What to expect at Bama Bound Webinar

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Hello, everyone. It looks like everyone is hopping in. Um, we're going to give everybody a second to join us and we know you're excited to get a lot of questions answered tonight. And first and foremost, I'm Jared Taylor. I work in the office of admissions and handle events including virtual events, which is what we're doing tonight. We also have on the call Liz Vigil. She is the our Assistant Director of Orientation and Special Programs on campus and we also have Andrew.

Tucker with us and he's going to be monitoring the chat. He's our director of events here on campus. So first and foremost, if everybody could just so that I can know that you can hear us and that you can see us type in the chat, either A Roll Tide or just tell us where you're calling from. Give us the city and state where you're calling from. We'd love to see where everybody's listening in from. So if you can hear us and you can see us, put that in the chat for us.

All right.

So it looks like everybody's putting it in the questions part, that's totally fine. But if you could put that in the chat part just so that we know that you can see us. If you do want your questions to be seen, go to the chat portion of the of the presentation and put that in there. But it looks like everybody can hear us, they can see us. I'm getting a lot of roll tides, I see Pasadena, CA.

A lot of California, Illinois, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Welcome. Thank you guys for joining us. Alright, so before we get started, I did want to kind of go over an overview of what we're going to be talking about today before our turning over to Liz. We are going to be talking about how to prepare for Bama bound. We are going to be talking about how to make the most of your time and a pathway to success. Our goal is to get all of your questions answered.

Um, but please do note that we will not be able to get to everybody's questions. I think we have just over 1000 people on the call with us tonight. So if you have a very, very specific question to you in your situation, we do ask that you reach out to us directly. If you if we see a lot of questions that are coming through that are a lot of the same questions, we are going to wait till the end to answer those all at once. So without any further ado.

Please help me in welcoming Liz Vigil. She's going to be our moderator or our presenter for the night. Everybody welcome Liz.

Thanks, Jared. Like Jared said, my name is Liz Michael. I'm the Associate Director of Orientation and Special Programs here at UA and I'm super excited to share with you what I know that the 1000 people that are in here are waiting for, which is information about Bama bound and so excited that so many of you showed up and we are going to go ahead and get started. So like Jared said, we will have 3 sections of the presentation and so.

This first section is going to talk about preparing for Bama Bound um parents. If you are sitting in or family members with your student, this is going to focus on the student Orientation experience through Bama bound. Umm, if you are looking for information about parent and family orientation, we might be able to answer some of your questions, but Parent and Family Programs did a webinar that I actually sat in on and they posted it on their Facebook as well as the Student Life YouTube page. So if you'd like.

A little more in detail information about parent and family orientation. I would definitely check that out, but let's get started looking at the basics of student orientation. So like I said, student side of orientation. So Bama Bound is officially the student side of orientation. It is run by my office which is orientation and special programs. We also oversee sibling orientation and we'll chat a little bit about that. Umm, that is for students who are.

About to enter or are already in high school and that again is our office Parent and family orientation is for parents and guests of students and is run by the Office of Parent and Family programs. So the important thing to know about all of these things and why I bring it up is that these are three separate programs that are going to be running at the same time on your during your orientation session and they are on completely different schedules. So please know that.

I know that we've had some students want to register romantic partners or friends to come with them and register them for parent and family orientation, or maybe even for sibling orientation. Please know that you will not be together except for the welcome, maybe dinner time and otherwise. So just be aware that there are three completely different schedules.

That event information for students is going to be sent out about five to seven days prior to the orientation session. Parents and guests will also get information from parent and family programs for their orientation session. These emails are important because they provide tips about your orientation session, how to be successful, directions to campus, and information about where to park. So you really want to look at those and then.

Also the ever awaited tentative schedules that are available to students so you'll be able to see what the offerings are for presentations and otherwise. I will say that on those tentative schedules, if for some reason there's not an office that's giving a presentation or a session that you were hoping to hear from on the the schedule, chances are they're probably part of our information fair that happens in the morning of every single Bama bound session.

And so there is a lot of opportunities for you to connect with different spaces. The time at Bama bound is limited and so we definitely pack it full of as much as we can. But there may be spaces where you wanted to hear from an office and you'll have to connect with them at a different time, like the information fair.

