AMHERST — Compared to her small high school in Southampton, N.Y., UMass’ large rural campus is a major change for freshman Bebe Willemse, yet once she arrived on campus this week, she couldn’t stop smiling.

“I’m excited for really meeting a lot of new people and being able to actually focus my studies in something that I want to do, and have more of a freedom to choose what I want to do,” Willemse said. “I’ve always been wanting to be a vet my whole life, and I’ve been around horses my whole life, so it’s just always been my dream.”

Willemse, an animal science major with a passion for horses and competitive show jumping, made the size of UMass feel a bit smaller by choosing to live in Crabtree dormitory at the Northeast Residential Living Community because it’s close to her classes and a dining hall.

In reality, western Massachusetts’ open space was a major reason Willemse committed to UMass: All the farms in the area are perfect for hands-on learning on her path to becoming a veterinarian. Her enthusiasm, however, can’t keep her nerves calm.

“I’m a little nervous about being on a big campus. And since my school campus for high school was so small, it’s definitely going to be a big change,” she said.

Meanwhile, she was working to add personal touches to her new room. “I just really brought a few posters. That was really it,” she said. “I’m always worried about overpacking, which I feel like I already have.”

Willemse is one of 5,300 first-year students from the Class of 2028 descending on the flagship campus over three move-in days that began on Wednesday and wrap up on Friday. Joining them will be 17,500 returning and transfer students — for a total undergraduate enrollment of 22,800 — who are settling into their new homes for the next nine months.

On Wednesday’s first morning, the campus was buzzing with excitement, nerves, teary goodbyes to loved ones and enthusiastic hellos to floormates.

According to university officials, the UMass Class of 2028 is the most diverse in history, with nearly 39% of its 5,350 members composed of African, Latino/Hispanic, Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and Native American (ALANA) students, and nearly 19% of the class being underrepresented students from marginalized communities.

Picked from among 50,000 applications, the class has the second highest average high school GPA of any incoming UMass class at 4.05 and the highest combined standardized test scores, with an average 1397 SAT score and 31.4 ACT score.

Classes for the new semester begin Tuesday.

New students and their families expressed pleasant surprise to the simple and streamlined move-in process. Freshman Liam Rey remembers how easy the process was when his older sister moved to UMass. This time, he said, the process was even smoother.

Rey, who hails from Arlington, enrolled in club lacrosse and already knows a couple of the team members from his sister, so he’s been antsy all summer to get to the university and begin meeting new friends.

Mitch DePino, who dropped off his son Jackson at Melville Hall in Southwest Area Residential Community, described the process as “a dream,” a stark contrast from his experience moving his daughter into University of Connecticut, where the combination of long lines, lack of help, packed parking and limited time for unloading the car made the process a nightmare.

DePino had the opposite experience with UMass’s “smoothest, well-organized machine.”

Head of Residential Life Dawn Bond said UMass’s move-in bore more similarities to DePino’s UConn move-in experience when she came to campus 12 years ago. Over her career, she’s worked to simplify, streamline and refine the move-in process so that it’s “better for the team and better for students and families,” Bond said.

“When I talk with my team about how I want folks to feel, I say the first person needs to feel like the last person and vice versa,” she said. “This is such a special moment. I really, truly believe this is the second-most important and significant event that happens to students and their families.”

The move-in engine runs on residential staff, a professional moving crew, hundreds of student “minute movers,” and cardboard carts on wheels Normally, the student team is made up of volunteers, but this year the movers received compensation for each of the three four-hour shifts they complete. Yurelin Feliz, a sophomore food science major from the Dominican Republic, was more interested in the early move-in that’s offered to the minute movers than the money.

“I just wanted to help people move in because when I moved in here, (the minute movers) were very helpful, and being new to the country and stuff, they were very helpful about that, too,” she said.

After their belongings are in their dorms, many students and their families will eat at a dining hall or explore campus.

Devin Poe finished his move-in within 30 minutes of arriving at his Southwest building, so he took his family over to the Commonwealth Honors College.

Meanwhile, Shravan Varadharajan, a computer science major from New Jersey, passed by Poe as he left the Sycamore dorm building, looking for a place to park his bike and grab a bite of food.

“I think I got all the supplies needed to shower,” Varadharajan said.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.