PRE-FROSH!!! Welcome to Harvard and possibly the most blissfully chaotic days of your life. Not only will you familiarize yourself with the campus and Harvard lingo, you’ll also be getting to know hundreds of your fellow ’30ers! It’ll be overwhelming (even for the most extroverted of you out there), but fear not, because here are a few tips to smooth out the bumps you might encounter!

1. Educate yourself about your state

Especially if you’re from the middle of nowhere. Be prepared to pitch your classic Harvard intro starting now — name, concentration, home state (or country!), and house (that comes later, so don’t worry about it now). I’ve had many conversations that died for a few moments when I said I was from Wisconsin. If I could get a quarter for every time I’ve gotten a perky “that’s so cool!”, I’d be able to get myself Blank Street (you’ll know soon) every day. And please let whatever you share about where you call home be interesting. There’s only so much you can say about cheese. Talk about the shark-filled beach you frequent despite it being shark-filled. Or maybe the Saturday farmer’s market, where you’ll eat a lunch’s worth of samples of potato donuts and pickle popcorn. See? I did my research.

2. Prepare for some lip-reading

It will be LOUD. From Annenberg to the bustling academic fair tent, you’ll be struggling to hear what you yourself are even saying. If you’re good at lip-reading, you’re in luck, because you’ll need lots of it. (Unless you have super hearing, which wouldn’t be exactly surprising at this school). Just don’t stare for too long because you don’t want to be remembered as the person who has awful comprehension skills and also tends to stare into the depths of someone’s… lips?

3. Trim what you need to in your recent searches on Instagram

You meet another Visitaser for the first time. You’ve got some first-impression jitters going on, understandably. You chit-chat about stuff you’ll forget as soon as you meet another pre-frosh, and then yay, it’s time to trade Instagrams! You open the app and hand your phone over, a really funny but really embarrassing text from your homie slides down from the top (but that’s irrelevant), and as soon as fellow pre-frosh clicks on the search bar, you know that you should’ve done some cleaning up beforehand. If you’ve been doing some snooping, just know that you’ll be having lots of eyes on that suspicious activity of yours. In short, be conscious and diligent about things ;-)

4. Don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation with the Adults (they don’t bite)

In all seriousness, pre-frosh, give Visitas the chance to make you fall in love with Harvard. There’s a reason the most heard answer is “the people” when you ask a student about their favorite part of Harvard. And, not to get all mushy gushy, but some of the most passionate, funniest, and kindest people you’ll ever meet will be your professors. Visitas offers lots of opportunities to meet faculty, so don’t shy away from them! Don’t be worried about proving you’re Harvard material and smart because everyone already knows that. Just go up to them, and you’re guaranteed a great conversation. Chat with professors from different departments too, because who knows, you might be about to walk away with newfound cosmic pull to concentrate in Folklore and Mythology (yes, we have that!).

5. Don’t be afraid to be on your own

As much of a frenzy Visitas is, you don’t have to constantly be seeking your next BFF or catching up with your friends from XYZ summer program (because you’re all committing here, so you’ve got the next four years together anyway…). Harvard’s a lot to soak in, so give yourself some peace and quiet to do that. I vividly remember that, when I was a starry-eyed freshman like you, my two aha moments at Visitas hit me when I was alone. The first one was when I was walking on the grass next to Berg in the early morning, when the sun wasn’t quite up yet. I got a little teary because sometimes this place just makes you feel like that. The second moment was when I spent an hour browsing the Harvard Book Store and came to realize that Crimson’s got a lot more aura than something like, you know, cardinal red.

Get excited! Extroverts, this is your time to adopt some introverts. Introverts, throw yourself out there and remember to take a step back to enjoy this place. Awkward moments here and there are inevitable. And, if worst comes to worst, only a handful of people you meet at Visitas will remember the interactions they’ve had with you. On top of everything, with that incoming senior summer glow up, you’re going to come back to campus in the fall with a fresh start to your Harvard adventure!