<p>Thanks Hunt. My D told me that the Youtube sensation Sam Tsui was at the concert for the acapella group on campus and performed with his old acapella group. D was thrilled to see him.</p>
<p>Also just got back from Family weekend- fabulous weather on Saturday, hurrah!! Unfortunately the football team didn’t capitalize on the weather :(. Went to Barcelona on Saturday night, a phenomenal restaurant with tapas-style dining. It was packed and definitely a happening place to be, we saw two of S2’s professors eating there as well!</p>
<p>Do freshmen ever switch roommates? My son is in a double, no suite, and his roommate won’t even speak to him since my son is a music kid and the roommate considers himself a too-cool athlete. My son has met so many wonderful, friendly people, but the roommate is cruel. I suggested he talk to his froco.</p>
<p>Morning WXYZ999</p>
<p>I am sorry to hear that your student and the roommate haven’t connected yet. I was under the impression that Yale’s housing form - which asks some pretty insightful questions- did a pretty good job of matching kids. </p>
<p>I am going to go out on a limb here and give a few thoughts - however since there is no way to really know whats going on without being a fly on the wall in the room…
There are 3 stories/perspectives, your son’s, the roommates, and whats observed from the outside.</p>
<p>As different the boys seem from each other, college is a time to learn to live with other people who have vastly different backgrounds, beliefs and interests.</p>
<p>I can speak as the parent of an athlete–
the athletes have heavy demands on their time—My student has 2 practices a day (one in the weight room and one with the team) A STEM major, classes include tons of P sets and labs…so my student is normally tired and busy.
Our student is eligible for an on-campus job as part of the aid package as is also trying to find a way to fit that in.</p>
<p>If their schedules are vastly different, that one is taking am classes and the other pm classes, and one has sports and the other has rehersals…perhaps it is more of misunderstanding on your son’s part?</p>
<p>If you student has the judgement/attitude that you describe the roommate …he thinks of himself as “too cool”, that is something you son needs to consider for himself as part of his responsibility in them not connecting. </p>
<p>Other than that, your son could go to the froco to talk about ways they could connect and perhaps the froco would suggest they meet as 3, idk. Unless there is a direct swap within the dorm, I can’t imagine a way they’d move your son. I didn’t hear of anything like that last year when our student was a freshman.</p>
<p>It is only October and the mid terms are adding more pressure. So that could be part of the angst as well.</p>
<p>Edited to add: our student and the roommate are different and yet similar. Similar academic interests yet different ECs. Both guys are mellow enough to not sweat the small stuff…and they have worked it out well. Our student can’t party with the dorm mates as much as the roommate and in-season the whole team “goes dry” so the team hangs out together.</p>
<p>One last thought, the athletes are spread throughout the colleges, and generally do not room together… Just like not all of the musicians room together, all of the poets, all of the mathematicians, engineers etc It is rather nice that way.</p>
<p>WXYZ999, it must be hard for you to see that your S is feeling hurt by the way he feels his roommate is treating him, especially because it seems from your post that your S is reaching out to people and appreciating Yale in so many ways. It’s obviously important to feel welcome when you come “home” to your room, and I would guess that your S’s situation is exaggerated by the fact that he does not live in a suite. At least in a suite there is a room were you can be apart from your roommate, and also feel comfortable inviting a group of your non-roomie friends to hang out.</p>
<p>I don’t have any specific experience with your question, but I did hear this question asked on a tour of Yale before my kid became a student. A parent asked “What happens if you don’t get along with your roommate?”</p>
<p>As oldfort suggested, the response from the student giving the tour was that Yale is particularly good at matching roommates (and I have found this to be true in my kid’s case). But of course no system is perfect, and perhaps the kids looked like a good match on paper.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the student giving our tour said that despite Yale’s good record with this, he did have a problem freshman year. He, also, was rooming with an athlete, a guy who had to get up before dawn for practices and work-outs. This in itself wasn’t a problem, except that the tour guide described the roomie’s preferred method of getting out of bed that early: set the alarm clock for an hour and a half earlier (so, something like 3:00 am) and just keep hitting SNOOZE until 4:30! Apparently this worked best for the tired athlete. But not so well for the tour guide.</p>
<p>Tour guide spoke to froco. The attitude was that Yale wants kids to be happy, and that if there’s a problem, they’ll find an accommodation. In this case, there was a switch arranged. What really struck me was that the tour guide said that he’s good friends with the athlete today, three or four years later. Obviously this was managed without creating hard feelings.</p>
<p>If your S were my kid, I would advise him to think of the best way to present this issue without pointing fingers. To describe their “incompatibility” without placing blame. Then I would suggest he go to the froco, for starters. I would also remind my kid that he should only do this if the situation is truly unpleasant enough to warrant a switch - even if it means to a less desirable room/location/etc.</p>
<p>I would also tell my kid that if things don’t work out, and he ends up staying with the roommate, he should just try his best to rise above it. Sometimes if you just remember to treat people the way you would like to be treated, small miracles can happen. Your S should be reminded to concentrate on what and whom he likes at Yale, and not to keep any sort of “silent war” going on his side of the roommate situation. Which is, ultimately, the only side of things he can control.</p>
<p>Who knows, maybe a few months from now they will figure out why Yale put them together, and theirs will become one of those stories about people who thought they didn’t like each other at first. If not, maybe take consolation in the idea that experiences like this will make your son stronger and more capable of navigating difficult social situations, which he will surely have to do in the future.</p>
<p>It’s hard to see our kids unhappy, though, so my heart goes out to you.</p>
<p>WXYZ999 - I’m sorry to hear about the roommate situation. We did not have this issue as S was in a single freshman year, but we do have a friend who’s child had a roommate issue freshman year. They did deal with froco; unfortunately, that alone wasn’t able to resolve it. They ended up allowing a move into a room in McClellan that was vacant for the spring semester. It was a big relief for the kid and finished the year on a good note instead of the intense stress that started the year off. This year kid is in a double in a 6 person suite and all is fine. So, there may be other options down the road.<br>
So sorry though - not a good way to start off college. I’m glad that the other parts of school are going well for him, though…I’m sure that helps a bit.</p>
<p>Anyone have their students home for the break?
