<p>I will be in another country for a month, and the only way to go to Orientation is like June 14-15. That means I would miss my graduation ceremony. Also, I live in CT so I have to fly.</p>
<p>If I request the materials in lieu of going to Orientation, what am I missing out on?</p>
<p>you will NOT be able to register for classes UNTIL you attend orientation. If you wait until you arrive on campus in Aug to do orientation, there is a very strong likelihood that you will be shut out of classes you want/ need to take.
There already was another thread started about this very question.
I strongly suggest you find an orientation session you can attend this summer, so you will be set once you move in, and not have to do orientation, then meet with your advisor and then try to find classes that are still open that you are interested in or that satisfy prerequisites. It can be a big bureaucratic hassle trying to get a prof to let you in a full class, and then going to the registrars office [ along with dozens of other kids trying to switch classes] to have the class change approved.
. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1132870-usc-orientation-question.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-southern-california/1132870-usc-orientation-question.html</a></p>
<p>I called the orientation peeps and they said that we can attend the international session instead if we are unable to attend other sessions due to financial or other reasonings. You might wanna look into that. They told me that international session has the same priorities as the other sessions.</p>
<p>will I be as well prepared to attend USC in terms of the courses and stuff if I attend an international orientation?</p>
<p>I am not sure. They said we should receive similar informations, but the international orientation session is more geared toward international students with activities like going over their passport.
Here is the sample schedule for international orientation session: <a href=“http://sait.usc.edu/orientation/schedules/WebSummerIntl.pdf[/url]”>http://sait.usc.edu/orientation/schedules/WebSummerIntl.pdf</a>
And here is the sample schedule for normal sessions:
<a href=“http://sait.usc.edu/orientation/schedules/WebSummerFreshman.pdf[/url]”>http://sait.usc.edu/orientation/schedules/WebSummerFreshman.pdf</a></p>
<p>Ok, so it turns out I may be able to attend. The cost of housing is included during the students stay but what about for parents? If they choose not to come, will they miss important information?</p>
<p>yea - will i miss something important if parents don’t come?</p>
<p>Your parents are not required to come. Honestly the most important reason to go to orientation is to register for classes and talk to your advisors in person, so having your parents there won’t add anything significant. It’s mostly just info sessions for them, and they are separated from the students for almost the entire time.</p>
<p>thank you hawkwings</p>
<p>Parents are *not allowed *to go to the counseling/registration with their student anyway. The student is treated as an adult by USC and gets to make their own decisions regarding majors and courses.</p>
<p>Parents usually attend orientation to learn about financing their student’s education, to meet other parents, to get a feel for the campus and to learn more about the University in general. It’s not required, but I certainly recommend it.</p>
<p>I was in your EXACT situation last year. I was in Europe all summer and the only dates that worked for me were the weekends of prom and graduation, and I was NOT going to miss either of those! I live in Virginia too, so it’s not like it was an easy trip to make.
What happens is you do the pre-orientation homework and then they send you some materials in the mail (I don’t remember what it was but it wasn’t that important). Then you schedule a phone call with an advisor and you just talk about what you’re going to take that fall. If you have declared a major I suggest you look up those majors on the USC website somewhere so you know what classes you want to take. I talked on the phone with my advisor a couple of times just to get my class clearances coordinated and such. They also sent me a video that had instructions on how to register for classes online.
Once I got to USC in August I had to go and meet with my advisor for a brief touching of bases and some receiving of information. </p>
<p>The one downside was that the good GE classes were filled up by the time I registered for classes. Classes for you major should usually be fine. </p>
<p>Anyways, if you still can’t make it for orientation I wouldn’t sweat it - you’re really not missing much.</p>
<p>D is attending early June session, but we (parents) are not. It’s pretty darned expensive what with $500 plane fare, plus $240, including extra nite stay on campus. You’d think with $41k in tuition they’d toss in the flippin orientation. But oh well. We were told parents arent’ needed, and we’ve been to the campus.</p>
<p>God, you can’t register for classes until July 23rd, the last date of the on campus orientation sessions. So what kinds of GE classes will be gone by then, I know I want to learn Chinese but that’s about it for GE’s that I want to take.</p>
<p>And even though you will be fine for classes in your major, will they be the worst schedules (like Friday classes, morning classes) if you do the materials packet?</p>
<p>To make things fair, USC opens up a few spaces in most GE sections for each of the new orientation sessions throughout the summer. This is meant to help equalize opportunities no matter when you attend. Not worth worrying about–you’ll all do fine. </p>
<p>Some parents can afford the time off and the $$ and like to bond with the campus again. Orientation makes a program specially for parents so they are welcomed and helped to understand the transition to college. Some parents like to meet others who are sending their freshmen off, but it is not necessary.</p>
<p>One of the best things for students is you will actually meet a huge group of awesome freshmen. Since many of the Schools (Viterbi, etc) do some of their advising as a group (you do get to meet with an advisor for one-on-one), you’ll get a chance in many cases to meet others in your major. Cool.</p>
<p>So what GE classes will you probably not be able to sign up for?</p>
<p>Alright, last question: Do you register for classes for just the first semester? As an engineering major you only take one GE class the first semester freshman year, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?</p>
<p>Yes, you register for just the first semester. You can take as many or as few GE classes as you want. The suggested course plan is just that - a suggestion. You will probably not be able to get into the popular GE classes, whatever the popular ones are these days.</p>
<p>and after that, what is the criteria for when you get to register for the 2nd semester? certaintly not when you went to orientation…is it?</p>
<p>Registration for spring semester happens in… October? I think. Everyone registers in order based on how many credits they have. So seniors go first, and freshmen are last. Note that transfer credits as well as AP credits count for this, so if someone has the max AP credits and takes a full (or overfull) courseload their first semester, then they will get to register slightly (like 15 minutes maybe) before all the other freshmen.</p>