<p>Yes, we’re too cranky for dorms too! Give us a low budget hotel room with individually controlled air conditioner, quiet, a regular mattress, cable television and a full private bath…</p>
<p>Very common for public U’s.</p>
<p>Wisconsin (UW-Madison) has had SOAR, summer orientation and (A for advising?) registration, since my even before my 1971 SOAR session. Went for son’s a few years ago and the Parent Program was excellent. This meant son had his schedule (which he could change) and we had seen his dorm and campus in the summer before the chaos of dropping him off the week before the semester began. So many questions answered so parents had time to know what to get/do before arriving on campus at that busy time of year. Many financial, security and other issues dealt with that save students from parental bugging. Some OOS students did not bring parents and some used it as a whole family vacation. Foreign students had SOAR just before school started so they didn’t need two trips and had time to get visa issues et al taken care of. So much better than having parents hanging around when students are trying to get to know their new classmates, and students will have had a taste of campus before the final trip. Nice to know how big/small dorm spaces are in advance.</p>
<p>The welcome events help students learn about the campus before and during the first month of school. With a large diverse student body there is none of the everybody marching in step stuff I have heard about at small schools. No required events (perhaps one convocation in theory…) when everyone has arrived for the semester except the evening house meeting for the dorms (one way of getting rid of parents by suppertime).</p>
<p>Even though I had lived in UW dorms it was convenient to do the parent dorm housing and a taste of what college life for son would be. Some improvements since my day, although basically the same good a la carte dining options existed even back in my day. I recommend the dorm stay to all parents- if only as a reminder as to why we don’t live like that forever- and much more convenient to roll out of bed close to the events.</p>
<p>After having been to two college orientations and seeing the itinerary for this next one, I honestly don’t expect to gather too much parental information that will be of value to me.</p>
<p>What I WILL enjoy is being there for my DD, seeing her get excited about a new chapter, watching her check out the new dorm, seeing her participate in yell practice, and just being there for her. It’s sort of like Christmas.</p>
<p>My oldest son RUNS a Large State U Summer Orientation Program… and yes, it is his busiest time of the year - he works @ 60 hours a week from June - August. He loves the challenge, the fun, solving problems, he loves all his students and all the parent’s except for 1 Mom.<br>
As he explained to me on Father’s day. "She is not a Helicopter Parent Dad… She’s a Bulldozer Parent! " Evidently she had a problem with Little Johnny staying over night! (MY son says despite that, the kid is ok, and will do fine).</p>
<p>So, if you can, please thank all the people working hard behind the scenes trying to make it go great for everyone. And please leave the bulldozers parked outside. :)</p>
<p>Good Luck everyone!</p>
<p>i think most schools have them now. To be honest, as a parent, i skipped the one for my son’s college, UMass. He’s a really independent kid and we had no transition or separation issues. After looking into what hte programs are all about, it seemed like a lot of the content was aimed at getting helicopter parents to back off. Plus it was scheduled on weekdays, so I would have had to take days off from work, and you had to pay to attend and pay for your hotel… I just couldn’t swing it logistically - in fact my son had a summer job that he had to miss a couple days of - he skipped the last day of the summer orientation cuz he needed to be back at his job. Not knocking the programs or the school, just saying if you can’t make it, it’s no big deal.</p>
<p>Our kids are first gen college, and while older Ds school did have some parent stuff for freshmen year, it seemed concentrated on useful information.
Financial aid, tuition insurance/management, signing of privacy release forms for student for medical, grades etc.
You only had to go to what you thought would be useful, I didn’t have the impression you were expected to do everything.</p>
<p>Next daughter is eight years younger & she was out of country for early registration which pretty much messed up her freshman year but she was aware of it when she made her plans and this is a child who needs to learn through experience.
We do go for parents weekend, she enjoys it I think as much as we do!
:)</p>