<p>Filene’s Basement / TJ Max is pretty good for home decor stuff and amazingly cheap. Comes with the obvious caveat that you might have to put up with bright green linens even if they are Polo Raulph Lauren. </p>
<p>As far as Hyde Park goes, you should try to avoid making any major purchases. You can, for example, buy a printer at Office Depot or a lamp at Ace Hardware, but with no competition their prices are high.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments on printers – we had been thinking about a fax/scanner/printer so that S could send us (or we could send him) stuff that needs to be signed/dealt with rather than having him pay $2-3 for a fax.</p>
<p>Printers do take up a lot of real estate, though, so that is something to consider. Maybe we’ll just hit a Costco once we’re in Chicago if he decides he wants a printer and has room for one.</p>
<p>faxes are rapidly dying out, replaced by scans converted to pdf. A lot of students have the needed scanner/printers, since so many of them come as multifunction devices anyway, so in 4 years, my D never found the need for such a machine. She just used a friend’s machine and sent herself the pdf file.</p>
<p>I emphasize again, it is not necessary that each student have a printer. One per room is lavish. </p>
<p>Wait until you know who the roomie is, then coordinate the stuff that can be shared.</p>
<p>.pdf files are better than faxes anyway. My kids seem not to have trouble finding scanners to convert stuff they send me to .pdfs, and they have no trouble receiving them and printing them out.</p>
<p>EDIT: Great minds think alike, it seems.</p>
<p>my experience at boarding school tells me that DUCT TAPE is a survival essential in the dorms.</p>
<p>Haha, I don’t have a roll but I see how it could come in handy. College students are usually very good at using what they have to make do.</p>
<p>Other tips:
– A coffee maker will save you a lot of money (but you only need one per room, if you drink it).
– Don’t bring Aunt Bessie’s heirloom carpet to college. You don’t want to be in tears when you or a good friend accidentally spills a foul-smelling liquid on your floor. What you may want is a Swiffer, unless your room is in Max and is carpeted with this ultra-absorbent college student-grade carpet.</p>
<p>Other things I’ve found useful:
– Steamer (because while I don’t mind wrinkled clothes, my interviewer might)
– Extension cords/power strip
– Plastic bins
– Those shoe things that hang over the closet door (good for shoes and other things.</p>
<p>Duct tape, power strips and a tool kit were already on the list. Ditto cable ties.</p>
<p>An extra lamp that directs light up can really help brighten a dorm room in those deep Chicago winters.Most won’t want the hassle, but a cushy desk chair is mighty nice. I know that this is not consistent with the less-is-more philosophy but some are nesting types.</p>
<p>First aid kit, minimal:</p>
<p>bandaids, neosporin and a thermometer</p>
<p>YES, and to the above add basic pain relievers, cold medicines, and the ever useful benadryl.</p>
<p>Approx. twenty inch square framed mirror, that was useful.</p>
<p>Do the beds loft? S would like a big comfy (non-desk) chair and is thinking if he can loft the bed, there might be room. (He is definitely a nester.) Obviously, this will depend on which dorm he gets and if the room’s a double/single. We are driving there, so we could stick it in the van and bring it home if space didn’t work.</p>
<p>Do students get their specific house/room assignments before arrival? Are there floor plans online? (I obviously need to find something better to do with my time!)</p>
<p>Counting Down,</p>
<p>I seem to remember the which dorm/which room question being answered around August 10th last summer.</p>
<p>Dorm/roommate assignments come out in early-mid August. (They don’t tell you the house, but often you can figure it out from the dorm and room number with a modicum of effort.) “Typical” floor plans, or sometimes just dimensions, are available online for some, not all of the dorms, and for some, not all of the dorms there can be a lot of variation among rooms (definitely the case with Shoreland and Snitchcock, less true for BJ, Max P, Pierce, Maclean). Between one dorm and another, the room sizes and configurations vary a whole lot, but you knew that.</p>
<p>I think I remember that the beds aren’t supposed to loft, but that doesn’t stop people from doing it sometimes. In one kid’s first-year single, the bed was built-in with drawers underneath, and it couldn’t have been lofted (or moved). In doubles, usually the beds can bunk, but for reasons I don’t fully understand today’s kids seem to reject that option out of hand.</p>
<p>My dorm assignment came with my house on it.</p>
<p>Snitchcock does not have much variation for first-years, as the vast majority of first-years in Hitchcock will live in doubles in the middle sections (2, 3, and 4). Hitchcock has the most illogical layout in the history of mankind, but that’s besides the point… basically, a first year in Hitchcock is basically guaranteed a double that is bigger than a Max P double and smaller than a Shoreland double.</p>
<p>Most of my friends have bunked their beds, and from the beds I’ve seen, most can be bunked. One of my friends has something like what CountingDown is describing-- he has a big beanbag chair and a lamp underneath his bed. I’ve spent some happy times editing his essays from down there, it’s a really neat thing to have.</p>
<p>Max P kids have a lot of storage flexibility in their entryways and in their bathrooms (ladies, take note). The one potential downside is that the entryway is shared among four rather than between two. In the various Max suites I’ve been in, the entryway has been divvied up in all sorts of ways… in one suite, the entryway was lined with cartons and used as a book depository; in another, the entryway housed a massive DVD collection, a large fridge, and an extensive suite-shared bar.</p>
<p>It’s hard to anticipate now what kind of space you will have and what priorities you have as to what goes where (Ketel One, or Robert Pirsig’s Lila?), and I think the best way to go about things is to be flexible in the first few weeks of college, get to know your roommates and suitemates, and then see how much you’re into sharing your things and how you and your roomies want to divvy up space.</p>
<p>Several schools S considered had the lofting option (at Mudd, the maintenance crew will come do it for you if you are not inclined to feats of engineering). I think he finds the ‘cave’ with a big chair, lamp and corner table option quite appealing. He can curl up with his laptop, books and ipod and get into the zone. (He doesn’t play video games on his computer unless he’s at his desk – when he wants to do focused work without distractions, he goes for the recliner.) He also knows folks in a four-person suite who bunked all four beds in one room and turned the other bedroom into a study area, leaving the common area for socializing.</p>
<p>Yeah, we knew the older dorms would have variously sized rooms – and considering those are the dorms he listed on his housing form, we know we can’t count on anything specific. We’ll just bring stuff, see what works, and take the rest home.</p>
<p>Is there wireless or ethernet in the laundry rooms?</p>
<p>Wireless works in my laundry room.</p>
<p>Is work on the Dan Ryan Expressway finished?</p>
<p>Yes. Ryan is done, at least it was last week, when I was in Chicago.</p>
<p>OTOH, I left O’hare at 1 PM Friday afternoon. It took me almost 90 minutes to drive downtown. Once I hit the split for the Stevenson (I-55), it only took me a few more minutes to get to Hyde Park. Returning to the Airport Sunday afternoon, it took exactly one hour HP to O’Hare, but coming into the city was a complete parking lot the whole way.</p>
<p>Off peak, it takes me twenty minutes from what we call the
Edens-Kennedy Junction (90-94 northwest side) to Broadview or campus.
When you hear Chicago traffic reports this spot is also referred to as
Montrose, as in “from Montrose to O’Hare” or “from Montrose to Lake/Cook”.</p>