The Prefrosh You Meet at Visitas

Remember Visitas? That magical weekend when you acquainted yourself with your potential new home and met your fellow brilliant overachievers was not so long ago. As future members of the Class of 2017 prepare to come to campus sooner than you can say "advising fortnight," take a few minutes to walk down memory lane with us.

By the way, for all you prefrosh out there: Hey there, future members of the Class of 2017! Welcome to Flyby. We've put together a little classification of the types of the characters you are likely to meet. See if you can spot these various species throughout the weekend.

The Chronically Undecided

These prefrosh are still "unsure" if they will matriculate to Harvard and they will make sure everyone knows it. Everyone they meet will give them great reasons to come here, but these will always fall short. Typical phrases falling from their lips include: "Living in New Haven can’t be that bad, can it?"; "The only reason I'm still actually considering Stanford is the weather"; and "Though Harvard is great, the aerospace engineering program at MIT is really in a league of its own."

The Facebook People

They will find you, they will ask you your name and where you are from, and 30 minutes later you will get a friend request from them. Don't feel too special though because this has happened to every single prefrosh. Enjoy those random prom pictures on your newsfeed of the kid you spoke to for approximately three minutes before the faculty panel!

The Super Facebook People

A slight variant from the aforementioned species, this type of prefrosh is more rare, and can be tricky to observe in its natural habitat. You will never actually meet this person, but they will send you and every other member of the Harvard Class of 2017 Facebook group a friend request. A cult of personality of sorts will develop around these people, as every member of your class knows numerous intimate details about their lives—but good luck trying to find them in the flesh.

The Overeager

Easy to spot, hard to avoid—these prefrosh seem to be omnipresent. While this group may be small in numbers, they make up for this deficiency by attending every single event listed on the schedule in their crimson-colored folders. We at Flyby speculate that they may actually have time turners, so they can attend the overlapping A Cappella groups' barbeque and Harvard Democrats intro meeting. When you first meet these prefrosh, the sheer number of questions that spew out of them can be intimidating, but do not be alarmed—they mean well.

The Faux Frat Crowd

The first thing to notice about these prefrosh is how quickly they find each other. Drawn by their mutual desire for beer pong, bad decisions, and crazy morning-after stories, expect these high school party veterans (or wannabe veterans) to be wandering Canaday courtyard together the first night looking for some "action." Lost without the familiar environs provided by suburban house parties, these prefrosh will probably just end up pregaming the Prefrosh Palooza. There's nothing crazier than listening to the Kroks a little tipsy! They excel at making up stories to tell their friends back home, though.

The Pseudo BFF

This type of prefrosh seems so tame—all he wants to do is become your new best friend!—but beware of the awkwardness that can ensue. Yes, you like all of the same bands and are both trying to choose between Social Studies and Social Anthropology, but a month from now someone will stop texting back. No big deal, right? WRONG. As it turns out, you end up in the same freshman seminar and you can't quite remember her name. Welcome to three and a half months of forced "Hey! How are you!" greetings. In rare, cases, however, this friendship actually endures, and you will have made a best friend for life. It's all the same over prefrosh weekent though—whether it will ultimately last for life or for a week, the intensity of this new friendship is palpable throughout. You might want to consider friendship bracelets.

Sound familiar? For all those who are now nostalgic for the good (and slightly awkward times) of the days when Veritaffles seemed like the coolest things ever, you can sign up to host prefrosh through Monday, April 8, at 12 p.m.

And prefrosh—get ready for a memorable few days. Whatever happens, never forget that New Haven is that bad.