<p>My kid worked for the university the second year, and outside the third. HIs college work entailed about 15 hours per week; his next job was more like 5-6 (but paid less well). he currently has a paid internship and seems to have lined up some job for next fall. he did not work his first year. Your D might consider working the second semester after she’s settled in and sees how well she is doing with time-management.</p>
<p>Also, the $9.75 University Wage (that’s the standard starting rate, with a bump up each year you work) is a heck of a lot better than the 5-6 bucks an hour you make at minimum wage jobs back home.</p>
<p>If your D is interested in science or math I’d highly recommend a research internship. It’s fun, educational, pays fairly well and looks good on a resume.</p>
<p>Students get research internships many different ways. One way is just to find a professor they like freshman year and ask them if they would like an undergraduate working in their lab. Another is to search databases, which is how I got my job.</p>
<p>^ Admiral, do you know if you could use a research internship in a work-study? Would that be allowed?</p>
<p>Hi laststopforme,</p>
<p>Yes, absolutely. It might depend on the lab, but when I started working they asked if I was work-study. Most lab internships I’ve seen allow it.</p>
<p>My grades at Harvard went up after I started working ten hours a week. Believe me most students waste plenty of time! I just shelved library books and found it relaxing and therapeutic.</p>
<p>Take that back, one term I corrected Calculus homework, which was more work.</p>
<p>Can someone remind us when Harvard housing/roommate assignments are mailed out? (Or are they accessible online at some point in time?)</p>
<p>They are mailed in the beginning to mid August.</p>
<p>Is it customary for the whole family to help move the freshman in when they are from out of state (in our case two hard day’s of driving)? I’ve read that younger siblings benefit from helping older siblings move into their college residence. Flying all of us to Boston, lining up a hotel, rental car is not trivial. Then there’s the parent freshman weekend in early November. Then all the flying of D1 to and fro for Thanksgiving and winter break and spring break and summer break. Starting to get concerned over these travel costs. </p>
<p>We fortunately have good friends we can stay with near Cambridge but their home is extremely small and we hate to keep disrupting their lives.</p>
<p>^^I don’t think it is “customary” one way or the other. Whatever fits with your family’s plans and budget will be fine. In our case D2 did not come along to help out D1 on move-in day. But she did later go and stay with her big sis in the dorms for a week, and later again in her House, to get a taste of Harvard student life.</p>
<p>Move-in day is hectic and crowded, so having only one parent can be the best situation. Students are so eager to be off with their new dormmates, there is little time for family. </p>
<p>Best to spare some $$ for Parents Weekend, a very special time when your student will be happy to show off their new campus, and there are alot of activities for the parents. </p>
<p>Also, many students from distances stay at H during T’giving–they have classes on Wednesday, and the following Monday, so there is really not much time to fly, unless it’s a single short hop. One dining hall is open, and many kids get invited to someone’s nearby house for turkey dinner.</p>
<p>mammall, Good question! I will offer a different perspective than fauve. It was very important for D2 and S1 to see where their big sister was going to live, especially S1 who is very close to her. I think that it really helped them (and us) with the transition process to visualize where she was going to live and to make sure that she had all that she needed when she first moved-in. BTW, I have said this before in another thread - get ready, as a parent, for the range of emotions that you will go through when you leave your DS/DD in school - needless to say, it was very difficult for all of us to leave DD curbside on Mass Ave., and this is a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life.</p>
<p>My wife did not attend Parents Weekend because of scheduling issues. I did and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Harvard did a really good job of organizing activities for parents. Of DD’s five roomies, all parents, except one set who live in another country, came to Parents Weekend - and there were three of us from other coasts (one roomie had both her father and mother, who were divorced, come with their partners). I would note, though, that I did not see too many parents who came with their other children to Parents Weekend. Our daughters organized a parents dinner during the weekend, and it was a pleasure to meet her roomies’ parents. I am still in touch with two of the parents.</p>
<p>If you come from another coast, I would say that having your child come home for Thanksgiving is expensive (if she has to fly) and, given that she will be home three weeks later for the holiday break, not really worth it. DD and one of her roomies spent Thanksgiving in NYC, with her grandmother and had a really good time (chinatown bus to NYC is really cheap). </p>
<p>In regards to the cost of flights, we found that making reservations ahead of time helped out. Just this week, I purchased the return ticket for December/January. A caveat, though: Twice when I purchased tickets ahead of time, the airlines made significant changes to the original schedules for those flights.</p>
<p>fauve and MSMDAD - Many thanks for sharing your past experiences with this. DD2 is set on being there to help DD1 move in so I think we will all be going on that trip. Parent’s weekend in November, however, sounds like it will be okay to leave DD2 at home with her grandparents. And I just don’t know if I can stand to not have DD1 home for Thanksgiving. That is just really causing me some pain! Oh my. It’s really here now, isn’t it.</p>
<p>You are smart to arrange the T’giving trip- it was truly painful, our first TG sans DD, I stared at the turkey and almost cried.</p>
<p>I can see now that I should have done a better job stockpiling frequent flier miles.</p>
<p>Yes, never have DH’s business trips been so rewarding as the college years!</p>
<p>The Thanksgiving Break officially begins after Wednesday classes, but in practice, it’s pretty deserted on that Wednesday. My D1 has flown home on Tuesday both years she’s been there.</p>
<p>If you’re flying in, as I am, your presence at move-in is more about psychological support than actual assistance in moving. I’ll come to move-in solo for D2, as I did for D1, and my wife and son will join me for the November Parents Weekend, which has more structure to it. It’s expensive, but our Ds’ financial aid packages are so generous that I try to justify it that way.</p>
<p>Can kids take public transit from Logan airport to Harvard ? I’m having trouble researching that. </p>
<p>GADad - did you bring home your D1 for both Thanksgiving and winter break?</p>
<p>Yep. There’s the silver line route, which takes about 40 minutes total. Red-line to South Station, SL2 (Silver Line, Tram 2) to Logan.</p>
<p>Yes Mammall, both breaks - there are lots of AirTran flights between Atlanta and Boston that run about $100 each way. And it’s a snap to get from Logan to the campus. You walk outside the baggage claim area, and the “Silver Line” bus comes by every 10 minutes. It’s part of the “T” (subway system), so it costs $1.70 each way and has luggage racks inside. It takes you directly to the South Station subway stop, where without leaving the station you transfer to the subway’s Red Line, going toward Alewife. Six stops later you get off at the Harvard station, climb the steps, and come out of the ground at the gates to Harvard Yard. It takes about 40 minutes.</p>