One of my favorite things about my first day here was how NOT stressful it was. I had heard horror stories from my friends' siblings at different universities, trying to carry all their bags and boxes up seven flights of stairs etc. etc.

If you come to Hopkins - you won't have to even lift your backpack. I remember pulling up to Wolman in my giant suburban stuffed to the brim with boxes (I tend to overpack), only to have a current Hopkins student whisk me away to get my orientation packet, while a team of strong upperclassman unloaded my car and took every single box up to my room for me.

From the very moment you arrive on campus, you really feel that the administration is there to take care of you, and help guide you through what can be a very nerve-racking process. I knew from the very first day that I had made the right decision to come here.

I remember getting up at 6am, leaving our hotel in Towson at 7am, stopping for Starbucks along the way, and getting to campus around 7:30am. I was so jittery from my nerves and probably all the coffee that I could not sit still as we waited in our rental car for the students to start letting people onto campus (I'm not so proud to point out that we were the very first car in line). Once we finally pulled up to AMR II, I found my single on the third floor, along with all of my boxes stacked up next to it. Realizing how small my room actually was, I remember going into a sort of panic as I did not think there was any possible way that all of my stuff could fit into this room (but it did eventually!) After unpacking for a couple of hours and meeting a lot of the people in my hall, my parents and I went to lunch at the Ruby Tuesday's right next to campus, and then we went to target to do some grocery shopping and last-minute dorm supplies. Then I had a tennis meeting where we met everyone on the team and filled out a bunch of NCAA forms, and then I went to a Peer Ambassador meeting later that night! (During orientation week at Hopkins, there are a bunch of peer ambassador meetings in which you are assigned to a group of other incoming freshman and a pa leader who's usually a sophomore) The rest of my orientation week was a blur of residential advisor meetings, team meetings, and a ton of introductions and exchanging of numbers. I'd say by the third week of school things started to calm down, but orientation week is definitely the time to meet people and have a ton of fun before classes start to get more intense!

Like JHU_Ruthie, I don't remember my first day of classes, but I remember move-in day.  I was on a Pre-Orientation trip, (Canoeing and Backpacking) and got to ride down a rapid that morning, then arrived back at campus, cleaned up the group gear, then headed off to my dorm.  My parents' flight was delayed getting in, (and wouldn't arrive until much later that night) so I took a shower, got back to my room, and met my roommate Kathleen holding a box of cookies.  Naturally, this cemented our friendship.  Then from two doors down this kid named Kevin (hereafter known as JHU_Kevin) comes by and complements her on the cookies, and we talk and find out that we were both summer blogging contest winners and we were both applying to SAAB.  My parents finally arrived, took me to pick up some last-minute things, and then we went out to Red Robin, which was amazing because I hadn't had anything but trail food for the past week.  The interesting thing about my first day at Hopkins was that it led to my parents being stranded in Baltimore for an extra week due to Hurricane Irene, though as someone from a desert I'm forced to admit that the hurricane was not as scary/interesting as I thought it would be.  An upperclassman adviser of my roommate told her to get some non-perishable food in case the power went out, so our fridge was packed with pudding the first week of school.  No other non-perishable food.  Just pudding. 

I have a notoriously awful memory (the last meal I can remember eating was two nights ago's dinner, a REALLY nice colonial restaurant on the drive back from Maryland to CT - after that it's a total blur) so remembering my first day is going to be tough. In fact in terms of actual events, here goes -

Drive down, parents repeating over and over how much they are going to miss me.
Get there, organized line of cars.
Drive forward, a bunch of really nice people wearing green shirts help me out of the car and smile a lot and welcome me to Hopkins!
More green shirt people take a group of freshmen to get keys and check in and whatever. My roommate is actually in my little group! Nice surprise, he seems great.
Get my key, walk into my room, all my boxes of stuff are already there -- how in God's name did that happen? Instantly impressed.
Unpack a bit. Other people show up, I introduce myself - I have a really friendly house. One girl actually offers me a cookie... We're still best friends.
I meet my RA, Kiara. She seems nice. As it turns out, she really is! Over the semester she's been so helpful, really nice, and always up for a chat.
BLURRRR
I may have gone to some mixers and orientation events, but I have no idea which. I just remember that there were about a gazillion, and I forced myself to as many as I could.
BLURRRR
Sleep.

But in terms of feelings I remember, I felt happy, welcome, excited, nervous, reassured, impressed, and ready to get started!

I was so excited for my first day of class. I set ten different alarms to make sure I didn't wake up late and made it on time to my first class. The first week is very relaxed and professors essentially tell you about course expectations and logistics (not too different from high school). All of the professors I've had have been very personable and they all encourage students to come by during office hours. There is a lengthy "shopping period" for classes so by the time you are all settled in your semester's classes you may have switched them around twenty times until you pick the schedule that is just right.

Man I'm old. I remember moving in barely but not really my first day of actual classes. wOWWWWWW. Sorry that was actually nothing of value added to this thread :/