So for your information, before you even get these schedules, I know a lot of people have called and asked about what times the programs run. So our two day programs which are generally for our freshmen check-in begins at 8:00 AM on day one as well as our information fair begins at 8:00 AM on day one and that will run through. So the full day and a half of the program ends at around 12:00 o'clock noon on day two. Please note that Tuscaloosa AL is.

In Central Standard Time, so make sure that you're updating that information. If you're planning on traveling from the airport in Atlanta, GA, that is an Eastern Time and so make sure that when you made your travel plans or you're making your travel plans that you are aware of that that time change. If you're traveling from Birmingham, AL still in Central Time, so you will be good on not having to worry about time changes with that.

On day one of our freshman programs, there is dinner available, so programming officially runs through about 5:00 PM that day. But then there is a dinner available for both students and parents and guests that we invite you to attend. That happens at 5:00 PM. And then there's also some night time activities for students at orientation. It is unfortunately for students only, and so parents you would need to find alternative entertainment, but we definitely encourage students to attend every and all parts.

Of Bambam on our one day programs which are either our transfer sessions or our August sessions. Check in will begin at 8:00 AM the morning of and your program will run in through 5:00 PM and so be aware of that you'll see it on the later slide but you are expected again to attend all mandatory parts of your Bama bound session.

So housing during Bama bound, if you have elected to stay on campus with us during Bama bound, so when you registered for orientation you did choose housing. You will need to bring all things that you would need to live in a residence hall. So they are residence halls. That means that they are furniture and mattresses and so you would need to bring toiletries. Your linens, they are twin extra large and so this is whether you are a student staying in Ridgecrest South.

Or apparent and guests staying in Ridgecrest West. This is the exact same thing. Please bring everything that you would need with you. The residence halls do not offer rentals of any of these. There is Targets and Walmarts and otherwise in town if you prefer to buy them and then maybe keep them down here in a storage unit or otherwise. But please be aware that you will need to bring all of those things with you. Accommodations during Bama bound are only available for our select sessions in May, June and July.

So if you are attending our August sessions, um. If you're living in housing, you will need to move in either before Bama bound or after Bama bound. And so information about moving I know was shared in the last housing webinar, but I believe those times go out in June. Be sure to check the housing website for the exact date and time or check your Crimson e-mail for that information. Check in for the residence hall will be 4:00 to 6:00 PM on the day you're scheduled to begin your stay. So whether it is.

The day of your first day of Bama bound, the day prior, or whenever you have elected to check in that first day checking is from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.

It's important to note that students will be staying in Ridgecrest S That is one of our residence halls that is closest to the student center where it that is where our programming will take place. A good part of it and parents and guests will be staying in Ridgecrest West. So they are in two different residence hall areas, but they're very close to each other. So if you are have requested housing, you will not be staying in the same suite or room.

Students and family members.

If you elected a single room. So this is a lot for parents or guests if you elected any single rooms.

Those are reserved as part of a part of a four bedroom suite and those are assigned at check in and so this goes for students too. Your housing reservation for Bama Bound is a single room as part of a four bedroom suite and those are assigned at check-in. So if you are attending Bama Bound orientation with any friends, potential roommates or or future roommates, you all need to go check into housing at the same time and so coordinate that with whoever you would like to stay with.

This is based on gender and so please make sure that you have that organized. But then again, leave yourself open to meeting new people. That is the fun of Bama bound experiencing new things and really getting the feel of what it means to be matched with a random roommate sometimes. And so it's all part of the fun of it and look forward to that. On the second day or when you were scheduled to check out, we ask that you are out of your room by 8:00 AM and so that means you either will take your luggage.

Or bags or anything else to your vehicle which will be nearby in the student center deck or there will be check options to check them at the front desk of the residence hall. And so we really ask you that they are custodial team needs time to clean them and flip them for the next session of Bama bound And so we ask you to please help us out with that to make room for all of our friends.

And take a quick drink.

