The University of Arizona - with its sprawling campus, endless streams of paperwork and roughly 35,000 students - can be an intimidating place for newcomers.

That's when the freshman orientation program steps in.

Orientation is a two-day program designed to make the transition into the university a little smoother. This summer, 10 groups of about 450 students and their parents will participate in the program.

"The overall goal is to get students registered and feeling comfortable on our campus," said Kasey Carpenter, interim orientation coordinator.

She said the focus of orientation is academics, and most students' questions center on how to register and what classes to take.

Orientation headquarters is in the Student Union, and most activities are scheduled there to spare students and their parents the task of navigating the campus any more than necessary.

Day one begins with the students randomly divided into groups. Then, they receive their orientation materials and begin a long day of seminars, placement tests, campus tours and, finally, a dinner and dance.

An information fair on day two includes representatives from financial aid, residence life, the Greek community, campus recreation, parking and transportation, ROTC and almost every other group imaginable.

But some students have mixed reviews of the intensive program.

"It's informative, but a lot of things are unnecessary," said incoming freshman Nima William of Lakewood, Colo.

Both days are structured to provide the most amount of information with very little free time. As a result, some students feel overwhelmed, said Maria Barrow, orientation student coordinator .

But it's not all work.

The dinner and the dance give students, parents and group leaders a chance to meet informally, Barrow said.

And the residence hall where the future students stay, Kaibab-Huachuca, is "pretty laid back," according to John Fox, orientation hall director. He said most out-of-town students, and many Tucsonans, stay in the hall to get a preview of residence hall life.

Advising and fall registration are done at the end of the second day and seem to be the primary reason most students participate in orientation.

"I came to orientation to figure out what's going on and to get some advising. I couldn't have shown up in August and done all this alone," said incoming freshman Jennifer Josten of Phoenix.