Idaho State University will be hosting the 2013 Early Registration event for incoming freshmen and their parents April 9 through 12 on the ISU Pocatello Campus from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Students can also choose to attend an additional session at the same location on Friday, April 12, from 1 to 5 p.m.
Incoming freshman students and their parents are encouraged to attend a session in order to assemble their schedules for the Fall 2013 semester, as well as to gain a feel for the Pocatello campus.
Students and parents who attend the April 12 afternoon session also have the option to stay overnight in campus housing.
This option is offered to allow students and parents time to explore Pocatello itself.
Early Registration events have typically drawn an attendance of approximately 700 to 900 students.
JoAnn Hertz, the ISU Central Academic Advising Center Director, feels that Early Registration is a valuable experience for incoming freshmen.
“Generally,” says Hertz, “about half the freshman class attends every year. Hopefully we get more!”
The Advising Center has worked hard to attract incoming students to the sessions, contacting the students with information about the sessions early on.
Hertz says that she and others at the Advising Center are “very hopeful we’ll attract a higher percentage of our freshman students.”
The events planned for the sessions are designed to help both students and parents feel confident about the upcoming school year.
The day will begin with a welcome in the ballroom in the Pond Student Union Building, followed by smaller sessions with individual major advisers and faculty members.
Students will be walked through BengalWeb registration, and will be given help in writing up schedules for Fall 2013 prior to actually registering for classes back in the ballroom.
Throughout this beginning stage, students will be separated from their parents, if their parents chose to attend.
“It’s their education,” says Hertz. “and it’s their time to understand their choices — their turn at the wheel.”
While students are busy organizing class schedules, parents can attend sessions designed specifically to address their concerns.
The parental sessions are intended to keep them “informed from a security aspect, and a housing aspect,” says Hertz. Parents will be “rewarded with the information that their child is going to be safe on campus.”
Additionally, parents will get to discuss financial aid and scholarships with members of those departments.
Students will also have the option of taking housing or campus tours from ISU Ambassadors, buying a computer account, and getting an ISU photo ID.
The idea is to “get [the students] taken care of so they’re all ready for the fall semester,” says Hertz.
Added to that, the sessions will provide an option of completing some tasks freshman students are required to complete before they enter their sophomore year.
“Students who participate [in the sessions],” according to Hertz, “will be given an opportunity to complete the mandatory advising session.”
Contact with students does not end once the Early Registration sessions are over, says Hertz. “We also try to communicate with students over the summer.”
The Advising Center plans on sending out emails to incoming freshmen once per week.
Topics of communication will include tips on being successful, time management and ideas on how to get involved on campus.
The Advising Center has partnered with the ISU Credit Union to offer an iTunes gift card to students who respond to the emails to indicate they have read them.
All freshman students who have been admitted for Fall 2013 are eligible to attend the Early Registration sessions, including non-traditional students.
Transfer students are not eligible.