Our K1 won’t be here til Thanksgiving.
Just wondering if the kids are taking off or are on campus</p>
<p>My son is just heading to NY for the day and then getting caught up with homework. Ah, the life of a STEM (and pre-med) major. :o</p>
<p>^ Kdog, like your student K1 has plenty of p sets etc (STEM)
and 2 practices a day with team…no break</p>
<p>I wonder how many leave campus…or if the pace is just a tad slower</p>
<p>Mine’s home…so nice to have him home before Thanksgiving for once!</p>
<p>My son’s older sister flew to NYC this week to see friends and took the train to New Haven today to visit DS and her alma mater. Tomorrow they will go to NYC and spend the next few days together. I think he’s planning to visit friends at Columbia tomorrow and then hang with her and friends.</p>
<p>My freshman is home, happy to be sleeping in his old bed and raiding the fridge.</p>
<p>A number of his friends (esp. those from points distant) stayed on campus, but quite a few went home or are visiting friends/relatives in the northeast.</p>
<p>Mine’s at his girlfriend’s house in a neighboring state. Sadly they both have so much to do it’ll be a working break. Papers, applications for jobs next summer, application for the global affairs major. Not much of a break but at least he’s getting some home cooked meals!</p>
<p>My D is the only one in her suite that stayed - the other 5 girls have all gone home. Most of her friends have gone home too, so she is feeling lonely. She has lots of homework, though, so that should be something of a distraction. If I had known that so many would leave, I would have worked harder to try to find an “inexpensive” flight home - I just assumed that the RC would have a fun option for those staying, but I guess not.</p>
<p>For those of you who had kids there last year, how did the school handle the impending threat of a hurricane?</p>
<p>My son was a freshman in Farnam, and I remember that the day before the hurricane, JE gave out brown bags of food to the freshmen, so they wouldn’t have to leave their buildings. They emailed out precautions, and the frocos had some activities to keep them busy. It was a Sunday, so classes weren’t canceled, but some professors canceled classes the next day because the storm affected them. Yale has its own generators, so power wasn’t a concern.</p>
<p>^ Exactly. with their own generators etc, they were fine.
The brown bag snacks held them over.</p>
<p>Is the entire Yale campus covered by generators (i.e. no loss of power for students living on Old Campus)? How does the school handle storms of this magnitude in terms of keeping students informed about schedule changes, class cancellations, etc.? Trying to figure out whether it makses sense to send D back to school into the path of the storm after fall break.</p>
<p>Yale’s proximity to Long Island sound means this is not a new experience. I recall my Freshman year in Farnham (Go JE!) and Hurricane Gloria was supposed to bear down on us. Although we were ignorant to the goings on behind the scene, everything seemed to be in good order — and this was before any thought of email/text blasts to warn or inform us.</p>
<p>If my kid was at school, unless the hurricane was on top of New Haven, I’d send her back. You gotta remember that the path of storms can’t be predicted. To not go back would seem too cautious in my mind.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if a lot of the students who left for fall break are going to have travel issues getting back to NH? </p>
<p>Also, regarding last year’s hurricane Irene:</p>
<p>At the convocation they explained that all of Yale’s power lines are underground and they have their own independent power station which provides all the electricity to campus. They had no power losses at all during Irene. the kids did get bags of dry goods and bottles of water and were told to stay in their suites. In the end the storm really did not end up being that bad, and classes hadn’t started yet anyway. But it was reassuring to know they had a plan in place. </p>
<p>This storm will be more tricky with so many students still away from campus.</p>