<p>Thanks for pointing that out - wow, I didn’t realize this was already discussed so many times already. I’ve looked into collegeboxes and the fetch storage link provided on the last page, but, if I’m looking at the right place, they seem a little expensive. Oh well, I’ll figure it out :).</p>
<p>After freshman year, students who live more than 150 miles from Harvard can store boxes for free in the designated storage area for their assigned sophomore house. (Around 8 boxes I believe?)</p>
<p>Each house has a particular space, some in other buildings. Thus, a freshman can borrow a dolly from their dorm (with her driver’s license or ID), and wheel their boxes from dorm to house storage. A set of numbered labels is obtained, the boxes are registered at the storage area (sometimes basements, where they need to be carried by hand down steps). There is usually a separate area for large items like rolled carpets, stand-up lights, futons and chairs.</p>
<p>The schedule and rules for storage are posted on the house websites. The student must usually juggle packing, moving, and studying for finals throughout the week. Storage can open on the Tuesday of exam week for three hours, then continue through the day Saturday, last day of exams. </p>
<p>We’ve never had any problems with losses. In the fall, it may take a few days for your boxes to appear, as others are stacked over and around the earliest ones stored.</p>
<p>^Thanks for the whole explanation! I’ve also heard about the availability of free storage areas from a MIT parent, so I’m not too worried about next year 
(thank goodness!). But since I’m not yet a freshman, I think I’ll have to find my own storage space for this summer.</p>
<p>:/</p>
<p>How’s the Atlantic Fish co. for dinner?</p>
<p>Also, when are you celebrating graduation with your kid - Wednesday or Thursday after graduation?</p>
<p>Hi DocT: We have reservations for Thursday to celebrate graduation with the grandparents who will only be there on that day.</p>
<p>I was looking for something more low-key to do Wednesday night.</p>
<p>Another graduation question for parents or alumni who have been there …</p>
<p>Our hotel is not on the T but is not far. We’re planning on taking a cab to Harvard Square in the morning. Will the streets be closed off or will we be able to get fairly close?</p>
<p>Also, how early should we really aim to get to the gate? (I apologize if I asked this already. I’m a little overwhelmed trying to get down the logistics of two college graduations in two different states in one week! Not complaining though, so glad they’re not the same day!)</p>
<p>Somebody mentioned bringing newspaper to use for sitting on Widener’s steps. Does this make any sense?</p>
<p>I don’t recall that the streets were closed off. They may have been a rather crowded with traffic though.</p>
<p>What time you should get there depends on where you want to sit and how well you want to see. For us the show started at 9:45, but it must have started filling a good three hours or so before that. If you show up only an hour before the start time you’ll miss seeing the graduates parade in, and you’ll be banished to seats way out along side Widener, where you won’t even be able to see the jumbotron very well much less the live stage.</p>
<p>They like to hold Commencement in Tercentenary Theatre because it is such a cool-looking setting - huge crimson Veritas banners hanging between Greek columns and the shields of all the Houses on display, etc. But it would be much more practical and could accommodate everyone much better if they held it in the football stadium instead.</p>
<p>
I’d bring a cushion. If you want newspaper, you can probably just grab an extra copy of The Crimson’s commencement issue - they get passed out as you enter.</p>
<p>@xrCalico23 - If you only have a few suitcases, I think you might be able to store them at one of the Cambridge dry cleaners (ex. Cambridge Cleaners). I know they offer free summer storage for clothes that you pay them to clean, and I think they may offer cheap suitcase storage as well.</p>
<p>What’s the situation with the chairs in Tercentenary Theatre? Are they first come? Are there enough to accommodate most of the crowd, or half, or only some?</p>
<p>Yes, the chairs are festival seating. Get there early if you want a good spot. And there are certain sections where you can’t sit, because they are reserved for one group or another - the graduating seniors for example all sit together sorted by House.</p>
<p>In '08 there were enough chairs to go around, but the ones that didn’t get filled were those way around the side of Widener where you really couldn’t see anything. Also, it was a little drizzly that day. With better weather it might have been a total sellout.</p>
<p>Coureur, would you think that getting to T. Theatre around 8:30 would seem like a good plan? I hate to make our 15-year-old camp out for hours before a program that will also run for hours, but then his sophomore sister might be able to take him around the Yard while my wife and I hold their seats.</p>
<p>harvard Square can get very trafficy on graduation day - especially possible since this year it’s much earlier and a lot of people who normally avoid the square that day may forget. FYI the seats are folding chairs and the space is huge and very tightly packed so it is hard to manouver through the aisles. There are screens set up for people sitting further back but as someone said not all seat have an actual view. The steps also get crowded early and really you do have to come quite early to get good seats. The same is true for the afternoon speaker.</p>
<p>I’m thinking about the 80 year old grandparents waiting for hours! Yikes!</p>
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<p>For a 9:45 start time? You’ll certainly get a seat but it won’t be a great one. How bad did you want to see the graduating seniors parade in wearing their caps and gowns? You might miss that or show up in the middle of it. I don’t remember when that started exactly. Your senior can tell you.</p>
<p>One option is overflow/rain seating in the large lecture halls in the Science Center. You watch everthing on a giant closed circuit screen instead of “live.” But you you have great view, sit in relative comfort, and can easily get up and move about.</p>
<p>Aged grandaprent was what forced us into a later arrival. If it had been just us we would have been among the early birds getting the good seats.</p>
<p>As I try to picture this scene, I’m beginning to generate mental images of Woodstock. :)</p>
<p>You may certainly have a chance at Woodstockian mud if it rains. The folding chairs lend that touch of civilization though.</p>
<p>I didn’t notice any Woodstock-style skinny dipping at the Harvard commencement ceremonies. No rock bands either, but the Harvard marching band (such as it is) certainly was there to provide live music.</p>
<p>I teach at Harvard–and I can tell you that Commencement is a blast. Be prepared with sun block and/or umbrella (it sometimes requires both in a single day) and not ready being able to hear very much and just enjoy the experience. your S or D will actually get his diploma in a very small, intimate ceremony later back at their House–by the Master and Senior Tutor, with most of the Tutors in attendance. Each kid is called up and the master says something about him or her and then the new graduate shakes all of the tutors’ hands–at least that is how we do it at Leverett.</p>