<p>I think most kids go with just one computer due to financial reasons more than anything. Depending on where you’re coming from, storage might be a concern. Over the summer they get to store 3 boxes of stuff in their residential college basement and can put a few pieces of furniture in their room for the next fall, the rest they have to ship back home, put in storage, etc.</p>
<p>Computers: d just finished freshman year, and she LOVES her mac- bought it right before she left for school last August and had no trouble making the shift from PC. Do look into buying a backup hard drive that lives under the desk. Student plugs into this whenever they’re in the room and it automatically backs everything up. The Mac store can sell you one. </p>
<p>Storage over the summer issue: Having just gotten home after moving her out of Old Campus, I can give a little insight: Some colleges don’t allow ANY storage in next year’s room/suite. For some colleges, there is a specific list of things that can be moved in to next year’s suite: 1 couch per suite, 1 chair, lamp, framed picture and rug per person. Others cannot move any furniture. None. Thus, for some students, EVERYTHING must be taken home or put in storage, either at the college (usually limited to 3 or fewer fairly small, college-issued boxes), or in private storage you will be paying for and transporting stuff to.</p>
<p>For families who can drive back and forth to New Haven none of this is a big deal, but if you have no plans to pick your kid up with a large truck in May, some advance planning is a good thing. </p>
<p>First, take as little as possible.</p>
<p>Second, the common room will need to be furnished. There is a pretty big range of sizes of common rooms, but the freshman rooms I saw could handle a couch, a chair, a coffee table, a couple of lamps, a microwave stand and microwave, and a couple of very small (1 foot wide) book cases. Don’t count on this. It’s just an example.</p>
<p>Best case is if one of the suitemates lives close to New Haven and has some of this stuff from the family basement (free!) and is willing to haul it there in August, and remove it, either back to the basement for the summer, or into next year’s suite in May, in the lucky event that this furniture will be allowed into the suite (NOT the case for every college, let me just say it again.)</p>
<p>Third, if none of the suitemates can supply used furniture, then you must think through whether you want to buy pieces there. We went this route, and feel OK about how things have played out. We went to IKEA during her movein, and those pieces will stay with her for four years. The big things went into the suite for next year, and she will be able to move them each May to the future room. We did have to rent a storage unit for a number of boxes (clothes, books, bedding, towels etc.) and things not allowed to go into the future room until fall (vacuum cleaner, microwave, ironing board). </p>
<p>We shared the cost of the storage space and help of a mover with another freshman. He will deliver everything in August, and I won’t have to go back and help with that. YAY!</p>
<p>I think the move out after Freshman year is the most challenging: Old Campus to future college residence. From then on, moves are just across the courtyard. Caveat: I could be wrong about this- parents of upperclassmen, correct me if I’m deluded/overly optimistic. </p>
<p>Best wishes, incoming 1013 parents. I can’t believe Freshman year is over already…</p>
<p>Well I can’t believe JUNIOR year is over already. Where did the time go? Anyway, yes, riverrunner’s post is quite accurate. D has been allowed to put her futon in her next year’s room each May, and put 3 boxes plus a standing lamp in storage. Everything else gets shlepped home, since we’re within driving distance.</p>
<p>I am so grateful to the current parents who are posting. This information is GREAT! Thanks for making this thread useful! My D is so excited to get to Yale!</p>
<p>Thanks for the insights riverrunner! My comments were for Dport, I just assumed all colleges were the same, not. Also, have your kids keep an eye out for friends that live within driving distance and don’t need all of their storage box space. My D is getting an extra box stored that a friend doesn’t need, so she really only had to ship home some books and a check in a couple of bags on her flight.</p>
<p>For some students there might be a larger move between soph and jr year. I didn’t realize this before, but not all jrs are guaranteed a room in the residential college proper, they may be in an annex which could be located close by, or quite a ways away. I know this is true for Dport, if people know of any other colleges which are not like this, please speak up.</p>
<p>So, do you recommend that incoming freshmen not bring up any common room furniture and wait till move in to assess the room size, etc? Also, can someone tell me where the Ikea is near campus? And, are they allowed to have a microwave in their room? A vacuum! Never occurred to me. That’s probably very good to have, too! Thanks so much for all your help!</p>
<p>D and her frosh suitemates all talked on Facebook over the summer and decided who would bring the TV, microwave (yes, they’re allowed), etc. But they waited to see the size of the common room before deciding to buy a futon, small work table, etc. The IKEA is a short drive from campus, right near I-95: [IKEA</a> New Haven](<a href=“http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/new_haven]IKEA”>http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/new_haven). </p>
<p>They should also discuss who’s going to bring cleaning supplies, as they’re responsible for keeping their bathroom clean (it’s only cleaned by Yale between semesters and at the end of the year).</p>
<p>desiw:</p>
<p>Sometimes you can get some very specific information from other students about the size of the common rooms. Once your child is assigned to a college, and is given a room number, they can start to network within the Yale community to find out who might have specifics about their type of suite. In the absence of specific dimensions, I’d wait to buy things, although it’s fun to look!</p>
<p>The biggest issue about whether, what and when to buy anything is going to be the suitemates themselves. Once Yale releases the contact information for the suitemates to the group, they will start getting to know each other. In my opinion, it is very important for you to stay out of this process as much as possible. It’s a group dynamic and lots of things can happen depending on the personalities involved, their resources, their geographic distribution, and so on. Try and let them decide how they want to handle outfitting the room. This should spark some conversations with your child: what, if anything, are we willing to spend on furnishings? Will you be moving me in, or will I be arriving on campus alone, with a duffel bag and a lacrosse stick? </p>
