First impressions

Most UW students have become experts at navigating the 703 acres of campus, mastered the art of paying attention in a 700-person lecture and found their niches among the plethora of student clubs. But these details can be overwhelming for an incoming freshman.

Enter First Year Programs (FYP), a division of the Office of Undergraduate Education. According to its Web site, FYP "facilitates programs to assist [incoming students] as they establish and enrich their relationship with the UW community." During the summer, FYP's main program is Summer Advising, better known as freshmen orientation.

About a dozen upperclassmen, mostly juniors, wearing matching purple shirts with the words "We help people" emblazoned on the back, meet at 8:30 a.m. every day. Although officially called peer advisers, they are orientation leaders.

They get the day's schedule, bounce ideas off one another, and joke around. Then they gather their bags and separate, each going to a different room. In about 15 minutes, students begin trickling in.

All are incoming freshmen. The peer adviser's job is to cram as much knowledge about the UW into them as is possible in two days.

"Sometimes people expect something different [from the UW]," said peer adviser Alex Kim. Sometimes, Kim said, he sympathizes with the new students, who have a lot thrown at them in such a short period of time.

"They are like sponges, but [even] sponges can only hold so much," he said.

Kim's group is made up of about a dozen students who have been placed together because of their interest in becoming business majors. This is the second day of a two-day orientation, so he has met them before. At first glance, they don't seem like the nervous college freshmen one might imagine: trendily dressed, they walk with an air of confidence. Although none are carrying the requisite Starbucks cups usually peppered throughout 8:30 a.m. classes, they seem impossibly perky.

Behind the apparent poise, however, these students are still thrilled to finally be in college.

"It's a little surreal," said Alicia Novak, a blonde from Federal Way, who is considering entering the business school.

Kim begins the session with an icebreaker. Like most of his colleagues at FYP, he is enthusiastic and approachable. Instead of feeling threatened by an upperclassman, his advisees banter with him, making fun of his quirks, like his habit of saying "good times" after nearly every sentence.

Kim takes his charges on a brief campus tour, pointing out important buildings and revealing interesting tidbits, including the fact that Raitt Hall was once home to the department of home economics. The students' seemingly favorite building is Suzzallo Library, with its grand entrance and appealing architecture. This is common, said Kim.

"Suzzallo has the whole 'whoa' effect," he explained.

Next, Kim leads the students through Red Square, where they can see Terry and Lander Halls, where some may be living come fall.

"The dorms looked so crowded," said Novak, who signed up to live in a residence hall but is considering rushing a sorority.

Peter Schmitz, who is from Monroe and planning to double major in business and engineering, agreed. "I went to [some camps at the UW] and did the whole dorm thing," he said, before announcing his intention to get an apartment instead of a room.

After stopping in Schmitz Hall to get Husky Card photos taken, the students follow Kim to Mary Gates Hall, where they join two other orientation groups and listen to a lecture on how to register for classes.

Surprisingly, students stayed extremely alert. Aside from a few requisite sighs and a couple doodles, the freshmen paid rapt attention to the presentation about registering.

Perhaps they had been warned by peers who had attended orientation before them, or perhaps they have taken advisers' messages about the difficulty of registration to heart.

"Registration probably causes the most disorientation," Kim said. "[In high school] they are always told what to take, when to take it. Now there are so many choices, the students get confused ... they ask us what they should take."

Novak uncapped her pink-inked pen and began scribbling furiously when the lecturer spoke about choosing a Freshman Interest Group (FIG). Although she is attending the orientation for students interested in business, she's not sure if the field is for her.

"I'm keeping my options open," she said. "I'm interested in a lot of things."

Her friend Jessica Hellen, also from Federal Way, is quieter than Novak, a little more reserved. She jumps in, however, when speaking of her future goals.

"I'm planning on majoring in business, and I am pre-med," she said. "But they say your major changes, what, five times? So I don't know."

Although Kim has done this for nearly a month, he still manages to bring fresh enthusiasm to the session. The eagerness is necessary, he said, because for many of these incoming students, it is their first real look at the place they plan on calling home for the next four years.

And from the looks on some freshmen's faces, the outlook is a good one. Although they ooze confidence, it's apparent they are excited and nervous about starting this new journey.

As Kim leads them around campus, Novak and Hellen stay fairly quiet, not joining in the small talk of their peers. But when they pass through the Quad and see upperclassmen lounging in the sun, flipping through textbooks and catching up with friends, Novak lets out a little squeal.

"I cannot believe we are finally in college," she exclaims. "This is going to be great."