Alright, what are some things to do before Bama Bam? To get yourself set up, we're going to recommend that you get familiar with my Bama. I'm going to show you a screenshot of an important page on the next slide. But my Bama is your guidebook to all things UA. And so whether that is before coming to UA, when you're a student here, or when you're about to graduate, anything starting to click around, look around in it now is a really good thing to practice before you get.

Year, because during your Bama bound, you will have to use it to access things, to register for your courses, to look at your degree works and anything else.

We recommend that you check your Crimson e-mail account regularly. I'm gonna say once a week leading up to your Bama bound and then every couple days, if not every day after your baby bound session. Colleges like to communicate with students offices, Your student bills will begin to come out, housing information will begin to come out, Football ticket information. And so putting that Crimson e-mail on the Outlook app on your phone is really great for you to do because that will set you up for knowing, OK?

I really need to be in touch with this information and stay on top of your tasks.

And the next one is going to be to check your orientation portal for the new student checklist. And this is also available on the orientation website. But the one that is the most updated and specific to you is going to be in your orientation portal, your orientation portal. It will give you a link in the confirmation e-mail for orientation that says check your orientation portal or see your orientation portal. That is where it is. You're going to want to use your admissions application login for that.

If you have issues with that, please let us know and we'll be happy to help.

Next thing is going to be to submit your Action Card photo through the Action Card website at Bama bound. You will use your action Card to access meals and several other things, and so we recommend that you submit your photo early through the website and there are details about how to do that on your student checklist so that it can be approved. You can download the E Accounts app and all of those good things.

The next one is going to be to look through the degree catalog for your specific major. Another option is degree works and I'll show you again in my Bama where you can find that.

All of these things help you figure out what your academic coursework pathway is.

Some of you might be thinking, why would I want to look at that at all? And so this is because we really want you to put your future in your hands. Yes, you're going to meet with academic advisors who are there to guide you on your pathway, but understanding what your options are beforehand will really get you in that practice so that next semester or in future years, you know exactly what you should be taking, what you should be expecting to take.

It'll also give you the opportunity to look at your degree plan or your possible degree plan for the future and say, you know what, actually don't think this is for me. Or maybe you find a new degree plan and you want to change your major before Bama bound.

And so that is my next point. Um, change your major through my Bama. If you've decided on a different pathway prior to Bama bound, yes, we can help you change your major at Bama bound. But your best bet is to come into Bama bound with the knowledge already of what you want to do, because that will help us make sure that you know where you're going. It'll be a lot less stressful for you. So I will also show you how to change your major through my Bama in just a second.

And then the last one is going to be to do the math or foreign language assessment if you need to and I will go into detail about whether you need to and where to access that.

So this is my Bama umm the the one of the pages on my Bama. So once you log into my BAMMA on that left hand side you will see several quick links and then pages. So the third QikLink down on that left hand side is degree works. That is what I was talking about for you to go in and see your degree plan. You can also just Google academic catalog your major University of Alabama and find it that way even as a professional staff member.

I still do that, admittedly, and take a look around at what your course of study is for your degree and kind of understand what things you can be expecting to take so that you're not shocked when you get to advising.

I've kind of yellow boxed out some areas on this section, so this page is the Admissions and Scholarships page. You might be familiar with it because this is where you would have gone to register for orientation. So this is a very important page. Right under the Undergraduate Admissions Admission section there is that top section for admission. The second bullet down is Change My Application Major.

So if you decide that you want to change your major before you get to Bama bound.

Please log in to your Mbama, click this link and change your major. It will automatically update it for us. If you need to look at a list of major options, the smaller bullet right below that says major options and so definitely take a look around at that. It is OK to change your major. When I was an undergrad I changed my major three times and now I'm in my PhD and so it does not mean less success, it just means new pathways and so I'm definitely take a look around at things.

Underneath that So if you need to change your orientation date or see what other dates might be available, the only way to do so is through the orientation registration system. So either under the admitted freshman steps or the admitted transfer steps you will see orientation registration. That is where you go to register if you have not yet registered or to update any information, add guests, add siblings, anything like that. This is accessible to you 24/7 and so this should be your favorite.

Stage for anything you need to do prior to Bama bound to make some changes.

