Orientation FAQs

Online Orientation is required for all new undergraduate students to complete. It is an opportunity for new students to receive important preliminary information about academics, student services, getting involved on campus, policies/safety, academic advising, and more! Once you complete your online orientation, your orientation hold will be removed the next business day. This removal will notify Academic Advising that you are eligible to schedule your advising appointment.

You can sign up for Orientation through your Rowdy Ready Checklist on your myUTSA Admissions portal. Once logged in, you will find your application under “My Admission Applications” section. From there, click on the orange “Review Details & Checklist” at the bottom of the tile. Under the “Your Rowdy Ready Status” section, you will see a “Sign Up for Orientation” checklist item with a link.

You are required to complete the online orientation modules to fulfill your orientation requirement. Once you sign up and pay for orientation through the reservation system, you’ll find a green button in the Additional Information section of your confirmation page that says “Launch Online Orientation”. Click the green button to start the online orientation modules. The modules will consist of viewing 7 sections of information and passing the short quiz at the end with a 90% or better. Note: You may attempt the quiz multiple times.

All new undergraduate students are required to complete online orientation. We do offer optional in-person programs for you to choose from when signing up for orientation. You MUST complete online orientation even if you sign up for an in-person program. That is the only way you can fulfill your university requirement and meet with an advisor. If you would like to sign up for an optional in-person program, you will see them listed as “Online + a date” (Ex: “Online + November 13th”) on the sign-up page.

Online Orientation takes about 1 to 2 hours to complete in one sitting. You can complete this in one sitting or at your own pace; your progress is automatically saved.

No, the program is designed to be completed at your own pace. You can access the Online Orientation at any time.

We highly recommend you complete Online Orientation as soon as possible since completing it will make you eligible to schedule your advising appointment and register for classes. Typically, orientation closes a week before the start of classes.

Within two weeks of you completing your Online Orientation, your UTSA Academic Advisor will reach out to you to schedule your advising appointment. It is during your academic advising appointment where you will be advised on your first semester of classes along with an overview of how to register for classes. Your Academic Advisor will send an email to your UTSA email account (@my.utsa.edu) to set up an appointment. Make sure you have access to your UTSA email account, if you’re not sure please visit https://my.utsa.edu/ and click the link that says “Email Account” under the student resources tab.

No, you can sign up and complete Online Orientation before your Rowdy Ready requirements are complete. Signing up for and completing Online Orientation are actually two of your requirements on your Rowdy Ready checklist. However, it is highly recommended that you complete your Rowdy Ready items before you meet with your Academic Advisor. Requirements such as TSI or placement test (if applicable) can impact the classes you register for your first semester.

Within 2 weeks after you complete your Online Orientation, Academic Advising will send an email to your UTSA email account with instructions on how to schedule your advising appointment. If you are not contacted by Academic Advising, please email advising@utsa.edu.

If you need to update or edit your orientation reservation, you can log back into your myUTSA Admissions portal (under your Rowdy Ready Checklist) and make edits as long as your edit button is visible on your Orientation confirmation page. If you signed up for additional in-person experiences, you have up to one week prior to your program date to make any changes. One week prior to your program date, the orientation sign up period will end and you will no longer be able to edit your reservation. Should your plans change, or an emergency arise, please reach out to the orientation at orientation@utsa.edu. orientation@utsa.edu Please note, your orientation fee payment is non-refundable, even if you no longer plan to attend UTSA.

Yes! Visit our Family Orientation page to learn more about our in-person and virtual Family Orientation options.

For students who are military-affiliated including active duty, veteran, guard/reserve and family members using their parent’s/spouse’s benefits, you can check out the Center for Military Affiliated Students and take advantage of the great resources they offer such as their getting started check-list and sign up for a benefits workshop today!

When you sign up for Orientation, you will be asked to pay a non-refundable fee by credit card in order to confirm your orientation reservation. Once registration is complete, a confirmation page will appear indicating your confirmed reservation and your non-refundable payment receipt. Please note that orientation is not supported through tuition dollars and the orientation fee must be paid at the time of sign-up. The UTSA orientation fee supports the staffing, programming and technical costs of producing quality orientation for our new students.

Fee Deferrals (Pay Later)
There is no waiver for the orientation fee. Students who meet certain financial criteria will have the option to defer the orientation fee at the time of sign-up.

If you are unable to defer at sign-up and have extenuating circumstances, you can submit a request to defer the orientation fee by emailing the office directly at orientation@utsa.edu. Please allow 3-5 business days for us to review your request. Decisions will be emailed directly to your myUTSA email account.

Please remember, the orientation fee is non-refundable, even if you decide not to enroll at UTSA. If you deferred the fee to your tuition account, the fee will become an outstanding balance and will have to be paid by the stated payment deadline for the semester you intended to enroll.