Out-of-State 101: College Orientation

By Taylor Snow on July 23, 2018
I counted down the months, weeks, days, hours until my family left for orientation. Out of sheer excitement, I was packed days ahead of schedule. Coming from Colorado, the place I’d been my entire life, all the way to Lexington, KY, is the most exciting thing I’ve had happen in my life for quite a while. It’s been one hell of a ride (we were on the road for more than 24 hours) but it’s just made me that much more excited for the school year to start.
Now, as I go to the University of Kentucky, orientation was over the summer, whereas some schools save it for the day before classes start. Hopefully, this advice can apply to both situations.

via Pexels.com

Give yourself enough time to get there and have a relaxation period, especially if you’re coming from more than a thousand miles away like I am. My orientation dates were a Monday and Tuesday, but my family left the Friday before. The time change is not going to be kind to your sleep schedule. We arrived late Saturday morning, giving us Saturday afternoon to unwind, get settled into our accommodations, and sleep from the all-nighter we’d pulled, which leads me to the next point:
Making the trip in on straight shot is not a horrible idea. In the middle of the night, roads (especially those in the big cities or busy interstates) will be completely clear, except for the semi-trucks which are a given. This means there is little to no stop and go and you get more miles to the gallon. My parents have always told me it’s a good idea to travel at night, especially with children, to avoid the “are we there yet?” every five minutes. This was true, as my younger brother slept through most of Kansas, and all of Missouri, and was quiet.
Additionally, we brought our dog along (the primary reason we didn’t fly out to KY). He slept through most of the trip as well, relieving most of his anxiety. Lastly, you save time– lots of it. We turned what could have been a three-day trip (like the last time my parents made the trip) into a one-day escapade. However, one should only be this ambitious if there’s more than one driver in the vehicle that can take over if the other becomes too tired (please don’t try and do this by yourself).
Take a day for exploration. For financial and logistic reasons, I was never able to visit the University of Kentucky before orientation. Again, I suggest that you allow an extra day for visiting and exploring the campus if it’s your first time ever even seeing it. Find a map, a tour, or both. I didn’t want to be that freshman on the first day of orientation, since most of the class of 2022 were native to Kentucky or the surrounding areas and had already been able to visit the campus more than once. Get lost once or twice, though, discovery is okay.
Leave early to beat traffic. Orientation sessions are rarely on the weekends, when traffic is a little less congested. As my sessions were on a Monday and Tuesday, early in the morning, roads were extremely congested with the morning rush hour. We hardly left with enough time to spare as we’ hardly recovered from the day before. I was sure we would be late for the first day (thank goodness we weren’t).

via Pexels.com

Talk to people. The first girl I was antiquated with simply asked me if we had the right building, we had a conversation, and ended up sitting next to each other and chatting until our groups split up. Had I shut down the conversation, none of that would’ve happened. Additionally, you will play ice-breakers (just like the first day of high school classes). Do not refuse to participate and set yourself aside as anti-social, because you will be labeled as such, and you’ll have an even harder time.
I hate coming up with a “fun fact” about myself as much as anyone, but the icebreakers are there to do exactly that: break the ice and open up conversation with the new people around you. You’ll never meet any new people if you close yourself off to them. If you click with someone, ask for their number right away, you don’t want to lose touch with them! When you go home it’ll be a while until you’ll get to see them in person when classes start.
Utilize the resources provided at orientation. During lunch, UK had a huge interest fair, where most, if not all, clubs and available services had a booth and information booklets. Plus, many of these booths also have free swag, like cups, magnets, bumper stickers and the like. My favorite was the stainless steel straw given out by the recycling club, and the 25% textbooks coupon given out by the UK bookstore’s table.
Additionally, later in the afternoon, the university provided interest sessions on subjects like living on campus, financial wellness during college, Greek life, and many more. These are all provided to you for a reason, as you’ll need these skills and groups to make it through college with a solid network and support system, both internal and external.
That’s it for this article! You can also read this on Tumblr or watch the video version on YouTube soon. Thanks for reading!

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