Downtown Westminster will be extra green Wednesday as hundreds of first-year McDaniel students arrive on campus.

McDaniel College will welcome 445 first-year students, one of the college’s largest incoming classes according to a news release. Only four classes have been above 440 at the college.

Freshman will move in and attend orientation between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Aug. 22.

The students will participate in several move-in traditions.  All first-year students “ring in” the academic year at Old Main bell located in Memorial Plaza at approximately 4:45 p.m. They also participate in an “Out of Darkness into Light” Candlelight Processional where freshmen walk through Ward Memorial Arch to be symbolically welcomed into the McDaniel community at 8:30 p.m.

McDaniel had the largest number of applications for the class of 2016 with 3,556, a 29% increase over the previous year and the first time having more than 3,000, according to a news release.

Clases begin on Aug. 27.