That’s a sore subject around here! Many of our kids have had challenges with the post office, specifically with packages that show on the tracking that they arrived, but take many days to actually be delivered. I sent some medication and a few books to my daughter through her PO Box, and she went daily after the tracking said it had arrived. No package. Someone on this thread recommended that I call the post office issue resolution phone number (which is a nationwide number), and after there was a case number assigned, miraculously her package showed up - it had been lost in the mailroom. My daughter did not use the Old Campus Post Office at all after that.
The beginning of the year is the most challenging time since so many kids are ordering things (books, supplies, etc). As far as logistics are concerned, kids sign up for a PO Box during the first week of school - maybe at the PO itself. I can’t remember if it is mandatory?
One other option is to sign up for an account at the local UPS store on Dixwell Avenue. It is something like $90 a year - I believe up to three students can share the account - and the UPS store will receive all packages and mail for the student. They will send a text or email when package/mail arrives. Alternatively, the UPS store can receive individual packages and boxes but I think they charge $10 a box if you don’t have an account. The location is not far from the shops on Broadway, but that is not exactly close to most of the colleges except for Morse and Stiles.
Finally, if you are going to ship something valuable to your daughter, you can always ship to the FedEx that is near TD and have it held at the FedEx location. Personally, I would not ship anything valuable or irreplaceable to the Old Campus Post Office.
I truly don’t know why Yale handles student mail this way. Seems like it would be much more efficient to have mail handled by the individual residential colleges. I am also surprised that there is not an Amazon locker at or near Yale - that would take a lot of burden off the post office.
The beginning of each semester seems to be the worst time, since there are so many Amazon orders flooding into the mail room. Generally, the biggest issue is that there seems to be a several day lag between receiving and delivery when dealing with the Old Campus PO. With all of the tracking that is now possible through Amazon and such, we are much more aware of that delay!
Hi @ CT1417 Had dinner with DS to confirm stuff - he wore a tie to assembly , no jacket but said that some others did wear blazers! He didn’t and the majority didn’t but some did. DS wore a tie. and having something like a blazer will come in handy.
Thanks @oldladyandmom – I will pass that along to him and he can decide what he wants to do. He has worn jacket & tie throughout HS for club events, so I will send then along. Thanks for following up and asking!
RE parking move in day- We used the shuttle from the Peabody parking lot that they provided. There was even room for my husbands huge pickup truck ( I was worried it would be too large to park anywhere at Yale). You just go over to the Peabody Museum and there is a staff lot that we parked in. There was a Yale shuttle waiting for us to bring us back to campus.
RE Languages. My Daughter took 6 years of Latin one of which was the UCONN Latin 5 course. She took the latin equivalent to the UCONN course and loved it. She is considering taking French now because she wants to be a surgeon that travels to other countries and many that would require her services are French speaking. We just returned form Paris and Italy and she noted that so much was easy for her to understand because of her Latin roots. I suppose what I am saying is that you should look into Latin. Its a great base language to learn and it will make moving on to other ones a lot easier.
RE opportunities for study abroad… I am without words regarding the opportunity offered to these kids. I just retrieved my daughter who had been gone for about 6 weeks studying with Yale abroad. The stories, the foods, the cliff diving, the people she met, the different countries that she was taken to as a part of the program are simply incredible. I met her in Rome when she was finished and we traveled all over Italy and Paris this past week. She was so easily traveled and prepared after her summer study that I found her taking me around and making travel arrangements instead of the reverse. I highly suggest that every Yale student attempt to study abroad at some time in their 4 years!
Do y’all know if we are going to get any info on where to show up next Friday to move in? Son is in one of the new residential colleges and we know his room number but haven’t received any further info. Thanks!
Thanks @DeepBlue86! I had looked there but there isn’t any info yet for the move in to the new colleges. Hopefully soon they will tell us where we need to show up!
I’m confident they’ll tell you eventually (you could probably find out now if you e-mailed your son’s College dean’s office), but in any case I believe the freshmen living on Old Campus always are told to pick their keys up at tables in front of Dwight Hall there. The people staffing those tables will surely know where you need to go if you live in Murray or Franklin and those keys are being handed out elsewhere.
Sorry if this question has been asked and answered before. My son is attending FOOT, so do we need to wait for him to get back to campus to move his stuff in, or can we get his keys (or dorm rooms are already open) and go through the move in process before he gets back to campus?
Are we still considering getting together for coffee or drinks? It seems my daughter is moving in on Thursday next week. I may also be there on Friday though.
I just realized that it appears that we are expected to eat with our freshmen students on Friday after the Open Houses. (Older son was whisked away for orientation the first evening and not allowed to eat with parent.)
Am guessing that I am far too late to make a reservation so am looking for dining suggestions. Or, do the suite mates tend to want to eat with each other or with own parents?
I’m trying to remember but I think my husband and I (and kiddo of course) managed to scarf enough food at the college open house to stand in for dinner. I’m pretty sure we didn’t go out to eat that evening. If you have a car you could certainly drive a few miles away to dinner. I imagine you’re correct that reservations may be impossible to get now.
I think we ate at a place where no reservations were needed since we had some food at the open house. It was probably Yorkside Pizza, Panera, Chipotle, Tomatillo or something like that. We usually are at those places on Family weekend too because D often had early calls for concerts.
