What to Bring and Start of Year Finances

Colleges & Universities Harvey Mudd College
1

<p>I wanted to start an information thread on what we need to bring.
I know there is already a list on the site:</p>

<p>[Dorm</a> FAQS](<a href=“http://www.hmc.edu/studentlife1/studentservices1/orientation1/packet41/dormfaqs.html]Dorm”>http://www.hmc.edu/studentlife1/studentservices1/orientation1/packet41/dormfaqs.html)</p>

<p>Is there anything else anyone could suggest to bring?</p>

<p>Also, on the Financial Letters we are given out it states $800 goes towards books and supplies. When they say supplies, do they mean notebooks, binders, pencils, tape, paper, etc.? Or do they just mean school books plus say a lab book you need for the class? I just wanted to clarify… do I need to bring these things to school when I arrive?</p>

<p>Do we need to bring furniture?</p>

<p>What kind of book bag should we bring? Are we going to usually carry all our books at once, or do we have a place to store them/ will we have time to make trips to our room? I don’t know if I should get a heavy duty backpack, or a messenger bag or something. Also, do students often bring their laptops to class?</p>

<p>Also, on the admitted students site, it states that freshman are expected to bring $1,500 to campus. Does that go towards our tuition? I heard freshman have to pay a fee for orientation. I aslo heard some of it is for buying books when we get there? How does that work?</p>

<p>Lastly, I know it says there are $900 for personal expenses. Does this include toiletries, snacks, etc.? How is this dispersed? I know you get $16 a week for the 16 meal plan, but that only goes toward food products, correct? Does the $900 go into a Claremont cash account? </p>

<p>I heard Claremont cash cards are easier for laundry and such. I also know you can not withdraw cash from the Claremont cash account, so I’m assuming students use debit cards as well? Like where would the money to pay for say a concert you want to go to come from? </p>

<p>I know this question varies with each person, but how much do people spend/ use their debit card vs. their Claremont cash card? And is this card different than your student id? Is your student id different than the card you use to pay for meals?</p>

<p>Oh! And if I’m going to the Summer Institute, how does bringing your stuff to move in to your dorm work between SI and Orientation? Will we have an opportunity to go home and pack? I mean, I can’t just have my parents come up with my stuff… they won’t know what to bring. Going home to pack would be less of a hassle for me since I live only an hour and a half away. Would I have an opportunity between SI and Orientation to go home? What about other SI students?</p>

<p>A lot of questions here… If you can answer some of them I would really appreciate it!</p>

<p>Thanks! : )</p>

2

<p>You will not need to bring any furniture, but might like a folding chair or two handy in your room for your stuff and people to sit on.</p>

<p>“$900 for personal expenses” is not given to you, it’s your own money you spend on personal stuff.That is what HMC estimates you may need for the year.</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>Something a lot of people haven’t had is formal clothes. Engineering especially requires formal wear in presentations. For some people it’s automatic to bring, some people not so much. Just in case.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I spent $300 altogether for textbooks and school supplies first semester. $200 second semester. But it will vary from person to person. Upperclassmen are a much better way to get textbooks than the bookstore. Additionally, while you don’t need to bring school supplies with you, the Huntley is expensive. Go to a Staples or something and pick up cheaper supplies. However, some classes (especially labs) require you to have a very specific notebook, so be careful of that. The Huntley website will post what books and supplies are needed for your classes (it already has materials for at least some frosh classes next year up). </p>

<p>The best strategy I can recommend is befriend upperclassmen. They’ll lend/give/sell you texts and possibly drive you to get supplies.</p>

<p>

Your tuition will not be paid by any money you bring with you. Orientation is included in the tuition. The $1500 is money for you to spend on everything.</p>

<p>

Not that I know of. It’s just estimated personal expenses. Going out for food, going to movies and concerts, buying stuff for your room or other people, etc.</p>

<p>

I never use Claremont Cash and I don’t personally know of anyone at Mudd who does. The laundry machines operate on quarters, not cards. I know a couple vending machines that take Claremont Cash on campus and that’s it. Jay’s Place you’ll probably do fine for on flex. It’s much, much easier just to have cash or a debit card.</p>

<p>

As before, never use Claremont cash. Normally I get by on flex, and occasionally I use the ATM on Pomona to withdraw cash. Claremont Cash would be with your ID card. Your ID card gets you into suites, gets you into lounges and laundry rooms, allows you into parties, allows you into the academic complex, allows you into classrooms, gets you into meals, pays flex, and pays Claremont cash. It’s important.</p>

