Freshmen feeling over-oriented

By MEAGHAN MCINTYRE

In what felt like the blink of an eye, move in day arrived for the class of 2020. It was a day full of mixed emotions. As a freshman myself, I was both excited over the journey to come and nervous about leaving home. But there was one feeling in particular that was shared by every member of the class of 2020 providing a sense of unity amongst us; we were all beyond ecstatic to be on UMW’s beautiful campus.
Prior to move in day, I had the normal first-day jitters; but I was confident that I would have plenty of time to get a feel for the campus before classes started. I wanted this time to make sure I had my school material ready and knew where everything on campus was.

I was able to complete some of my goals but the rest got pushed back when I found my schedule booked with orientation activities.
Orientation was something that I will never forget because it was a positive experience. Though I thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout the course of the program, its length left me with unease. The information provided during the lectures was by no means boring or unimportant, for I learned quite a bit but there was also a decent amount of information that felt like a repetition of the topics covered in the summer assignments.

Both the lectures and assignments were full of helpful and eye-opening material, it was just that for me to have felt fully prepared for the start of college, I needed to do more than just hear that information.

One activity I needed to do was set up my wireless printer. As a non-tech savvy person who lives at the bottom of the hill in Marshall, this was something I had wanted to get done before classes began. Because of the full orientation schedule, I did not have a chance to call IT Help until the first day of classes.

After a lengthy conversation with an Apogee employee, I learned that there were more steps I needed to take in order to get my printer up and working. While it did not take me long to accomplish the steps he outlined, had I had the opportunity to call Apogee before classes started, I could have saved myself a decent amount of stress and spent more time actually enjoying my first day as a college student.

I applaud everyone involved with both orientations, you all put on an incredible series of events that I am certain the class of 2020 will never forget. The Orientation Leaders have been beyond helpful to me during this transition; so helpful that I am hoping to one day become an OL so I can help incoming students the same way the current OL’s helped me.

All I am saying is that I believe many freshmen would benefit from having more free time between move in day and the first day of class. Keep all of the Orientation activities, just shorten them. That way students have time built in to learn the vital information the lectures provide, as well as time to make sure they personally feel adjusted to campus before they officially begin their college adventure.