Bear Beginnings

Some 1,780 first-year students, the largest first-year class in Washington University’s history, will be arriving for the 2017-18 academic year that begins Monday, Aug. 28. The students hail from 49 states and 22 countries. A team of 300 students, faculty and staff volunteers will help haul everything from refrigerators and microwaves to laptops and bicycles. Trucks, vans, minivans and U-Hauls will line the South 40 driveways.

The “self” part of self-control can be a new concept for many college students. For years, they had parents and teachers to keep them on track. Then college comes, with its many demands and distractions, and students find themselves baffled by their own mistakes. Todd Braver, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, helps students understand the complicated brain basis for self-control.

Leaders of the Washington University community gathered in the Athletics Complex Aug. 25 to celebrate the Class of 2020 and to offer its 1,780 members some words of wisdom.

The class of 2020 was chosen among a field of 29,200 applicants and represents the largest class in Washington University’s 163-year history. It also is the most diverse. Some 231 students — 13 percent — are Pell grant-eligible, and 123 are the first in their families to attend college.

4,000 glow sticks, 50 academic progams, 100 First 40 events make the start of the school year special for new students.

More than 1,700 new students move onto campus starting at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 23. Five full days of orientation, better known as Bear Beginnings, take place Aug. 23-Monday, Aug. 27.