<p>Another option for bedding is to purchase it at home and bring it with you. You may have to pay for extra baggage, but it won’t cost any more than shipping it. Then you can pre-wash everything if you like, and you don’t have to hassle with shopping or picking up shipped items when you get there.</p>
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I believe this was what we did when DS was a freshman, with 6 baggages checked in and 3 carry-ons (one of them was music instrument.) At that time, we could have 2 free checked-in baggages per person. Mom insists that beddings should be pre-washed and be ready to use the minite DS arrived at the college. Many boxes containing stuff DS might not need immediately were shipped beforehand. The boxes shipped via UPS are usually ready for pick-up on College street on the move-in day, if you time it correctly (likely ship them two weeks ahead of time.)</p>
<p>That was so long ago!</p>
<p>Tango, A problem for using a cab is that it can not carry too many large baggages. The fare from Bradley to Phelps Gate is about 110 dollars. If you call a cab company in advance, they MAY be able to arrange a van instead of a cab if you tell them you have many large baggages. (We did this once. You could PM me if you need the phone number of a cab driver who may be able to arrange a van – Be aware that it is not a very new van though.)</p>
<p>Tango: Maybe try to rent at Hartford and bring or rent a GPS. I live in the midwest and am not used to the undulations of the CT countryside. A GPS was very handy for my trips out to New Haven and environs.</p>
<p>Yes, you can make do with cabs for shopping trips during move-in. However, GPS’s these days make driving in a strange town so convenient and easy. Maybe it’s time to try it?</p>
<p>You know, those dorm rooms can be pretty small. There’s always time for our students to buy more stuff once they settle in and know their suite-mates better. Also, I feel that after a certain point, more stuff at school is just more stuff to take care of, and to eventually pack up and store somewhere for the summer, etc. Obviously not everyone feels this way - dumpster diving on campus at the end of spring semester is a great and rewarding New Haven tradition due to the amount of perfectly usable and wearable stuff discarded by departing Yalies - but it’s never been my intention to add to the wanton mass discard.</p>
<p>Yes, It’s “Ikea” heaven sometimes at the end of the year. : ) I missed getting 2 almost brand new 3 drawer chests from a student and my daughter’s friend found an amost new CD player a few years ago just thrown away, along with “tag on” boots! It’s not all like that but it amazes me what is discarded…they had a charity drop this year which was nice.</p>
<p>I worked for custodial services cleaning Old Campus to get the rooms ready for reunions. I don’t know what the students carted out by themselves before they left but got a B&W TV, easy chair, sleeping bag, etc. left in rooms and that is just some of the stuff I kept after bringing loads of stuff to the curb. We also brought over cases of empty beer bottles with nickel deposits to exchange for new ones for our hard earned efforts. The residential colleges are even stricter now about limiting what you can store. I never used paid off-campus storage but I bet that is more necessary now for those who have a lot of “stuff”. I looked at Calhoun storage when I went back for reunions and it couldn’t be more different than what we did as students. Now they only took school issued identical boxes neatly packed into uniform rows. What would I have done with my turntable and receiver boxes (never mind - they only use small iPod dock clock radios now).</p>
<p>Maybe some parent here has the answer to my question.</p>
<p>At the end of each school year, the school (maybe the custodial service department of the school) will estimate how much it will charge the students for not cleaning their room enough. The charge is deducted from student’s Yale account (i.e., yale.edu/sis).</p>
<p>What happens to a graduating student? Does this student who just graduates needs to keep his/her Yale account open for some months in the summer so that the school can charge the cleaning fees by deducting the money from the Yale account? Thanks!</p>
<p>This may be a newly followed policy but I can assure you the students doing cleaning of dorms in the past were never asked to identify which suites were broom swept clean and which were a disaster.</p>
<p>Was shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond today, and they heavily advertised a 60 dollar mattress protector, cautioning against the bed-bugs you could get if you didn’t buy their product. Is this a necessity, or is a 20 dollar regular mattress cover (60%cotton, 40% polyester) sufficient?</p>