This next slide talks a little bit about the math placement exam. So students will receive an an e-mail about taking the math placement exam about 21 days before your orientation session. This is required for all students that were admitted to the university as test optional, so meaning you requested to not have to submit SAT ACT scores or otherwise. You must take this to be placed correctly into your math courses and so you should.

Complete this at least one week prior to your orientation session. I recommend that you complete this as early as you can.

This is really for you to be judged on your actual skill, so there's no need to study or otherwise. If you need more information or details on the math placement exam, that website down at the bottom it is the math department. You can look up the math placement exam information whether you're a freshman or a transfer. Access to this will be through your blackboard.

Area and SO Blackboard can also be accessed through my Bama, Another great reason for you to get familiar with using my Bama. The test can be taken twice before needing special permission from the math department, so be aware of that.

At the Foreign Language Placement exam. So this is for students with more than two high school units of French, German, Spanish, or Latin, it's recommended that you take this Foreign Language Placement exam. More information about that is available on the Modern Languages and Classes Classics website. You will not receive an e-mail about this, so definitely if you're interested in this or you feel that you qualify for this, please look up this information to see if you should take it.

All right. Before we go down, some things you should be ready to. So we've kind of talked about how to prepare or things that you should know, but be ready at Bama bound to swipe or scan your Action Card. So again, upload your photo to the Action Card website for approval. If you can't do so, if you don't have a photo that you like or anything else, Action Card will be on site during Bama bound to help take photos to help you figure out approvals, download the E.

Accounts app onto your smartphone.

Um again? If you're having issues with this, you can either reach out to the Action card office or they will help you on site at Bama bound. I do know that there are also some types of smartphones that do not support the scanning of mobile cards and so if you are in that situation, Action card will give you a physical ID card, but everyone else you need to be using a mobile ID card to make sure that you have gotten that set up.

The next one is going to be to use your My Bama login and see CWID which is your campus wide ID number from memory. So you're going to have to log into my BAMMA for advising for registration. For a lot of other things, a lot of people are going to ask you what's your CWID, what's your ID number, Please give me your ID number. So if it's not enough time for you to memorize it, definitely, definitely bring it written down somewhere safe that you have. Also, if you have not yet, please.

Make sure that you set up Duo which is A2 factor authentification for your My Bama login. You will need to have Duo 2 login to register for your courses for my BAMMA, so please make sure that you have set that up as well.

Be ready to talk about your major and the potential career pathways it brings. So whether it is in our small groups, whether it's in advising, whether it's with campus partners that you speak to during sessions or anything else, they're going to ask you about your major and what you want to do with it. I know that that feels very scary and sometimes maybe you haven't fully decided, but that's definitely why we're going to encourage you to review the academic catalog to look at that great degree works. The Career Center online has a lot of great resources where you can actually.

Take kind of personality tests or skills test to see.

What a great degree program or what a great career field might be for you Definitely don't want this to feel super overwhelming, but in some senses this is beginning of the rest of your life and so getting yourself started on the right foot by knowing or having at least a general idea of what you want to do is a great thing to have.

Be ready to interact with other Bamba bounders and our staff. I know this is difficult sometimes it can feel very, very awkward. But our team of 90 orientation leaders known as the Avantis, as well as all of our professional staff have been preparing for almost nine months now for you all to get here. And so they are so excited. They want to talk to you, they want to meet you and we want you to meet other students as well. So definitely work a little bit on.

Coming out of your bubble? Coming out of your shell? Don't stick too close to your friend groups that you're coming with. Meet new people. You never know what those connections will do for you in the future.

Be ready to walk or travel a lot. Bring your comfortable shoes, water bottle and sunscreen. We know that we love to see the fashion, however.

This is a very walkable campus or travel travel easy campus and so we will be moving far distances and so be ready to do that. Dress appropriately so that you can do some movement around an otherwise.

All right, so let's talk about making the most of Bambam once you are here.

So some key items for you to have at Bama bound.

On your way so this is a bit of a packing list, Things you'll need to be successful. So directions to campus you will get this. In that event information e-mail. Your first stop is either the Student Center parking deck or Ridgecrest South and West residence halls, so note those two main areas. There are a lot of other areas that you will end up in during your program, but to get yourself here was the first part so know those. Especially an umbrella or raincoat or other waterproof.

