<p>yes, most houses close for Thanksgiving but a handful remain open for students who wish to stay on campus. The fee is fairly small (I think it was $25) and if you live in one of the houses that remains open, you can stay in your room - otherwise you have to find a friend who will let you stay in her room (but I think if you can’t find anyone housing will help you out). </p>
<p>Food isn’t provided for the weekend, so students who stay are on their own for that.</p>
<p>Most houses shut for Thanksgiving and you have to pay a fee to stay on campus. Also, there is no dining and no gaurantee that the houses that are open will have kitchens (I got very good at cooking on a George Foreman grill when I stayed on campus for Spring break). For international students, there are sometimes arrangements made for them to be able to spend Thanksgiving with a local family or they just do their own thing. </p>
<p>I lived on the West Coast and I just got myself invited home every Thanksgiving to stay with friends. It was never worth the expense to get home for a very short break, and I always had friends willing to take me in. It was really fun to get to experience Thanksgiving from the perspective of another family and to try out a real New England Thanksgiving. I found it challenging enough to get home for Christmas (warning: airports will be a disaster, delays are almost inevitable, prepare to spend several anxious hours/days wondering if you’ll be home in time for Christmas) without having to worry about Thanksgiving or Spring Break. I missed my family, but that’s part of the trade-off you make when you choose to go to college 2,500 miles away from home.</p>
<p>We have invited our daughter’s West Coast roommate to our Massachusetts home for Thanksgiving. We’ll see if she takes us up on the offer as she apparently has a relative in NYC, I believe. If you can bear your daughter not coming home for Thanksgiving, perhaps she could go to a friend’s nearby home. I see that you live in a Mid-Atlantic state. Have you explored Amtrak as a possibly cheaper alternative? In some ways, with the early arrival required by airlines, it almost evens out with the longer train time. A friend of ours travels quite somewhat frequently from Philly to Providence, finds it very pleasant and not too expensive.</p>
<p>Thanks All, for your very helpful replies! Making friends with New Englanders is a wonderful choice and I hope she gets her nose out of her books long enough to make friends! Amtrak was just as expensive and I even checked out Greyhound…two stops and >10 hours of travel! Just a bit bemused on how quickly her Visa buxx card is emptying -she is flying home for autumn break as well. On the other hand, we had to laugh at the classic panicky email…please add more buxx!!! Maybe invest in that George Foreman grill :)</p>
<p>^^ LOL! We were lucky that my daughter managed her funds well, but I have a friend whose son blew through an entire semester’s budget in his first two weeks of college.</p>
<p>S&P, as usual, sums up things pretty well. D had Thanksgiving invites ranging from very local to NYC…the time penalty for flying to/from the coasts, as well as the $$$, made coming home an unattractive option.</p>
<p>Where D’s experiences diverged is that she never had a problem getting home for Christmas and she generally flew through O’Hare!
Once missed got out of there about 30 minutes before they closed down for a snow storm but that was the worst.</p>
<p>Flying home for Fall Break AND Thanksgiving? Wow, you guys are nice parents. I hope she doesn’t regret not using that Fall Break time to get prepped for mid-terms and sleep in. </p>
<p>During Fall Break, the dining halls stay open, so I always loved having the free, relaxed time to sleep in and get caught up. By that point in the semester I always needed a breather.</p>
<p>Urrk, I’d missed the distinction between Fall break and Thanksgiving. No, Fall break was time for recharging or taking a trip to see friends in NYC or Boston. Never came home for that one.</p>
<p>Three of my four Smith Thanksgivings, I met my parents in Connecticut for the weekend (we’re not really into a traditional Thanksgiving - my sister and I don’t even like turkey). They drove or flew up from PA, I took the Foxwoods bus, and we spent the weekend relaxing at the casino. </p>
<p>I did go home for fall break twice, but I didn’t also go home for Thanksgiving those years. One fall break at Smith I went to Boston with a friend for a few days and for the other I found a bunch of shows that were in Northampton that weekend and saw them with a friend. </p>
<p>The one time I went home for Thanksgiving I took the bus and the process took all day and quite a few buses, which wasn’t a lot of fun.</p>
<p>“Flying home for Fall Break AND Thanksgiving? Wow, you guys are nice parents”, well, what can I say, this is a first. We did consider driving up to spend Thanksgiving with her (we’re not into turkey either), but “chickened” out at the thought of all the traffic. Next time, we’ll plan better. </p>
<p>Didn’t realize that midterms were up soon after break…oh well, we’ll spend the time reviewing cell bio and chem (my areas) and calculus (my husband’s) and it will be like high school all over again =D</p>
<p>Midterms can happen anytime between the first week of classes and the last week of classes. I think the lucky ones have them all scheduled at once. Of course, they might not think themselves so lucky… :)</p>
<p>If you’re REALLY lucky, you’ll have four for just that class PLUS a final.</p>
<p>Yeah, there’s no “set” time for mid-terms and not all the classes have them, but usually right before or right after fall break is when your first slew of major tests and papers are due that mark the half-way point in the semester. </p>