<p>Also, do most Yale dorm rooms have closets or some way to hang nicer clothes?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>We purchased just a regular mattress cover and had no problems with bed bugs. I have read about this resurgence of bed bugs but luckily no experience with them at Yale or elsewhere. As to closets, my son was in a small basement single as a freshman and had a small closet that was sufficient for hanging nicer items. Only three drawers I believe, but some shelves and hooks. He managed fine, but then he didn’t have a ton of clothes. I bought some over-the-door hooks for towels and jackets (have to be careful about attaching or screwing in to walls). And I think we brought one of those closet shoe hangers and a tie hanger. You can always run to Target for additional organizational items depending on what you discover in the room.</p>
<p>Yikes. No bed bug problems in my son’s suite, and they were not exactly fastidious. I heard nothing about any bed bug infestations on campus last year. We did not buy a special mattress protector.</p>
<p>Each bedroom in my son’s suite had a closet that was shared by two. Not big, but enough room to hang dress clothes.</p>
<p>Wait a minute, think this through for a sec…</p>
<p>If a mattress really DID have bedbugs, no mattress cover would provide sufficient protection (certainly not for me, and I’m not particularly squeamish in general).</p>
<p>Bedbugs in a dorm would be a big deal!</p>
<p>We did buy a ‘mattress topper’ to make the mattress a bit more plush…is this what you mean by a mattress cover? I don’t remember the price - most likely $20 or so.</p>
<p>I say, go ahead and spend $100+ on a memory-foam mattress pad if you like and your child enjoys – just don’t encourage belief in ridiculous scare stories dreamed up by marketing people with limited interest in facts. </p>
<p>Closet space varies enormously, but all the dorm rooms i’ve seen at Yale (not that many, but still) have had old-style closet space with rods for hangers.</p>
<p>New Question: My son today received the promo material about signing up for a Post Office Box at Yale. It will be close to $50 for the year. Does this make sense in the age of digital communication? Is this the only way to receive snail mail? thanks for any insights you may have, nimsmom</p>
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<p>As far as I am aware, yes. (Parent of rising sophomore). I thought it was strange to have to pay for them to receive mail, but this is what we did. I send quite a few random “thinking-of-you” type things to my Ds at college, and my D ordered things for her room via internet, so snail mail was used fairly frequently. I believe very large items must be sent to their Master’s address, as the Post Office will not accept them. (Someone else please clarify if I have this wrong.)</p>
<p>Thanks for asking this ^^^ you beat me to it! I was really surprised to have to pay for a PO box at college too. For some reason, this is the one thing that bugs me to have to pay (on top of tuition, R&B, etc…)</p>
<p>Same here, I don’t remember seeing that on the “mail” page on Yales site.
[Yale</a> University Mail Service](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/campusmail/MailTips/Student%20mail.htm]Yale”>http://www.yale.edu/campusmail/MailTips/Student%20mail.htm)</p>
<p>Yes, students do need to pay for a post office box as that is their mailing address for all four years at Yale. We have also sent all size boxes to S at this address without a problem–it worked much better for us than sending to the master’s house. Plus we could track the item on the USPS website all the way until he actually picked it up at the post office. Yes, it does seem like one more added expense to pay for the box, but it must be done.</p>
<p>Does anyone have a suggestion for a local place to buy a large area rug (besides Bed, Bath and Beyond- type stores?) Thanks!</p>
<p>There are quite a few stores that sell rugs, different quality and prices, Kohl’s
[Area</a> Rugs - Traditional Rugs for the Home at Kohls.com](<a href=“http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/furnitureandhomedecor/rugs/traditional.jsp?bmForm=guided_nav_search&SubcatFolderID=2534374752662692]Area”>http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/furnitureandhomedecor/rugs/traditional.jsp?bmForm=guided_nav_search&SubcatFolderID=2534374752662692)
Burlington Coat Factory, Walmart, TJ MAXX, Ikea, are a few more.</p>
<p>D got her’s at Ikea. There is a Target at the mall in Milford and Urban Outfitters right by campus that has some nice, albeit expensive, rugs.</p>