Got my kid in the van on the way home from the Indy airport. It’s Christmas now.
I think having the finals so late in the season this year has taken a toll on some of the kids. My daughter said that a lot of her friends are struggling with keeping focused and getting through it. A few are very disappointed with how they performed during them. I have to say that I am glad that her favorite class is the last one she has to test for. She doesn’t mind studying for it. She comes home on Wed because her last exam is then. Most of her friends came home this weekend. That has to be distracting.
@Memmsmom, DS is in the same boat. He has his last final Wednesday. We got a stressed text over the weekend. Reassured him that GPA isn’t everything (we are not talking Cs or Ds here). He calmed down. We are looking forward to a family vacation shortly after his return. Think beach.
@IxnayBob Its so hard to hear them melt down a bit. My daughter had a little bit of one while she had the flu because she had to take an exam while dying. She had permission to not take it at all but if she didn’t she would have to drop that one grade instead of an earlier one she had banked on dropping. She was a sobbing and irrational mess over it. It was so hard because she was so sick and could barely stay awake never mind study. She had a fever of 102 when she took the exam. All things worked out in the end. She ended up with the top of the curve for the class on that exam so she got to drop the earlier one. I told her she should be feverish for all of her exams. But the stress and pressure these kids put on themselves is nuts. She jokes that “C’s get degrees” but the truth is if she ever got a C she would lose her mind. She had one class where the teacher said at the very beginning that they don’t give out A’s in the class. I thought she was going to drop it right there and then. You don’t tell a kid with OCD that there is no chance for perfection. ha ha ha.
Enjoy your son when he gets home. Enjoy the beach and holidays. I promised her a whole plate of fried mozzarella sticks if she can just get through these few days. She is easy to please. LOL
Welcome to all the new parents! Yale is a wonderful place! I’m an especially happy Yale mom today because my sophomore son came home last night and will be home for over two weeks, which is unusual for us. After hours of car trouble, he came home and helped his sister for at least an hour with her homework, since she was the one stressing! He was the only one who could help since he had read the book a few years ago in HS. Life is good.
And to the new parents, the board is so helpful, feel free to ask any questions! And a big congrats to you and your children!
A little more about hotels: As noted, the nicer hotels near campus are the Study, the Courtyard Marriott, the Omni, and the New Haven Hotel. I’ve stayed at the first three, and they are all convenient and nice. If you want to stay in one of these places on high-volume weekends–like Bulldog Days, Family Weekend, the Yale-Harvard football game, and Commencement, you must reserve very early, and be prepared to pay a premium. For some of those weekends (especially Commencement) there may be a minimum three-night stay. If you can have a car, staying outside of town can save you a ton of money, and parking on or near campus isn’t really that difficult.
Sometimes the airline sites have auto rentals with airfares under a “vacation” tab or something. By bundling, you can sometimes get a great deal on a rental at Bradley if you’re travelling with the kiddo rather than a la carte.
Hi all, yes these late exams are taking a toll! DS won’t be home until late Thursday. He has to go on the 3rd for training camp. I have refrained from asking for a Fellowship-of-the-Rings-Quest type present ask,ok a photo of him with the new Handsome Dan(!) because it’s a bit ridiculous, Handsome Dan is probably already on holiday and DS is studying so hard.
And welcome to all the new Yalies and their parents! Ask anything here and you will get all the help you need. I’m really grateful to this group. They’ve been great from the start!
@oldladyandmom
Athletes got some private meet and greets with new Handsome Dan! Hope your son got pics!
He’s too cute! All furry rolls of jolly puppy fat. All those folks who disparage of puppy time at “snowflake Ivy schools” are really just jealous. Who could resist puppy time 
I happen to know of one young lady who is rather jealous of said “puppy time”.
So much for the “convenience” of Harford!!! My son’s flight was delayed two hours so he missed his Newark connector. No word yet if he was able to sprint to his re-scheduled connector. Thinking the NH train to NYC might be a better option in the future :-/
Transportation for our daughter, has gone without a hitch so far. For Bulldog Days, start of school, Thanksgiving, and now Christmas, she has used the GO Prime Time shuttle. Which picks her up, and drops her off at Phelps Gate. It takes her back and forth to Laguardia Airport. I was initially paralyzed with all of the choices. Do we choose Tweed, Hartford, Laguardia, JFK, or Newark? Do use a shuttle, Amtrak, bus, or Metro North?
We were lucky this year. Last year my D had a final on the morning of the 23rd. Got home late, late that night. Was of course fried and tired. We had to put up tree and shop on Christmas eve. Let’s say it was not the best way to go about it. This year her professors had finals the last day of class - one because she wanted to catch her flight home to Korea. Meant she did not have reading period to study, but she keeps up with class pretty well so it worked out. She came home on the 14th and had a couple of papers to finish so she went into her room and stayed for a couple of days. But she was at least here. I am definitely enjoying having her home for this long because anyone who sees my posts knows that my kid is rarely home because of her world travels. I am in mommy heaven.
@Memmsmom - so glad your D is home. Mine also went through finals sick, but they are strong - mentally and physically - it is us old folk that stress. I feel you about the C’s. I tell her that all the time but she too would have a heart attack if she actually got one. Happy Holidays!!
@trackcoach79
Curious which combination of trains, planes and automobiles you took. My son confirmed uber from campus to Hartford was pricy and thought the added expense would be a wash if he just did Tweed. Have you found the magic combination? I feel like these last travel plans were fraught with problem after problem :-0
@tonymom The Go Prime Time shuttle through Yale, traveling to LGA, is route we’ve settle on. http://2theairport.hudsonltd.net/res?USERIDENTRY=YALE&LOGON=GO
Chiming in with a plug for the $44 CT Limo shuttle bus ticket and Bradley. My Yale student has used it three times now and it’s worked well. Bradley is a great airport if it works with where you live.
Just throwing another option out there…
In November my daughter had a flight she absolutely had to make at Bradley for an important family event (involved a connection and if she missed the flight, she would have had to scrap the entire trip). So I booked a private car through Hy’s Limo, found on a Yale private car service page: http://your.yale.edu/administrative-services/travel-relocation-fleet/travel/ground-transportation/private-car-service.
It cost about $130 including tip, and the experience was A+.
She rode home on CT Limo, which worked very well the 4 times she used it to and from Bradley.
@Tperry1982 thank you and to your family too. Grades are slowly coming in and so far so good. She is really upset over the makeup test she had to take when she had the flu. She almost wished she took it while dead to the world because the makeup test was horrible. It brought her easy A to a B+. I was happy with the grade. It’s so hard on them to be anything less than the best of the best. Her organic chemistry grade that she said she was "failing " (aka C) ended as a solid B so it’s a good day here at our house. Lol. Now to enjoy the holidays!!
@Memmsmom, DS had the good fortune to be poor at foreign languages (French, in particular) and Art (Ceramics, in particular), so he did not have to wait until college to get grades below an A :))
DS has, like your D, had the experience of a makeup test that seemed to be punishment for making the prof create a new test. This semester, he also had to deal with a post hoc rule that a midterm bonus could not bring your score on the midterm past 100%.
Much has been made of Ivy grade inflation. Maybe, but in our experience not in Math and CS.