<p>Well, there have been a lot of posts through the years about this. For us, we went to every Parents Weekend for 8 years. However, both our sons were heavily into performing groups so it was our opportunity to see them in several different performances as well as enjoy any other special parents weekend activities. Some parents only go the freshman year, some (especially those who live nearby) never go at all. So it varies. We always had a great time, and were very glad we went–so would highly recommend every parent go at least once. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if it was on this forum, but a while ago someone mentioned of an insurance for the student’s personal property. Anybody here knows what I’m talking about?</p>
<p>@Saona63 , I believe it was <a href=“http://www.collegestudentinsurance.com/”>http://www.collegestudentinsurance.com/</a>. </p>
<p>Premiums are reasonable, so I took the insurance. </p>
<p>About the class ring: ceremony shmeremony. That’s just a marketing gimmick. That being said, we did buy a class ring for my son, mainly because we wanted him to have one. He didn’t particularly care, and I doubt if he’ll ever wear it. You can just go to the Yale bookstore and order it. We’ll probably buy one for my daughter as well, although she probably won’t care, either. It’s really not a thing. For that matter, the yearbook isn’t much of a thing anymore, either–and the one for my son’s year was terrible–worse than his high school yearbooks. Tell your kids if they want to have their EC group pictured in the yearbook they have to be proactive about it, or there will be no picture.</p>
<p>Thanks Hunt, that was exactly the feedback I was looking for. I suspected as much. I found the pitch about "…in the past 20 years, ring designs and options have multiplied to the point where the symbolism of the ring has been lost and anyone could purchase a ring-(insert menacing chords here…)-even if they did not attend Yale…puhleese, it takes a lot more than a ring in the internet age to pretend to have a degree from Yale!</p>
<p>My older son did not want a class ring, but our Yalie does, who knows how long he’ll wear it, but we’re okay with buying one for him. I do like the residential college crest on the one side, I think his RC means just as much to him as Yale does.</p>
<p>The Yearbook feedback is also appreciated!</p>
<p>“I do like the residential college crest on the one side” Cool! That I’d like – maybe a present I get for myself… </p>
<p>For graduation, my parents bought me a signet ring. I still wear it occasionally. However, my affiliation to my Res Clg means equally as much as to Yale College.</p>
<p>Hi. Just introducing myself here. I’ve been on CC a long time but first time for me in this forum. My younger son just headed to his new apt in New Haven today. Starting his MM in Composition in the School of Music. Not sure if there are any grad student parents on here or not but thought I’d say hello!</p>
<p>I’m a grad school parent. DD is older than most here, because she took 5 years between undergrad and grad school. She sublet her apartment over the summer, and is heading back next week, showing up only a day or two before classes. :-)</p>
<p>I’m also a grad school parent. DS does not live off-campus. He lives in the “dorm”. But I heard most grad students move out to an off-campus apartment even if they live in the dorm in the first year.</p>
<p>We are planning to ship one of our cars to him at this moment. He has never owned a car at New Haven even though he started to drive in high school years. He used to rely on ZipCar or public transportation or taxi for his transportation need. But mostly he walks.</p>
<p>He eats at food carts more often he would like to. (Not particularly healthy food, compared to the food at a RC.)</p>
<p>In one year, he lived in an apartment owned by Yale (I think it was managed by the Elm Partnership or a company with a name similar to this) in the downtown area (close to Chapel and York.) He cooked more often in that year. (I heard he ordered grocery food from some online company and they delivered, usually on weekends, together with a couple of other grad students. It is more expensive.)</p>
<p>We have never visited the Elm city since he was a grad student. We talk to him only once a week. When we missed him, we sometimes visited some web sites related to Yale, like this forum. But it seems college student parents are more “active” here.</p>
<p>DS took several introductory music composition classes for “beginning” music majors even though he was not a music major. I believe some “ear training” courses that are suggested to be taken by the students taking these composition I, II and III courses were often led by some more senior grad students. (Likely he took 1.5 credits for this sequence of courses each semester when he took them.)</p>
<p>Just some questions about owning a car in New Haven or NE in general.</p>
<p>What kind of engine oil do people use on their car in the northeast? I guess it is not 10W40 because the weather is colder there. It is likely that even the engine coolant is different between a car in California and a car in NE?</p>
<p>I look up the Nissan dealers (as the used car we are going to ship to DS is a Nissan.) There seems to be one on the Derby ave (which is connected to Chapel) in West Haven (George Harte Nissan), and there is another one on the Universal Drive North in North Haven (Executive Nissan). Does anybody have any good experience with the service department of either of them?</p>
<p>Do you happen to know a tire store near New Haven that sells the snow tire and helps the customers to switch their car’s regular tires to snow tires and store their regular tires during the winter? Is there a need for this?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Well…I am in the “helicoptering” mode right now. I notice that after your child has been out of college, you automatically lose the “privilege” of being a helicopter parent 
But DS really does not know much about the car (other than just to drive the car.) A year ago, we found out that he even did not know that when the windshield becomes foggy (it is often very wet in New Haven), turning on the AC could help. A consequence of never having much opportunity to drive a car!</p>