<p>As far as I can tell, Claremont cash is mostly just a convenience thing of only carrying around one card, but it’s not accepted everywhere, and cash is just much more flexible. Claremont Cash can also be regulated by parents, I believe, so parents that want to keep careful tabs on their student’s spending may find giving them Claremont cash appealing.</p>

<p>

Summer Institute is getting to Mudd early. You’re moving in. You don’t go back or pack, you already packed and took everything with you if you’re at summer institute. If you live close enough, SI will end a day or two before Orientation starts. Or, if you live an hour and a half away, it’s possible you could do it all on move-on day. But the expectation is that you’ve arrived at Mudd early and brought everything with you, and the other SI students will likely be there to stay.</p>

<p>Plus I’m not really sure how going to SI without bringing anything would work…</p>

<p>Hope that covers things. Let me know if you come up with anything else :)</p>

4

<p>

Hey Braden I think it’s just the South machines that do quarters. I’ve heard, possibly inaccurately, that North machines use C-Cash? Also, I think another reason why C-Cash exists is so that parents can remotely send kids money that can only be spent on campus. Hmm… But it’s silly though, because C-Cash can’t be used anywhere else and it’s like… useless.</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>I believe at least a couple of the other dorms use quarters. Would have to check, but you may be right, I wouldn’t know as well. Yeah, I referenced the part about the parents later on.</p>

6

<p>I think case dorm laundry machines can take claremont cash but you can usually find quarters from people, or ask the treasurer (which would be me if you end up in case!)</p>

<p>other input on your questions:</p>

<p>For furniture, the standard stuff in rooms is OK but I got tired of it so I got a nice table and office chair from IKEA (there’s one nearby in Covina), and I think it’s been worth the investment</p>

<p>For bags, I use both a typical jansport one and a messenger bag, depending on what I’m carrying/wearing. My humanities class used a laptop for in class activities often, but in general i think it can be convenient to be able to carry around a laptop. Mine’s actually a netbook so it’s very portable.</p>

<p>For books, I’d recommend not worrying until you get here</p>

<p>For summer institute (which I did last year), you do sort of get a free day during the transition to orientation so you should be able to go home quickly to bring more stuff back. I just brought everything down when I first arrived at SI. Other than that you basically just move into your school year room as normal.</p>

7

<p>Alright, I didn’t think it was just us in South. I don’t really go to most any other laundry room except Atwood for the ice and occasionally West for the vending machine.</p>

8

<p>Blackroses, it sounds like you were confusing the “cost of attendance” estimate with your financial aid package. I think you’ve figured it out from others’ comments now, yes? As to bringing money to campus, I don’t recall anyone telling my son to bring $1,500 (or any other amount) with him last year. He hardly spends anything at all – but when he moved in last fall, he had everything with him, including toiletries, cleaning supplies, school supplies, and the like. Between that and the fact that he hardly ever leaves campus, he seldom has a need for cash.</p>

<p>As to bringing other stuff to campus – from my son’s experience, less is more. You need bedding, toiletries, a bath towel, and a week to 10 days’ worth of clothes with hangers to put them in the closet. Laptop if you have one, backpack to carry it in (one of the padded backpacks made for a laptop is a good investment imho because it’s kind to your back)… paper/pencils/pens… a desk lamp is nice. Something to put your laundry in and something to make smelly rooms smell better. geek_son still hoards quarters. His roomie has a Brita-type water filter pitcher, which gets a lot of use. Pretty much everything else is optional, at least for a guy. Over-the-door hooks can be handy to hang your backpack or other stuff from your lofted bed. One of those little clip-on shelves might be handy too. Some spray cleaner and paper towels, or Clorox wipes, are a good idea. Ants can be a problem; sprays aren’t allowed, but the little bait traps are. A power strip actually turned out to be optional because there are many reasonably well-positioned outlets in the dorm room.</p>

<p>About the bedding: On the parents forum, people make a big deal about mattress pads. This may depend on which dorm you get, but in geek_son’s dorm, the mattresses are very comfortable. He nixed the mattress pad. When he sleeps, he sleeps very well on that mattress.</p>

<p>About the laptop: Bring what you like OS-wise, Mudd doesn’t care. Wireless is useful. A phone that will receive your email could be useful too, but checking your mail a few times a day on the laptop would work.</p>

<p>About stopping at your room in the middle of the day: The inner dorms are just a couple minutes away from the classrooms. Whether you have time to dash to your room between classes depends on whether the classes are back-to-back, but it’s unlikely that you’ll have to carry all your books around any day.</p>

