Orientation

ELIGIBLITY TO ATTEND NSO

New Student Orientation is open to conditionally admitted students who have submitted their intent to enroll and paid the non-refundable $125 intent to enroll deposit, and have registered and paid the non-refundable $99 NSO fee by the May 1, 2021 deadline. Students who do not meet admission requirements or deadlines are not eligible to attend NSO. Students who are in the process of appealing an admissions decision are not eligible to attend NSO.

Confirmation of admissions will only occur once final transcripts are received and verified by the admissions office. The final transcript deadline for first year students is July 15, 2021. Final official transcripts must include your graduation date. Our admissions office prefers electronic transcripts sent to admissions@csudh.edu.  There may be instances where a student attends NSO and then the admissions status changes based on a review of final transcripts.

REGISTRATION PROCESS

To register for NSO, log into your my.CSUDH.edu account. Make sure you are on the Applicants Tab located near the top of the page. From the Applicants tab, click on the Admissions tab, then click on NSO Registration Status. You must submit the intent to enroll before you are eligible to register for NSO. If you are having difficulties logging into your my.CSUDH.edu account, contact the IT Help Desk at 310-243-2500. If you are having difficulties with the NSO registration process, contact NSO at 310-243-2113.

The registration process within the my.CSUDH.edu account will ask you to select a NSO date (see below), and will also ask you to submit payment for the NSO fee. The fee for New Student Orientation is $99. Students must submit payment to finalize their NSO registration. All Orientation fees are non-refundable and non-transferable regardless of whether the student does not attend the NSO date or their admission status changes.

NSO DATES

First Year NSO sessions are scheduled in late May and the early part of June so that students complete NSO in time to attend Early Start summer programs. You may select the date that works best for you, on a first-come, first serve basis. Capacity is limited and the dates listed below may not be available if you wait too long to register. NSO registration closes May 1^st, so we encourage you to register early.

NSO programs are scheduled by Academic College. Each undergraduate major falls within one of the academic colleges. First year students who applied as Undeclared will attend a NSO Date that has been designated for undeclared students.

College of Arts & Humanities

• Tuesday, June 1, 2021
• Saturday, June 5, 2021
• Wednesday, June 9, 2021

College of Business Administration & Public Policy

• Thursday, June 3, 2021
• Tuesday, June 8, 2021
• Friday, June 11, 2021

College of Education

• Thursday, June 3, 2021
• Tuesday, June 8, 2021
• Friday, June 11, 2021

College of Health, Human Services & Nursing

• Thursday, June 3, 2021
• Tuesday, June 8, 2021
• Friday, June 11, 2021

College of Natural & Behavioral Sciences

• Tuesday, June 1, 2021
• Saturday, June 5, 2021
• Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Undeclared Majors

• Thursday, June 3, 2021
• Tuesday, June 8, 2021
• Friday, June 11, 2021

MANDATORY NSO REQUIREMENT

NSO is a mandatory enrollment requirement. Students are expected to register and attend NSO as well as complete all NSO activities to remain eligible for enrollment. For First Year students, this may include, but not limited to DSP, Online Pre-Orientation, and completing your to-do list. It is important to continuously check your Toromail email account to receive important information. Students who do not complete NSO are not eligible for fall enrollment and would need to reapply for the following open academic term. Students who were not able to complete their scheduled NSO requirement on the day of their orientation can submit a NSO Petition for consideration. NSO Petitions are only a request and not guaranteed for approval.

If you have questions regarding the NSO requirement, or the policies regarding orientation, please email orientation@csudh.edu.

New Student Orientation is designed to help you become familiar with the campus and its resources. You will receive academic advising and will register for your fall courses and summer courses if you choose to attend Summer Bridge to earn units prior to the semester during NSO. After you have registered for NSO, make sure that you are regularly checking your my.CSUDH.edu account and your ToroMail account (CSUDH student email account) for any changes or updates.

PRE-ONLINE ORIENTATION

At NSO, we have a lot of information to share about our university. To prepare you for your orientation experience, you are required to complete an online pre-orientation before your scheduled NSO date. The online pre-orientation takes about 30 minutes to one hour to complete. You are able to log out and log back in if you wish to complete it over the course of multiple sittings. Students who have registered for NSO will receive an email in May with instructions for how to complete the online pre-orientation.

DIRECTED SELF PLACEMENT (DSP)

DSP is a free online survey in which you answer a series of questions about your reading and writing habits. The survey will recommend which First Year Composition (FYC) course might best suit your needs, but you make the final course selection. All entering first year students are required to complete DSP unless you have already received college credit for First Year Composition (English). DSP is administered through Blackboard. You will receive more information about how to complete DSP via email in the spring semester. Learn more about DSP here: https://www.csudh.edu/dsp/

ACCESSING ONLINE NSO ON YOUR SCHEDULED DATE

We will be using a combination of Blackboard and Zoom Meetings on your NSO date. Blackboard is a learning management system that is used to facilitate online courses. New Student Orientation has an organization within Blackboard that contains critical information from advising departments. You should review this information even after your NSO date to ensure you are familiar with the curriculum and to prepare you for any subsequent advising appointments.