<p><a href=“Oil”>http://www.motorstate.com/oilviscosity.htm</a>
</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>We often just assume that the mechanics at a local auto service center knows what grade of oil to be used for cars in our area. When the car is moved to a different temperature zone, it is quite possible that the grade of oil may need to be changed. We just have an oil change on this car. We wonder whether the oil needs to be changed again after it is shipped from California bay area to New Haven.</p>
<p>I know that it costs more to do such a small thing like oil change at a dealer. But we want our S to know where to take his car to when his car needs service initially. This car was once serviced by a Firestone when it was not owned by us - we purchased it as a used car. It had an after-market brake on it. It took us more than a year (4 visits to various auto service centers) before a noise problem caused by this after-market brake was fixed.</p>
<p>The whole snow tires thing probably isn’t necessary for New Haven. Is he going to be driving his car every single day to get to school? Are there no other options? My DH and I are lifelong Northeasterners, and we “just deal” on those days when it snows. We use my Subaru, or nothing. And the snow in New Haven is much less frequent, and more transient, than where we live in New York. </p>
<p>
If he has climate control in the car, it is usually best to set the desired temperature and leave the AC on – the car will determine the “right things to do.” It seems wasteful, but turning the AC off and driving with the windows open is actually more destructive of gas mileage because of the increased drag (at least at highway speeds).</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>We live far away and have never been living in the northeast. So we naturally worry about the weather conditions there. In all the areas we have been living before, it almost never snows.</p>
<p>I do not know his daily schedule. But I guess he might not need to drive everyday. (He did need to drive to Bridgeport everyday for more than a month in the past semester. Luckily, it was not in the winter.)</p>
<p>The car he is going to get does not have climate control. None of our cars has that.</p>
<p>It is always our “dream” (so far an unfulfilled one) to give him a subaru. We used to have a 1999 Subaru Forester and its engine became troublesome in its later years and it cost too much money to fix. All members in our family liked that car very much - it was when Subaru Forester was still much more compact.</p>
<p>@mcat2: FWIW: Most students who live on campus DO NOT have cars as </p>
<ol>
<li>All classes are within walking distance of their dorm</li>
<li>All parties are within walking distance of their dorm</li>
<li>Many supermarkets and stores are within walking distance of their dorm</li>
<li>All on campus jobs and many off-campus ones are within walking distance of their dorm</li>
<li>Local street parking is metered only, limited to 2 hours at a time</li>
<li>Although there are parking garages available for Yale students, they are further away than some classrooms</li>
<li>Zip Cars are available to Yale students for $9.00 an hour, including gas and insurance, so many kids don’t need to bring cars to school, even when they need one for a weekend.</li>
</ol>
<p>@gibby, I hadn’t realized until you mentioned it and I googled, that Zipcar’s minimum age was reduced to 18. I’ve been so accustomed to rental companies insisting on 25 that I didn’t consider it an option. That’s great!</p>
<p>^^ As a rising senior at Yale, my son has rented Zipcars for the past 3 years to travel to club baseball games, go leaf peeping on a fall weekend, make trips to Costco etc. It’s much easier and cheaper than bringing your own car to school.</p>
<p>@gibby, I am fully aware that the students living on campus could get around without owning a car (and it is cheaper.) Also, DS has been a frequent user of ZipCar in the past few years. He walks everywhere (he was trained well by walking to science hill almost everyday as a STEM major :))</p>
<p>One of his suitmates in UG years had a car. I heard his parking space was likely a half way up on the science hill. It took some efforts for him to walk there when he needed to use his car. It was very inconvenient.</p>
<p>It was our contant concern that, when DS was an UG student, he only had a limited opportunities to drive - mostly only when he was home during break. In later years, he might stay on campus most of the time during summer and did not have access to the car frequently enough to build up his driving experience (even though he had his driver license in his junior year in high school!)</p>
<p>So our motivation for him to get one of our cars is not an economical one. It is more about building up his driving experience in the long run.</p>
<p>Don’t laugh at this: Last semester before he needed to drive to/from Bridgeport for 1-2 months, he rented a ZipCar and had several intensive practice sessions (like driving for 5-6 hours a day) over several days!</p>
<p>When DS was in college, he was surprised by how many students from a NE large city (esp. NYC) did not drive or even did not know how to drive. I think two of his suitemates (2 out of 6) in his freshman suite did not know how to drive. They did not know how to drive after 4 years, when they graduated from college. </p>
<p>It was very different from what happens to the young men and women in the state we used to live: almost everyone drives on a regular basis in college. (It is more dangerous for the student if he or she drives, but this is an unrelated issue here.)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>DD hates to drive and wouldn’t dream of having a car at Yale. She gets groceries delivered or walks to the grocery store and picks them up. I think Mcat2, that your son will get the driving experience he needs when he has a real need of it. Having a car at Yale seems like an expense, bother, and major headache that he will not need. Just MHO!!! :-)</p>