More than 4,300 new students are arriving at Cornell starting this Friday, Aug. 20, when campus residence halls open their doors at 8 a.m.

This year Cornell expects to enroll roughly 3,100 freshmen, 564 new undergraduate transfer students and 610 new graduate and professional students.

As the competition for good students among top-tier universities has intensified in recent years, so have efforts to make students' first experiences on campus exciting as well as informative. In keeping with last year's new model, this year's New Student Orientation at Cornell, Aug. 20-25, will intersect with Welcome Weekend, Aug. 25-29. Classes begin Aug. 26.

"Our volunteers have prepared long and hard for the arrival of this year's crop of new students, and we look forward to showing them the best of Cornell and Ithaca," said Lisa K'Bedford, assistant dean of students for New Student Programs, associate director of the Carol Tatkon Center and the key staff organizer for both Orientation and Welcome Weekend. She counsels newcomers to "enjoy every minute of this wonderful time in your life" and predicts that their time at Cornell, starting with orientation, will be filled with "memorable experiences."

"We're so excited to have the new students arrive," said Asha Venkataraman '06, a member of the 11-person Orientation Steering Committee (OSC), the student group that has helped shape this year's activities. With allotted funds from the student activities fee more than doubled from last year, the orientation activities and events are "going to be bigger and better than ever," she promised, "with great events such as the Big Red Carnival, Club Cornell -- our traditional showcase -- and the chance for new students to win great prizes and meet many of their classmates."

Edwin Cheung '04, another OSC member, said, "Unlike previous years, we are matching our new students with orientation supervisors and leaders of their own colleges trained to answer college-related academic questions." In addition, nightly entertainment for newcomers includes "a dance party with DJs from a Syracuse radio station; outdoor movies at three locations; Michael Anthony, a hypnotist who will work his magic with the audience; and Sherrod Small, a comedian from the VH1 television hit 'Best Week Ever.'"

New Student Orientation will feature, among other things, workshops on how to avoid misinterpreting sexual signals when dating and a series of lively late-night activities involving music, movement, movies, munching and mingling. Welcome Weekend, which is coordinated by a six-student executive board, is highlighted by a street fair on Ho Plaza, a performance on the Arts Quad by the popular rock band They Might Be Giants, a drag show and "Ithaca Is Gorgeous," a community day of service all over Ithaca for new students.

The entering Class of 2008 and their families also will have several opportunities to meet with President Jeffrey S. Lehman -- informally Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. at the tent on Rawlings Green on North Campus, and at the New Student Convocation Saturday from 9 to 10 a.m. in Barton Hall.

First-year students will have a chance to enter immediately into the intellectual life of the university. They are invited to be part of the interactive audience when Isaac Kramnick, vice provost for academic programs and institutional initiatives, and other faculty panelists lead the first of a series of campus and community discussions on Franz Kafka's The Trial, this year's New Student Reading Project, in Barton Hall, Sunday from 3:30 to 5 p.m.

Among the hundreds of events planned are nightly Arch Sings -- four sing-alongs at key sites on campus featuring 100 different Cornell a cappella groups; One Vision, Many Voices -- a special program supporting diversity on campus; and workshops to help new students manage their money and health, stay in shape and clarify their career goals. And for freshmen who worry about having a bad roommate experience, a workshop by past roommates who clashed freshman year but later became fast friends will offer tips for getting along while living together.

In addition, before New Student Orientation begins, the more than 190 new international students from 35 countries are being welcomed on campus with their own International Undergraduate Orientation Aug. 16-19. The events include a Cultural Festival -- an evening of music and dance in native costumes, along with cuisine from different countries Aug. 18 starting at 10 p.m. in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall.

New Student Orientation and Welcome Weekend are a collaboration of the Office of the Dean of Students, numerous other Cornell offices and units, the OSC, the Welcome Weekend executive board, dozens of student organizations and more than 500 student volunteers who act as orientation leaders or play other key roles. Both programs jointly sponsor Cornell Night -- comedy, song and dance on the Arts Quad Aug. 25.

A complete schedule of New Student Orientation Week and Welcome Weekend can be found at this Web site: http://newstudentprograms.cornell.edu/orientation .