<p>I’m sure she’ll be fine, and probably a little saner than I ever was for the going home. I’m always jealous of kids who were close enough to Smith that they could go home for the short breaks, even if it wasn’t always cheap for them. I feel like going to college all the way across the country was very beneficial in some ways, I don’t discount the good character building and independence that I built from it, nor how it prepped me for the “real world” where I still live away from my parents. But I love my folks and I missed them when I was at school and I miss them now that I work across the country from them. We remain close with email and calls, but I treasure all the face time we get the most. It was the same in college. Your D is very lucky and I’m sure she’ll benefit from the coming home time.</p>
<p>We are now empty-nesters, after dropping our son off at college last Sunday. The house seems so quiet and still, and I’m somewhat stunned. Randomcoolzip, how’s it going?</p>
<p>Prairie, I have loved being an empty-nester right from the beginning, as much as I miss my D. It helped a lot that she loved Smith; otherwise, I think the transition would have been tougher.</p>
<p>With only one child, I went from right mother to empty nester. My husband and I have enjoyed being a couple again, without having to worry about where my D is at any given time or making sure she does X, Y, and Z. We subscribe to theater events, eat out more often, decide on our days more spontaneously. I don’t have to worry about tailoring my schedule around sporting events and other school activities. I don’t have to worry about dinner at a specific time. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that I don’t miss her. I do. And I find it difficult when I want to phone her and either a. her phone is off or b. it has run out of batteries. And when she doesn’t answer my emails. That was the tough transition – to let her be out of reach without my getting hurt or angry. </p>
<p>Some parents have a more difficult time than others. Here’s what I always told myself: my whole job as a parent was to prepare my daughter to be an independent and productive adult. Now that it’s happened, and I’ve succeeded (more or less), I should celebrate.</p>
<p>Thanks. You’ve addressed the issues very well.</p>
<p>Very similar to MWFN in all respects. We do have a once a week phone call scheduled so that even when she’s busy, we connect. Sometimes, as with this next week, it’s shifted from its “normal” time due to one reason or another. Supplemented by occasional e-mails and sometimes brief task-oriented phone calls as opposed to the more chatty ones.</p>
<p>Probably the most difficult transition has been regarding information flow. Even at Smith, aspects of her social life were on a need-to-know basis and I found myself without the requisite security clearance. And we’re very much in the dark about the details of her plans for grad school. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready to talk about it.” It’s a bit like Kremlin watching in the old days, piecing together comments about due dates for apps for one school vs. another. But I think she’s deriving a lot of satisfaction from being completely in charge without POS which latter case was certainly in effect for undergrad.</p>
<p>But since the design from six months old was to produce an independent self-reliant woman, have no grounds to complain about succeeding, neh?</p>
<p>On the plus side, we’ve seen a lot more theater. Between last month and this: “Fiddler on the Roof” (with Topol), “The Cherry Orchard,” “Cymbeline” (great play, don’t understand why it’s not presented more often), Aristophanes’ “Peace,” and “Julius Caesar.”</p>
<p>Nice posts MWFN and the Dad. And security clearance…Kremlin watching…ROFL! Our Smithie has been pretty good about keeping in touch. She’d probably call every day if she had the time and we hadn’t chided her about the cell phone minutes. Our son, on the other hand, has been very reluctant to communicate home from his college. I know he’s doing well because my Facebook spies (neither of my college students will “friend” me) and his Smith sister do actually text, call, IM. It is hard to be out of touch, but as you posted MWFN and the Dad, we have always wanted them to grow up to be confident young people capable of finding their own way.</p>
<p>Well, since Randomcoolzip and I have become empty nesters (I know, I know, I’ve outed us!) with both twins off to college for the first time, the house is so much quieter; it’s a mixed blessing. We definitely have more freedom to do what we choose and life is a lot less complicated than before. We have just started some of our standard fall activities and haven’t really taken on anything new yet, but we will. We do miss the kids and wonder how they’re doing. </p>
<p>Interestingly enough, our son at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY (a 6-1/2 hour drive away) has been much more regular in communicating with us about his activities, classes, etc. than has our daughter (who’s only 1-1/2 hours away). When our son was at home, getting information from him was like pulling teeth; now that he’s so far away, he’s initiated all kinds of conversations, some quickies lasting a minute or two for an update and some on iChat being full-fledged conversations; it’s been very gratifying to hear how he’s managing wonderfully with a variety of challenges. On the other hand, our daughter in high school kept us in the loop, but since at Smith has been so engrossed with the life there, that we haven’t heard much from her–pretty much one iChat and a couple of lengthy, informative and witty emails (she’s using the opportunity to process her experiences through writing as she loves to write). So, while we know she’s thriving there, we just aren’t hearing the details. No news is good news.</p>
<p>They both are well on their way to becoming capable, confident, articulate, and independent people, so I guess we’ve done our job (so far!). :)</p>
<p>Nice to hear that the Smithies are doing well. D seems to be finding her place as well. </p>
<p>I have to laugh at The Dad’s description of information outflow. Even in high school, we described our ability to get info as only on a “need to know” basis. (and sometimes not even then!) I feel like we may be getting as much information now as we did when she lived at home. Perhaps its because she needs things from us so feels obligated to reciprocate. We did ask for at least once a week phone calls and so far she has kept up with that.</p>