Water resistant clothing. It does rain a lot here in the summer. I'm originally from far far West TX the desert and I did not look up how much it rains here. It rains a lot and so be prepared again. Comfortable shoes That reusable water bottle Laptop for course registration. The majority of you will be in computer labs for course registration, but there are a few colleges that require laptops for course registration. I recommend that anyone that has a laptop.

Bring it with you, because let's say you go to advising and you want to have a conversation with family afterwards about what courses they advised you to take or otherwise.

Having a laptop so that you can all sit around and look at it together is really great. Looking at these things on mobile phones is really difficult, so be aware of that. We do have laptops from our office that you can rent for the duration of your Bama bound, but if you have a laptop, we encourage you to bring it.

Um, one thing about the South. It is very, very hot outside and humid and then extremely cold inside. To counteract it, if you get cold like I do, we recommend that you bring a light jacket or sweatshirt, layered dress layers because it is freezing inside sometimes. Some form of photo identification, whether it's your driver's license, military ID, etcetera. Any special admissions documents or unofficial transcripts that you might need or test scores you might have that you think will help you during advising.

Make sure that you bring those and then again those housing needs if you're staying on campus.

Some general expectations for students. You must stay for the entirety of the mandatory programming.

The only part of the program that programming that is not mandatory is on our two day programming after 5:00 PM. So dinner and our night time programming are not mandatory. Everything else is during our one day programming. Everything from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM is mandatory programming for students, so be aware of that. Parents and guests encourage your students to stay. Students encourage your parents and guests to stay at their orientation as well. We expect students to check themselves in for Bama bound.

Parents and guests will check in at different tables. When you arrive, you will line up together and then you will be directed to your appropriate tables. Please be sure that you are both completely checked in prior to going to the information fair and we've had a lot of students where they think their parents or guests have checked in and they're fine. Students need to check in and pick up their name, tag, bag, and information.

So this is your first day of college life and your pathway to adulthood. We encourage you to make good choices. We know that sometimes it can just seem like good ideas, but we recommend that they're actually good ideas. That's why we have night time programming. We want you to come. It will be at one of our recreational facilities. There's dodgeball, there's dance parties. There's a lot of fun things for you to do that are also good choices.

We expect you to trust your advisors, any presenters or campus partners, and our Avanti team. They are here to help you. No one is here to make you have a bad experience or not help you get what you need. And so please put your trust, put your faith in them and know that they are all there to guide you to the right place.

And we expect students to be open to meeting new people and learning about pathways they never thought of before. So maybe a presentation on the schedule or a session you feel like you're not really sure if that's something that applies to you, even if it might not be for you. Chances are you might meet a friend in need or otherwise that needs that support or needs that information. And one of our duties as part of the UA community is to help others and so.

Learn that information right along with the rest of us, and then be there to share it for others as well. And so meet new people, support each other, and learn together.

Letting go of the need to be cool. So I don't know what it is, but there's just something about students not wanting to wear our lanyards and name tags.

I guess it's just the need to be cool. You don't want people to know you're at Bama Bound. But definitely this is the space to have fun, to Just Dance, to laugh, to tell jokes, to tell stories, to engage with presenters and not worry about what people are going to think of you, right? So this experience will be what you make of it, and we want you to make it fun and engaging and so help us do that by letting go of that need to be cool and then just jumping right into the tide with the rest of us.

So what to expect, expect during advising so?

Students can only be advised and registered for their courses during Bama bound. They have to attend 2 college visit sessions in order to do this. So the first one is known as College Visit one and that is where advising takes place. The second one is college Visit two and that is where course registration takes place.

During these sessions, students are divided into their appropriate college during and the departments of. Each area puts on different presentations, has a different makeup, has different sessions, and so know that these will be a mixture of group presentations where they give you information about their areas about how to register, or other helpful tips. They might be group discussions where there's a lot of you taking similar classes, and so they're going to talk about those few things.

Like math or English or anything else like that together. And then there will be also opportunities for one-on-one time with advisors.

I know that seems like a lot to happen in just two small sessions, but I promise that we have a lot of time built into the schedule to make sure that students get what they need through advising and course registration.

