Soon, everything will begin.

Life at Yale is amazing, challenging and exciting. The University and New Haven, both of which have many bright spots and a few wrinkles, offer remarkable opportunities to anyone who cares to take advantage of them.

We want to give you a picture of what this life is like, to help you know a little more about what to expect when you get here. We’ll try to give you an idea of the major events of your freshman year, as well as a view of New Haven and a sampling of life and extracurriculars at Yale. In addition, we compiled the “Yalexicon” to teach you some Yale lingo.

This issue is meant to provide some useful information about this new place: read it, but when you get here, draw your own conclusions and make Yale your own.

Don’t let hard work scare you, even though there will be plenty of it, in your classes and your life. It takes time to make Yale your home, but by the end of the year that’s what it will be.

Welcome, Class of 2005 — your time has come.