Our daughter is scheduled to attend orientation in a couple of weeks (umass/Amherst). Do most parents attend or participate in orientation along with their kids? This was “not a thing”, as they say, back when we were in college. Wondering how best to proceed.
Yes, I am planning to attend orientation with S17. I haven’t seen his school yet. When my D went to college, the entire family (except for second son, who was working as a camp counselor) attended. Ironically, second son wound up at the same college as D. He attended orientation on his own but went up with a friend’s sister and mom and D went along so she could hang out.
My DS will be attending the last orientation at his school and parents are not invited along. The parents have a separate orientation but I will not be staying since it is a few days later. I attended accepted students day and a pre-reception with him and am comfortable with his school. DS and I will arrive to move him into his dorm and then he is own his own. I expect that he will enjoy being immersed with his fellow students.
Some schools have concurrent programs for parents and others don’t. I’d contact the school and see.
It was not an issue for me as both kids colleges had their orientation right before school started so we dropped them off, helped them unpack a bit and left.
If there is a parent program, go. (There may be, so check!!) If not, stay home. I know kids at UMASS who met their roommates at orientation - you don’t want to interfere with your daughter’s experience.
I went with one daughter because she needed to be driven. There was a separate program for parents, and I did need to fix some health forms for her to register. IIRC, the first day there was a meeting for parents, and the second day I just picked her up.
Other daughter’s orientation was the week before school started, so I went with her to the move in, did one thing with parents from her team, and then left. None of the sessions for parents interested me.
DH went with DS to his UMass Amherst orientation. There was a percent orientation that he attended while DS was doing his own thing.
I didn’t attend with either of mine.
Since it is across the country and buying books is involved and the school is two hours from the airport yes! Also because there is a concurrent parent program. So the kids go off on their own to register and the parents do their thing. They have a program at the beginning and end where you are together.
We live in Oregon. Oldest flew to Pitt by himself for orientation. He’d been there twice before so he knew how to get from the airport.
Youngest son will fly by himself to MSU in a few weeks. He’s been there twice.
We made sure they were set up with a credit card and uber accounts. They’ll be traveling by themselves frequently in the foreseeable future, so they may as well start now. Their uncle gave them a muti country trip as a high school graduation gift, complete with specific itineraries. When they opt to go, they go alone not together. It’s kind of our philosophy- they don’t need us there to usher them to and fro. But each family is different. And we have boys.
My oldest was a football player and had to be on campus early (Case Western). We took him to school, bought him the stuff he needed, helped him move in and we left. Orientation was a week later and we didn’t attend because it didn’t make sense to fly back to Cleveland.
My middle was not an athlete. We took him to school, bought him his stuff, and helped him move in. There were a few programs for parents during student orientation but we did not attend. He goes to school in Nashville and we found more fun things to do than Belmont University parent orientation.
My youngest is an athlete but his is a spring sport. He will be heading to Haverford this fall. We will go with him and help get him set up but I suspect we will skip parent orientation as we have cousins in Philadephia and we will probably go see them.
If the orientation is the week prior to the official start of classes, there are usually some parent activities. If it’s in the summer, and the students return home before they start classes, there are usually no parent activities and it is for students only. Both of our kids had orientation the week before classes. We helped them move in, attended a few of the parent programs (but not all) and then said our goodbyes.
ETA: You are absolutely not required to attend any parent orientation programs.If you want to, great, but if you just want to kiss your kid goodbye, it’s totally fine. No one will judge you, and you’re unlikely to see the other parents ever again.
I should clarify that there is a parent orientation as well at S17’s school and since it has been almost 10 years since I attended D’s orientation, I think it’s okay to go again. At D’s school, there were also programs for siblings aged 6 - 16, which is why we took the entire family. S17 was about 9 then and he and his brothers had a blast. My then 13 year old was in a wheelchair with a broken leg and my oldest son raced him all around the campus in it.
Our D needs to fly to get to her college. Both my wife and I flew with her and the college had concurrent orientation programs for both incoming Freshmen and parents. We helped her move in and locally purchase bed linens, pillows, lamps, and other items for her dorm room that were too bulky to take with us in checked airline baggage. We also were able to meet her dorm roommate’s parents.
The parents’ orientation program presented interesting and useful information via sessions with college administration leaders as well as a reception where we could meet other parents. We’re really glad we went and we felt assured when we left for our return trip home that our D was off to a good start.
DH and I accompanied our son to R-Day at USMA (only three weeks after HS graduation) a couple of years ago even though we knew we’d only have 60 seconds to say goodbye after the five-minute general orientation speech before he and the other cadet candidates were led out for processing. It was worth it for us as we got to spend his last night as a civilian together (in a hotel), and he wanted those last family moments before he entered the six-week dark period known as “Beast” where he would be incommunicado.
It was hard to hear the official who addressed us in that five-minute speech tell us that the next time we saw our child, he would be a member of The Long Grey Line, a civilian no more. Gulp.
My kid’s school had two separate orientations…a week for the kids and two days for the parents. Everything was separate. We’d already been to the “Welcome to UMich” presentation, and felt like we’d already gotten all of our questions answered…so we skipped the parent orientation. Have never regretted it.
I paid for S and me to attend orientation when he decided he’d attend USCal. D and H opted not to attend, so we didn’t pay for them. It was helpful to be present and meet the dean of engineering as well as open a joint checking account with S for the credit union on campus. They had the students taking placement exams and a program for the parents and families. I believe there was a lunch as well. It was interesting to attend the presentations-- no regrets.
If I hadn’t been able to attend due to scheduling, it would have been ok too. For the students, it was important to take placement exams and register for fall courses.
I didn’t attend D’s transfer orientation which was held 3 semesters later. It is just as well that we hadn’t signed up to attend since our flight was cancelled and we were stuck in Honolulu anyway.
It was very clear in the registration information for D’s orientation that parents were welcome and that there’d be a parallel parent program. There was an additional cost for parents to attend. My husband went and he thought it was very worth while. (It was only 2 days) When I went to college, our orientation was a few days before school started and parents were not welcome. But it was made clear at the time information was sent out.
DS’s orientation was the week before classes started so it also served as move-in. They had some parent programs but the content was pretty much the same as what was presented in the parent programs at the accepted students event the previous spring.
If you attended parent programs at an accepted student weekend in April, then ask the school if the parent events over orientation will be substantially different…especially if you have to travel by plane to the school. If that’s the case you might want to save your travel expenses for move-in.
Don’t feel guilty going if you want to go. Don’t feel obligated if you don’t.
We’ll go to freshman move-in for our D. There are parent’s activities for the day and a clear time for parent’s to depart. Even though we visited a couple years ago in the admission process, it will be nice to get a tour and info again. Orientation is for students only and we able to do admitted students weekend so move-in day activities is our closest parallel.