University Wide Orientation

[Cheshire_Cat]

So, my university has a university wide graduate orientation and resource fair, and then a college orientation.  The college orientation is mandatory, but the school wide one is optional.  I didn't find out about the school wide orientation until today, and I was planning on being out of town that week.  So, I'm wondering how important the school wide orientation is.  Should I cancel my plans?  I can't shorten the trip because the orientation is right in middle of it.  The other consideration for canceling the trip is that I only have a week and a half break from work, and if I go on this trip, five of those will be spent out of town or traveling, when I should be resting.  But the trip is to see my BFF and brother and sister-in-law, so I'd like to go.

[spunky]

in my own experience they don't really say anything in those things that you can't figure out by yourself using their website.

 

i went to mine and ended up ditching the orientation half way through. sure, i didn't know anything of what they were saying but it didn't seem like they were saying anything that i wouldn't be able to figure out by myself when needed. i feel like they use these things more like social events to see if new people may end up connecting with other people. or at least that's my take on it.  

[St Andrews Lynx]

The university-wide orientation at our school was very generic, I didn't have much use for it. There was some free food to be found, though.

 

If you want to meet people outside of your cohort/discipline then it might be useful...but I think that most people bond with their program cohort, roommates, etc. 

[ERR_Alpha]

Seconding everyone, our university wide orientation was a massive waste of time. The only useful thing was they talked about health insurance, but of course they put that last so we didn't want to leave. I wouldn't stress about missing it.

[TakeruK]

I learned a lot of useful things about school policies that ended up helping me or my friends from my school-wide orientation. It was also extra helpful for me since I had never been on a US campus before, so terms like FERPA, Title IX, etc. meant nothing to me. Of course, Canadian schools have the equivalent, but we have different names for them so the orientation was helpful for me to match already known concepts to their US equivalents.

 

However, I agree with the others that there's nothing covered that you can't already find elsewhere. So I wouldn't cancel already made plans to attend it! Being an active member of my school's graduate student association, I would highly encourage everyone to attend orientation if possible (or take the initiative to find resources online if you miss it) because when a student comes to us for help, it is very often something that was covered in orientation. Although, even if they did attend, it might have been years ago, so I'm not faulting them for having to come to us, but if you're able to attend, you'll be in a much better position to help yourself (and maybe your friends!)

 

I wish they did a better health insurance orientation for me though. All we got was 20 minutes of every single person in the Health Center introducing themselves. Very nice and friendly, but unfortunately, did not tell me anything useful

[maelia8]

My university-wide grad orientation allowed you to pick four topics out of a pool of ten that interested you, then go to the corresponding panels one after the other, which were an hour each (free lunch in the middle). I chose to go to the residency one, which was super helpful since it's vital to establish residency at my state school, the one about health insurance, which provided us with useful lists of what's covered, where to go for treatment, and what the copays are. For fun, I went to the one about performance events on campus and learned about theater and music offerings, and finally, I went to one about the library's resources, including an intro to the databases they subscribe to and info about grad project consulting. I found these presentations extremely useful, especially as the websites for these things are not all that intuitive or simple and having someone break it down in front of me was much more helpful.

 

However, you should be able to get along without going if you have other plans, so I have some advice for you if you decide not to go but still want to know what happened. If you're proactive about reading handouts, get another grad student who is going to give you all of the paper they receive at orientation so that you can take notes or copy the relevant parts - everything they talk about will also come with a handout Good luck!

[Dr. Old Bill]

I would definitely not cancel a trip for it, if it's optional. As others have said, there's likely going to be very little information imparted there that you won't be able to glean through other means. For what it's worth, I'm not going to the general graduate orientation at my school. Part of the reason is because I work at my school already, and have had ample opportunity to learn all I need to about the campus as a whole, but the other part of the reason is that I'll be able to ask questions at the department specific orientation that I will attend.

[unræd]

My university-wide grad orientation allowed you to pick four topics out of a pool of ten that interested you, then go to the corresponding panels one after the other, which were an hour each (free lunch in the middle). I chose to go to the residency one, which was super helpful since it's vital to establish residency at my state school, the one about health insurance, which provided us with useful lists of what's covered, where to go for treatment, and what the copays are. For fun, I went to the one about performance events on campus and learned about theater and music offerings, and finally, I went to one about the library's resources, including an intro to the databases they subscribe to and info about grad project consulting. I found these presentations extremely useful, especially as the websites for these things are not all that intuitive or simple and having someone break it down in front of me was much more helpful.

