About 4,000 incoming freshmen and 2,000 new transfer students will begin classes at SDSU.

Freshman Grace Korandovich, who is among the new students at SDSU, said she was looking over a campus map Monday morning because she was concerned about getting lost on her way to class.

"I'm really anxious about everything," Korandovich said.

Meris Walsh is among the 2,000 students transferring to SDSU this year. She said she loves her new school.

"I love it; it's beautiful here," Walsh said.

SDSU received nearly 60,000 undergraduate applications and only 6,000 students were accepted. This year's incoming freshmen have an average grade point average of 3.63. School officials say it's one of their highest ranked GPAs.

"It's just a great place to be right now, it's really blowing up and everyone's really excited to be in the San Diego atmosphere; it's really cool," said Darin Ruiz, Associated Students executive vice president.

Students will also notice something missing -- Aztec Center. The venerable building was leveled during the summer to make room for a much larger student union. The project is expected to be completed in fall 2013.

Additionally, this will be the first semester at SDSU with Elliot Hirshman as president instead of Stephen Weber, who retired after 15 years on campus.

At San Marcos, 2,500 new pupils will increase the student body to 10,000, a 3 percent increase over the Fall 2010 semester.

"We continue to grow as a university, and the applications we received for fall admission demonstrate quite significantly that CSUSM continues to be a high-demand campus within the California State University system," said Darren Bush, associate vice president of Enrollment Management Services.

Officials at both campuses suggest arriving early to find parking, or use public transportation.