<p>The Yale student community is so diverse that it’s impossible to predict how your child’s group will work together to figure this out. If you end up needing/wanting to go to IKEA, it’s just a couple of miles from the campus. They rent vans/trucks, but do reserve ahead. (From someone who didn’t do this and lived to regret it.)</p>
<p>[IKEA</a> New Haven](<a href=“http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/new_haven]IKEA”>http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/new_haven)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oh no. Mother of a boy here. Cue the scary music. :eek:</p>
<p>Heh. You can say that again. With 6 girls, it was reasonably clean when we visited, but it was Parents’ Weekend so they knew we were coming. I can’t imagine what a 6-boy suite would have looked like!</p>
<p>If you have furniture for the common room, bring it when you go to move in. All common rooms have enough room for a couch and a table and stuff like that. But if you don’t, wait until you get to school and look at your room/ discuss furniture with your suitemates before you go to ikea and buy furniture. </p>
<p>Also, microwaves are actually not allowed. Everyone has them, but you have to remember to cover them up with a sheet or somehow get rid of them when the fire inspector comes. covering it up is good enough since they aren’t allowed to move stuff. But if they catch you with it, you have something like 2 weeks to get rid of it (or hide it) or they charge $50 per person in the suite. </p>
<p>And yes, the vacuum is very important. Also, suggest to the suite (especially if you have to clean your own bathroom) a cleaning schedule with names, weeks, and what that person has to do that week. Start this at the beginning of the year when things are clean and keep it up during the whole year. My suite tried to make one, but our suite was already so dirty by that time (5 weeks or so in) that none of us wanted to clean it so it was never really followed.</p>
<p>Oops, you’re right about the microwaves. I remember D telling me about putting hers away in her closet one year. But yes, everyone has them anyway.</p>
<p>my daughter has a fabulously decorative “microwave cozy”- formerly an india print tablecloth.</p>
<p>I am working on purchasing a computer as a graduation gift and found this thread really helpful. Wanted to add that I just discovered that if you have 529 money you can use it to purchase a computer (and internet service) according to my plan’s website. It did say for 2009 and 2010, so I think this may be something new. I just thought I would give others the heads up if you also have 529 money available.</p>
<p>Riverrunner is right about how well they communicate via Facebook & about how specific the instructions are about what can be stored/moved to future room. DD was able to move things to new suite last week and she and her suitemate were allowed 4 framed pictures (among other things). Not 3, not 5, but 4. Just made her laugh.</p>
<p>If anyone has a child who is assigned to TD or Silliman, the move between freshman year and sophomore year is much easier.</p>
<p>Stringkey mom - may I make a suggestion?</p>
<p>I also work much, much better on a desktop. I think I have ARADD - Age Related Attention Deficit Disorder (just made it up, but it should be in the DSM) and I am much more productive seated at a desk. When it was time to replace my old desktop computer my DH pleaded with me to get a macbook and a lovely wide screen for my desk and retain my old keyboard. I hate to admit it, because I really resisted, but he was so right. It is the most wonderful setup. I love it and it solves all of my problems. I also love the big screen for editing, I can have two pages side by side, do cutting and pasting, etc. </p>
<p>The big screen is also great for non-work related uses, such as watching LOST.</p>
<p>Now I can take my laptop with me on some of my consultations, but do my report writing at home at my desk. </p>
<p>Did I mention that I love the set-up? :)</p>
<p>Back in my day you every college had a vacuum or two at the master’s office to loan out to students. A dustbuster is great, however.</p>
<p>I haven’t read the posts closely about buying furniture, but be sure to be sensitive. Not every has the same amount of money (or any) to contribute to furnishing the suite. You’ve got to tread very lightly because you just don’t know. My parents just flat out bought some unnecessary niceties for the room to avoid the issue of asking my roommates and parents to chip in.</p>
<p>AA - that is such a good point. It really is amazing how well most kids work this out. We were probably in the middle of discretionary funds and my daughter was really sensitive about wanting to chip in her fair share and not embarrassing anyone who might not have the money for a group trip to Ikea or target. </p>
<p>In the real world, you will never be in a situation where you are meeting people for the first time and sharing the expenses of furnishing a room. Good reminder!</p>
<p>AA, and work, I tried to say that in an earlier post and didn’t do a great job. It is true that some kids will come to Yale with just the clothes on their backs, and can’t possibly spare anything extra for furniture. For those who CAN buy a chair or couch, and then store it reasonably each summer, it probably makes sense to go ahead and buy it at the start of freshman year, and get four years of used out of it. Splitting the cost of these items, and then deciding how to do a buy-out at the end of the year didn’t seem smart, and I’m glad we didn’t try to go that route. </p>
<p>Most of the kids in the suite next year come with a contribution of some kind, from their freshman digs: a microwave, a comfy chair, a couch. It does have a way of working out, but if the facebook conversation starts up this summer among the incoming freshman, and some of your kid’s suitemates are seemingly “not excited” about planning the furnishings, the underlying message may be that they just can’t go there.</p>
<p>I tried a search in this thread for the words “rug” and “carpet” but came up empty. What have kids been doing about their bare floors? </p>
<p>When we arrived at our Ivy grad dorms, my husband and I each found ourselves buying a rug or carpet remnant for our rooms. We’ve got a nice “guy style” rug in our son’s room now that is actually too large for his smallish room and were thinking of carting that to New Haven. It’s hard to know if the rug will fit without more details about the actual rooms he’ll get, but I’m wondering if it’s worth it and would love some feedback.</p>