About 900 prospective first-years--armed with distinctive red folders, temporary student IDs, meal passes and maps--began arriving yesterday to spend the weekend at Harvard.

The Undergraduate Admissions Office-sponsored "Special Welcome for the Class of 1999 " kicked off yesterday with registration at 8 a.m. in Byerly Hall. Organizers have planned a full schedule of events lasting until Monday.

The new arrivals' first impressions of the College varied. For several out-of-towners, just getting to Harvard was confusing.

"I drove by and missed [the College]," said New Yorker Alex R. Rovira.

"Then I got a parking ticket and took care of that. I walked back and got lost on the way to Byerly. I was just looking around, trying to figure out which way the map was facing," Rovira added.

Upon registration, the visitors were urged to call their families and report their safe arrival. Contacting their Harvard hosts was not so easy, however, as Andre K. Svimers of Georgia learned.

Svimers said his phone call was answered by an inarticulate room-mate, who had apparently been asleep.

"I don't remember what [he] said, if the host was going to pick me up here or if I was supposed to call back," said Svimers.

"But my friends and I are sitting here [in Byerly] drinking virgin lemonade, so it's o.k."

These problems aside, the weekend started smoothly, according to Undergraduate Admissions Council Co-chair Brian D. Saunders '96.

500 Harvard students signed up to house the prospective first-years, more than the minimum required, Saunders said.

Many volunteers said they were happy to offer the visitors an insiders' view of life at Harvard.

"I just thought it was a neat thing to do," said Matthew C. Stovcsik '98, who is hosting two students. "It's nice to give them another perspective instead of the [Crimson] Key tour."

Stovcsik said that one of his guests asked him about the John Harvard statue and its infamous three lies.

"Don't even ask," Stovcsik said he responded. "You don't even want to know."