<p>you’re welcome. This thread has been a tremendous help to me :)</p>
<p>I found Fed X ground has the best rates, but maybe that’s just from TX. </p>
<p>The Annenberg Hall staff was quite helpful to my D when she was sick and offered to give her take out containers for any meals she wanted to take back to her room or have her suitemates get for her. Everyone…her doctors at the infirmary, professors, proctor, Annenberg staff were exceptional to her during her illness. Actually, I could have NOT gone and she would have been perfectly fine…but Moms and their babies…what can I say!!</p>
<p>I got the mailing about Freshman Parents Weekend yesterday, and it had no schedule included. If you were also missing the schedule, it’s now online at the Freshman Dean’s Office “Parents” link:
[Parents</a> Association § Class of '12 Weekend](<a href=“http://www.parents.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k42165&pageid=icb.page198329]Parents”>http://www.parents.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k42165&pageid=icb.page198329)</p>
<p>Based on my own experience years ago, I’d say forget the panel discussions at Freshman Parents Weekend. They are kind of dull and mostly don’t tell you much that you don’t already know or can find out here on this thread.</p>
<p>But be sure to take in some of these:</p>
<p>GUIDED TOURS OF THE PEABODY MUSEUM<br>
11:30am Dr. Marc Zender, “Storied Walls: Murals of the Americas” (40min)
12:30pm Dr. Diana Loren, “A Preview of the Archaeology of Harvard Yard Exhibit” (40min)
1:30pm Ms. Barbara Fash, “Fragile Memories: Images of Archaeology and Community at Copan, 1891-1900” (40min)</p>
<p>I thought that the glimpses I got into the academic work at Harvard were just fascinating.</p>
<p>In addition to coureur’s list, for the parents of students who are “comping” the Crimson, I highly recommend the Crimson tour.</p>
<p>I can’t wait to visit Widener.</p>
<p>Even the story of it’s creation brings tears to my eyes and a chill to my spine. What a gift!</p>
<p>^^Actually, Widener is not the only building on campus named after someone who died on the Titanic. The same is true of Straus Hall, one of the freshman dorms. Remember the scene in the movie Titanic where there was an elderly woman who declined a seat in a lifeboat in order to stay with her beloved husband? That couple was later shown again embracing on their bed as the water lapped up around them. Those were the Strauses.</p>
<p>^Thanks, coureur.</p>
<p>I’ll remember this story as I pass by Straus.</p>
<p>A good friend of my daughter and fellow HCURA board member Peter Cai collapsed and died while running along the Charles. The second good friend she has lost in the past few years at Harvard because of an untimely death.</p>
<p>So sad. Prayers go out to all.</p>
<p>DocT, I spoke to my DD last night, and she, too, was affected by the untimely passing of Peter Cai. Harvard responded well to this tragedy, canceling the rest of the River Run event, and holding meetings in the houses to check-in with students and allow them to process their feelings.</p>
<p>He was an only child. His parents came up and met with students to ask them about their remembrances of Peter. Apparently he dreamed about coming to Harvard and his parents are thinking of burying him in the area even though they are from Penn. My daughter was also in a number of classes with him as they were both premed. Their physics exam for Tuesday was postponed until Thursday.</p>
<p>How sad and what a loss for both his parents and the student body!</p>
<p>I think a lot of the students were upset about Peter.</p>
<p>I wanted to ask, on another topic, what other parents are hearing about the role of proctors in freshman dorms. The proctor in our kid’s dorm is a little intrusive, maybe over involved. Our child is handling it on her own, but was just wondering.</p>
<p>On Saturday, my older son, who’s at Harvard, told me, while we were talking on the phone about this and that, about Peter Cai’s sudden death at the race. My son didn’t know Peter, but something like this, whether you knew the person or not, touches you and tends to leave you feeling perhaps a bit more vulnerableas my son then sounded on the phonethan you may have felt the day before.</p>
<p>Later that same day, my younger son, who’s a senior in high school, told me that a student at his school, a boy in the class behind him, had died that day in a motorcycle accident. Today I read in our local paper that this young man, whose father was a police officer and was out of town at the time, had taken his father’s motorcycle without permission, and was riding it to the high school, where he was going to watch the football game, when the accident took place. After the collision occurred, this young man, as he staggered toward the sidewalk, apparently called his father on his cell phone, telling him, “Dad, I wrecked your bike.” His father assured him that so long as he was all right, everything was OK. The boy then collapsed and died.</p>
<p>No matter how trite or sentimental it may sound, on days like these, when you hear of other students at both your kids’ schools dying suddenly and unexpectedly, nothing seems more important, as a parent, than to tell your child, today, that you love him (or her), then tell him the same thing tomorrow, and again the next day, and again.</p>
<p>^So true, epistrophy. My D also called to tell me about Peter, and I took the opportunity to remind her that we never know what the future will bring us, so enjoy each day.</p>
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<p>D’s freshman proctor was just right - available to talk about roommate issues and academics, but left the students alone so long as they used proper discretion. She did tell me that others had your D’s experience, i.e., very intrusive, esp. with regard to alcohol usage.</p>
<p>Very sad and heart breaking what happened to Peter. This is a devastating loss to the family and the student body. </p>
<p>On another note, if Bureau of Study Counsel asks you to be a peer tutor for multiple courses, is it a good idea to be a tutor?</p>
<p>By the way, HCURA of which Peter was on the organizing committee is giving their research presentations (posters & papers) this Saturday. This is an organization that helps find students research opportunities. It will be a more subdued event obviously.</p>
<p>Bay, this proctor holds study breaks and spends hours baking for them, takes kids on field trips, and her own social life revolves around the students. A group was having a private conversation in one of the rooms, and the proctor appeared and asked what they were talking about. At this point, the group said it was private. The proctor then said " I feel left out." When our daughter is out doing something, the proctor leaves a note on the door asking where she was, even saying that she missed her. Any comments?</p>
<p>Tutoring is a great experience. I did it at UMass Boston, so I don’t know what it is like at Harvard. Our son has been doing it at another Ivy League college and it has been one of the high points of his college years. Multiple courses? Maybe start with one or two!</p>