Hello again! We are overwhelmingly excited to welcome you to your first day of medical school in only one week! I hope you all have had a lovely summer and are eager to get started. Rest assured that we have a fun week planned for you all, complete with a white coat fitting, a sorting ceremony that will rival that of the Hogwarts Great Hall, a social calendar to explore the best of Birmingham and even your first lecture (don’t stress too much about that last one – it’s essentially syllabus day). You’ll also have quality time with some wonderful orientation leaders who want nothing more than to see you succeed. Perhaps most importantly, this will be the best time to reach out to your new classmates. I want to encourage all of you to take advantage of the down time and activities planned for you during these first few weeks – get to know your class! You’ll be spending quite a bit of time together, and forming relationships with your peers will make these challenging years much more enjoyable.
I’d like to give you a few reminders as you prepare for next week:
- When you arrive on Monday, park in the 16th Street Parking Deck, which lies on the corner of 16th Street South and 10th Avenue South. This is the same deck that many of you parked in for interviews.
- Attire is business professional because we’ll be taking a few photos. Lunch will be provided, and vegetarian options will be available.
- Finally, please bring your laptops with you throughout the week; you’ll need them for a few Orientation sessions.
All of this information can also be found on the “Recently Admitted” page of the SOM website; you can check out the schedule at the bottom of the page, under “New Student Orientation”.
As always, if you have any final questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Looking forward to meeting you all!
Sara Beth Deas
2016 Orientation Director
sbdeas@uab.edu