Undergraduate Student Orientation

Save the Date for Spring 2025 Orientation: January 16-17, 2025

New Student Orientation (NSO) is an experience comprised of a variety of opportunities to introduce you to academic and student life at Tandon. Starting in about a month before classes, you will hear from your Orientation Leaders (OLs) who will be your guide throughout the program and into the start of the school year. They will share important information with you, invite you to join a group just for your Orientation “pod”, and keep you up to date on all of the events happening both at Tandon and across NYU to welcome new students. Orientation Leaders will share their NYU experience with you, answer your questions, and do their best to ensure your smooth transition into the Tandon community! 

New Student Orientation will be in-person and take place January 16-17, just before classes start. NSO programs will include a welcome from our NYU Tandon Dean, time with your Orientation Leaders, a resource fair, academic advising sessions, plus much more! You will also be invited to attend all of the great events being put on as part of NYU Welcome, hosted by the Center for Student Life.

Important information about Orientation

• Registration is required for Orientation. Students will receive information on how to register for Orientation via email about a month before Orientation.
• Every student will be assigned to a pod, led by one current Tandon student called an Orientation Leader (OLs). Your pod assignment will be sent to you via email about two weeks before Orientation.
• Each academic department will host a presentation for students in their major. Undecided students should attend the department session for the major(s) they are interested in. If you have questions about which department session to attend, please contact your assigned advisor!
• ALL undergraduate students are expected to attend the mandatory events of orientation. These will be clearly noted on the schedule. Social programs in the evenings will be optional & are designed to enhance the overall transition process.

Transfer Students

Just like brand new first-year students, incoming transfer students and those who will be attending Tandon for the first time are required to attend New Student Orientation. 

During orientation you will have the opportunity to meet with your academic advisor, attend informational sessions and workshops, and meet faculty and staff from across Tandon. You will also be able to interact with other incoming students while receiving guidance from current transfer students. 

International Students

All International students are also REQUIRED to attend an International Student Meeting with the Office of Global Services (OGS). There is an International Student Meeting for Tandon students already scheduled during Tandon Orientation, so there is no need to schedule one on your own unless you cannot attend the one scheduled for Tandon students. You can check out the OGS website for more information. 

NYU Welcome

All new NYU students, including Tandon students, are invited to participate in NYU Welcome at the start of their first semester at NYU! There are plenty of entertaining and informative programs throughout Orientation and into the first few weeks of the semester. 

For a list of the events and how to sign-up for them, please visit the Center for Student Life page. 

Getting Started 

Visit New Undergraduate Students for more information about registration, campus living, and a new student checklist. Make sure to utilize the checklist to ensure a smooth transition to NYU and the School of Engineering! 

Don't forget to submit your photo for your NYU ID. 

NYU Reads brings the NYU community together around a single common reading, chosen by a University committee made up of faculty, student, and administrator representatives. You will soon find out that at Tandon, we are committed to supporting and enhancing diversity, inclusion, and equity among all of our students, faculty, and staff, in the firm belief that diverse, inclusive, and equitable environments are not tangential or incidental to excellence, but constitutive of it. With that in mind, during the semester, you will have the opportunity to actively participate in the NYU Reads program, as you engage in discussions and events related to the book. 

2024-2025 NYU Reads Selection: Stay True by Hua Hsu

Stay True charts Hsu’s experience as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley in the mid-1990s—his days filled with mix tapes, “zines,” and making friends laugh and think. Social media and cell phones barely existed; email was so rarely used that friends checked one another’s inboxes every 2-3 weeks, as a neighborly gesture. As distant as this may seem from our current world, much of what Hsu evokes remains relevant, even pressing, to students today: from the significance that matters of taste (in music, movies, clothes) can suddenly take on, to a growing sense of one’s identity, to the important and transformative role that close friends can play in our lives. After one of his closest friends at Berkeley dies in a senseless act of violence during his junior year, Hsu comes to grips with remembering the past in a way that does justice to both the meaningful and the mundane, as well as with the grief of losing someone so young, when growing up still means growing outward. The timeless themes of Stay True will prompt NYU readers to reflect on what it means to engage with each other today—to listen and cultivate curiosity; to build bridges with those who are different from us; and to grow from our experiences and contribute what we learn to the community. 

Hua Hsu is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a professor of literature at Bard College. 

Stay True: A Memoir was named one of the Top 10 Books of 2022 by The New York Times, receiving the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award and 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography.

You may find information on how to access and purchase the chosen novel on the NYU Reads website.
 
Follow-up events and activities related to the NYU Reads theme will occur throughout both the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 semester. Stay tuned for more information via email as well as on our social media pages (@tandonstudentlife).

Past NYU Reads/First-Year Dialogue Selections:

Fall 2023
Text: "How the Word is Passed" by Clint Smith

Fall 2022
Text: "Klara and the Sun" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Fall 2021
Text: "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Fall 2020:
Text: "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Fall 2019:
Text: "Educated" by Tara Westover

Fall 2018:
Text: "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Ducksworth
Theme: "Passion + Perseverance = Success"

Fall 2017:
Text: Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis
Theme: "Transforming Engineering: Spare Parts, Determination, and a Dream.”

Fall 2016:
Text: Not Impossible: The Art and Joy of Doing What Couldn't Be Done by Mick Ebeling
Theme: “Invention and Technology for the Good of Humanity”

Fall 2015
Text: Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All by Tom Kelley and David Kelly
Theme: "Innovating for Change: Engaging Locally and Globally"