<p>Welcome Scrappy! Congrats! Two pieces of advice - The Irving House for non-major weekends and The Harvard Club of Boston for major Harvard weekends - the two most affordable options for parents’ accommodations when visiting campus. You can stay at The Harvard Club as a H parent or prospective parent. It’s relatively cheap compared to other hotels. The Irving House is either a small hotel or a large B&B three blocks from campus.</p>
<p>We have a similar issue. S got in to Yale ED and is waiting to hear from Harvard RD. We are trying to coordinate travel so he can go to both Visitas and Bull Dog Days (that is if he gets accepted at Harvard too) </p>
<p>Does anyone know what time on 4/23 the agenda ends for Visitas so we can look at booking him a return flight from Boston just in case?</p>
<p>
My mom often stays at the Holiday Inn Express on Monsignor O’Brien Highway. It’s close to the Lechmere subway stop, and the #69 bus goes from Lechmere to Harvard.</p>
<p>AGH!!! So happy I checked in this site! I have to write my daughter about yearbooks, frames etc. How did this happen so fast! Maybe I am in denial!!!</p>
<p>Scrappy, I would let your son do Visitas, think he would get a better idea of whether or not he wanted Harvard and meet his potential future classmates then if you went by yourself earlier in March. Parents don’t have much to do during Visitas its really for the kids. Just my opinion. </p>
<p>Also for hotels, I always use Priceline and bid for hotels, can’t guarantee exact hotel but I usually go for 4 stars only and rarely pay more than 125 a night. I would go to [Priceline</a> and Hotwire Forum](<a href=“http://www.betterbidding.com%5DPriceline”>http://www.betterbidding.com) to educate myself first before bidding. The bad thing about Priceline is that you can’t cancel but has worked for me…Good luck.</p>
<p>hello Scrappy and welcome! </p>
<p>EAO, I know what you mean about it happening so quickly…sheesh! </p>
<p>when in town (we’re from Calif) we stay at the Royal Sonesta.</p>
<p>^^ the last person that your child wants to see, let alone be seen with, at Visitas is Mom and/or Dad. Send them off and either have a weekend to yourselves–bliss–or the other kids!</p>
<p>Help! Parents of seniors, My D told me that when they took senior pictures they also took cap and gown pictures but I never received proofs of these. I received a postcard saying my time was running out to order pictures and I have tried now for 3 days to reach Prestige photos to ask them about the cap and gown proofs,but been on hold forever and had to give up. My question is did anyone else get cap and gown proofs along with senior picture proofs, were they mailed together or separately??? I will keep trying just want to know if I am the only one who hasn’t seen cap and gown pics.</p>
<p>The cap and gown picture proofs will arrive in a few weeks. I called them last week.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the photo company saying time is running out–it is a marketing ploy. You will receive more (mailed) offers to buy the pictures up to and after graduation.</p>
<p>Do students still buy class rings? Is this popular at Harvard?</p>
<p>Many girls I know bought rings…well their parents’ did, for graduation gifts. There are beautiful simple, gold signet styles of various sizes in 14k or 18k. They are so much nicer than the bulky H.S. styles. </p>
<p>Some students would prefer the cash for a trip, I suspect.</p>
<p>@2bornnot2bivy @fauve</p>
<p>Hmm. I actually did not buy a ring my year. Some people do, but it’s certainly not a majority. I did purchase a class tie and a yearbook. In retrospect, the yearbook was sort of pointless, as no one really goes around signing it. In fact, as far as I remember, I actually did not receive the yearbook until after graduation. </p>
<p>As for the tie, I thought that was a good investment. Though I have a strange feeling I might ever only wear it a few times as it’s one of those really wide ties that doesn’t look great on me. Maybe I’ll save it for the 50th reunion if I fill out a bit/am still around to go to a 50th reunion…knock on wood.</p>
<p>we did buy one for our son last year when he was a junior. He does wear it and he does like it.</p>
<p>Switching topics: We 2015 parents are getting excited for housing day next week! I know there’s no point in wishing/hoping for one house or another, but I’m just curious if any parents have stories of students who were disappointed with their house assignment initially but then grew to love it? Or, any comments/advice around the transition from freshman dorms to houses? Also, can anyone explain to me exactly how suitemates/roommates are chosen, once assigned to a house?</p>
<p>To generalize, a healthy majority end up liking their houses. There is just always that initial shock to being placed. Really, you just need to let it breathe for a while, experience the house, and then place judgment. With that said, I can only think of a dozen or so friends / acquaintances that actually viewed their house poorly.</p>
<p>To question three, the vast majority (all except Leverett) of the houses work via paper application that is a wildly abridged version of the freshmen housing application. You also denote which persons you would like to live with (as well as some forms have a short list of people you would feel uncomfortable living with). Typically, the house administrator of your respective house will inform the rising sophomores of the distribution of suite sizes. So most, if working with the numbers, work out well. To that, there is always a handful of floaters that can correct some of the numbers. Placements are usually sent out late July / early August.</p>
<p>As for Leverett, they actually include rising sophomores in their housing lottery, so you will actually know your room before leaving campus for the summer.</p>
<p>Many kids are initially bummed if they get put in a quad House instead of a river House. But pretty much everyone grows to like their own House well enough once they move in.</p>
<p>I have to agree with coureur. My son says that the kids initially are bummed about getting a quad, but then they end up liking it. My son has a few friends who live there and they really like the community feel. As with anything in life, it’s what you make of it.</p>
<p>^^Thanks for the info, veterans!</p>
<p>Hilarious version of the ubiquitous Hitler meme dealing with getting a river House vs. quad House:</p>
<p>[Hitler</a> Gets His Housing Assignment - YouTube](<a href=“Hitler Gets His Housing Assignment - YouTube”>Hitler Gets His Housing Assignment - YouTube)</p>