Students will be expected to log into Blackboard no later than 8:30am. Mandatory sessions will be delivered via Zoom from 8:30am to 2:00pm. We take attendance for NSO, so you must log into the NSO Blackboard Organization no later than 8:30am. Students who do not log into Blackboard by 8:30am will be marked as No Show and will not be able to register in courses.

Sample Schedule (subject to change):

TECHNOLOGY AND MATERIALS NEEDED

You will need a computer (preferably one with a mic) and reliable internet access on the day of your scheduled NSO date. We do not recommend using a cell phone in place of a computer to access the Blackboard and Zoom Meetings. You will be registering for courses as part of the NSO program. It will be difficult to navigate Blackboard content, Zoom meetings, and your my.CSUDH.edu student account for course registration on a cell phone.

We recommend that you attempt to access Zoom prior to your scheduled NSO date to ensure that you have downloaded the latest version of Zoom meetings.

We encourage all students to have electronic (PDF preferred) copies of all transcripts, as advisors may request to view unofficial transcripts. Unofficial transcripts can be used for advising purposes; however final official transcripts are due to the Admissions office by the July, 15, 2021 deadline.

MANDATORY NSO REQUIREMENT

NSO is a mandatory enrollment requirement. Students are expected to complete all NSO activities (pre-orientation and scheduled NSO date) to remain eligible for enrollment. Students who do not complete NSO are not eligible for fall enrollment, and would need to reapply for the following open academic term. Students who were not able to complete their scheduled NSO requirement on the day of their orientation can submit a NSO Petition for consideration. NSO Petitions are only a request and not guaranteed for approval.

If you have questions regarding the NSO requirement, or the policies regarding orientation, please email orientation@csudh.edu.

Students who do not register for NSO by the posted deadline, or students who do not attend a scheduled NSO date are not eligible to enroll for the academic year in which they applied. The NSO Petition is for students who had extenuating circumstances that prevented them from attending a scheduled NSO date or from registering for NSO by the deadline. Please be aware that petitions are meant to cover students’ extenuating circumstances and not that of the extended family.

Petitions will be reviewed by the NSO Petition Exception Committee. Submitting the form does not guarantee the petition will be approved. Once you have submitted your NSO petition, you will received the decision through your ToroMail email account within 5 business days. This petition is for New Student Orientation only.

To access the NSO Petition, download and complete the form below. On the form, provide a brief written statement that indicates the reason for the petition. You may need to provide any official supporting documentation with your petition. Any documentation submitted as part of the NSO Petition will not be returned to the student. Please make sure to include your form and all supporting documents as one pdf upload and allow at least 3 days for us to process your request.

You must submit the NSO petition by Friday, June 11, 2021. Petitions received after the deadline will not be considered.

NSO Petition Process

1. Download the NSO Petition Form (PDF) 
   • First Year Petition Deadline: Friday, June 11, 2021 by 11:59PM
2. Complete & Sign the NSO Petition Form
3. Save your completed petition along with all your supporting documents using your Initials and CSUDH ID ex. AB123456789
4. Upload Completed form using the NSO DropBox, please upload all documents as a single PDF with the NSO Petition Form on top. Directions on how to merge PDF documents can be found HERE.

[Download Acrobat Reader here]

If you have any questions, please email orientation@csudh.edu or you can call 310-243-2113. Please include your CSUDH ID number in the email, or have your CSUDH ID ready when you call.

We understand the direct link between student success and the support of their parents and families. At CSUDH, we continue to provide support for the parents of our students. This year for Fall 2021 our NSO Parent Program has gone virtual. To best meet the needs of parents, we have created multiple options in order to get your questions answered.

First, we created an online orientation platform that allows for guest access. Parents, guardians, and other support members in a student’s life can access the online orientation platform and enter their personal information into the Guest Portal to access the online orientation. The program will cover information that a family member may need to understand and the campus and the services that are available to students. The online Parent Program is available in English and Spanish.

To access the online Parent Program: https://preorientation.csudh.edu/

Second, we will be offering two virtual parent programs throughout the summer. The first will be held on Saturday, May 29, 2021 and the second will be held on Friday, June 18, 2021. During these sessions, we will cover everything from affording university, housing, support services for students as well as having current students available to answer your questions so that you can better understand what your students’ first year will be like. These sessions will be offered in English and Spanish.

To register for one of our two dates: Registration will open February.

Lastly, we have counselors who work directly with your student, therefore, will work directly for you. Counselors are assigned by your student’s last name so if you are unable to attend the online pre-orientation or the parent program you can always find a counselor and contact us directly.

To contact a counselor: https://www.csudh.edu/future-students/more-info/csudh-at-my-hs/

Phone: 310-243-2113
Email: orientation@csudh.edu