So what exactly do freshmen do during orientation week? Is there drinking or parties or anything like that?
For an official outline of what new students do during Wildcat Welcome, see page 6: https://issuu.com/nuorientation/docs/march_to_the_arch-august_2016?e=2996986/37617439
Officially, there aren’t supposed to be any parties, especially held by frats, but occasionally upperclasspeople tell new students about off-campus parties to go to. People drink at those parties. I’m sure some new students manage to get their hands on alcohol to drink in other contexts as well. But certainly not all students go party during orientation (I’d guess a minority do party in this period, but can’t say for sure), and there’s a wealth of non-party things to do.
NU has really cracked down on Wildcat Welcome parties. They shut them all down half way through last year.