<p>coureur thanks for the input. I promised my son that I would do my best not to humiliate him too much by hanging around too long.</p>
<p>Guitars - If youâre flying to Logan from California, youâll only have with you as much baggage as you can check and carry onto the plane. Given that, I donât know that youâd want to bother with a rental car. I know you visited Cambridge in April, so youâre aware that parking is scarce in Cambridge, and driving there is bizarre with one way streets and roundabouts all over the place. At $1.70 per person, T service from the airport to the campus takes about 45 minutes, and itâs great not to be burdened with the car when you arrive. Of course, itâs your one and only opportunity to be able to say that you pahked yah cahr in Hahvahd Yahd, so maybe thatâs worth the hassle.</p>
<p>gadad,
as much as i appreciate all the insightful pre-move-in info this thread has to offer, i have not laughed as hard as i have after having read your post #202. thanks for the gut laugh!! it was truly appreciated after weeks of tumultuous emotions!</p>
<p>We did not get a rental car, because we knew from a previous visit that we did not want to do any driving or parking in Boston/Cambridge. We took a cab from the airport to the Charles Hotel (very pricey but very convenient). All of our suitcases were on wheels, so we and D just walked over to her dorm in the morning with all five wheeled suitcases. We had also sent a box ahead by US mail. We left one suitcase behind for D to use, and brought the other 4 empties home on the plane with us.</p>
<p>believer - Thanks for the rim shot 
- Harvard Square is the only place Iâve ever been in which two one-way streets (really a single straight street) converge head-to-head at a single intersection and then turn right (hopefully you understand to turn right before, not after, your head-on collision with the other car coming up the narrow street toward you). If youâd wanted to continue the same way on the one-way street that you were already headed, you canât, and if youâd wanted to go left at the intersection instead of right, you now need to find your way to the opposite end of the one-way street and enter it coming from the opposite direction - which sounds like a logical inconsistency. It takes a detailed Cambridge map and lots of patience.</p>
<p>Oh my goodness gadad, Iâm still laughing⊠ha ha ha ha ha. I have not laughed so hard in a long time. Thanks for your humor :)</p>
<p>On a serious note⊠I think you are right in the fact that we should probably just take the public transportation into Cambridge. But, if we do this how do we go to Target after when we see what my son is going to need for his room? Can you take public transportation to go to Target? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>We are right on the edge of driving/flying so we drove to move-in. It is very tricky driving in Boston/Cambridge. So if you are planning on renting a car you might want to bring your GPS.</p>
<p>I drive a large vehicle (lotta kids) and didnât have too much trouble. We ended up taking another set of parents into North Boston with us and they were so happy to be above ground and see the sights that I donât think they noticed all the crushed cookies and crayons as well as âMarch of the Penguinsâ on continuous DVD loop.</p>
<p>shiloh, love the story. If the kids of these great parents who already have kids at Harvard are as nice and enjoyable as their parents, then my son is very lucky to be among them. Thanks everyone for the kind words of encouragement!</p>
<p>guitars101, we will be flying in from CA also, and a friend recommends just taking a taxi to Target, etcâŠcheaper and much more hassle-free in the long run. This should be quite an adventure!</p>
<p>justchecking,</p>
<p>Where are you flying out from? I live in South O.C. and Iâve heard that Long Beach has a direct flight on Jet Blue at reasonable prices.</p>
<p>Shiloh love the (lotta kids). I find myself lately constantly trying to justifying my gas guzzling beast aka Suburban to people who canât believe I still drive one. I will probably be renting or borrowing a car from relatives and am more than happy to drive others to Target and I am sure that will be the case with most roommates.
guitars101, I have a son is a junior this year and the only boy of 4. His sisters shop for him because he could care less and they care which is the only reason he wears anything at all!
Is everyone coming in on Friday? Any hotel recommendations? (If this has been asked before, I apologize)</p>
<p>It depends on your price range.
