FARMINGTON – More than 2,000 people – most of them between the ages 18 and 23 – will be arriving in town in the next week.

While in houses around Maine and beyond young adults are busily ticking items off packing lists and spending the last few days with friends, resident assistants at the University of Maine at Farmington are already here, learning skills. Professors are sitting in meetings and pulling together course work for the fall semester. Facilities director Bob Lawrence and his staff are painting, fixing, and cleaning dorms, classrooms and other campus spaces.

Preparations to welcome the 562 students making up the class of 2010 began in January, UMF Assistant Director of Student Development Kirsten Swan said last Thursday. By the time they arrive on Sunday morning, a small army of older students – the orientation staff – will be ready to greet them. They’ll be feted with a barbecue, a convocation ceremony, and a welcome lecture while their parents are invited to take part in a panel discussion with parents of UMF upperclassmen.

“There’s definitely a buzz,” UMF Director of Public Relations Jennifer Eriksen said Monday.

From 20-odd new faculty members, to lengthened snack bar hours, to a nutritional calculator in the dining hall, lots of changes in college life took place over the summer.

“One of the goals is to really create more of a residential liberal arts campus,” Eriksen said. Though UMF is very much a public institution, it’s held a place as one of U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges for the past 10 years by striving to give Maine kids a private school experience, without huge expense.

UMF faculty emphasize the college’s liberal-arts-school perks to freshmen through the mandatory first-year seminar, Eriksen said. Limited to 18 students, the seminars give first year students an introduction to what college can be. Think great conversations that sometimes travel beyond the classroom, topics that make both students and professors think, and a chance to build relationships with professors that doesn’t often happen in lecture classes.

“It’s creating a real collaborative, communicative environment,” Eriksen said. “In other colleges, lots of first-year seminars are classes to introduce students to (college-level) study habits,” she said. “It’s not about that here. It’s a way to introduce students to what the liberal arts experience is – teaching them how to become independent thinkers, to gather and process information.”

Student feedback has been strong, so far, she said. And you only have to look at the course choices to know why. Among the offerings are courses on the anthropology of love, music in film, a study of the movie Syriana, Japanese pop, and an analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Classes start next Tuesday.