@rmsdad My D wasn’t able to arrive by 4:30 so we sent her by herself the day prior. She took with her the stuff she needed for the DOC trip and a small carry-on. The Dartmouth Coach dropped her off right by the Hanover Inn where she spent the night. No, it wasn’t the cheapest option, but it ended up being money well-spent.
Staying there was super convenient because she could leave her stuff in the hotel room while she ran around campus to get her student ID, room key, and laptop the next morning. She took her laptop and carry-on to her room in Wheelock, then came back to the Hanover Inn, grabbed her backpack, and checked in for her trip. We arrived with the rest of her belongings on the day she returned from her trip.
Call and ask; there may be space depending on when the summer programs [cash cow] release rooms. One other option is to take a red eye to Logan and then the first Dartmouth Coach of the day. My 13 [OMG, where have the years gone?] found that the best option of all for coming in from the West.
@rmsdad are you already starting preparing for the First Year Trip? Has the details been released this year? On the website it says that the registration will not be available until late May.
@Junerain - You are correct - probably no data till early June. But starting in late May, it is extremely busy for us with graduations and travel so we’d like to figure out the “how” before we have the exact starting trip date to simplify making travel plans later.
My son has also frequently used the redeye from California and the first Dartmouth Coach - it’s a convenient option. Also, Six South Street is another hotel option right in town if your child needs to spend the night before trips. It’s just a couple of blocks south of the Green.
Several thoughts:
[ol]
[li]Contact admissions or 1st year Dean’s office to ask for their advice.[/li]
[li]Contact leadership of D’s extra-curriculars and see if anyone can host for a night. Great way to get a head start on meeting future cohorts. This is the preferred option in my mind.[/li]
[li]Hotels work. Look at cost of hotels within walking distance vs. uber/lyft cost from outlying hotels to campus (probably much more economic even with 2 way uber/lyft), but as [url=http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/profile/sdteak]sdteak[/url] suggested, this may be a time to splurge if you can. Some of the outlying hotels have shuttles to campus, too.[/li]
[li]Have your D put out everything she thinks that she absolutely needs. Only have her bring 1/3 of what she thinks that she needs, and you can ship things that she really needs as she needs them. If you look at the lifetime cost of storing/moving things over four years, particularly for students beyond driving distance, less is more and some early shipping costs will be offset by minimizing those other costs/headaches over the following four years.[/li][/ol]
So, since we live in Florida, let’s say my son gets a later trip. He should arrive to campus with what he needs for the trip and maybe a few extra clothes. At this moment, we are planning to go up on the 9th and leave late on the 10th (after orientation). I know this sounds like a silly question, but what is the process for getting the rest of his stuff to his dorm? My daughter is at FSU and we rented a van to carry everything. He is a light packer and doesn’t plan on doing much for decor, but still… do we ship it?
@minniemouse143 We are from Georgia and trying to decide how to do the same. A co-worker of my husband’s daughter is going to school in Boston, and they had everyone in the family (4 total) fly up, each with 2 large checked suitcases. We’re also toying with the idea of driving (17 hours).
@minniemouse143@MathMomGA we live in south Florida and when our daughter started her and her father flew into the Manchester, New Hampshire airport and rented a car. We had ordered major dorm purchases to be waiting for them at the Bed, Bath & Beyond in Manchester. They picked it up and were on their way. Smaller purchases were bought from the Wal-Mart in West Lebanon only a few miles from campus. They flew Southwest so they each had two bags at no cost and she primarily only took clothing from home. Amazon is able to deliver within one to two days anything that you may discover a need for later. They do assign the students that live further away the late trips as they realise travel back and forth isn’t a viable option for most.
Parent of a '19 here, SO looking forward to graduation! But then I read this article in today’s The Dartmouth, making me feel very nervous about even getting a seat at the ceremony! If they know about 11,000 people will be in attendance, why do they only put out 9,000 seats? And then you have the “seat savers” who show up at 5am, for a price, and reserve you good seats! Do I really need to send a family member out to campus at the crack of dawn just to get our family seats at the ceremony? Seems like a good idea to do it first-come-first-served, but why open it up at 5am? That doesn’t seem right! https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2019/05/seat-saving-hotel-prices-make-commencement-an-expensive-affair
I agree, the seat saving and lack of seat allocation is ridiculous. There should be a lottery for assigned seats with each student getting a specific number of tickets.