Um, as we said again, those laptops. We recommend that everyone brings them. But for the majority of you, your college will take you to a a computer lab for your course registration.

When you're looking at your courses, please know that there are a variety of class delivery formats. So this will be time, day, location, instruction style. So that means in person, online, hybrid, all of those things, and they're all good options. Even when I was an undergrad, which was a very long time ago, I took online classes, I took hybrid classes, I have taught hybrid classes, I taught online classes, and in person classes. They're all very different and they're all really.

Good ways to learn skills that will be transferable for you in the workplace and so be open to different professors. Be open to class delivery formats. Every student will get what they need and so that is the most important thing to remember.

Just be aware that changing your major after that first college visit may impact your experience a little bit, so we will absolutely help you change your major at any point of your journey. However, if you've already been advised by another college and then you change your major, it'll just mean that when you get to that new college on the second day for college visit, it might take you a little bit of extra time because you will have to meet with an advisor again while everyone is getting ready to register because they had already met with an advisor.

And so This is why I recommend that you look into changing your major before, or at least before you get to that first college visit. So that's good practice.

For parents and guests. So you are going to be separate for the majority of the programming. You will meet your students at college, Visit one.

So advising.

During that advising session, each college has a different setup for what they offer for guests and students. Some of them are together, some of them start together and then separate. It really depends on what college that you are a part of.

During college visit too, this is only for students, so parents and guests are not allowed at college visit to and so any conversations that you need to have about courses, course choices or anything like that should happen.

Prior to all of this. And so there's definitely enough time for you all to have that conversation either over to dinner on day one for our two day programs, during lunch on our one day programs, but definitely have those conversations, parents and guests empower your students to make those first choices as they are entering their adulthood because this is definitely the start of it. And so we just want you all to be aware that these are the spaces that advising and registration will take place.

So what about the rest of the program, right?

Because while course registration and advising are very big parts of Bambam, it is not the entirety of the program. And so during the rest of the program you will have the opportunity to interact with small groups with our Avanti team and other Bama bounders, and you'll even get the chance to show us if your group has the most famous spirit, right? So if you can read into that you smell a little bit of competition there, be ready to say that Roll Tide as many times as possible.

Show us your skills, show us your spirit, show us your knowledge. So be ready for that. You'll get the opportunity to discover some new ideas and tips, skills, tricks, about how to be a college student and be a successful one at that. Because all I have ever told, any student that I've taught, any professional I've worked with, is that being a college student is a skill and you have to learn how to do it.

And so areas like the Capstone Center for Student Success, our University Police Department, our Student Health Center, Housing and Residence Life and so many more campus partners are going to be there to give you all of that great information and.

Give you.

A pathway, a foundation of how to start. So tips and information about, OK, you've got all of this, now what do you do with it? You'll be able to see all of those offerings once you get the tentative schedule in your emails.

But within that, you'll also be able to experience Bama Dining, eating at our various dining halls, our university programs offerings. They put on a lot of great events all throughout the year, including karaoke nights, casino nights.

All of our walkway programming, our script A and so many great things. You'll also get to preview some of our university recreation areas as I've mentioned before. And then of course the biggest thing is this is your first day of beginning to build your legendary story at the Capstone. So make the most of it and make sure that you are doing everything you can to engage. Get your questions asked. Meet with as many tables as you can at the information fair. Meet as many new people.

I know again, it is sometimes safer to feel like you're with friends, people that you scheduled to attend this with. Meet new people. You'll never know if you meet your new best friend.

I really wanted to touch really briefly on sibling orientation. So again, like I mentioned, this is another offering by our office. And so just like I said that this program is separate from students and parents. However, if you have any rising high school freshmen, so that means they're about to start their freshman year or they're about to start their senior year. We encourage them to attend sibling orientation at the same time as you all. It is $25 per sibling.

Or sibling orientation. But they get to the opportunity to experience campus life as part of the Crimson Tide, see really cool parts of the university and meet with various departments, offices, current students and then each other. And so if you have any one that is coming with you that is in that age range, we recommend that you encourage them to go to sibling orientation. And if you yourself went to sibling orientation, you should tell us in the chat because we love to hear that students who went to sibling.

Presentation ended up here too.

