Dear class of 2030,

Congratulations! All of your hard work has led to this moment — welcome to the University of Michigan. What’s to come could quite possibly be the greatest and most exciting challenge you have ever faced.

Luckily, The Michigan Daily understands that, and in this 2026 Orientation Edition, we have all you need to navigate the beginning of your time here.

Rest assured, you are all united in the fact that you don’t know exactly what’s to come. On move-in day, you will share the anxious jitters of your dorm neighbors, the preliminary panic of not knowing something that you think you’re supposed to know and the powerful feeling of stepping into a new chapter of your life. 

Everything else about these four years, however, might not be a completely shared experience. When you look around the Big House, alongside thousands of your fellow Wolverines, know that every student there will have a wholly unique experience on this campus.

You now have the distinct opportunity to explore who you are and what you want to be — and there is no better place to do that. Know that The Daily will be here to explain everything related to Ann Arbor and provide a glimpse into the experience of some of our Leaders and Best. Your time here might not be easy or what you expect, but at The University of Michigan, you will have every opportunity to do great things.

As they say, it is the best university in the world.

Go Blue.

Elena Nicholson
2026 Summer Editor in Chief