 

However, you should be able to get along without going if you have other plans, so I have some advice for you if you decide not to go but still want to know what happened. If you're proactive about reading handouts, get another grad student who is going to give you all of the paper they receive at orientation so that you can take notes or copy the relevant parts - everything they talk about will also come with a handout Good luck!

 

Thank you so much for this! I had written off attending the general orientation at Cal because I dreaded having to sit around and listen to a bunch of info I didn't really care about/need to know, but the idea that we can choose our own tracks makes it seem actually useful, and less of a timesink.

Edited July 28, 2015 by unræd

[1Q84]

I love how I'm made to go to the US international student orientations even though I'm a Canadian citizen.

 

Yesterday's was a fun introduction to "US culture" and how US banking works. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Yesterday's was a fun introduction to "US culture" and how US banking works. 

 

Sounds like an orientation most American students need to take.

[TakeruK]

I love how I'm made to go to the US international student orientations even though I'm a Canadian citizen.

 

Yesterday's was a fun introduction to "US culture" and how US banking works. 

 

I remember thinking that was pretty funny too! Last year, I helped out as a volunteer and there was a skit of "life in America". However, almost every American character was actually played by Canadians (most of the volunteers are international students rather than Americans).

[maelia8]

Last year, I helped out as a volunteer and there was a skit of "life in America". However, almost every American character was actually played by Canadians (most of the volunteers are international students rather than Americans).

 

Yes, my Canadian friend and fellow cohort member was complaining about how he has to go to an extra day of graduate instructor training especially for international TAs so that they can learn about the trials and tribulations of the American classroom (the rest of us only have to go to one day of training). I'm interested to hear what they tell him about how to teach in the USA as opposed to anywhere else. @TakeruK did you have to go to something like this?

[TakeruK]

Yes, my Canadian friend and fellow cohort member was complaining about how he has to go to an extra day of graduate instructor training especially for international TAs so that they can learn about the trials and tribulations of the American classroom (the rest of us only have to go to one day of training). I'm interested to hear what they tell him about how to teach in the USA as opposed to anywhere else. @TakeruK did you have to go to something like this?

 

I had a 3 day international student orientation where we talked about how to adjust to life in America, what American classrooms were like (e.g. way less formal), how to get along with Americans, how to navigate US health insurance and how to ensure we stay in compliance with our F-1 or J-1 statuses. There were panels from senior students as well as faculty members on "culture shock" of moving to America. 

 

Most of it was not very useful! But I learned a lot from the F-1/J-1 compliance stuff (also covered post-PhD extensions like OPT and AT). There was a little more culture shock than I had expected though. Felt a lot of it a few weeks after moving where I found myself feeling super homesick in the middle of a grocery store because I didn't recognize most of the brands / couldn't find the brands I liked / found the brands I liked but had different labelling! I never expected to feel that way and upon reflection, it sounds silly, but since the US and Canada are so similar, little differences sneak up on you and then suddenly you realise "hey, I'm actually in a foreign country!"

 

Some of the culture stuff was new for me though. I learned that "Hey, how are you?" is a greeting, not a conversation opener. (i.e. the proper response to someone walking past on you in the hallway saying "Hey, how are you?" is to also respond with "how are you?" or "fine, how are you?" instead of stopping them to chat). And that Americans don't show up to parties until 30-60 minutes after the stated time. And that Americans say "sorry" way less--tip: If you ever run into your Canadian friend and they say "sorry", the correct response is also "sorry"

 

As for international TA training, I didn't have that in my year. But this fall, I'm involved with the TA training for the new students and we've planned a special session for international TAs. 40%-50% of our incoming grad students are international, and this session is meant to be an introduction to how the classroom and professor-student dynamic might be different in America vs. in their home country. Also, basic American academic terminology like "freshman", "recitation" etc. 

[random_grad]

This all sounds like a fun way to meet people and transition, although if poorly done could also just feel like a waste of time. I m kinda sad I can t make it to all the optional orientation events. Jumping straight into coursework! Might turn out as the best way to acclimatize. Can t wait to start

[Cheshire_Cat]

Thanks everyone!  Since I already have a good group of friends in town and everything, and am familiar with the area,  I think I'll just skip it.  The only one I'd find interesting is the one on health insurance, but I think I can figure it out myself.