I went to university in Scotland, and at the time they did an overseas student orientation. I mention this for two reasons. One, foreign students in the US right now are being treated badly. For me, as a DC resident, with no state school option, going to the UK was actually one of my cheaper options. (DC residents have a few more options these days.)
One thing that's worth noting is that foreign students pay not only full tuition, the foreign student rate is between two and three times the regular student rate. (For those of you wondering how that was cheaper for me, well, the UK student rates have gone up a bit post Brexit, but also, have you seen US tuition rates?)
So universities often rely on some foreign students, both for diversity of thought, and also the higher rate they pay.
But one of the targets of this anti-diversity pro-segregation movement is orientations that single people out based on who they are.
So, in my orientation, I met other new students, including one who turned out to be from near me. I got a tour of the town, got some info on some of the students' traditions, and got to hang out and eat some food.
I got kicked out bright and early on dorm move in day, so ended up hanging out with the RAs as they checked everyone in because what else was I going to do. Which means I met most people in my dorm as they rolled in.
So when my roommate, who had grown up just an hour away arrived, who had several classmates she'd gone to high school with at the university and in the dorm arrived, I was already there. She later told me it seemed like I already knew so many people and so much stuff.
Did those two days give me a huge advantage? Not really. My roommate learned her way around pretty quickly. And we all found our people for the most part. The friends from university that I still keep in touch with are all Scottish.
But, those days helped me settle. Gave me some faces that when I ran into them later I could say hi, and chat. Two of the Americans I started with the same year ended up leaving. One of them skipped orientation and ended up leaving because he was lonely and didn't feel like he fit in. One hit some academic snags.
The orientation wasn't the whole reason I succeeded. But it helped give me a start. Helping people find others who have similar backgrounds isn't just so they can only hang out with those people. But goodness, some days after you've been told the third patently untrue thing about the States, knowing where to find someone who will roll their eyes on your behalf is useful.
The idea of the melting pot assumes that everyone wants to end up tasting like everyone else. (Okay, that metaphor got a little weird, but work with me here.) Sometimes people are somewhere, a job, a university, to do their thing the best that they can, emphasis on their thing. They can learn without melding or changing into some other thing. So finding places they can find others who appreciate some culturally specific things helps them succeed. And helps the institution hang on to the knowledge, and let's face it the money, it needs to keep going.
