180 Activities, One Welcome — How Barnard Gives Every First-Year a Schedule That Feels Built for Them Jun 25th
A five-day welcome with more than 180 activities should feel like chaos. At Barnard, it feels like an invitation.
Abstract background with large soft-edged pastel shapes in blue, purple, and yellow blending together.
For orientation events

Provide an orientation that makes students feel they belong.

Schedules change daily. Leaders field the same question a hundred times. Parents call worried because nothing in a 135-page packet matches what's happening on campus.

Guidebook gives orientation teams one mobile app to run every event, update in real time, and help students feel like they belong from day one.

Trusted by leading universities to power their orientation programs

Why traditional orientation tools fail today's students

Print packets are stale before students walk on campus. Student leaders answer the same five questions all summer. Parents call worried. And the student who can't find their first event sits in their dorm thinking they picked the wrong school.

Stop the print waste

Multi-page programs and stuffed folders are often out of date before the first student even moves in, and often put in the trash. With Guidebook, you can push one update and in seconds every student, parent, and orientation leader sees the right information on
their phone.

End the same-question loop

Student leaders field the same question a hundred times. A searchable in-app FAQ lets students find the answers before having to raise their hand.

Belonging, before they even unpack.

“We lead around 14 orientations each year. With Guidebook, we can copy app content from a previous orientation and use it as the foundation for the next one to save time.”
Taylor Blair
University of Kentucky

Key features designed for orientation teams in higher education

The orientation choice of leading American universities

Guidebook powers orientation programs at over 75% of the top 50 U.S. colleges. From Louisiana Tech's Bulldog's First Bite to King's College London's Welcome Week, the largest welcome programs trust Guidebook to build belonging at scale.

17K+

downloads in a single Welcome Week

1M+

orientation app sessions

75%

of top U.S. colleges

Belonging starts before move-in.

From the pre-arrival email to the first day of class, Guidebook gives orientation teams the tools to communicate in real time, guide every student personally, and prove what built belonging.

Every orientation stop, pinned to your campus

Move-in at Pioneer Hall at 9. Welcome session in the auditorium at 11. Ice breakers on the quad at 2. Every orientation stop pinned to a real map with turn-by-turn directions. New students stop getting lost and wandering between buildings.

From "get ready" to "stay close"

Get ready: pre-arrival emails, packing lists, and roommate intros land before they leave home. On campus: real-time updates, room changes, leader announcements throughout welcome week. Stay close: week-two check-ins, club fair reminders, first-month survey. The full arrival arc in one app.

See what actually built belonging

Average time in app. Items tapped per session. Comments and likes on session feeds. Engagement data that tells you what initiative is working, and which students are feeling left out.

Leading orientation programs partner with Guidebook

Louisiana Tech University

Louisiana Tech University

Louisiana Tech University

Louisiana Tech University brings orientation to life with Bulldog’s First Bite, a Guidebook-powered app that welcomes new students with everything they need in one place.

Inside the app, students can:

- Explore session-specific schedules and interactive campus maps.
- Access handbooks, directories, and key campus resources.
- Connect with campus culture through photos and social feeds.
- Stay organized with built-in notes and real-time notifications.

It’s an engaging introduction that helps new Bulldogs feel connected and at home immediately.
Louisiana Tech University

King's College London

King's College London

King's College London

The Welcome Team at King’s make onboarding seamless with powerful mobile schedules and reduced printing to almost nothing by using Guidebook’s no-coding app builder.

Complex and personalized schedules
Lists of important campus resources
Maps to help navigate campus
King's College London

University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

With Guidebook, each unique audience - Freshmen, Transfer students, New Graduate Students, and Families - has its own orientation guide. Students see pre-orientation checklists and tools to connect with peers. Families receive information about on-campus resources and joining the Parents Association.
University of Texas at Austin

What EDU teams have to say

“With Guidebook, we use an audio tour guide to help prospective students navigate campus, learn more about university offerings, and feel part of the campus community - even if they’re unable to visit in person.”

Steven Kelly

University of Calgary

“With schedules frequently changing, we needed a flexible solution to accommodate updates in real time. The team would print 40,000 programs to hand out at the events, which were costly, bad for the environment, and once printed, couldn’t be updated with constant changes.”

