What Exactly Happens At ASU Freshman Orientation

Starting school at Arizona State University is exciting; but before you can begin, there is orientation. Here's what to expect at ASU freshman orientation.

College orientation is exciting- you get to pick your classes, meet your academic advising team, and even make new friends! If you’ll be attending in the fall, and want to know exactly what happens at orientation, you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading to learn all about exactly what happens at ASU freshman orientation!

1. Check In

The first step you’ll take is getting yourself signed in. Once they check your name off of the list, you’ll get a sun devils shirt, a folder with an itinerary, and a bag to put it all in. If you haven’t already submitted a photo for your I.D., you will get to take one before you head to the next part of orientation!

2. Pick Your I.D. Card Type

ASU offers two kinds of I.D. cards: a basic photo I.D., and one that doubles as a credit card. The credit card, called a Pitchfork ID Card, can be used at any place that accepts MasterCard, as well as any place on campus. If you choose that option, you will need to go through a short process of providing information to open up a new account for the card.

3. Welcome Seminar

This seminar is for both students and parents. Here, you’ll get to learn more about your major map, academic advisers, tutoring, and other useful information. They’ll run some polls that you can text in the answers for; asking basic questions, such as where you’re from and what specific college you belong to.

4. Picking Your Classes

Future students will be split up into colleges, and will go with their academic advising team to pick their classes. You will receive your “block” class, which you will have another advising class for. Your block class depends on your major- for example, my major is English, so my block class is my English class. My roommate’s major is psychology, and her block class is her math class. You will schedule the rest of your courses around your block and advising classes.

5. Lunch!!

By this point during orientation, you will be starving…trust me. The lunch was buffet style, and they served items like burgers, potato wedges, and salad. The dining room filled up really quickly, so my roommate and I sat in the hallway just outside of it.

6. Second Seminar

Here’s my moment of truth- I slept through most of this one, and played games on my phone with my roommate. The speakers talked a lot about school stats and how they ranked in what areas. Halfway through, the parents will leave to attend a different seminar. At the end, students were loosely split into groups to ask the speakers any questions they might have. Most of my questions revolved around Greek life, but you can ask about anything that interests you!

7. Organization Information

The next thing on the orientation schedule is the University Information Fair. This part was pretty cool because there are so many extracurricular options to explore. Most of the booths also gave out some little goodies, and all of them had informational flyers so that you could look into them more later. Once you’re done looking around, you’ll get to pick up your I.D. card at the back of the same room.

That’s all there is to it! Have fun, and take notes. My two biggest regrets are not taking more notes and falling asleep during some important seminars (some of the speakers were just really boring). Soon enough, you’ll be getting ready to go to all the classes you picked. Good luck, future Sun Devils!