Isabella Radzwill and her family drove from Mohall, N.D. Saturday morning -- a 4.5 hour drive -- and got to Grand Forks around noon to drop the first-year UND student off at McVey Hall, where she’s set to be one of about 275 students who’ll live there this year.
Hundreds upon hundreds of new Fighting Hawks schlepped their TVs, minifridges, bookshelves, and other dorm accoutrements to campus Saturday. Some moved in early, but the bulk of the university’s freshman class started pouring in around 8 a.m., tapered off a bit around lunchtime, and wrapped up late in the afternoon.
Radzwill,18, said she plans to study pre-med and psychology, and was drawn to the school because of the reputation of it’s pre-med program.
“It just seemed like the right fit,” she told the Herald. Radzwill’s roommate had already piled up their belongings in their shared room, but the two had yet to meet.
Two other incoming freshmen were sisters Mindy and Ashley Vollmer, both of whom plan to study nursing when classes start in late August. They, their parents, and younger brother moved two carfuls of the sisters’ belongings to McVey Hall from Velva, N.D. on Saturday.
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Ashley, 19, said she chose UND because of the reputation of its nursing program. Mindy, 18, because of the school's atmosphere.
Both had finished moving around 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Their plan afterward?
“We’re gonna watch Netflix,” Mindy said.
The university’s incoming batch of students is expected to be smaller than 2018’s, which was 1,844 strong on the first day of classes that year, according to school staff, who said they won’t have a more precise freshman class headcount until next week. Despite that, university spokesperson David Dodds said the incoming freshman class looks to be the school’s most diverse and most “academically prepared” in its history, which means more non-white students with higher high school GPAs.
“The fall 2019 freshman class is trending upward considerably in the number of students who report an ethnicity other than white/Caucasian,” Dodds told the Herald when asked for incoming class estimates. “Last year’s class was UND’s most diverse ever.”
