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!!

Official Holiday Video of UM

Here is the video that President Mote put together this year for his Holiday Card. Interesting song called "Let your Inner Turtle Glow." Enjoy!

Safe travels.

UM Holiday Card

The weather outside is frightful!

As you know by now, it's snowing. A lot. School is closed tomorrow as well. Sorry graduates. Check this website for the most up to date information on school closings. Be safe!

http://www.umd.edu/emergencypreparedness/weather_emer/

Dian

Happy Holidays!

As we wrap up finals and get ready for graduation, I just wanted to take a moment to say Happy Holidays to all of our Transfer and Commuter students!

Orientations are on break until the new year and people are taking some extra days off to spend with the family or travel. And so am I. I will not be updating the blog very often over the break, so don't expect too much. But check back in the new year!

Be safe and go terps!

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?

Math Placement Exam- dun dun dun!!

Dun dun dun! Another exam?! Well, kind of.

That Math Placement Exam IS an exam, but, unlike many others, it doesn't determine if you pass or fail or even get into the University of Maryland.

The Math Placement Exam is a tool that we use to place you into the appropriate math courses here at the University. We don't want you to have to take a class that you don't need to or to place you into a math too hard or too easy for you.

It is important that you take the Math Placement Exam before coming to your Orientation so that your advisor has the necessary information to advise you.

Even if you have taken a math class at another university or taken AP exams or have high SAT scores, you should still take the Math Placement Exam. The rigor of another course may not match the level or rigor at the University of Maryland. Or, it could have been many years since you have taken your last math course and you don't really remember as much as you thought you did.

Remember, the Math Placement Exam CANNOT hurt you in any way. It can only HELP YOU. Even if you have a high grade in a calc course, but then score lower on your Math Placement Exam, your high grade in calc will override your low grade on the Math Placement Exam.

It is important to note that some majors and colleges REQUIRE that you take the Math Placement Exam and will never use other courses or test grades. If you are not sure if you fit into that category, please contact your college to find out.

Moral of the story: Take your Math Placement Exam!

What questions do you have about Math at Maryland?!

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?