in the context of graduate school, refers to the initial training period that provides new students with information on the policies and procedures of the program and school.
At Emory, orientation includes lab safety training, library resources training, meetings with program and departmental staff, and research experiences with groups accepting students in a given year.
Some schools, including Emory, are beginning to offer “orientation”-style sessions later in the career as recognition of the ongoing shifts in what students might need to know as they progress through a program. At Emory, these sessions currently take the form of “Town Halls” with graduate program leadership organized by cohort.
New student information from the Laney Graduate School
Orientation in the Emory chemistry graduate program handbook