Should I attend optional UCLA New Graduate Student Orientation

[Coconut Water]

Anyone attend the UCLA Grad Student Resource Center's optional orientation? Did you find it worthwhile? I will be attending my department's mandatory orientation, but it's not the same…. 

 

 

[WriteAndKnit]

Will they have food? I'm serious. If they have food and you'll have a chance to meet other new grad students, I'd go. 

[ChasingMavericks]

I'm not attending UCLA, but I always welcome every orientation invitation because that's just one more event you can use to your benefit learning about the school and meeting new people. And that never hurts.

[juilletmercredi]

I'm not attending UCLA, but I always welcome every orientation invitation because that's just one more event you can use to your benefit learning about the school and meeting new people. And that never hurts.

 

Meh.  I'm in a joint degree program in two different departments in two different schools, so there were four orientations I could've attended: one for each department and one for each school.  I attended two of them.  I don't regret skipping the graduate school's orientation; the other school's orientation was fun and I met a ton of friends there.  My primary department's orientation was boring and pointless.  My secondary department's orientation was on the same day as the secondary's, which pissed me off, and honestly that one was far more useful: they gave out copy cards and the codes to all the locked departmental doors, plus other info that I ended up getting gradually over the course of the first year.

 

I complained loudly and the subsequent years they made sure they didn't schedule the two orientations on the same day.

[Coconut Water]

Update: Still don't know if I'm attending the optional campus-wide grad orientation. If I go, I have to miss work. My job blows but every day I can work before school is a few bucks I can use over the next academic year of not working. Cash for medical services, food, etc., maybe even something recreational. I feel like a few pre-earned dollars will be gold.

 

Further, I am unsure if I would be calling in sick to my job to go to the optional campus-wide orientation, or if I should just quit by then - it's only a difference of a few hundred dollars at most (but dollars = gold). I feel this is complicated by the prospect that I don't know how much longer I will work if I give notice to my employer. My employer may fire me once I tell them I plan to leave for school - I could pretend to give notice but really know that it's my last day. But what if they let me continue to work for a week? Guess I then call in sick or explain I have this thing that came up unforeseen, etc. Or, I could just outright quit on a certain day..not my chosen way of doing things, but my employer is somewhat unpredictable.

 

My Masters program is only a year long, and I feel this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to enjoy any kind of grad student opportunity there is. I do have a mandatory department orientation, so I will be going to that. But a campus wide grad orientation seems fun.

[fuzzylogician]

I went to a few school wide orientation events before my first year (not at UCLA). Honestly, they were pretty meh. There was nothing they said there that I didn't already know, and no one I met there became my friend. I wouldn't risk losing my job (and a few hundred potential dollars in salary) for that. If there is a department-internal orientation, I think that would be much more beneficial. There are other (better) ways to get familiar with your school and environment and meet new people that don't involve the orientation events.

[maelia8]

@Fuzzy I actually had the opposite experience - my department-internal orientation was pretty pointless, but I learned a lot of really useful things at the graduate-wide orientation, especially about campus-wide stuff like health insurance, establishing residency, using the fitness centers and libraries, campus performances and events, etc., although I didn't really meet any new friends. I honestly found out about things I was really glad to know but would probably never have taken the initiative to find out on my own, so for me it was definitely a win. 

[mandarin.orange]

@Fuzzy I actually had the opposite experience - my department-internal orientation was pretty pointless, but I learned a lot of really useful things at the graduate-wide orientation, especially about campus-wide stuff like health insurance, establishing residency, using the fitness centers and libraries, campus performances and events, etc., although I didn't really meet any new friends. I honestly found out about things I was really glad to know but would probably never have taken the initiative to find out on my own, so for me it was definitely a win. 

 

This -- I would say it's worthwhile for these reasons. Esp. if there are breakout sessions about the health care, etc.