Before you come to campus
Orientation has a checklist that opens in MyPorter once you have paid the enrollment deposit, and finishing it is what makes the day useful instead of remedial. Complete the math and writing placement (an untimed online assessment — do not guess through it; your first-semester schedule is built from the result), send your final transcript and any AP, IB, or dual-enrollment scores, upload your immunization record to the health portal, set up your Porter account and two-factor login, and complete the two required online modules on alcohol/drug awareness and sexual-misconduct prevention.
Transfer students also submit prior college transcripts for a credit evaluation before their session, so advising can talk about what actually transferred rather than guessing.
The orientation day
Every incoming student attends one in-person session — several dates across June and July for first-year students, shorter dedicated sessions for transfer and adult students, and a January session for spring starters. The day does four concrete things: you meet with an academic adviser in your college and leave with a registered first-semester schedule; you get your Campus Card photo taken and card issued; you complete any financial-aid or billing conversations at a one-stop desk; and you tour the parts of campus you will actually use — your college building, the library, dining, the rec center, and, for residents, a hall.
You also meet an orientation leader — a current student in or near your major — who stays a point of contact through the first few weeks. Bring a device, your login working, a list of any AP/transfer credit you expect, and questions written down.
Welcome Week and the first weeks
Orientation hands off to Welcome Week, the stretch between move-in and the first day of class: the involvement fair with 300+ student organizations, floor and college events, the convocation that formally starts your class, and late-night alternatives to going out. The first-year seminar in your first semester continues the transition work in a small group with a faculty member and a peer mentor.
None of this is optional filler — students who engage in the first three weeks are measurably more likely to still be enrolled a year later, which is the whole reason the program exists.
The family and supporter track
Parents, partners, and other supporters can register for a parallel program that runs the same day on its own schedule — sessions on the academic calendar and how advising works, FERPA and why the university talks to the student and not to them by default (and how a student can grant access), billing and payment plans, campus safety, the health and counseling centers, and the honest emotional arc of a first year away. It ends with the supporters and students back together for a shared close.
There is a year-round family newsletter and a family-services line, (715) 555–0130, for the questions that come up in October, not June.
Questions?
See the full staff & office directory for any phone number or email. Because this is a fictional parody site, addresses and phone numbers are illustrative and do not reach a real university.