I haven’t posted in ages, so I may be outdated! As to the DOC questions about handling belongings for students from more distant locales, my 17s had late trips because of distance and were allowed access to their dorm rooms to drop off luggage before they left for trips. I would check with the DOC people to see if that is still the case. As to graduation seating, at first I felt frustrated. Then I remembered the weird allocation their high school used, which resulted in having to “buy” excess tickets from other graduates. As I see it, if there were limited tickets and/or assigned seating, how do you allocate that? What if everyone gets 4 seats allocated by lottery and only 2 people show? Or make it 10 seats, and 3 show. As the parent of graduating seniors, I was worried about seats (and we unexpectedly had 10 attendees who came from afar), but my 17s told me that they knew lots of students who would chair-seat for us to be able to avoid the 5am rush (and it was raining in the very early hours). We paid $50 for a student and her friend to save seats. We gave them a $50 bonus on top of the fee, because it was well worth it, especially considering the early morning rain. We are middle-class people so we are not quick to throw money around, but thought we saved a fortune by staying in a CHEAP Dartmouth dorm room offered by the College, so we felt that helping a student make some cash wasn’t so bad after all. FYI, the hotel room we cancelled in order to stay in a dorm was $450 per night and a 10 minute drive from campus (cheap for graduation weekend), as opposed to our dorm room DIRECTLY across from the library!). I think the dorm room cost $100 for 2 parents for the whole weekend and offered parking behind the dorm — better than driving from a hotel and trying to find parking. We really felt connected and enjoyed staying in the dorm. It’s not perfect, but we felt that Dartmouth did a phenomenal job for everything even remotely associated with graduation for our 17s!
My son has told me he is having a hard time finding any seat-holders for us; apparently most people are already taken. So if any of you have current students who will still be there graduation weekend and are willing to save seats for us at the going rate, please message me privately and I will gladly put my son in touch with them to set it up!
No, the college provided fresh sheets, towels and pillows. We had a two-room suite. There wasn’t anyone else on our floor, so we felt the walk to the bathroom/showers was really private. You might want to bring a robe and beach sandals/slippers, but we just undressed, showered and then dressed in the private shower stalls. You’ll need your own toiletries. It was so convenient to just wake up, take a quick shower, and meet our group on campus. It was also great to be able to go to our room for a rest later in the day. Be aware that not all dorms have elevators, so you may have to take the stairs. If you have a medical issue with stairs, you can probably make a special request. We figured we could use the exercise!
Hello everyone ! I am a proud Dartmouth '23 parent ! Yay ! And am I glad I found this site. Have been reading it since the morning. A lot of my concerns have already been addressed above. Thank you all ! However, I have a few queries for veteran parents here - For parents coming with international students,what are the options of hotels, considering it will be a 10 days stay ! Also, what are the options for parents to do while the kids are at the trip ? Will be grateful for some tips. Thanks. Also, Is there a Bed Bath & Beyond in Hanover or around ?
No BB&B in the area. Nearby in West Lebanon [West Leb] are Walmart, Pier 1, K Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, and I forget what else. Also miniature golf [unless it’s closed, which would make me very sad].
Honestly, as much I enjoyed spending time in Hanover, I would not hang out there while kid was on trip. Go to Boston. Or Maine – Acadia National Park. If you want to stay close, Franconia Notch is worth a visit [although “close” is a very relative term], and the Appalachian Trail goes through town if you want to get some walking in.
I hope some other current and former parents will chime in with their favorite hotels/motels/B&Bs. We were foolish and stayed in a bunch of different places, so we were out of luck when graduation came around, since most [all?] places favor their repeat visitors at that VERY PEAK period. That said, we loved staying in the Hanover Inn [but $$$$ and no way you can get at graduation since it’s reserved for the College], and Six South Street was good for convenience but pricey for what you got. We landed in the Marriott Courtyard for graduation and it was very okay. I know others have mentioned their favorites in prior threads. There are a few north of town that looked interesting when we wandered up that way, and I really wish we had discovered the Norwich Inn across the river sooner than we did.
Enjoy the ride! The next four years will fly by faster than you could ever believe.