This summer, incoming freshmen will have two days of orientation, instead of three days like in past years.
Incoming students will now spend two days and one night and will register for classes at the end of the second day, said Kyle St. Nicholas, director of the new student orientation program. This change is meant to reduce the cost of orientation for families, increase the number of available sessions and allow for smaller orientation groups.
The transition will bring down the cost of attending in-person orientation to $271, down about 20% from previous years, St. Nicholas said.
“Now it’s less time off of work, less parking costs and things like that,” St. Nicholas said. “Shrinking that, I would say, was a big part of the decision-making process, as well as being able to make it a little bit more accessible for our students and families.”
There will be 24 orientation sessions this year, St. Nicholas said, up from just seven in summer 2025. There will also be three sessions per week instead of one. He said, unlike prior years, when there were over 1,000 students per orientation session, each will now have around 400.
“It’s going to take us a little getting used to, but honestly, every year that’s kind of the case, with a new group of (orientation advisors),” St. Nicholas said. “It’ll be the same thing with this experience, just the learning curve is probably a little bit higher.”
Because of the smaller groups, advising should not take as long within each college and will allow registration to occur earlier, St. Nicholas said.
Saul Compean, who is part of the orientation advisor leadership team, said he was initially surprised about the change because he was used to the three-day orientation, but after learning about the new orientation structure, is more confident in it.
“I’m really interested to see how exactly that will go,” Compean said. “That puts more determination for us as orientation advisors, to not only help (incoming students) choose their classes or feel confident in themselves to do well academically, but it gives us that urgency to help them more.”
Orientation will also now have a welcoming session that families can attend with students in Hogg Memorial Auditorium. This will be “the big kickoff” for the orientation session, St. Nicholas said.
“Because we’re smaller, we’re able to bring our students and families together a little bit more,” St. Nicholas said. “It’s really focused on spirit and tradition at UT, letting students know that they’ve accomplished so much by being here.”