The orientation, which starts next week, will have more students than ever before: around 3500. The most common names are Anne and Thomas and the majority of participants are women.

If you come across a first-year student during Orientation Week, it is very likely to be a woman named Anne. Of the 3,410 current registrations for the orientation, 2,022 are women. Men are very much the minority at 1,388 participants, which has been the case in Nijmegen over the past few decades.

Anne is the most common name (29x), followed by Fleur (25x) and Julia (25x). The men participating in the orientation are primarily named Thomas (21x), Max (20x), and Thijs (20x). There is only one Henk.

Record

This Orientation Week is on track to set a new record. “We know that each year at least 200 students end up registering during the week of the orientation itself”, says orientation staff member Lisa Fiddelers. For example, these are the people that go to Lowlands first and do not register in Nijmegen until Monday. In 2017, the final count for the orientation was 3,448 first-year students. This means that 2018 will almost certainly beat last year’s record. Figures from previous years indicate that roughly two thirds of the new students participate in the first week.

Of all the faculties, Medicine has the most attendees for the Orientation Week: 282. Law comes in second with 264 and Business Administration in third with 174. There will only be one theology student in the mix.

Confetti Cannon

The ratio of international students to Dutch students is nearly 1:7. The majority of international students are from Germany, as is the case every year. There are 15 Lithuanian, 10 Bulgarian, 5 Belgian, 3 Syrian, and 3 French students. Cameroon, Iran, Egypt, and South Korea each have a single participant.

Anyone with a birthday on registration day (Sunday) will be treated to a confetti cannon in the Sports Centre. These seven birthday boys and girls will spend a moment in the spotlight on their special day as soon as they register for their wristband.

The orientation will end exactly one week later with a festival in the German town of Goch. Students and mentors will no longer be splitting up into different weekend camps (as they have in previous years); they will all participate in the same camp together.