Alright, but let's talk a little bit about what you should do after Bama bound. I promise Bamboo will be a really great experience, but it's gonna go by so quick. That is not your last stop on your journey to getting started here at UA. So there's a couple more things that we're going to invite you to do. These are not the only things that you need to do, but I just want to provide something for you to start with.

So take care of those new student preparations, preparations.

New student preparations immunizations is the first one. I know that some spaces you might have seen that immunizations are required prior to Bama bound. They are required prior to you moving into housing. So make sure that you have gotten that taken care of before your housing move in scheduled time.

The UA Thrive course for students, that is information about.

Required pieces of presentations that the Dean of Students office and our student life area needs for you to have. So you will get an e-mail and information and it'll also come through our communications to tell you when and how you should complete that prior to the start of the semester. Submit any final transcripts or test scores also. Those are big ones. Pay your student bill or set up your payment plan based off of what Student Account Services says so Student account services will present.

Both students and parents during Bama bound. They also will have information on their website. Whatever you want to look that up and see when those payment plans need to be set up, make sure that your financial aid is in order and all of those things.

There's a chance that your schedules will be dropped for unpaid bills at the start of the semester, so make sure that you are thinking about that right after bills post. So you scheduled everything orientation. Make sure that it's paid for afterwards.

Again, continue to check your Crimson e-mail regularly. It'll give you invites to great events, important information from professors, from anyone else, and otherwise. Jared, count how many times I said otherwise tonight. But also, we're going to encourage you to build those good adulting habits so actually used to run parent and family programs at another institution. And so one of the things I've always talked with parents and families about is showing your students how to do their laundry, how to cook, how to schedule a doctor's appointment.

All of those things are really great for you to know and start thinking about now. The UA Safety app is a good resource to download so that you can start to map. OK, what are the lighted pathways around campus are? Is there a tornado warning? Where are the storm shelters and everything like that? So make sure that you download that as part of those adulting habits.

I'm going to recommend that you look at your class locations on the UA map so you can get an idea of where you'll need to go.

First thing you should do when you move into housing after you unpack is go start figuring out your pathway so you don't get lost. But looking at them on the USA map and using that resource is a great thing to start with. Stay in touch with your Avantis and ask questions. So during Ramadan we'll show you how to stay engaged with them. You can message them all the way up through the first day of classes, and even after that they will meet you for coffee, they will meet you on the quad, they will walk you around to your courses or anything else.

You might need so our team is here to help you through Bama Bound and beyond.

And then I'm going to encourage you to make those final memories at home. I know that is the sad part of it, but definitely have that last frozen yogurt at your favorite place so your friends for the last time don't make it too sad. But think about those things after Bam.

But that is all of the general information about what to expect that we have for you. Like Jared said, we know that we weren't going to be able to answer everyone's questions. They're definitely a lot, I'm sure. But our office is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:45 Central Standard Time. If you would like to reach out to us, e-mail us. The website has frequently asked questions as well as on the front page. There's a what to know if you forget any of this information, but I appreciate you all for listening to me.

Talk for about 35 minutes. And so I'll hand it back to Jared.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Liz. And I'll just second what Liz says, You know, give us a little bit of grace. We do have a lot of people asking a lot of great questions in the chat. I'm going to bring Andrew back on as well. He and I have been kind of taking inventory of all of the common questions that have come through. So we're going to run through some of those and either Andrew or Liz can answer those. So the first round of a couple of things that were coming through.

Were a lot of questions about the accounts app. Which one is that? Where do we find it? Language and math credits and then changing Bama bound dates. So let's just start with those three right there. Andrew or Liz, you want to comment on that?

So I can comment on the account app. So if you look at the action card website.

This is so wrong, but I just Google everything. I just go Action card, University of Alabama. And so it'll take you to the Mobile Action Card website.

It will show you how to download the Transact E Accounts mobile app. That will be after you have already submitted your photo, gotten it approved, and told that your Action card is ready to go. So make sure that you do that part first and then you can download the Transact the account. It's red with two arrows, and it's available on both Apple and the App Store as well as Google Play.

OK. And are you able to touch on language and math credits at all? I know we went over it, but maybe just go through just some hit heavy hitting, you know, high points for that?

