<p>Its pretty common.
Younger Ds school which has about 14,000 students, had several freshman orientations available.
Actually three? One in June, one in July & one in Sept. Since D was out of the country/ working, she attended the one right before school began.
Older Ds school was much smaller ( 1200) and part of O- week were trips around the area with other new students. It was held at the same time, but you could pick whether you wanted to go backpacking, or just have a tour of the local hangouts.</p>
<p>George Washington had several 2 day sessions in June/July. Years ago registration there was done online before the orientation, it may have changed. RIT just had the week before classes started, which I prefer. I don’t see much point in going in the summer first, but some schools are so large it might make it easier for them. He was given a preliminary schedule based on his major and had the opportunity to switch it around once he arrived on campus. Last kid’s LAC does not have early summer orientations, which is great because it would be expensive to fly her cross country for that.</p>
<p>D1’s school is relatively small, so the orientation was the week prior to classes starting. She had to schedule all of her classes online in June, with the aid of detailed instructions and contact information for her advisor. She met with her academic advisor during the orientation and changes could have been made if required. </p>
<p>Part of the orientation was a welcome event for parents and families on the first day, and the parents said goodbye. The week included team building events, socials, getting to know the campus and city, etc. Larger schools tend to have several options throughout the summer for students.</p>
<p>My son’s freshmen orientation begins Sept. 1 with move-in to his dorm. Freshmen then have a week of orientation and classes start Sept. 9.</p>
<p>Parents/families also can attend their own orientation Sunday-Monday-Tuesday of the same week.</p>
<p>Today he signed up online for his first-year seminar course.</p>
<p>He’ll select his remaining courses during orientation week.</p>
<p>All members of the Pack family attended instate big state u’s. For all four of us (parents and kids), there were multiple two day orientations held throughout the summer. DH and S1’s university did summer orientation days based on the students’ major. S2’s and my university let the students choose when they wanted to come. There is no freshman orientation at the beginning of fall semester.</p>
<p>Back in the day, when we went to orientation, it was for students only.</p>
<p>Yup, had a pre-freshman orientation at UC Irvine. It’s kinda mandatory to go unless you’re out of the country or something. We get to stay in one of the dorms for a night, register for classes, meet other freshman, talk to upperclassmen who stay there with us as our sort-of RA’s (Resident Advisor). They really make you feel welcome to the environment and give up some tips and secrets that you wouldn’t normally see on the catalogue. It made me really excited to go to college knowing that there were people like that.</p>
<p>@ collegeshopping - UT Austin actually has a family orientation which is the first day of every orientation session where parents can go ask questions in their kid’s college and attend break-out sessions to find out about things. It’s just that students and parents operate mostly separately. But parents ARE invited to orientation.</p>
<p>[Texas</a> Parents | Orientation | Home](<a href=“http://www.texasparents.org/events_orientation.php]Texas”>http://www.texasparents.org/events_orientation.php)</p>
<p>Neither of my kids’ schools had any kind of summer orientation, though they have friends whose colleges had such programs. Personally, it doesn’t feel all that respectful to parents’ wallets. Not every parent has the money to be able to schlep parent and child across the country, or have the parent take time off work. What is covered that can’t be more than adequately covered during a new student week?</p>
<p>Parents are not usually required to go…only invited. And a lot of colleges have orientation sessions available right before classes start, and many provide scholarships too. There is little about college that is respectful of parents wallets.</p>
<p>Both of my kids had summer orientation…and in both cases they were unable to attend one of the summer sessions (one because of a summer long music program, and the other because we lived 3000 miles away). In both cases, they attended orientation the three days prior to the start of classes, and we went to the parent orientation also. In DSs case, we DID dine a day to drive,the two hours so he could meet with his advisor and get his classes scheduled. Dd did. It do this, and it was dicey finding classes during the last orientation.</p>
<p>I think orientations sessions are very common especially at larger schools. Since the freshman don’t all come at one time, it gives the advisors more time with the students in smaller groups.</p>
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<p>As noted above, it may make more sense for state universities:</p>
<ul>
<li>Most students are not as far away, so travel time and cost is less of an issue.</li>
<li>State universities may have more entering frosh and transfer students who live off-campus or commute, so it may be easier to handle orientation for them when they are staying in the dorm as a hotel for a few days.</li>
<li>Having entering students preregister for classes during the summer makes it easier to manage enrollment by alerting the school some weeks early about which classes have high versus low demand (so they can open additional sections of high demand courses, and/or combine sections of low demand courses, shifting faculty and TAs as needed).</li>
<li>Of course, parents are not required to attend.</li>
</ul>
<p>A private school with a wide geographic distribution of students, 100% dorm residency for entering frosh, and enough money to maintain spare capacity in all classes to accommodate shifts in demand would be different in terms of the value of summer orientation for students and the school.</p>
<p>Definitely a US thing - I’ve never come across this sort of thing in the UK. That said, most will put on some sort of orientation week for international students that starts a week or so before all the non-international students turn up.</p>
<p>I think a lot of big state schools do this during the summer. All the private schools I’m familiar with prefer to just schedule freshman orientation a week before classes start and most also have another program of smaller events before the big orientation (camping, service activities etc.) It seems to me if you have a job this could cut into it, and/or your regularly scheduled vacation.</p>
<p>I was talking to a friend with a 2013 who has a son attending a local state college. She said that they were going to a June orientation and were being charged $35 to attend. This was not an overnight. I assume the charge was to cover any foodor other expenses? Has anyone else experienced a charge for orientation?</p>
<p>The big state schools may have a bigger proportion of local students that don’t have problems with traveling locally for a summer orientation.</p>
<p>It was $45 for my son’s overnight orientation. This covered his staying in a dorm and his food. I paid $35 for the parent version which was not mandatory and to be honest I really didnt learn anything I didnt already know.</p>
<p>Gsmomma, yes. Every orientation I have been to costs. Usually there’s a bag of resources, sometimes a t-shirt, some meals are included, they are usually overnight so a dorm room for the student, the additional resources in staff and facilities, etc. Two of my d’s went to a school with about 3000 incoming freshmen. D3 will be attending a school with about 10,000 incoming freshmen.</p>
<p>BCEagle, true. and those students from out of state usually select the last orientation session, so they’re only making one trip</p>
<p>In both our home state flagship and my son’s school (UW Madison), with around 6000 entering freshman, orientation and class registration takes place over 2 days all summer long. Students have to take placement tests before their session (at least at UW – I think at IU, students take the placement tests as part of the summer orientation and registration.</p>
<p>There are separate meetings for parents and students – info sessions for parents about health services, campus safety etc. and for students, group and individual advising sessions before registration. </p>
<p>Useful for students, who typically stay overnight in the dorm and meet their new peers. At both schools, I believe parents can stay in another dorm though I am too old and cranky for that. </p>
<p>Very different experience for my husband and myself who both went to small schools, or our friends’ kids who go to smaller schools, where the freshman orientation takes place over a period of days right before school begins, before the upper class students arrive.</p>
<p>Neither of my D’s elected to attend early-summer Pre-Orientations. They were both prepared to go away to school. Modern information systems greatly facilitate this. Back in my own “coal-fired” days, Pre-Orientations were where Freshman class schedules were put together. If you needed a Campus Map, you wrote a letter to the school. Roommate contact information? HA! Nowadays all that is available online.</p>