Open Days Team

University of Manchester

“We went from 200 hours and 5 staff members to just 25 hours and 1 person - compared with creating a website and printed programs.”

Kristin Sargeant

University of Edinburgh

“With Guidebook, administrators are able to create the app themselves without any IT support and non-technical content creators can easily upload and publish content.”

Meredith Aden

University of Memphis

“With Guidebook, we use an audio tour guide to help prospective students navigate campus, learn more about university offerings, and feel part of the campus community - even if they’re unable to visit in person.”

Steven Kelly

University of Calgary

“We went from 200 hours and 5 staff members to just 25 hours and 1 person - compared with creating a website and printed programs.”

Kristin Sargeant

University of Edinburgh

“When we started we yielded 40%. After implementing Guidebook our yield grew to 82%. We believe Guidebook had a strong impact on that growth.”

Andrea Crilly

Indiana Tech

“Our app costs 29% less than printing, and our student yield increased by 105% once we began using Guidebook.”

Andrea Crilly

Indiana Tech

“With schedules frequently changing, we needed a flexible solution to accommodate updates in real time. The team would print 40,000 programs to hand out at the events, which were costly, bad for the environment, and once printed, couldn’t be updated with constant changes.”

Open Days Team

University of Manchester

“With Guidebook, administrators are able to create the app themselves without any IT support and non-technical content creators can easily upload and publish content.”

Meredith Aden

University of Memphis

“With Guidebook, we use an audio tour guide to help prospective students navigate campus, learn more about university offerings, and feel part of the campus community - even if they’re unable to visit in person.”

Steven Kelly

University of Calgary

“We went from 200 hours and 5 staff members to just 25 hours and 1 person - compared with creating a website and printed programs.”

Kristin Sargeant

University of Edinburgh

“When we started we yielded 40%. After implementing Guidebook our yield grew to 82%. We believe Guidebook had a strong impact on that growth.”

Andrea Crilly

Indiana Tech

“Our app costs 29% less than printing, and our student yield increased by 105% once we began using Guidebook.”

Andrea Crilly

Indiana Tech

“With schedules frequently changing, we needed a flexible solution to accommodate updates in real time. The team would print 40,000 programs to hand out at the events, which were costly, bad for the environment, and once printed, couldn’t be updated with constant changes.”

Open Days Team

University of Manchester

“With Guidebook, administrators are able to create the app themselves without any IT support and non-technical content creators can easily upload and publish content.”

Meredith Aden

University of Memphis

The orientation app new students actually open

Daily changes, last-minute room swaps, worried parent calls, replaced by one branded mobile app. Schedules, maps, family content, and real-time updates in your colors.

FAQs

[faq] Q: How does Guidebook make orientation easier for students and families? A: Guidebook gives orientation teams one branded app for schedules, maps, FAQs, family content, student tracks, packing lists, push notifications, and real-time changes. New students know where to be. Families know what to expect. Your team answers fewer repeat questions. Q: Can Guidebook handle different orientation tracks? A: Yes. First-year students, transfer students, international students, commuters, families, and orientation leaders can each have a clearer path through the same app. The experience feels personal without your team creating a separate app for every audience. Q: How does Guidebook help before students arrive? A: Orientation can start before move-in. Teams can share checklists, arrival instructions, packing guidance, pre-orientation events, leader introductions, and reminders in the app so students show up with more confidence and fewer unknowns. Q: What happens when the orientation schedule changes? A: Your team updates Guidebook once, and the current schedule is in every student's hand. Push notifications can alert students and families to room changes, weather decisions, speaker updates, or new meeting points in real time. Q: Can Guidebook support multiple Orientations in a year? A: Yes, Guidebook is designed for multi event campus experience. Within one branded app, you can have multiple Guides, each built for the specific Orientation event. Q: What can orientation teams measure after welcome week? A: Teams can look at app adoption, schedule views, saved sessions, map taps, FAQ engagement, push notification response, survey data, and content interactions. That gives orientation leaders a stronger story about belonging, staff time saved, and what to improve next year. [/faq]