Anonymous wrote:75% of this is the kid. Maybe more.

Disagree.

Also, the referenced post misses the point of this thread.

South Carolina

Bowdoin does a great job. 30 different orientation trips ranging from hiking the AT to learning to build a boat or community service. Then another 3-4 days on campus with dorm bonding and campus activities.

Anonymous wrote:Carleton College did any excellent job. Students were assigned pre-registration advisors who they met with over the summer to begin thinking about the classes they wanted to take: their were also webinars over the summer from deans and profs about campus life and classes; and they had an orientation week before classes started where they were put into new student week groups that did lots of activities and had meals together. It was all so thoughtfully done. We were really impressed!

+1

Anonymous wrote:James Madison does a superb job taking care of students and building a strong connection with parents/families. Probably the best in Virginia. Without taking responsibility off the students or excessive hand-holding, they do student services very well. Graduates are well-prepared for real world responsibilities, mature, experienced —-and it’s because of how effectively JMU shapes them from day 1.

People snark about JMU being social, but this is one of the upsides.

Carleton College did any excellent job. Students were assigned pre-registration advisors who they met with over the summer to begin thinking about the classes they wanted to take: their were also webinars over the summer from deans and profs about campus life and classes; and they had an orientation week before classes started where they were put into new student week groups that did lots of activities and had meals together. It was all so thoughtfully done. We were really impressed!

Most schools will have activities for the students. They aren’t mandatory so your student will have put his phone down and leave the room.

10 years ago, I attended a parent orientation and a mother asked if the RA noticed her kid wasn’t leaving the room, would they stop by to encourage him to participate in activities? Yikes, the poor moderator had to set this parent straight.

Bard does a great job! Freshmen start 3 weeks early and study great books together. They get to know each other through the classes and activities. Dorms are also small and cohesive.

Both GMU and UVA did a great job for my kids

Anonymous wrote:75% of this is the kid. Maybe more.

It doesn't have to be though, and schools are well aware of the need to make sure they are catching anyone who might fall through the cracks because the consequences are too often devastating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on experience, which schools do a great, decent, or lousy job of helping freshmen transition into college - socially and academically?

I will start. I was unimpressed with Syracuse three years ago. The dorms had no sense of camaraderie and the advising was not great - kid was put into the wrong level of math class, for example.

Now that my next kid is starting the college search process, I am more focused on this aspect of college.

Could you elaborate on what you think the schools should be doing? Where are some of the dividing lines between what the school should be doing and what incoming students should be doing?

Socially - I think there should be fun activities in the dorms. Academically - meeting with advisors.

We toured Franklin and Marshall and they touted their first year living experiences where the freshmen were also in a fun class with people on their floor. At my school a million years ago, there was a two day outdoor retreat and a 2 day classroom kind of thing. Just all ways for people to get to know each other.

+1 F&M does a great job. Like some other schools, they also have preorientaiton activities and trips so you get to know people in a small fun setting before school starts; they also have regional alumni welcome parties in your hometowns before school starts so you meet local first years and local alumni. The advisors are good, the dorm Dons are accessible and teach the freshman course PP mentioned, they have lots of activities in the dorm Houses, plus House traditions.

Anonymous wrote:UC Davis did a really nice job. Week long orientation, lots of activities , very student run, even included the town as well with vendors giving out coupons to orientation kids etc. The only downside is the heat during the third week of September. It wouldn’t phase DC kids and it isn’t humid, cools down once the sun goes down but all the Bay and Coastal kids melt by 2pm and start skipping afternoon activities.

LOL about the Bay Area and Coastal kids from someone who lived in Davis for a long time.

More seriously, though, UC Davis is good about giving students responsibility for things like this, probably comes from the 60s and 70s days when the school only had around 10,000 students or less.

Rice does an incredible job

UC Davis did a really nice job. Week long orientation, lots of activities , very student run, even included the town as well with vendors giving out coupons to orientation kids etc. The only downside is the heat during the third week of September. It wouldn’t phase DC kids and it isn’t humid, cools down once the sun goes down but all the Bay and Coastal kids melt by 2pm and start skipping afternoon activities.

Amherst was great with this. Eight day orientation with small groups and all kinds of different activities planned from sunrise to late night every day with some being required and the early morning and night events all being optional. I do agree that a lot of the transition depends on the child (and in our case the high school that made ours come out of her shell). But two and a half years later, my daughter’s orientation group of 12 vastly different people still eats lunch together every Friday by choice.