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Orientation can feel like a long day of name games and campus tours — but it’s also where some of the most important decisions of your first year get made. Walk in with a plan and you’ll leave with a schedule, an advisor, and far fewer surprises in August.
Placement tests (this one can save you money)
Many colleges check your readiness in math and English. Place high enough and you skip non-credit remedial classes — courses you pay full tuition for but that don’t count toward your degree. If your school lets you prep or retake the placement test, it’s worth the effort: testing out of one remedial course can save real money and a semester.
Registering for your first-semester classes
At many orientations you actually build your first schedule — often with an advisor in the room. Come with a rough idea of required first-year courses for your major so you don’t get stuck with leftover sections. Balanced schedule, the right number of credits, no 8 a.m. classes you’ll skip.
Meeting your academic advisor
You’ll be assigned (or get to meet) the advisor who helps you stay on track to graduate. This is the person who keeps you from taking classes you don’t need. Get their email, ask how to book time with them, and treat them as a resource all four years — not just at orientation.
Finalizing housing, billing, and your ID
Orientation is also where a lot of loose ends get tied: confirming housing, clearing any holds on your account, setting up your student ID and email, and asking the financial aid office anything unresolved. Bring your questions — the right people are all in one building that day.
The placement test is a money decision
Remedial (developmental) courses cost the same tuition as real classes but earn no degree credit — so they quietly add time and money to your degree. A little prep before the math or English placement test, or asking whether you can retake it, can place you straight into credit-bearing classes. It’s one of the highest-value hours of your summer.
Online or summer orientation counts — if you can’t attend in person, do the virtual version; don’t skip it.
Bring a parent or supporter if it helps, but you do the talking — it’s your account, your schedule, your advisor.
Write down every username, password, and office name you collect — you’ll need them in week one.
Find the first-gen office, tutoring center, and financial aid window now, so you know where to go when you need them.
Orientation is where the unwritten rules get explained: how to read your bill, who to ask for help, what an advisor is for. Students who skip it are the ones still figuring out the basics in October. If no one in your family has done this before, orientation is the day the whole system gets explained to you in person — go.
Keep going: work through the enrollment checklist, the first weeks of college, and how to graduate in four years.