'New Student Orientation in Retrospect: From a Current First Year Student'

Rutgers University can be a very daunting place for a first year student. The bus system, the countless resources available, the hundreds of clubs and organization to be a part and the sheer task of being social and making friends can be a lot for a new student to handle. Who can blame them?!

Rutgers is a wonderful place with a rich history and phenomenal culture. However, for a first year, there is a lot to take in. That is why the New Student Orientation program was developed: 

to help introduce first year students to Rutgers in a fun, two day program where students become familiarized with the university and all it has to offer while promoting friendship and bonding among other first years. 

New Student Orientation is an outstanding program. It had a huge impact on me and how I approached my freshman year. Before the school year started, I had an idea of what organizations I was going to be a part of and I was aware of many of the resources, such as Sakai, Degree Navigator, etc. before the year even began. Not to mention my OL, who not only offered me great advice but also befriended me and made me feel like a truly belonged at Rutgers. THAT is what orientation is about: belonging.

“It definitely took the edge off” said first year student Mike Goldstein. A few days ago, I sat down with Mike and asked him a few questions about the New Student Orientation Program. However, before I get into the interview’s content, let me just give you some background on Mike so you, the reader, can feel a little bit more connected to him. Mike is 19 years old and is from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. He is currently studying biology with hopes of one day getting into medical school. He lives in Tinsley Hall on College Avenue, and is currently pledging the fraternity, Sigma Alpha Mu. In his spare time, he likes to play guitar, listen to country music, watch hockey and hang out with his friends. Mike is great student who is involved on campus, takes his academics seriously and is someone who had a very positive experience at orientation. Therefore, I thought he would be perfect to answer a few questions about the New Student Orientation program: what worked, what did not work and what could be added to make the experience more enjoyable.

Mike Goldstein

When I asked Mike to summarize his orientation experience, it was quite apparent by the tone of his voice and the content of his answer that New Student Orientation had a positive effect on him. “It was a lot of fun. Some of my best friends at Rutgers, I met at orientation. It was very helpful to get all the information before actually coming in to Rutgers.” When asked what his favorite part was, he could not decide, so instead had to pick two. “Well, my favorite event was the game show. That was really cool how they made that room into like an actual game show. Wasn’t expecting that when I came to orientation. But, honestly my favorite part was at night where I just got to hang out with all the other incoming students in The RutgersZone. We got to chill without everyone watching us or at a formal event. It was cool.” There were a lot of other programs Mike liked. “The skits were funny and the tours were actually very useful. I couldn't believe how much I remembered about College Avenue from the tour when I came to Rutgers in the fall.”

There were a lot of programs that hit home with Mike and all in all, it is safe to say that he had a positive experience at orientation: he learned a lot about the university, became accommodated to the Rutgers lifestyle and culture, and he made a lot of new friends. Although Mike had a good experience at New Student Orientation, he had some suggestions on how to improve the program.

“Well. there are some things that I wish could change that just cannot and I understand that,” explained Mike. “Waking up at 7am was not fun and I did not have a lot of energy for the first part of the program. Not to mention the rooms were really, really hot” There was one more thing Mike mentioned. “The food was also…not the best.” These aspects of orientation are out of the hands of the New Student Orientation staff and Mike understands this. Livingston campus is the most practical campus to hold orientation on, but with that comes some dorms that are not air conditioned and the food…well, its college food (note this was before the opening of the new dining hall). He also acknowledged the early start time, saying without it, there would be no way to get everything done.

There were some practical suggestions, though, that Mike made. “A lot of the programs were focused around policy. Even the game show had questions about the university’s policy on plagiarism. Getting bits of pieces of policy thrown at us at different times, it was hard to remember and everything just got jumbled.”  A suggestion that Mike made was that have one program in the day that talks about policy of Rutgers University. In his words, “keep the fun stuff fun and the serious stuff serious.” Another suggestion was to have a student panel to answer questions. “Incoming students have a lot of questions. I think it would have been helpful to have a panel of students just sit down for like half an hour and let us ask questions.” Mike mentioned that he had a ton of questions at orientation regarding meal plans, our net ids, on campus organizations, and the busses; although he addressed some of these questions to his OL, he did not want to continually bother him with questions. 

Speaking of the busses, Mike was very passionate about the next idea he had: a program on the busses. “Navigating the busses is hard and was one my main concerns at Rutgers.” I asked Mike what should be included in the program. “Have someone go over all the busses, their routes, conduct on the bus (i.e. the stop request string), nextbus.com, the weekend busses, the length of each route, and at the end, give us like a refrigerator magnet with all the routes.” This was very important to Mike because when he came to Rutgers, the transition to the busses was not the easy. It took him over three weeks to understand the weekend busses and even now, he still has to double check the routes. “I think it could be very helpful and just having someone addressing the busses will calm us down a little bit and relieve the tension about the bus system.” This program could be worthwhile implementing as Mike and many other freshmen could benefit and acquire at least some familiarity for the busses. The last change to the program Mike came up with did not relate to him per say, but felt like it would be a good addition to an already great program, and personally, I think it is the best idea that Mike suggested. “Maybe have a program where a dean or a representative from each of the schools, like the engineering school and the school of arts and sciences, can come talk to the students enrolled and just do a mini orientation for them to get them familiar with the requirements and the prereqs [prerequisites] and just answer questions about their specific school. And for the students who are undecided, have an academic advisor talk to them and just give them suggestions about possible career paths.” Mike was fairly excited with this idea, but I was ecstatic. This would be such a great program because so many times, students at orientation have questions specific to their major that their orientation leader cannot answer. For me, the majority of my questions at orientation were specific to my major so I refrained from asking because I knew the OL would not know the answer. This program can answer all those questions while shedding more light on the school and all of the majors offered. It reaffirms that the students are in the best major and the best school for them and if not, they still have the rest of the summer to reconsider their major, rather than doing so in the beginning of the school year where students are adjusting to college life.

In all, my interview with Mike was very successful. He reaffirmed that the New Student Orientation program was doing a great job in introducing new students to the Rutgers University and also came up with some very good ideas on how to improve the program as well. Sometimes it is very useful to get the perspective of an outsider, a first year student, the true people who are benefiting from this program. Although New Student Orientation has done a phenomenal job in planning the events that are included in the two day program, there are some ideas that are not thought of and need more time to fully develop. Mike shed some light on what programs worked, what did not work and what could be added and his opinion, as a first year student who went through orientation less than a year, is very valuable. I would like to thank Mike for helping me complete this interview and for his honesty and helpfulness when talking about orientation. New Student Orientation has the power in making the two day orientation program a valuable tool for incoming students or an utter waste of time. Mike confirmed that New Student Orientation is accomplishing the goal it set for itself but also has the capacity to improve. I look forward to this summer and seeing if any new programs (maybe the ones or similar ones in which Mike suggested) come about.