Yes, so any test scores that are received, so whether it is a PIB.

Um.

I need is CLEP I think is another one. Or don't credit any qualifying credits. As long as that information is sent to you a UMM advisors will have access to it depending on when it is sent. So let's say that maybe AP scores. Those tend to.

Um be processed a little bit later in the summer, I think usually about June or early July, sometimes they are. And so as long as you know or have a good kind of idea that yes, I took this test, have that conversation with your advisor.

If you have unofficial test scores or anything, bring that with you.

OK.

Um, credit. So let's say you took an AP Spanish course and took that to make sure that those scores are sent to us, sent to where they need to go. And again, have those conversations with your advisors.

So if you took any of those tests or got any of that credit, but you are still interested in taking the placement test to see if maybe you place higher.

Or otherwise you are able to and they will take the higher of the two scores.

So.

If you already did those credits and you know that you're going to get the credit for the AP test IB anything else like that, you do not have to take it.

However, if you so happen to get a higher score on the placement test than you did on any of those other things, it can't hurt.

Did that answer Dirk?

And then I know, yeah that was great and and I know we talked a little bit about kind of some limitations on changing them around dates that's if if you go back into your portal and that's available, not a lot of options I think we talked. So if you want to just touch on that briefly.

Yes. So the only way to update your orientation program selection is through that online portal that we showed The dates that show or pop up for you when you click Change my orientation session. Those are the dates that are available.

People cancel.

All throughout the day, all throughout the night at 3:00 AM because they had a life changing conversation and so if a spot opens up in that session.

It is immediate and if you log on right after that and it populates on your list of dates, you can take that session, but otherwise what shows to you is what is going to be available and what you can change to.

All right. Andrew, any other common questions that you saw through come a lot that you want to answer and bulk here?

I'm still working through the chat. I think that covered a majority of what I was seeing in the chat or the questions that were submitted.

OK. And then I last I saw a few about items needed. Do we need backpacks, computers etcetera. You know, I know we touched on a little bit but that that question showed up a lot on just kind of what they will need throughout the day.

Yes, so you don't have to bring a backpack. I will say you will largely probably need your laptop or device for college visit too, so if you don't want to carry it around the whole first day, that's OK.

I will say mostly our engineering students. You will likely need a laptop. Other colleges for the most part, tend to be in computer labs. That's just based off of availability, but it gives again, good practice for you to bring all of that if you'd like to bring a notebook.

That's cool too, but it is entirely up to you. We have had bound boundaries. Just walk in with a cell phone and themselves and be totally OK. We will give you a drawstring bag if you need to carry around any Flyers or information that you get from various tables, but other than that, definitely don't need a backpack. Unless you are someone like me that likes to carry snacks and a big water bottle and your jacket and all kinds of other stuff.

Awesome. Um, well like ever like we said we, we we know we're not gonna be able to get to all of the questions. I see a lot of questions coming through that we may have already touched base on and maybe you just were had stepped away. So you will receive a copy of this recording. You will also receive a a copy of all the slides that we went through and we are also getting a copy of all the questions that are coming through and if we see a lot more of like the common ones we will try to make sure those get answered.

And put into the information that you receive as a follow up. So yes, you will be getting all of this again. If there's anything specific you know to housing or fraternity and sorority life that I think my first response would be definitely reach out to that department first. Although we are all on the same campus sometimes, we do have a lot of different things that we can answer to and operate on. So if you've got some specific questions for housing or specific questions for fraternity and sorority life, definitely reach out to them.

And then also if you just have a very pressing question and we did not get to it, we are sorry, but you do have our e-mail here at an orientation at ua.edu. Feel free to reach out to us, give us a call. You know that's what we're here for. But for the most part, we just wanted to make sure that we could answer any of those major questions. So if it's specific to you, definitely reach out to us. We want to thank you again for joining us tonight. We will be following up with some information as we can regarding the.

Recording the slides and and all of these very, very important questions that we see here. So thank you again for joining. If you want to say A Roll Tide on the way out, we really appreciate it and we will see you soon for Bama Bound, but that does conclude our event. Thank you so much Roll Tide.