Some out of town friends love the Hotel Marlowe in the Cambridgeside Galleria (which can be very convenient for shopping!). Thereâs also a Cambridge Marriott in Kendall Square, near MIT. There are the Harvard Square Hotel, the Charles Hotel (pricey), The Inn at Harvard (ditto) in the Square. On the other side of the Yard, but only five minutes walk, there is a Friendly Inn and Irving House, both on Irving Street. Further away on Mass Ave, going toward Arlington there is a B&B called a Cambridge House that several friends have recommended. Many Harvard parents prefer to find hotels in the suburbs and drive in.</p>
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<p>We and D have taken this flight many times. We also take a direct San Diego to Boston flight on American Airlines, depending on which is cheaper at the time or more convenient to our schedule. We are leaving tomorrow for a week in Cambridge to attend graduation (after Thursdayâs Commencement Iâll no longer be a Harvard parent), and we are taking the American flight this time.</p>
<p>Actually, I just got back from a business trip to the Boston area - Iâll end up flying to Boston twice in four days. And I stopped by the campus to visit my daughter and begin to haul some of her stuff back. They were setting up the campus for graduation - banners were streaming with the Harvard Ve-Re-Tas shield plus the shields of each of the Schools and each of the Houses. </p>
<p>My daughter was especially pleased and excited because her House had just won the Straus Cup (intramural athletics championship) for the first time since 1987. Led by the House Master, they marched in triumph through the courtyards of the other river Houses singing a modified version of âTen Thousand Men of Harvardâ called Ten Thousand Men of Winthrop" and contained lines lines like:</p>
<p>âFor we know that oâer old Eliot
Fair Winthrop hold swayâŠâ</p>
<p>All in good fun or course. And the kids in the other Houses responded to the gloating with lots of heckling and rude comments.</p>
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<p>Thatâs what we do. For graduation weâre staying the the Residence Inn in Woburn and driving into the Alewife T stop every day.</p>
<p>FWIW</p>
<p>The Inn at Harvard is particularly convenient (right across the street) if your kids end up in the Union Dorms instead of the Yard.</p>
<p>Coureur, congratulations on your Dâs graduation, you must be very proud and excited for her! I am sure that the next week will be wonderful, enjoy!
I am always surprised at how fast the time flies, I seriously donât know where it went. Although I am very excited for my D (my oldest) to set off on this great adventure I canât help but wishing (most days!) that I had a few more years!</p>
<p>Thanks for helping out us newbies with hotels and everything else! This is a great post site.</p>
<p>guitars101,</p>
<p>We live in northern CA and will be flying United, which has non-stop flights into Logan out of San Francisco. I have heard that Jet Blue is also a good way to go, but we should all keep a close eye on the airlines as certain flights will probably get cancelled due to high fuel costsâŠI believe that American recently announced they will be cancelling 17% of their flights. We plan on flying in late Thursday, Sept. 4 and spending Friday getting reacquainted with Cambridge (it has been 2 years since we visited Harvard) and doing our Target run, etc.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone on your sonsâ and daughtersâ graduations!</p>
<p>Booking through Expedia, I discovered relatively inexpensive lodging available at the Kendall Hotel by MIT for several key weekends. 2 stops on the subway to Harvard Square.</p>
<p>Justchecking⊠lived in Northern Cal last year and took the Jet Blue (red eye) from San Jose to Boston direct. I am not a fan of red eyes (you land at 5 a.m.) but the Jet Blue plane was a very nice airplane, leather seats, ton of leg room and a tv on the headrest which surprised me considering its one of the âcheaper airlinesâ or was last year. Not sure if they have changed their schedule but its an option and they sell one ways with no penalties like the major airlines.</p>
<p>Curriculum question here - should our incoming freshmen be working out their class schedules over the summer? Or is that all figured out in September with their advisor?</p>
<p>Post 219:
During Orientation, students will take a battery of placement tests. That will determine what courses they should be taking. All freshmen are supposed to take Expos, and most will take Expos 20, but whether in the fall or spring, and at what time will depend on the placement test and the rest of the schedule. If your freshman has scored 600+ on a foreign language SAT II or an equivalent score on a AP, s/he will place out of the foreign language requirement; if not, s/he will be expected to take a full year of a foreign language.</p>
<p>The online catalog usually comes out some time in July. Thereâs plenty of time to look up course descriptions. Also there is a one-week shopping period during which students can attend a variety of classes before making up their minds about course selection, with input from their advisor.</p>
<p>Post 218:
I just read in the Globe that some major airlines are cancelling direct flights from Logan to the West Coast. I suspect more will follow over the summer.</p>