Like last year, when Harvard kept course registration open Sept. 11 and started classes as scheduled Sept. 12, the majority of the University’s activities will continue as usual today.

But even as first-years take their language placement exams today and upperclass students continue moving in, students say they will recognize the tragic anniversary through both private reflection and at the University-wide memorial service at noon today.

Many students were sleeping when the first plane hit the World Trade Center last year at 8:46 a.m. and were awoken by roommates or phone calls before rushing to watch the towers fall on television.

Paul A. Fili ’04 said it took 10 minutes before he saw the news and understood that his roommate wasn’t joking.

But the media coverage did little to alleviate massive confusion, said Travis G. Good ’04, a Crimson executive, who was listening to the radio but was not sure whether to believe a rumor about a bomb exploding at the White House.

Ilana J. Sichel ’05, who was walking to classes at the University of Maryland last year, thought a friend who told her of the attacks had said the target was the World Bank, not the World Trade Center.

“I started crying, because my friend’s father worked for [the World Bank],” she said.

For some of Harvard’s newest students, this year’s anniversary is especially poignant.

Zhenzhen Lu ’06 was in class on the eighth floor of Stuyvesant High School, a few blocks north of Ground Zero, when the first planes hit. As the school evacuated, Lu said she couldn’t see the towers through all the smoke and dust.

“I remember walking away along the Hudson River and looking back and thinking, ‘Oh my God,’” she said. “It wasn’t really real.”

Although she initially tried to avoid thinking of the attacks, now she remembers them regularly and will attend both the Harvard and Cambridge ceremonies today. Lu said she regrets that the area will not hold an all-night vigil similar to one that will take place in New York.

Even those not in New York or Washington, D.C. last year say memories of the day will remain in their minds forever.

Walking by Quincy House, Good saw a girl on a cell phone who had just learned that her father had been killed in the attacks.

“She was devastated,” he said. “I’ll never forget the look I saw in her eyes.”

Good said he felt “enraged” by the attacks, which convinced him to join the Reserve Officers Training Corps.