Orientation Week (O-Week) is your first formal introduction to Rice University and Martel College. You will see presentations from various departments, hear speeches from faculty members and the President, and you will learn all the ins and outs of college life in general.
When you arrive, you will begin moving into your assigned room, after checking in at the Master’s House. You’ll meet your new roommates for the year and say goodbye to your families. It might be hard at first, but you’ll forget about that after a few hours. It’s hard to be sad when you are laughing so hard that you can’t breathe.
You will be meeting tons of new people and forming the foundations for friendships that will last for years beyond your time within the hedges. Each of you will be assigned to a small O-Week group of 6-8 students, complete with 3 (or 4, in a couple cases) advisors from Martel and the other colleges. These advisors are upperclassmen who just loved O-Week so much that they subjected themselves to a battle royale for the opportunity to advise you.
During the week, you will attend meetings about making the adjustment to college life, because for nearly all of you, this will be a huge change from what you’re used to. The freedoms awarded to us as college students are immense, but you’ll find this can be a burden if you aren’t careful. However, we have faculty and staff whom you will meet during O-Week who are here to help you adjust quickly and successfully so that you can make the most of your time here.
You may have talked to friends who attend other “schools”. They may have already selected their classes for the upcoming semester. Well, during O-Week, you will be meeting one-on-one with professors in your area of study to discuss classes for you to take during and beyond your first semester here. You think they can do that at UT? Fat chance.
Really, though, O-Week is about fun. It is about introducing you to your new home. It’s about giving you the tools to succeed brilliantly, both academically and socially. You are here to learn and to shape yourself into the person you hope to become. Let this be your first opportunity to do that. We are all here for you and we want you to succeed. So, be open to the new ideas you hear! Take the advice you are given and shape it into meaningful tools that will serve you well! And above all, have fun!
