Welcome new Terps!! (note: this entry always remains on top. New entries begin below)

Hello new transfer and commuting Terps!!

My name is Dian Squire and I am the Assistant Director of Orientation. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the University of Maryland. In my time working in Orientation, I have found that transfer and commuter students often have a hard time finding new contacts at the university and sometimes have issues locating important information for their success at the university. That is why I have created this blog. It is my hope that I can provide you with up-to-date information regarding the most important events happening on the Maryland Campus. Once I create a topic, feel free to comment with your experiences related to the topics. If there is something that you want to blog about, please send me an email and I will do my best to post about it so that a comment stream can be created. You may also search for topics in the search bar on the left.

At the end of each blog entry, you will notice a question in red italics. Feel free to answer the question and pose some of your own in a comment (all comments are moderated). 

My email is dsquire@umd.edu and the Orientation website is www.orientation.umd.edu. 

If you find anything offensive on this blog, please contact me immediately.

Enjoy!!

Orientation Cards are being sent out!

Hey new Terps!

Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple weeks. I have been doing some traveling and conferencing before our big summer gets here.

I just wanted to let you know that our Orientation Registration Cards are being sent out as I type. You should be receiving one in the next couple of days.

When you receive this card, go online to orientation.umd.edu and follow the steps. As you click onto the "Summer Orientation" link on the bottom left, a pop-up screen will show. Click on "Transfer Overview and Registration." Click on each tab individually to complete the necessary steps.

One question we often get is, "Do I need to take the Math Placement Exam?"

The answer is yes and no.

Students in Engineering, Business and Behavioral and Social Sciences Colleges DEFINITELY need to take the Math Placement Exam BEFORE coming to Orientation.

Students who have taken a class that transfers to UM with a 2.0 GPA and an equivalency of MATH140 (Calculus) do NOT have to the exam.

HOWEVER!, we recommend that ALL students take the Math Placement Exam. This exam combines with your SAT and AP scores to give you placement into a certain math course. Taking the Math Placement Exam and doing poorly on it will not hurt you in any way. Scoring high on the exam can only help you place into higher math courses that you may need to graduate faster. So we say, JUST TAKE IT.

If you have any specific questions about your major math requirements and if you have the proper transfer credits, visit tce.umd.edu or call your college directly.

Our first orientation program is this Friday! Get excited.

What questions do you have about the Math Placement Exam or registering for Orientation?

Schedule Adjustment

So you've sat through your first couple days of classes and you are thinking to yourself one or more of the following thoughts:

1. Ugh, this is too early.
2. Ugh, this is too late.
3. Ugh, this is right when I want to eat lunch. I'm starving.
4. I do not like this syllabus.
5. I am not clicking with this teacher.
6. I'm so sweaty because the first day of class was supposed to be cold and it was so hot and I overdressed.
7. Is Brangelina still Brangelina?

Whatever your thoughts are during your first classes, if you are not satisfied with the classes you chose during orientation, you can change them!

Students "schedule adjust" for a variety of reasons. Just logon to Testudo.umd.edu and search the Schedule of Classes and add and drop as you please.

A couple things though:
-You only have until next Friday to do so. That is ten working days after the first day of classes.
-You should talk to your advisor when you switch classes so they know that you did so and may have some insider information about how that change affects your course plan.
-If you drop or add after a certain period (ten days), you will be charged a percentage of your tuition. So the sooner the better.
-You can join the waitlists of certain classes, but be sure to check in daily.

What other advising questions do you have?

Orientation tip: Learn this song!

Hey new terps! Academics is only part of your orientation experience. Traditions and in particular, the Maryland Victory Song is also a part of your orientation experience. And we are going to ask you to stand up and sing along. So, to get you started, watch this Youtube video with the song and lyrics and get ready to sing!

Maryland Victory Song Video

The semester is almost here

As I sit at the back of the room of a Parent Orientation program, I am reflecting on how the day started. Even though we were slightly understaffed and the program the largest we have all winter, things are going well. We are "organized" says one parent. They are "excited" say the majority of the room. We even had one alumni parent sing the victory song with us! And if you have been to enough orientations, you know that it's a rare occasion for a new student or parent to sing the song with us. We do what we can. Overall, this day is going well and our students are excited to be here. The parents are responsive and friendly and I think it's going to be a great day. Only 10 more days until school starts! I hope you all are excited too.

