<p>He found out early on that the easiest way to make friends is to practice in the dorm room with the door open.</p>
<p>lol or not- I imagine headphones came in handy as well</p>
<p>I know Ds school didn’t allow microwaves in the rooms- the dorms all had full size kitchens with refridgerators.
I remember stickers being used to mark food- green for Kommie food, that was open to all, yellow for food that could be shared but ask owner first, and red for don’t touch.
I think there was about 16 students on a floor with two common rooms and two HAs. One HA usually brought a TV to be left in common room, but I I never saw anyone watch it.
You can watch tv/listen to radio on your computer, and probably would have more stations than if you relied on local signals.
Of course it is probably cheaper to buy a cheap tv/computer than to have a computer that has the capability to access live feeds, but your college might not be in an area with very good reception.
Obviously it depends on the dorm and the school, some schools may have television as a larger part of the social structure than other schools- at schools like Reed, team sports aren’t televised and they don’t even have a football team ;)</p>
<p>binx- I can top the dumpster diving story- Ds school has scroungers- when you are done with your meal- if there is a good amount left- students wait at the scrounger wall to finish it for you.( students who live off campus & are cheap about paying for food)</p>
<p>dumpster diving is insane i come from a proper family(well sometimes) BUT WHEN IT COMES TO TRASH WERE LIKE EW! DAD can u pick that up…yup…were not uber wealthy(Were wealthy but were not millionares) we just grew up in a family of girls w/ dad doing the gross work b/c he had no son to do it(its just me my 2 sisters my mom and dad)</p>
<p>EK - yeah, it gets loud around our house when all the kids are home. Guess I should explain that the public guitar playing he did in his dorm room was on acoustic. That was freshmen year before he bought his electric. He actually “justified” his need for an electric guitar by pointing out that he could practice using earphones and not bother anyone. </p>
<p>Yes, you topped the dumpster diving - I can’t imagine finishing other’s plates! Guess I’ve never been that hungry.</p>
<p>lesmiz - my mom grew up depression era - she still has a hard time throwing anything away. It’s become a family joke: Before any of us tosses anything, we discuss whether Mom would have a use for it.</p>
<p>EK, The scrounger story sounds too familiar. My H worked his way through school. One of the jobs he took was as a bus boy. He told me that bus boys loved the 90lb. patron b/c they knew that most would not finish their dinner plates. The bus boys were all too happy to help scrape them clean…EWWW is all I can add to that story!</p>
<p>We just moved our son into his freshman college dorm room a few weeks ago. Our son and his roommate decided to split certain things between them. Roommate brought the refrigerator and our son agreed to bring a TV, an extra one that we had from home and a few other things. The TV turned out to be much too big for the dorm room, so we turned around and took it back home. If it had been only up to our son, he would have done without it all together at that point, since he’s not a big TV watcher, but since he already had indicated he would bring one, we did end up covering the cost for him to go out and buy a smaller set. It wasn’t too expensive, and considering the roommate had contributed his share, we felt it was the considerate thing to do.</p>
<p>Why not just offer to buy something else? If you need to buy something to be considerate, make it something that will be useful to both occupants of the room–a couch, beanbag chairs, other furniture, etc.</p>
<p>Look…we are going to get the tv. BUT remember, we don’t want to have to store anything next summer. We live 3000 miles away from this college. DD will bring 1/2 of her stuff home spring break in March, and the rest in June…by plane in suitcases. The above items will NOT fit in the bags:)</p>
<p>Thumper, since we live only 100 miles from the school, we did buy the beanbag chairs. But I have no idea where they are! They may have stayed up at school with roomie, or they may have found another home elsewhere. I’ve learned not to worry about these things much. I’ve also learned not to spend a lot of money on stuff – each bean bag chair was $20-25.</p>
<p>thumper, your daughter also may make friends that live off campus or something where she can store her TV over the summer. I actually stored a sofa and a couch at a friends house one summer… just plopped them down in his living room. And a TV is much smaller than a couch, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.</p>
<p>One of my kids goes to school 9 hr drive from here. Over the years she accumulated mucho junko. So…she and 4-5 other students get together and rent a small storage locker for the summer. Like it or not, it gets to be too much to bring home on the plane.</p>
<p>I’ve heard many others who also rent storage over the summer so as not to lug everything home & then back to campus. At my S’s school, they will drop off boxes & pick them up from your dorm room & then you can come & they will deliver it to your housing on move-in day (or other mutually agreed upon date at the place you specify).
I’d definitely wait on buying a TV or similar until seeing how things look when you arrive at campus & see how the dorm room looks with everything & where the lounges & their TVs are.) Contributing $$$ toward mutual dorm room purchases does sound like a good option as well. In my S’ case, the dorm comes with a fridge & micro & never heard that either S or roommate wanted a TV. I believe there is only one TV for the entire 8-story dorm, as well as some folks who have personal TVs in their dorm rooms.</p>
<p>Kids who join Greek houses may also find summer storage easy. Some fraternities and sororities allow members to keep things at their houses over the summer.</p>
<p>D went to school 3,000 miles away managed over the years to store her things at local friends parent’s homes or later on at friends off campus apts over the summers.she never did wind up paying for storage but her NY friend who did split the cost of a storage room (make sure its air conditioned in Az!) with quite a few others,the cost was minimal…maybe 50$ each… and much easier than dragging home even the clothes/bedding.
Some schools do have storage available on campus,some do offer that service of picking up/redelivering the following year…obviously thats more expensive.
S now 900+ miles away intends to follow in D’s footsteps and will find local friend/group storage options.He actually has less “stuff” than she did as his room is so small we couldnt purchase even an extra chair or set of plastic drawers! D had a folding bookcase (from Target…they’re great and shes still using it 5 yrs later),a TV stand,extra chair etc.</p>