Orientation

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.

Explore Leader student volunteers are preparing international students for life on campus — greeting them at the South 40, helping them open checking accounts and even taking them shopping at Target.  Before classes start, the Office of International Students & Scholars will assist 250 undergraduates and 600 graduate students — many of whom have never traveled to the United States. ​

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

Washington University’s main move-in day in the South 40 residence halls for new students is Thursday, Aug. 23. Some 1,700 new students (freshmen, transfer and exchange) are arriving for the 2012-13 academic year that begins Aug. 28. Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will lead university staff members and upperclass student volunteers in a 7:30 a.m. pep rally as they prepare to welcome the new students and assist with move in throughout the day.

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.

As an undergraduate pre-med student, Danielle Bristow worked as a tour guide for the University of the Pacific, welcoming prospective students and their families to her campus. The idea that Bristow would one day find a career in making people feel welcome didn’t occur to her. Not at first, anyway.