Hey theresatwist,
Yeah, I know what you mean about the communication channels with IIE placement (which sucks), but I don't know much about the whole orientation thing -- I haven't thought about that a lot yet to be honest. I asked my friends at Fulbright and apparently the idea is we'll get sent somewhere other than where we're going to be studying, like a holiday or something.
P.S. I'm probably going to Columbia btw.