Wow, @fro123, I also gave my D the financial responsibilities for her travel. But she travels Amtrak so the largest fare for one way would be around $200. I had the same reasons. Her motivation will be better to make timely bookings. However, with flying, that could be a very expensive lesson.
@college4many and @Kelowna - I will not be much help on the travel after the game since D takes the train home. She traveled to H with her EC group and stayed with H students. I assume she left her stuff in their room until it was time to leave? Also she did not get a ticket to the Game because she did not act quickly enough. I don’t know how she got back to New Haven Saturday night, but she then took the train home on Sunday. I think it will be hard for you to plan for this until you know who they will travel with.
In other news, the fall term bill is available now.
I have to get D to do the Health Coverage waiver because that charge is on there.
For the first time, she got dinged a whole $13 for “Failure to Clean Up”. Anyone know if they charged more people this year?
Also, have the $117 for “Senior Class Dues”.
Otherwise, hooray for the final fall bill!
@musicmerit Yes - it’s an expensive business travelling across the Altlantic! Financial Aid technically only covers one flight home a year, but with careful planning it can be stretched to more so it’s worth planning ahead. We simply couldn’t afford late-booked peak time flights ourselves…!
@musicmerit, DS was charged $4.73 for “Failure to Clean Up,” but $20 for “failure to check out” and $20 for “Non Return of Key.”
I think they just added pro-rated and random amounts (DS was in a 6 person suite). I think I recall being impatient to (finally) get on the road and telling him that I’d pay for the failure to check out.
@kelowna
Hi - my daughter is doing the 6 day FOOT. She’s an experienced mountaineer and this is the ideal way for her to start her Yale experience. She signed up for the hardest trip, whatever that is - maybe the White Mountains?
I have learned that our airline with the most frequent flyer miles allows for one way tickets for the adjusted number of miles, so this has been helpful. I booked D a one way to get back to Yale after Thanksgiving (which is the busy travel day), and am going to hold off a bit on the Nov 19/20 ticket. It looks like the game is at 12:30, and based on flight schedules, there is really no way she can get home on Saturday. She has friends at MIT that she can crash with on Saturday night (if needed), so she is leaning towards just making it work one way or another and leaving Boston on Sunday morning.
@Faulkner1897 - I get an email monthly alerting to whether or not there are any charges on the account. I am guessing at some point D put our email in the system?
HELP!!!
I’m so confused…just accessed our first yale “bill” and it doesn’t reflect the payment we’ve already made (May/June+$100 payment plan enrollment fee) I called yale and was told “real” amount due is reflected on ACS website. Does anyone else think this is crazy? What’s the point of sending out a statement if it doesn’t accurately reflect payments made? Totally goofy or am I missing something here…
I must be in the system since I got an email alert about the bill - so that’s good. My daughter added DH and me as authorized payers a few weeks ago. The heads up I particularly appreciate is your comment about the line item for the Yale insurance, which my daughter is declining (but hasn’t done so yet). My husband paid the entire bill already not realizing this (via 529). I am hoping it doesn’t mess anything up with the 529 payment.
In looking at the bill that just came out, I don’t see anything for board (tuition and room are there). I’m wondering if we missed a step of picking a dining plan . . . has anyone else come across this?
Looking at my statement right now. Looks like Yale Payment Plan (ACS) has given money to Yale for the fall semester since this is listed as payment (the entire amount, not what I have payed so far), also one of the outside scholarships has made the payment. Still waiting for another outside scholarship and Yale scholarship. Yale insurance is not listed, so I am assuming that D has been successful in waving it ? I actually have a credit on that bill . Confusing. The charge for board is there, but it must be automatic since all freshman have the same meal plan. Am I correct?
Any returning parents will answer my fridge question , pretty please…
To play it safe, I’ve only paid for “no-brainer” qualified expenses with a 529.
I expect that if @faulkner1897 D waives, there will be a credit in the account, which can be used for next semester. I would not try to get the money back into the 529 (toothpaste, tube, etc.), but I could grab some popcorn and watch.
Otoh, 529 reporting is based on financial calendar, not academic calendar, so maybe a phone call to Yale would be a good idea. Good luck, and please let us know how it turns out.
@Kelowna, I remember renting a fridge for freshman year, but didn’t for sophomore year. I don’t think it was a big deal either way. One of DS’s roommates had a coffee maker, and that was apparently much more important than ice-cold water.
After being placed on hold for an hour with ACS I was given a temporary password. When I logged on to the site I found I needed my previous password in order to change my password…
Really if I wasn’t already irate over spending too much time on this I would have laughed as it’s pretty comical.
Hope the rest of the payment process is error free going forward! YIKES!
On the positive side, I have found that the folks who answer questions at FA office at Yale to be very friendly and spot on…THANK GOD!!!
We were also charged a strange amount which is really weird because I made sure myself that the suite was cleaned with the exception of the one room a girl was living in and a couch that another girl’s cousin was moving for her. That seems unfair that the whole suite was charged for one person. It wasn’t a lot but it was more about the principle. I was more concerned about them needing to repaint certain places because the paint came off with those 3m removable strips.
As for a microwave and fridge. My kid LOVED having both. There were many times that she could not get to the dining hall to eat and so she would pick up something from Durfees and cook it in the room or store a yogurt there. Our fridge had a freezer and that was also a huge hit because not all suites had that. She kept an ice pack for her athlete roommates and a tray of ice for cubes because they did not have AC. Microwave popcorn, mac and cheese and other single serve foods were a staple for her late at night. I highly recommend. I would not get a combo thing though. If one part breaks you lose both and they are not incredibly expensive to begin with.
It seems like a suite can probably share a fridge and keep it in the common room (and share the expenses if the fridge is rented). If your daughter is going to be living in Old Campus, I can see the benefit of having a place to store food since the RC dining is not right downstairs.
For sheer ease (since we are not local and don’t plan on bringing a lot of “stuff” that has to be stored over the summer), my daughter will probably rent a fridge if her suitemates don’t plan on bringing one.
Printers are readily available. There is a small per-page charge, but DS (who did most of his studying in the library) found it much easier to use the communal printers than to walk back to his room to pick up what he had printed. Can’t blame him, given how far it was. So a printer might be nice to have, depending on where your student prefers to study, but it’s not necessary.
Sophomore chiming in (note, I am within driving distance) –
Printer: No, rarely needed printouts/library was close and fine.
Fan(s): Yes, two, no air conditioning (at least not in my suite). Very hot in Aug.-Sept.
Refrig.-Freezer: Yes. Loved having cold drinks and ice cream (freezer compartment was a decent size). Chose to bring/buy rather than rent, personal preference (downside: transporting).
Microwave: Suite mate brought one; I rarely used, but he did on occasion.
Lamp(s): Yes, room dark, needed both floor and desk.
Mattress Topper (2" thick memory foam, x-long): Yes, bought on Amazon, slept great.
