For this reason, the University of Otago has a greeting kiosk at Dunedin International Airport this year to help students as soon as they get off the plane.
Jess Bacchus (19), from Hamilton, jumped off the plane and headed straight for the kiosk for help finding accommodation.
The human nutrition student was late to enrol after not being able to do her chosen course in her home town.
The staff were "very helpful", she said.
Her mother, Meg, described them as a "godsend" - it was a relief to have her daughter get the help she needed as soon as possible.
Staff member Jaye Cavaye-Astle, who has manned the desk for a week and a-half, said she had seen and heard it all.
She was initially apprehensive about the initiative "but once the crowds came in, I realised they need us".
Set up on February 14, the stall had been helping as many as 30 students a day, which did not include groups of up to 90 international students who needed help finding their shuttles.
Armed with many pamphlets, maps and one cellphone, they were "running from our brains really", Miss Cavaye-Astle said.
The most common problems dealt with were students having no accommodation or querying what they needed to do for their course approval.
"You would be amazed how many people come with no accommodation," she said.
She recalled one student who said: "It's my first time living out of home and I have nowhere to stay. What can you do for me?"
In cases like this, staff pointed them in the direction of accommodation services.
Some believed the airport was just a five minute walk from town. They were directed to shuttle and taxi services.
Others were not so easy to help.
One student had left the necessary course approval documents and wallet at home.
"[About] 85% of students are sorted, but the rest of them just have no idea."
Miss Cavaye-Astle also took great delight in observing the wardrobe choices of those new to Dunedin.
Short skirts, sky-high heels and no clue were how she described some new residents who moved down in the middle of the past week's cold snap.
Tuki Magatogia, a kiosk staff member and part of the Campus Watch team, said the initiative was a great way to build rapport with first-year students who often had the wrong impression of the team.
It would allow them to see the team as a place to get information rather than as a disciplinary arm of the university.
"It's really going to help us on the streets," he said.
Director of student services David Richardson thought it was a good opportunity to welcome returning and new students to Dunedin.
"For many it would be their first trip here and they were strangers to Dunedin and the university. Of course, it's also a proactive way to help the new arrivals with any problems they might have," he said.
The kiosk will be open at the airport until March 1.