<p>geek<em>son doesn’t use Claremont cash, but I have noticed that several of the Village places (e.g., Podge’s) will accept it. I agree with the poster who said that it’s mostly a way for parents to give their kids controlled spending money. I just transfer money to geek</em>son’s checking account, same effect but without the restrictions, and he can use his debit card or withdraw cash at an ATM (there is one ATM somewhere on campus iirc). But I’d estimate he’s spent maybe $100-150 all school year, and he plans to cut back to the 12/12 meal plan because he always has a bit left over at the end of the week. You can get by cheaply if you want to.</p>

<p>As braden mentioned, SI participants just move into their rooms early. Oh, and he mentioned formal clothes. There are a couple of parties that involve black-tie formalwear, and you’ll also need that sort of clothing if you’re in the orchestra or choir.</p>

9

<p>Blackroses216 “Also, on the admitted students site, it states that freshman are expected to bring $1,500 to campus.”</p>

<p>Where is this “admitted students site”? My admitted student doesn’t seem to know about it…</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

10

<p>The site link and info was both mailed and emailed to all admitted students.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.hmc.edu/admission1/restricted/admittedstudents.html[/url]”>http://www.hmc.edu/admission1/restricted/admittedstudents.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I’ll send you the password and login.</p>

<p>The 1500 is mentioned towards the bottom of the financial information section.</p>

11

<p>oh what?! u have to pay laundry machines every time u use it?! that’s a pain. I would have expected it to be part of the boarding cost…</p>

12

<p>

… (10char)</p>

13

<p>no. what i said is not weird at all.
we don’t have to pay in my current school’s dorm.(attending a boarding school) It’s just part of the boarding cost.</p>

14

<p>I think paying for laundry is fairly standard on college campuses… 50 cents for the washer, 25 for the dryer, at least in Case. I assume it would be the same across all of the dorms, though. The main lesson here: bring lots of quarters to college.</p>

<p>Also, my two cents on the $1500/Claremont Cash (pun semi-intended) : I’ve found that I use very little spending money during the school year, and the amount I’ve spent this year comes nowhere close to $1500. (Also, there’s no reason to have $1500 in cash sitting around in your room.) You could potentially spend more if you go on lots of CAP trips (off-campus events (like concerts and the occasional Disneyland trip) with subsidized tickets) or if you eat off-campus a lot or if you buy lots of groceries or something like that. As for Claremont Cash, I don’t have any, and I wouldn’t use it even if I had it. Flex covers trips to Jay’s Place or when I need extra meals, so I don’t really have a use for Claremont Cash.</p>

15

<p>wonder why though?? It’s not like you can really choose not to do laundry… (or… can u?? XD)
well, whatever. it is what it is.</p>

16

<p>This is where I got the 1,500 from, which was posted on the admitted students site… I now realize it doesn’t necessarily mean in cash, and I also realized that 1,500 number is the number for freshman summer work contributions towards tuition and such…</p>

<p>“When you leave home for college life, you will need to have some money ready for all your start-up costs like books and supplies. We recommend you bring with you the funds you have earned over the summer. Every frosh is expected to earn, save, and bring to campus a minimum of $1,500, some of which will be needed for the first few days of school. Credit cards are accepted at the bookstore and quarters will definitely be needed for laundry!”</p>

17

<p>

That’s right. The $1500 is an estimate, and it’s a pretty high estimate imho. “Total cost of attendance” is actually kind of a new concept; 15 years ago, Admissions folks at my workplace were scratching their heads over how to answer parents who said, “I just want to know what it’s going to cost me.” Their estimates are just that – estimates.</p>

<p>Don’t keep $1500 (or any other large amount of) cash in your dorm room; that’s begging for a break-in. Yes, Mudders sign the book and commit to the Honor Code, but the outsiders who’ve come to see the 5Cs as their personal Walmart don’t.</p>

<p>@maruhan2: If laundry were part of a student fee, you can bet the fee would be higher than your actual cost of doing laundry. Take quarters, wash your clothes (please ;)), and be happy. :)</p>

18

<p>Are the closets similar in size across all the dorms or do they vary?</p>

19

<p>Vary across the dorms, I think, but they’re generally on the smaller side.</p>

20

<p>Closet sizes are definitely different depending on the dorm. I can only speak for Case doubles, but the entire closet (for two people) is about 6.5 feet wide and 3 feet deep. I’m fairly confident that’s one of the biggest closet sizes you’ll find on campus.</p>