The grass was still covered in a morning dew when first-year Ethan George '27 and his family showed up Sunday at Guilford College. Officially, move-in day was still 30 minutes from its 8:30 a.m. start. Unofficially, Ethan couldn’t wait that long.

“I’m pretty excited to be here,” he says. “The more I’m here the more it feels like my new home.”

Check out more photos from Guilford's move-in day

Ethan wasn’t alone. From Georgia to Montana and about a dozen states in between, more than 400 new students made their way to Guilford – including about 200 Sunday – before classes start Aug. 23. On the main move-in day, football players helped unload cars and carried boxes and suitcases into residence halls. Families made beds, hung curtains and shopped in the bookstore.

Ethan, who will play baseball at Guilford, fell in love with the College when he visited the campus last spring on a tour. He lives in Burlington, N.C., and wants to major in Computing Technology and Information Systems. “I’ve always been interested in computers and that’s where the money seems to be,” he says.

Ethan will spend his first year in Bryan Hall. One floor above him, Olivia Darnel was rolling out a gray shag carpet. If Guilford was Ethan’s first choice, the College was something of a last-minute choice for Olivia. She had originally planned on attending a small public liberal arts college in Florida before the state’s policies and legislation on higher education made her pull back and scramble to find a new college.

She took a day off from school and searched online with her step-mother to find that new school when they came across Guilford. “Everything I was booking for in a school, all the boxes I needed to be checked Guilford was checking them,” she says.

One problem: The admissions deadline had passed. Olivia called that same day and spoke to someone in admissions and they waived the deadline. Within a week, she was accepted. “This College is so accepting of everyone and who they are,” she says. “Honestly, if I had heard of Guilford in the first place this would have been my choice from the start.”

Miguel Nunez Palomares '27 and his parents drove through the night from Wichita, Kan., for move-in day. When he showed up Sunday morning it was the first time Miguel saw the campus in person. Miguel, a Golden Doors Scholar, didn’t have the resources to visit the campus during his college search so he relied on online reviews and photos to guide his decision.

Within the first few hours as a Guilfordian on campus, Miguel knew he had made the right call. “It’s even better in person,” he says, standing in line to get into his dorm. “I heard about the community Guilford has. I’ve been here less than an hour and I see it all around me. I was really nervous on the drive here but not anymore. Now I’m excited.”