@canoe2015 As you can imagine, Yale has a lot of experience with fundraising. Alumni are tracked for the rest of our lives – my classmate, Anderson Cooper YC’89 spoke at the 2006 Class Day. He joked that if Osama Bin Laden had been a Yale alum, the Alumni Fund would have already tracked him down.’
Give it it’s your inclination. My parents were very blue collar and I rec’d tons of Fin Aid. Their tuition payments were plenty for them. I’ve given but my parents never did and didn’t blink an eye.
@YaleDad2019: your son will not get Yale credit for his Stanford courses, but he can probably use them to fulfill pre-requisites for more advanced courses, so he won’t have to repeat them again (unless he wants to).
The interesting thing is Yale completely ignores graduate student families. We’ve never received one communication from them - but, then, maybe they don’t even know who we are, let alone a way to reach us. But it does make me feel absolutely disconnected from the school. A very different experience than one has with one’s child’s undergraduate institution. I think I come on this forum just to feel like I have some faint connection to the place.
Hi I have a trivial question about drinking water in Yale. My DS drinks nothing but water. Is the tap water safe to drink at the residential hall? Do they have water fountain at the dorm? Shall I pack him a Brita pitcher with a filter? Thanks.
@happypiano, DS also drinks lots of water. He fills up a bottle at the tap, and sometimes has enough foresight to have a cold one waiting in the fridge (which I recommend getting). We generally drink Poland Spring at home because of a chlorine taste in the water, but he doesn’t seem to mind the tap water at school. I’ll ask, but I don’t know about water fountains.
Fwiw, he also began drinking coffee regularly during freshman year and also that other beverage. YMMV.
Thanks @T26E4, that’s helpful perspective.
@SpiritManager, that’s an interesting point. When I was applying for graduate school (admittedly a while ago and at other schools) I’m not sure the applications asked anything about my parents, so as you said Yale simply may not know anything about you. Obviously the undergraduate application does ask about parent names, schools attended, occupations, place of birth, etc.
I also received the letter and the sticker from Yale. I really want to put that sticker somewhere on my car, but then it is Yale so I just put it in my drawer. In the places where I have lived, I have seen a ton of stickers of Rutgers, Ohio State, and U of Michigan.
If you don’t hear much from your kid about what is happening on campus, here are some sites you can browse:
As an alumni, I am now deluged with my own fundraising letters and calls and now parent ones. Told my alumni caller that I would be giving plenty of my money to Yale for 4 years so I’m taking a break.
My D is the humor editor for The Boola. It’s the Yale version of Buzzfeed!! She writes for it too. If your kids are interested, PM me.
Does anyone have the Yale Daily News delivered to their house? I just got a package from the YDN with the summer edition of the paper and an offer to get hard copies of the paper delivered.
Every issue seems like too much . . . can’t imagine I’d read 5 editions of the paper per week . . . but they also have a weekly digest for $125 that seems like it might be a good way to keep up with what’s happening on campus. Obviously there’s online content also. I’d appreciate any thoughts.
I just read the online content. I don’t even have time to read all that is on there every day. I wonder what other content you would get in print?
I read online also. DS sends me a link when there’s an article of note.
Thanks, that’s good to know that there’s a lot online during the school year. I’m not sure what if anything is in print beyond the online content.
Hi all
here in New Haven! its quiet, too quiet… but i expect all that to change tomorrow! It’s amazing the tour we got from my Sophomore to be in a week’s time from our son.It was great! Now I understand far better what everyone is referencing
For anyone interested in the tuition/room and board insurance plan mentioned a few pages back, I found the Yale policy on refunds for withdrawals due to medical circumstances - starts on page 100 in the document at this link.
http://yalecollege.yale.edu/campus-life/undergraduate-regulations
For this semester for example the policy is:
-full refund through 9/16 (any meals eaten charged at guest rate)
-50% refund 9/17 through 9/26
-25% refund 9/27 through 10/30
-no refund after 10/30
So this would be the situation without the insurance.
If I understand the insurance correctly, it refunds 85% regardless of when a withdrawal occurs. The premium is $404 for both semesters. If a student has to withdraw in the fall for the whole year, they refund 85% of fall charges and then refund the premium for spring.
So it’s really buying coverage one semester at a time, except you pay the full premium upfront. So I believe that’s a $202 premium per semester for coverage of $31,100 x .85 = $26,435.
I guess this is really happening…
My daughter is doing the 6 day FOOT pre-orientation while I am in here in CA attempting to pack everything into my two suitcase limit. I’m stopping by to say thank you to everyone for all of the tips and advice on this thread. It is no wonder my dd fell in love with YALE. See you all in 3 days (I’ll be the one wearing the same outfit all weekend as there is no room for ‘Mom stuff’.)
@Suemomsie - Welcome! They have stores in and around New Haven, so you can use the excuse to buy some new clothes. 
@Suemomsie -Speak for yourself, Im still not convinced it is happening, Im in deep denial. I keep wishing it was senior year of high school. I guess if he has to go somewhere Yale is considered a decent school. I will see you on Friday.
Freshman parents, are you all ready? To be honest, I am not…
Hope that I am not the only ‘not-so-cool’ parent who cries on Sat afternoon when the school kicks the parents out.