<p>I heard that syracuse allowed you to send you to send your luggage (eg comforts, blankets) earlier, and they will keep it in storage until you arrive for a small fee. That way you can have more space in your suitcase for other things!</p>
<p>Is this the case for Tufts? </p>
<p>Also, is everyone coming on the 29th of August? or earlier to settle down? I’m international so I’m wondering if they would let me stay in the dorm a few days earlier!</p>
<p>I don’t know about staying in the dorm earlier…you should see reslife about that (here’s their website. Maybe the info is there, or maybe you should call them during the week: <a href=“Residential Life & Learning | AS&E Students”>Residential Life & Learning | AS&E Students)
If you do a preorientation program, you come early, but I think only one of the programs actually lets you settle down in the dorms (the rest involve camping etc), and I don’t know exactly which that would be. Most people come on the 29th, though (if that’s when orientation starts this year). You should definitely check out the international orientation if you’re an international student. Maybe that’s the one where you get to settle down earlier…
As for sending stuff early, I mailed myself some things and it turned out fine because all packages sent to you go to Mail Services where they hold them until you come to pick them up.</p>
<p>If you’re international I highly recommend you do IO. IO is a lot of fun, but also, they help you get settled, open a bank account, get an American cellphone , go over your Visa procedures, it’s REALLY helpful. IO students do get to move in earlier, I think that this year it’s the 26th or the 27th. I’m not sure about the date, but the host advisors for IO arrive on the 23rd and that’s usually about three days before the stundents actually come. </p>
<p>You can send in stuff a little earlier, but that just shipped packages. I think the mail services start receiving stuff a few weeks before school starts. As an international student, just bring the absolute necessities, it’s so much handier to get everything once you get here. Also, as a tip, do not fall for the bedding package Student Resources will offer you because the stuff is not very good quality. Just make a trip to Target (happens during IO!) and get really nice sheets and bedding. You can never underestimate the effect really nice bedding has on you. Trust me. Or then I’m just obsessed with bedding. Hm.</p>
<p>A word of warning about IO: it ghettoizes its participants. I am an international student and did IO. It was nice to meet fellow students from outside the U.S., but I feel it does set us into a big clique as we all meet each other before the American students arrive. One of my biggest regrets is that my freshman year I didn’t branch out to meet non-international students soon enough. If you do IO, just make a conscious effort to meet students who aren’t international, is all I’m saying. Often they’re a lot more interesting than the large number of international students who I am positive get in just because they’re paying full-tuition, and whose lives revolve around going to the image-conscious nightclubs in Boston along with international students from all the other area schools.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go as far as to say that IO ghettoizes the people who choose to do it, some, yes, but everyone. I think that despite doing IO, most of my friends did not do IO. There is a definite I-Kids clique who hang out exclusively with international students, but I think it’s rude to make the assumption that those kids only got because they are able to pay full tuition and not because their academic credentials are up to par. I know a lot of international students who do go to “image-conscious nightclubs in Boston”, but who are also very serious about their studies.</p>
<p>All I’m saying is that after four years here, I can say with certainty that the percentage of international students here who I am impressed with intellectually is less than those who are not international.</p>
<p>I think this also goes for most other schools I’ve spent significant amounts of time at (Harvard, BU, Babson, etc.). </p>
<p>OF COURSE this is not true of all intl students; I am an intl student myself and don’t consider myself to be intellectually inferior to the average Tufts student. My boyfriend and best friend are also intl students who are at the top of our class. I’m just saying that there are just way too many intl students I know who can barely speak English (and write it, less!) and who have no idea what’s going on in the real world outside of Monaco and Ibiza.</p>
<p>you can send stuff over the summer and have mail services keep it for you until you arrive. That’s what i did before my freshman year. Obviously, you need to wait until you know your on-campus address, but they tell you in July.</p>