While the amount of information sessions may seem overwhelming and boring, its important to try your best to take everything in. After all, one of the main purposes of New Student Orientation is to make sure that you know everything you need to start your freshman year at IU. That being said, even as you feel yourself dozing off to the sound of "Campus Access cards" and "The Office of the Bursar," try to remember that you will need to remember most of what they're telling you.
While IU's campus isn't necessarily hard to find your way around, I'm certainly grateful for the extra time I spent exploring at orientation. At orientation, you are responsible for getting yourself where you need to be a lot of the time. After orientation, I have a much better sense of where things are on campus, which makes the thought of arriving at IU for welcome week in 20 days much less intimidating. Plus, who wouldn't want time to explore one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country?
Now, I haven't arrived on campus officially just yet so I have no way of knowing who my long term friends at IU will be. Regardless, at orientation I met people enrolled in the same programs as I am, living in the same LLC, and interested in the same extracurriculars. Thanks to my orientation experience, I'm going into IU knowing that I'll be seeing at least a few familiar faces around.
4. I got to tour my dormMost students who visit IU tour an IU residence hall (I'm pretty sure I toured Teter last summer...?). But what good does that tour really do for students who aren't living in Teter. I'm living in Collins Living Learning Center next year and, like most IU dorms seemed to do, they had sort of an open house set up for students during the second day of orientation. Stopping by Collins gave me some insight into where I'd actually be next year, what size the room might be and what the closet and storage space looked like (its great by the way).
5. For the first time, I got to see a real cross-section of IU students without their parents, interacting and making IU their homeThe most important thing orientation did for me was show me a glimpse at what IU students are like and what it feels like to be on campus.
I couldn't be more excited to move in in three weeks.
See you soon, B-town!
NSO website:
http://fye.indiana.edu/orientation/new-student/index.cfm
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