What lingering questions do you still have?

Feeling like a freshman again

So, I have this edited book called "The First Year and Beyond: Rethinking the Challenge of Collegiate Transition." It is edited by Betsy Barefoot, a very well-respected researcher and educator in student affairs. In it, there is an article called "Feeling Like a Freshman Again: The Transfer Student Transition" by Barbara Townsend.

In it, Townsend notes that "the dominant theme that emerged from the studies described in this chapter was that transfer students, whether they transferred from a community college or four-year school, 'feel like a freshman again' in their lack of knowledge about how their new school works. Yet, transfer students were explicit about not being first-year students and did not want to be treated like them."

In my experience working with transfer students, I find this to be the case here at Maryland. I am always perplexed though. Transfer students NEED to know the information that we provide them at orientation. This includes, where to park, how to get to campus, where to live, how to eat, how to get involved, how to make friends. BUT, when we talk with transfers about this information, they seem extremely bored and disinterested. Over the past few years, we have tinkered with how much information we provide for transfers during orientation and when we have a lot of information, transfers say it's too much. When we have less information, they say it's too little. We present the information in a way that is mature and interesting and not through lots of game or icebreakers like we might for a freshmen group.

I think this year, we have a nice balance of information for our transfers. But I would like to know:

What do you think about this quote? And if you need to know the information, how do you want to receive the information? We want you to have fun, meet people, and feel like a part of the university, so how do we do it most effectively?

i-Series Courses: The new generation of general education at Maryland

Hey Terp Transfers!

Sorry I have been missing lately. As we wrap up the end of the semester, it gets busy around here. Meetings, finishing up taking and teaching classes, etc. I hope that you all are having a great end of the semester as well! I wanted to talk about a new series of classes called the iSeries. This is a test-run of a new set of General Education requirements that the university is piloting this semester and open to all students. This will be part of what was formerly called "CORE."

Here is some information from the main website where you can find the actual course offerings. The website is here.

I think this is a great move for the education at our institution and will be a huge advantage for you as students.

Q: What does the "I" in I-Series stand for? 

A: Courses bearing ther University's signature will investigate significant issues with
imagination and intellect with a belief that they will inspire future investigation and
provide concrete mechanisms to implement innovative ideas.  Not surprisingly, the
Committee has tentatively called the courses the "I"-Series: Issues, Imagination, Intellect,
Investigation, Inspiration, and Implementation. They will challenge students to wrestle with the Big Questions and examine the ways in which diverse intellectual traditions address them, offering a students not only new intellectual domains to explore but also new ways to think about contemporary problems like the energy crisis but age old dilemmas like ecological sustainability.


Here are the course offerings. Pretty cool stuff!

Acting Human: Shakespeare and the Drama of Identity 

The Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem: Intersection of Science, Economics, and Policy

Collisions in Space: The Threat of Asteroid Impacts

Cross-Examining Climate Change

Disability: from Stigma and Sideshow to Mainstream and Main Street

Engineering in the Developing World

Engineering Issues in Medicine

Genetically-Modified Humans: Physical Performance in the Post-Genomic Era

Greening Cities: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Who Cares?

HIV/AIDS in a Global Perspective

The [In]Active City: The Physical Cultures of Metropolitan Baltimore

Information 3.0: Exploring Technological Tools

Managing Natural Disasters: Hurricanes, Floods, Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Fires

Physics for Decision Makers: The Global Energy Crisis

Playing the Market: Managing Risk and Using Technical Analysis

The Power of Musical Performance in Social Engagement

Race, Genomics, and Human Evolutionary History

Recognizing Homophobia in the New Millennium

Social Networking: Technology and Society

Specialty Crops: Plantation Agriculture to Globalization

The Sustainable City: Opportunities and Challenges

Weather and Climate

What is Religion?

