Paper Title
U.S. Campus Orientation Programs for International Students: University and Student Preferences

Abstract
International students first interaction with their unfamiliar environment takes place during orientation programs. As a result, universities should work hard to ensure international students have the necessary programs to help them better understand and adjust to their new environment in the United States.International students represent a large segment of college students in the United States (“U.S.”). They not only contribute millions of dollars to the universities they attend, but more importantly to the U.S. economy after graduation.This research paper focuses on assessing the importance and impact of orientation programs for incoming international students in U.S. colleges and their adjustment process. A sub-set of data was analyzed from a larger ongoing longitudinal study “International Students’ Adjustment to U.S. Universities” to specifically assess the effectiveness of the orientation programs.The study explores the degree to whichinternational students embrace the orientation programs currently being offered upon their arrival in the U.S.,and, identifying those aspects of current orientation programs they accept and those aspects that they reject.It examines the orientation program popularity and acceptabilityfrom the incoming international student’s perspective. Results demonstrated that the orientation programs with the highest participation rate are1) campus tours followed by 2) social events and 3) student support services staff presentations. As expected, when participants were askedto rankorientation programs based on preferences, the results indicated that campus tours and social events are the most preferable among this sample. The least favorite orientation program were scavenger hunt and orientation “games”. From a practical perspective, this research will educate the U.S. universities and orientation program officersso that they can better understand the preferences of international students in order to design and implement better programs that help students’ adjustment process. Utilizing the results of our research will have far reaching impact on international student academic success and will ultimately improve international student retention rates and the university’s’ fiscal success. The practical implications and the framework and scope of future research regarding orientation programs will be discussed further in this research presentation.