orientation ends 3 days before classes begin. I’m going to it, but because I live on a different continent, so flying planes twice would cost thousands.</p>
<p>SoBeDAD, you sound like you’re strongly affected by taking a day or two off from work. </p>
<p>First off, the oil spill is entirely on BP. There’s a statistic: BP is responsible for 90% of safety violations in the American Oil Industry. All of the safeguards that were put in to place in order to prevent a spill like this were disregarded by BP. It happened this way because they didn’t follow any of the rules that were set in place. I assume you’re an adult, so I shouldn’t have to say this but I will: be careful to whom and where you insult Americans, because many won’t take it lightly. Hopefully you won’t miss another day at work because of something you say to the wrong person.</p>
<p>By “thousands of other universities,” you’re probably referring to community colleges. As Matt125 stated, most schools in the country have MANDATORY ORIENTATION. Most of those which do have mandatory orientation have summer sessions. Think of it this way, if it’s any consolation: the earlier that you attend orientation, the better course selection that you have.</p>
<p>“Is there any study that compares students who attend orientation 2 months versus 2 days before classes begin?” It’s not official, but under most circumstances many people will agree with me. Students who register a day or two before classes begin are usually less likely to succeed, either because they didn’t get their choice of classes and have no motivation, or they were pushed in to it. Most of those last minute students will fail. I said under most circumstances, mind you. Torioreo has to do it, because dropping thousands to visit orientation and move in would be ridiculous. Think about both sides before you decide to point fingers.</p>
<p>SBD, It’s kinda silly bringing this up now. When you applied for admission you should have known that attending orientation was mandatory and you should have known Tallahassee is 480 miles from Miami.</p>
<p>One good thing about a attending college over 100 miles from home is that your parent’s auto insurance premium in Miami will probably decrease because you are so far away from the cars in Miami while attending college in Tallahassee!</p>
<p>The private schools that my kids and their friends are familiar with (Mount Holyoke, Princeton and MIT to name a few) do NOT have summer oprientation. Instead, their freshmen come to campus a few days early in the fall and the schools manage to test and advise them in a few days. These schools also take care of some placement issues over the summer, such as language requirements. I visited a few public school web-sites, such as U of Michigan, and all of them that I visited require or encourage summer orientation. This small sample of schools is not enough to make any generalization.</p>
<p>The kids at FSU believe that registration in August will lead to a bad schedule (8am classes), so their is a rush to get it done early. How do schools with over a 1,000 freshman manage to register so many students without the benefit of summer orientation. I went to U of Miami in the 1970s and there was no summer freshman orientation. I don’t mind taking time off from work, but my daughter’s summer employer is not as understanding. Finally, I think that summer orientation takes away some of the responsibility that our 17 and 18 year old should be developing.</p>
<p>I don’t see any big problems with the mandatory orientation setup the way it is now at FSU. FSU has had decades of experience with incoming freshman classes and I’m sure FSU administrators feel the orientation is necessary with the positives outweighing the negatives. 90% of the students are from Florida and the travel distance is a relatively minor inconvenience to most.</p>
<p>Attending the orientation is a significant investment for most, both timewise and financially, and attending is made at much personal sacrifice for many. Participating in the orientation I think develops responsibility in the new students too. My sister, who is going to be a new freshman at FSU in the fall, has been planning for this orientation for months. She holds two jobs, now and also while she was still in high school, and has saved and budgeted money for this trip. She informed her bosses months ago about the trip and resolved work schedule conflicts weeks ago. This summer orientation for her is not some kind of all expenses paid extra vacation–it is her only vacation this summer and she is paying for it herself. She’s responsible.</p>
<p>If a student has extreme circumstances that create a hardship to attend the regular orientation sessions, I’m sure FSU would accomodate the student with other arrangements such as allowing the student to come for an orientation a couple of days before the semester classes begin.</p>