Why Good Managers Make Bad Decisions

Which of these courses appeals to you? Why? What other courses should be offered?

Orientation Time!

It's game time for us here in the Orientation Office. We'll be seeing close to 2,000 new transfer and spring admitted freshmen students over the next two months. We have our first Orientation tomorrow and we'll bring in students in Letters and Science, Behavioral and Social Sciences and Chemical and Life Sciences. It should be a great time!

What questions did you want to have answered while YOU went to Orientation that you didn't have answered? Or, what questions SHOULD you have asked?

What classes do I take?! Suggestions?

Maryland is ranked in the top 20 Public Research Institutions in the nation! It is a fact that we are very proud of. That means academics are key here on campus and our students take their responsibilities seriously. New students sometimes have trouble navigating a new registration and course sequence system, so it is vitally important that they understand all of the resources available to them. I'll try to provide you with those resources (in order of how you will come in contact with them) in this post.

Pre-admission: Keonna Feaster and Erin Thiel are our two Pre-transfer advisors. You can meet with them even before you apply to the University of Maryland. They can help you navigate the application process and determine how your credits transfer to the University. Find their information at http://www.transferadvising.umd.edu/.

Pre-Orientation: The best way to get information regarding your advising is to become familiar with the Course Catalog and the registration system. At the University of Maryland, we use a system called The Portal for all of our needs. The Portal is a one-stop shop for our students to register for classes, check in on finances, check in on extracurricular activities and more. Log-in to your Portal at www.my.umd.edu.

Orientation: During Orientation is when you actually sit down with an advisor and figure out your course schedule for your first semester. You will receive a tutorial on how to use The Portal and other advising tools and you will receive your first semester schedule. If you decide to change your mind about a course, you can always log back into the registration system and change your classes. Just be sure to contact your advisor to make sure the course fits into your academic plan.

Post-Orientation through graduation: Some colleges require students to meet with their advisors each semester. Be sure to check with your advisor during Orientation to see if this is the case. Other colleges do not require this meeting, but a smart Terp certainly makes it a point to visit with their advisor at least once a semester. Do this prior to your advising date so that you can make sure that you have enough time to talk over your options. All of our advisors are professional, full-time advisors and have made it their life's duty to help our students succeed.

Other resources: When you come to Orientation, you will be assigned an Orientation Advisor. These are current student leaders here at UMD who have been trained to understand the intricacies of your college. As students, they have taken a plethora of classes and have some great recommendations on courses to take. They won't, however, offer opinions about quality/style of certain professors since each student enjoys a different style of learning. Make sure to write down their email when they write it on the board in your morning meeting. You can also be in touch with the other students in your Orientation group. We put you together with students in your college so that you can have some great networks from the start. Definitely be sure to take advantage of your grouping.

I hope that helps to give you some idea of the support networks that we have in place for our new Transfer students as they begin thinking about taking classes here at UMD.

What are some of the best classes that you have taken here at UMD (if you are a commuter) or What are some classes that you have heard are great classes to take here at UMD?

Orientation!!!

Transfer students often wonder why they have to attend an Orientation Program at UMD. You've already been to another university or college, right? You know how to take classes, how to park your car, how to study and join a club, right?

Well, not so fast. You may know how to do all those things and more at your previous institution, but things at UMD are a bit different.

Our Orientation Program sets you up for success for your first few weeks of school so that you can continue to utilize the other resources on campus for the rest of your tenure on campus. The Orientation Program has its foundation in literature on the transfer student experience. This literature comes from national studies conducted by the leading researchers on these subjects as well as literature from a campus working group that surveyed the transfer population in 2005. Based on this information, we have formulated a program that we think provides just the right amount of information for our new transfer students.

We go over how to get involved on campus including using our STARS website (www.stars.umd.edu) and utilizing the many resources in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union- Center for Campus Life. We talk about off-campus housing options and services, safety on campus, how to register for classes, we provide you with a quick tour of some important hot spots and more importantly, help you connect with students within your major and college.

We believe that you orientation experience will be a great one and we are excited that you are coming to join the Maryland Family!!

What questions do you have about UMD Orientation?