<ol>
<li><p>I will be majoring in Pharmacy, and obviously I’m going to have to take biology/chemistry/physics/ calculus. I was wondering if calculators are allowed for any of these courses? (I’ve been hearing that calculators are not allowed in calculus, but I’m not too sure about the other classes.) I currently have a TI-84, so this is probably what I might use in college, unless I need a later version? (had my TI-84 since grade 10, lol).</p></li>
<li><p>When do we start using the meal plans we paid for? Does any unfinished meals during the week carry over to the next week? I will be moving at around August 29-31 (coming from out of the country) so do you guys know if we can use some of our meals from move-in to the first day of classes? </p></li>
<li><p>Ahh yes, how popular are credit cards? Do you guys recommend a freshman getting a credit on the first year? (so far, I have no trouble keeping to a budget, but that’s because I try to avoid shopping malls as much as possible… Boston might be a different story)</p></li>
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<p>You are absolutely allowed to use a calculator in (most) calculus courses, but every prof has different rules about how much work you still have to show or if you can use a graphing calc on the exam, etc. For science courses an 84 is fine; I used my ancient 83 in my science classes and it was fine.</p>
<p>I’m nearly certain it’s the day you move on campus. So if you move in Wednesday, you have four days to use your 15 or 19 meals. Your unfinished meals do NOT carry over unless you are an upperclassman with a profiler plan, where you buy a chunk of meals that you slowly use up over the whole year.</p>
<p>Most students I know aren’t affected much by “Boston’s shopping” because its just so expensive (Newbury, for example) that there is no chance you can buy any of it. We do have the marshalls type stores though. No matter where you go to school though I’d advise you to get a credit card so long as you have the support of your parents (in case you get really stuck) or some sort of agreement with them. You should start building up credit as soon as you can. If you only open a credit card your senior year and then you try to get a loan on a car or a house or even graduate private loans, you might not be able to get one cause you barely have a credit history. Just having a credit card open builds up a history for you.</p>
<p>As any of the parents here will surely tell you though, credit cards are obviously not something to joke around with, even if you are good with spending money-- and it only gets harder once you start having an income from a part-time job or coop. You have to keep track even more of what purchases are made, especially if you buy things online. If you mess up your credit score by missing even a few payments, its very hard to get it back-- and your credit score is kind of your life in the real world. So make sure you talk to your parents about it.</p>
<p>You may want to research debit cards. Then you can’t spend more than your account balance.</p>
<p>My son has had a debit card (in combo with a checking account) for several years, and that has worked well for high school. It is at the same credit union as our parent accounts, so I “push” money into it whenever he spends money on gas etc. We are still deciding on the best plan for Boston - we may just stick to this method. I’ll be watching CC for more hints.</p>
<p>neuchimie was spot on about credit cards… I’ve had a credit card since freshman year of college and have never had any problems. I don’t go over limit, I pay my bill in full and on time, and now I have a great credit limit and have a good credit score. I like to shop a lot (ah, Newbury is so close!) and I also go out to bars or out to dinner, so I spend a fair amount of money, but I keep really close track of my bill and my bank account so I never spend money I don’t have. If you’re responsible with cash/debit cards, you can probably be responsible with a credit card.</p>
<p>I think it’s just important to know what credit is, how to build/destroy it, how tough it is to pay off debt+interest, and the effect of credit scores once you graduate. </p>
<p>My roommate who just graduated has never had a credit card, and she’ll need a new car for work, but isn’t getting good rates for loans because she has no credit score whatsoever. It’s definitely beneficial to get one if you can use it responsibly because graduating with good credit will make the real world a little easier… but a few screw ups are tough to repair so it’s worth waiting until you think you can handle it.</p>
<p>If you have a BOA account, it is free to transfer money between accounts. It is what my parents did when I first started out (before I got a part-time job). That way you can also watch their credit card bills, and they have really good alerts. Also I’m pretty sure there were no-fee things for being a college account… but I can’t remember. BOA is also the bank most used in Boston.</p>
<p>“i dont think you can build credit with a debit card though.”</p>
<p>So how big a deal is that the first few years? We could get a credit card now (and maybe 2 BOA accounts), but frankly until my son does co-op a lot of the payments will ultimately come from our money (not his earnings). Perhaps that how the credit history game needs to be played these days.</p>
<p>I’m not an expert or anything, but that’s what my mother (who kind of is one…) said. My sister literally spends about 10 dollars on her credit card a month, and my parents pay the bill, and she has a really amazing credit score now. Since I’ll be graduating with about 60k in federal loans, I need all the help I can get with my credit.</p>
<p>The world of credit has changed. Our NEU senior has a BofA credit card attached to checking. As was mentioned, very convenient. My youngest is a freshman at another college. Has the same BofA account but was denied the credit card. Reason: no credit history.
As an incoming freshmen you will not get a BofA credit card, I could not get our daughter one, even when I volunteered to cosign.</p>
<p>Really? Wow. I got one as a freshman, but it was probably because I’d had the checking account for a while and my parents have had BOA accounts for decades.</p>
<p>with the new credit card rules it is harder for students to get their own credit cards. However, citibank was advertising some for college students. We had my older son get a credit card as a freshman for emergency spending and also because at the time you could not buy a plane ticket for someone else with a credit card. He has as others have mentioned always paid it off in full every month, watches what he spends on it and hopefully is building credit.</p>