<p>Frankly, I can see your point. With video conferencing and the internet, the need for in-person orientation seems to have diminished in the past decade or so. When I went to college in the 80’s, we needed to register for classes in person (with punch cards!), but by the time I went to law school a decade later, it was done totally on the internet. My daughter has changed her schedule about 10 times since she returned from orientation last week-- all by computer. How much money is being spent on the part of the school and the students for orientation? It must be tens of millions when you factor in all costs, including time off from work for students and parents. Although in-person orientation isn’t without value, is it the best use of the money/time considering that most of the benefits of orientation can be approximated electronically?</p>
<p>I like the idea of pitching the idea of “virtual orientation” to the president (of the university). If in-person orientation is costing money that can be better spent on education, maybe the scope could be narrowed – at least as far as students for whom orientation is a major expense or inconvenience.</p>
<p>Agreed. I feel that I’m being sort of “penalized” as an army brat–it’s too costly to make two trips to the states from Europe, so I have to suffer perhaps through less course selections…but hopefully everything will work out Even if the total orientation wasn’t virtual, it would definitely be easier to just be able to register for classes online from my home, rather than wait two extra months more than everyone else…:(</p>
<p>I have to disagree with the online orientation. Im from out of state ¶ and have to travel and expenses to deal with but I like the fact that it is one on one and you do not have to wait for an email to get back with the information needed. You also get a feel of living on campus during that time and I know I would feel more comfortable with that fact.</p>
<p>Also, the reasons many private schools do not require summer orientation is because they generally (i said generally) dont have over 6000 incoming freshman (yes i know Ivy leagues probably do but i said generally). I can imagine it would be quite a hassle for admissions to deal with 6000 freshman in 2 days. Even if it is online.</p>
<p>It is optional for parents. And students can request that they go to the final orientation just days before classes begin. There is always an orientation in August before the start of classes for those that cannot go otherwise. Always has been.</p>
<p>The purpose of the orientation is to familiarize students with the campus environment, to answer questions, to let students know what FSU expects of them, to ease anxieties like what it’s like eating and sleeping on campus, to get the students separated from parents and mixing with other students, etc. These things are best done on campus, not attempted online or just not done at all. FSU wants students to succeed and that is why they have these orientations to get students off to a good, fast start.</p>
<p>One can learn about Rome and Italy by watching television shows at home about Rome, but there is no substitute for actually going there and experiencing things and the locale first hand.</p>
<p>I never said online orientation, just online course selection for those who can’t make it to regular orientation times. Of course orientation would happen. It’d just be easier for those who can’t afford to travel certain distances to pick classes, and would offer a more equal chance at picking classes, rather than getting stuck with left-over classes, and in some cases, classes that wouldn’t even pertain to my major. I’ve already received quite a few credits from ACT and AP scores; so I may not need a majority of the usual “freshman” courses, so hopefully it’ll all work out :D</p>
<p>Of course in-person orientation is better than virtual orientation. A Mercedes is generally better than a Kia. However, is purchasing the best (as opposed to an adequate) item always the best use of a family’s and a school’s limited resources? I mean, you don’t actually have to go to Rome in order to prepare for a trip to Rome. Forcing some students (those who live far away or who cannot leave work) to wait until August to register shows definite favoritism to students from north Florida. Also, couldn’t some of the sessions offered at orientation be uploaded so that those students who can’t attend orientation until the last minute get a heads up as well?</p>
<p>I just finished at orientation and our orientation leader told us that the deans set aside a lot of classes that don’t become available to anyone until the end of July, the entire point of this is to ensure students who don’t/can’t come to earlier orientations get the classes they want. Just something to keep in mind, hope this helps a little! : )</p>
<p>nope Dnerd, registration REopens up some time in july, plus you have add/drop during the first couple days of classes…my orientation leader said it was because they honestly want everyone to have a fair chance…and believe me, there are TONS of classes open (just got to course search on fsu’s blackboard, under secure apps, to see them). As a freshman you’ll be taking pre-reqs for the most part anways, upperclassmen don’t want those and so there are like I said, TONS still available.</p>
Even if the total orientation wasn’t virtual, it would definitely be easier to just be able to register for classes online from my home, rather than wait two extra months more than everyone else…:(</p>