Orientation

The school year starts with a week of registration and orientation from Monday, July 2, to Friday, July 6, 2001 (with Wednesday, July 4 off). You will be pretty busy once orientation starts, so try to get settled in and finish taking care of odds and ends before orientation.

Orientation week is an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with the campus and all of the important details of school, it is also a great time to meet the people that you will be spending the next four years with. During orientation week, you will be given valuable information about courses, parking, the library, student life, and much more. You will be introduced to your peer advisor and meet with your peer group. Your peer advisor is a second-year student chosen to help you with all kinds of advice. A peer group consists of about 25 first year students and the peer advisor.

On the Sunday afternoon before registration there will be a Medical Dean's Convocation and White Coat Ceremony. Besides providing a good chance to see the facilities of the Health Science Center and to meet faculty, staff, and classmates, it is an excellent opportunity for spouses, fiancés and parents to gain an understanding of what your life as a medical student will be like.

Orientation week officially begins at 8:30 a.m. Your peer advisor will meet you in the UTHSCA Auditorium foyer to give you your name tag and introduce you to others in your peer group.

Registration begins in the afternoon and is conducted during certain periods determined by the last two digits of your social security number. Be sure to bring your social security card so you can verify your registration time. You will also need your checkbook, immunization records, and documentation of health insurance.

The rest of the week will be spent in various activities to introduce you to different aspects of the Health Science Center and the medical school. You will receive an orientation for each of your first semester classes: clinical integration course (CIC) gross anatomy, biochemistry, microbiology and microanatomy. You will be given information about student support services, which include student health, the counseling service, university police and intramural sports.

Finally, mandatory library orientation sessions will be provided. There is a universe of information and facilities available to you in the library which will turn out to be of great value in studying. Resources include old tests and study questions put on reserve by instructors. Also, the Teaching Learning Center has audio tapes of classes that can be checked out along with tape recorders and earphones, instructional video tapes, Kodachrome slide sets, computers, and much more. Become familiar with these resources and take advantage of them.

Throughout orientation week, workshops on a number of subjects such as: Couples, Singles, Minorities in Medicine, Students Older Than Average, Parents as Students, Women in Medicine, and Gay and Lesbian Issues will be scheduled. These workshops are conducted by faculty, staff and students who can provide insight in the various categories. Most importantly, you get a chance to meet people who are similar to yourself in many ways.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws