What happens at Orientation?

<p>For those who have already gone to orientation, what was it like, what did u do, and when did it start and when did it end?</p>

<p>For me, orientation started at around 8AM, give or take a few minutes, and ended at around 4PM although I did not go on the option tour of the city they were offering. </p>

<p>After checking in, you listen to very informational (read boring) presentations about the dangers of snakes in the adjacent forests and not to exercise off campus alone. Then you do a couple ice-breaker games which, in all honesty, were actually quite enjoyable. The presentations start at 8 and end at around 1:15PM, when you have a 1 hour lunch break. The food was delicious and I was pleasantly surprised to see UCM using biodegradable utensils. You also take your picture for your cat-card at this time.</p>

<p>After lunch, you separate into different groups based off of your major. Natural sciences majors will of course meet with their natural sciences advisers and SSHA majors will meet with their advisers. At that time, you will select appropriate classes based off of your scores from your placement tests, AP exams, etc. Afterwards, you will go to the computer lab and web register for the courses you have selected. After web registering, you will go to the gym where you had lunch and receive your cat-card. They will have club signups in the gym and if you are not taking the tour, I believe you can leave at that time (which was 4:15PM for me). :]</p>

<p>Do you know what the parents do? And what are the icebreaker games that you do, how long are they?</p>

<p>Oh gosh, lol. </p>

<p>The parents are horded off into their own group. I suppose they get counseling about dealing with the stress when we're gone (i.e. deciding what to turn our rooms into, etc.). They get to eat lunch before us. T_T</p>

<p>Anyways, you meet up with them at lunch but that's about the only time in the day that you see them. </p>

<p>The ice breaker games were different from each group from what I saw. They're about 30 minutes long. You'll see when you get there. ;]</p>

<p>Is it a group meeting with your advisers or are they individual meetings</p>

<p>It is a group meeting with your adviser. I thought it would be watered down since there wouldn't be enough time to help everyone personally but the advisers give you all the attention you would need and can answer any questions you pose. I was impressed with their work.</p>

<p>And besides, your schedule can be re-worked via the UCM portal. You sign up for classes online and can rearrange your schedule if needed so this first meeting is to get you off to a good start but it is basically all in your hands eventually.</p>

<p>Ahh.. knowing that there are ice breaker games take off some of the stress. Honestly, I think I'm worried more about getting there than the actual orientation. I hope they don't mind if we're late since it just starts with speeches?</p>

<p>ok, so what do i need to bring to orientation?</p>

<p>what happens at orientation, stays at orientation. :P</p>

<p>For orientation, bring a backpack to keep the many folders they give you in, a pen and paper to jot down notes, your AP score report just in case their master list doesn't have your name (it didn't have mine so I had to resend my scores via fax) and patience since it will be a loooonngggg day.</p>

<p>To Mengna: There were a couple people late to the speeches and I honestly don't think they're all too important that you'd have to be there for every single one of them. Of course the UCM staff would think otherwise. The IT group goes up and warns about not downloading music on campus, the campus police has their shot at telling us to be safe and the housing department takes their turn answering our questions. The speeches are honestly a common sense check.</p>

<p>Orientation was pretty good, your right the ice breaker games werent that bad. And the small skit was pretty funny too. The only bad part is that your shoved into a really cold room for like 6 hours; and it's was really hot outside. The food was really good too. I would recommend anyone who is going to orientation to go to housing office during lunch and ask for a small tour of one of the housing room's (Mariposa tour only) because not many people know about it.</p>

<p>Orientation was hecka fun! okay that was a bit of an exaggeration but it was different from what I expected. I learned quite a bit from it though. pretty scary at first since I didn't know anyone or what to do. does anyone have pictures of the dorms? i didnt get a chance to go on the tour.</p>