For the better part of a year, the Admission team has been crafting the community that we will know this year. They know each new student through interviews, essays, extensive recommendations, test profiles and subjective forms in which parents share insights and dreams. Each kid has identified everything from sleep habits to preferences for roommate qualities, music, tidiness, etc. So we know them well, yet--with a few exceptions--the students don't know one another until this moment, when they arrive for orientation. This is a critical transition, for each individual's emotional comfort level, social integration and general happiness will impact his/her relationship to the community, and the overall tone of that community. When they arrived Tuesday, they were descended upon by a whole team of "old" students who welcome them with enthusiasm.
 

Caddie greets a family outside the Fowler Learning Center:

 
Admission Director Chris Bartlett '86 (blue shirt) joins two student-greeters with new arrivals.

 
New comers arrive both excited and anxious. Jackson does his part to ease apprehensions:

 

The first step--after wading through the team of greeter/tour guides--is to sign in, pick up individualized information packets and slap on name tags.
 



Despite the crowd, lines are short, because of multiple registration tables.

 





A few more signatures....
 
After a picnic lunch, the names of eight-student Orientation groups are read. The groups--with parents included--convene in scattered locations to talk through details of the upcoming Orientation hike in the White Mountains. In a final exercise to dispel anxieties, we get silly and execute the traditional lapsit:
 

Parents say good-bye to kids who are beginning to feel that they belong to something new. Each has a new roommate, new dorm mates and a group of kids who are about to spend five days hiking and camping together.
 
In truth, orienting to life at a new school takes longer than one week. But--over the decades--we've fashioned a set of experiences that serve our purposes very well. The silly lapsit is a sample of the magic ingredient of Orientation: shared emotion. For it is the feeling of belonging, happiness and general well-being--more than grades and test scores--that will make this a great year.

And now, it's time to go some place new!