Image courtesy of College Raptor. 

Freshman orientation is something that every new incoming student should be involved in. It is an event that is meant to make your transition from high school to college life as easy as it can be. At freshman orientation, you will get acquainted with the college life that you are soon to be immersed in. And since this whole move is a completely new experience, going to orientation is really valuable to get you started. When you attend orientation, you’ll be ready for your new life as soon as it begins. 

Orientation will introduce you to what it’s like to live on campus, campus activities, and class requirements. You can even meet people and make new friends at orientation. At orientation, you’ll get information about Greek life, volunteer opportunities, and campus organizations. Some schools will even let you stay on campus during orientation. If that is an option for you, it would be a good idea to take it and get some firsthand experience on how you will be living in the next few weeks. 

On top of all the information you will learn at orientation, it will also serve to make you even more excited about the prospect of going off to college for the first time! It will make you realize how real it is and how quickly it is coming up. And you will have even more to look forward to once you have much more details on how the experience will be like. Seeing the kind of space you will be living in while in person will also give you some ideas on what you might need to bring into your dorm room. There is so much in general that goes on at freshman orientation, here are some details on how it works!

Purpose of Orientation

New students benefit a lot from this ritual. 

Freshman orientation is meant to introduce new college students to college life. College is such a different experience from high school that it is somewhat of a mystery to students who haven’t yet experienced it. Since you will likely be going from living at home and earning high school credits, to living away from home and earning college credits, the people that run colleges figured that it would be best to give incoming students some initial information. They also make sure to give you this information in a fun and welcoming environment. Your college wants you to succeed and so is happy to give you the information and tools that you need to get started on the right path. 

What Do You Learn From Orientation?

College is a unique experience, and orientation will let you in on the details. 

At orientation, you will learn about everything from student housing, to student clubs, and meal plans. The school’s website gives a bit of information on those things, but not nearly as much information as you need to feel comfortable navigating campus right away. It is a very necessary event to attend if you don’t want to feel intimidated or confused as soon as you step onto campus. 

Orientation is also a decent place to make some friends before school begins. It can be a difficult thing leaving all your friends behind and having to make new ones in a whole new environment, but orientation gives you a head start on the process. Since you will be surrounded by many other incoming students, this is a great time to talk to people and work on making connections. The connections you make can lead you to experience all kinds of positive outcomes. 

Housing Details

Freshmen orientation will give you the main details you need to know about housing. Every university has different rules and accommodations when it comes to housing. There are often different rules and housing requirements for freshmen compared to upperclassmen. This will make it so freshmen, for the most part, get to experience college life amongst people who are in a similar position. 

Some universities have separate freshmen dorms or separate freshmen floors in dorms. At some schools, freshmen have meal plan requirements, and at other schools, freshmen can’t bring cars. This is the kind of information you will learn about your own school at orientation. 

You will also get some information about how having a resident advisor (RA)works. In your dorm, you will have a resident advisor, a college student who is trained to be a mentor for newer students. Your RA will have gone through at least a year of schooling and therefore have some first hand experience of what freshmen are going through. They help to create helpful and safe environments for students living in the dorms. They are a good resource to go to for information, and will also work to ensure that you and your floormates follow the dorm’s rules. 

Meal Plans

Your meal plan is one of the most important parts of your new college life. Since food is a necessity, your college will make sure to keep you fed during your freshman year. Most colleges require all freshmen who live on campus to have a meal plan. Meal plans work differently at every college, and this is information you can get at your freshman orientation. If you are staying for the weekend during orientation, you also get to experience the meal plan before officially moving in. You will get an idea of some of the food your school serves and also how the meal plan works. 

Most campuses have more than one dining location. Sometimes they have multiple dining halls in different parts of campus that may serve different kinds of food, and sometimes, on a smaller campus, they may have one main dining hall and a smaller café. The café food tends to be different from the food you will find in the dining hall. They may even require different methods of payment. 

With a meal plan, you can either pay for food by using a meal or by using the stored credit on your card. Most schools will also allow you to pay in cash if you are out of meals. The type of meal plan that you get depends on your budget and needs. The way those plans may work will be explained to you during orientation. Spending a weekend using a meal plan will also give you some idea of what kind of plan you should officially purchase. 

Course Requirements

College is vastly different from high school in many ways, and orientation is where you will get a peek at what some of these differences are. High school has given you some idea on how course requirements work. For instance, in high school you have to take required courses, get certain grades to pass, and get to take electives. It works somewhat similarly in college, except that some college requirements look quite different from high school requirements. 

When you’re in college, the requirements you have to focus on depend on your major. Just like in high school, there are general requirements for everyone to follow, but that varies based on what you choose to specialize in. Your advisor will go into detail on this and really explain how everything works once you meet with them, but you can still get some basic information on this during freshman orientation. 

Some of the people at orientation have firsthand experience on meeting course requirements and can give you some personal information about it. You will at least learn what it takes for a freshman to succeed before you officially get started. And you can easily find notebooks, pens, and other school accessories to help get you started. 

Student Clubs and Organizations

One of the things that freshman orientation teaches you is how to get involved on campus. They will introduce you to many of the clubs and organizations that you will have access to once you move onto campus. Some of the people who run these organizations may even speak at orientation and teach you something about their organizations.

For them, orientation is a great place to recruit new members into their clubs. And that truly is the case. Orientation will get freshmen excited about getting involved with school activities as soon as they possibly can. It is the kind of event that raises the spirits of incoming freshmen and helps them identify with and feel like a part of their new school. 

Reading about an organization online can get you excited about joining, but when you get to hear about it in person, it becomes even more exciting. You might even get to visit some of these organizations' facilities and get a feel for what it's like to spend time in them. You could even meet some fellow freshmen who are also planning on joining the same clubs and get to start the experience together. 

Going to orientations makes everything feel a lot more real and fun to anticipate. You can much better plan for what you need. Having mini electronics, like headphones and speakers can make spending time in some of these spaces even more enjoyable. 

Student Sports

When it comes to sports, they may be mentioned during freshman orientation, but the discussion may not be too in depth. It is the case that anyone planning to be part of a sports team has a separate orientation for that at a different time. In college, most people that play sports had already decided on that back in high school. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t join a sports team while you’re in college. 

This depends on the school and on the sports team. Many teams recruit high school students and some will let college students try out. If you’re interested in joining a sports team for fun, you can certainly learn something about that during orientation. If this isn’t brought up at orientation, you can ask about it. The people running the event will be happy to answer any questions that you may have. 

Greek Life

Greek life is a big part of college life on many campuses. On some college campuses, Greek life is a huge deal, and on others, Greek life is either barely noticeable or nonexistent. If Greek life is important to you, you probably know how large or small the community is in the school you chose to go to, but orientation can teach you a lot more details about Greek life than you can learn on the school’s website. 

You can even meet different members of sororities and fraternities and get to know them a little bit. These organizations will have their own orientations if you decide to pledge, but orientation time is when you can learn enough to decide if pledging is something you are truly interested in doing. 

Different schools also have different requirements for Greek life. You may not be able to join a sorority or fraternity right away. At some schools, you have to wait at least a semester or maybe even more. There can also be different rules for transfer students. All this depends on the school you attend, so be sure to find out those details at orientation!

Freshman orientation will teach you so much more about your college than you can learn online. It is best not to skip this day, weekend, or week full of fun, novelty, and useful information!