Welcome, freshmen, to the start of the best years of your life.

You’re probably already exchanging awkward texts with your future roomie through Instagram, looking forward to your housing assignments, planning out your dorm room, and anxiously awaiting your ticket request date for Penn State football.

Before you can step onto campus in August, though, you’ll first need to go through New Student Orientation (NSO). For fall admits, NSO will take place between June 8 and June 25, July 6 and July 16, or August 18 and August 21. The August dates are only available for international students, those traveling a far distance, or by exception.

What Is NSO?

NSO is a two-day program that helps students become more familiar with Penn State. You will stay in an assigned residence hall for the night you are there, so only parents or guardians will need to find accommodation if they plan to travel with their student.

After you check in and drop your stuff in your room, students will be assigned to a group of about 20 students. Here you will also have an orientation leader, a current student, who is meant to guide you through the program and oversee many activities.

Day one will begin at 4 p.m. and typically consist of meeting new people, learning about NSO, and learning about Penn State in general. It will go till about 9:40 p.m. before students are brought back to their dorms for the night.

Day two, folks will have a chance to meet with academic advisors, meet people from their school, and sit in multiple meetings about what Penn State has to offer. The lecture-esque meetings will cover topics such as health and safety resources, personal responsibility, and general transition experiences.

Throughout both days, there will be plenty of time to interact with fellow new students and have some fun at events such as NSO After Dark.

It’s important to note that students and families have different schedules. Both can be found here.

How To Be Ready For NSO

Before going to NSO, folks need to complete a variety of tasks on their NSO Tasklist, which is generally available one business day after accepting an admission offer.

You’ll receive an email to the address you provided on your application with what you need to do. Use your new Penn State Account User ID, followed by @psu.edu, and your password to access the task list.

Your NSO date reservation will be done through your personalized task list, along with other activities such as the ALEKS Math Assessment and activating your Penn State Mobile ID+.

As part of registering for the in-person NSO, you’ll also choose your Academic Consultation and Course Scheduling group, which will be held online. This is where you’ll meet with an academic adviser in your college in either a one-on-one or small group virtual meeting to discuss interests, educational goals, the requirements for your major, and how to work with your adviser over the course of your academic career.

It is suggested that you choose a timeframe when you’ll be able to dedicate at least 2 hours. One week before your Academic Consultation and Course Scheduling timeframe start date, you’ll be able to make a specific appointment for your academic consultation.

You won’t be scheduling your courses for the fall during the academic consultation time, but your adviser will help you know what courses you should enroll in. Your course scheduling window begins on the business day after you complete your consultation, which you must attend to schedule.

Tips For Success

Talk To People

Look, we know Penn State is a big school, and you likely will not run into most of the people in your NSO group after the weekend. With that being said, getting one, two, or three people’s contact information will give you a huge jump start that first night of college when you have no idea who to hang out with or what to do.

Penn State is a super-connected community; you never know which party your NSO roommate might be going to or which friends they might introduce you to.

Don’t be nervous, everyone is going through the same transition as you.

Show Up Early Or Stay Late

A lot of you will be coming from far away, so this might not be realistic. But, if you can, get to Penn State a few hours before NSO, or stay a few hours after.

Take some time to walk around and soak in the greatest place on earth without the rush of going from one NSO event to another. This is your home for the next four years after all.

Pay Attention

Also, we know it will be a long two days, but pay attention as much as you can. While a lot of the information won’t seem important at the time of NSO, most of it is at least somewhat helpful during your time in Happy Valley.