<p>Thanks. I am thinking I will have kiddo print a sheet or so of colored labels to slap on bags/duffels/etc with name and room # on it.
Trying to imagine all of these students running around with duffel bags, BBB bags, Ikea cartons etc and you’d like to see your stuff end up in your suite! HA!</p>
<p>Just a reminder to parents of returning Yalies - don’t forget to pay for the PO box. The payment is due 8/31. You can pay online at <a href=“https://www.usps.com/manage/get-a-po-box.htm[/url]”>https://www.usps.com/manage/get-a-po-box.htm</a>.</p>
<p>^^^ Yalemom2: My son is an incoming freshman and we really didn’t see an overriding reason to get a PO box, given that UPS and Fedex will not deliver to PO boxes and we plan on communicating with DS via email, FB and the phone. Am I missing something here? Given the above, why get a PO box?</p>
<p>You can check, but I believe it is required of all undergrads.</p>
<p>[Post</a> Office Boxes | Mail and Shipping Information | Planning Your Move | Transfer Handbook 2009-2010 | Yale College](<a href=“Yale College”>Yale College)</p>
<p>I interpreted the above to mean that if you wanted to receive mail, the US Postal service (not Yale) required you to have a PO box, as they don’t deliver mail to any of the dorms.</p>
<p>From that site:
I interpreted it to mean every student must have one, but who knows. I do know that there have been times when Yale sends stuff to the PO box, like a paycheck that wasn’t picked up or maybe a library fine notice. Overall it’s not that useful, but I have been glad they had it from time to time - for example, sometimes we need their signatures on something so we mail it and they mail it back after signing, or we buy something online and the only shipping option is via the post office.</p>
<p>
</a>
Did you get some sort of reminder about this? How did you know to pay it? Just wondering…
But thank you for the info!</p>
<p>Having the options of UPS, Fedex and USPS is great to have. From what I understand UPS items do not get delivered to the RC, the kids have to go a location to pickup items, just as students have to go to the Post Office to retrieve package(s).</p>
<p>In our experience, Fedex has been the only carrier that delivers to the Residential College. </p>
<p>YaleMom2, you brought up a great point about purchasing online, as there are indeed times when the only shipping option is via USPS. </p>
<p>Having all three options have worked incredibly well.</p>
<p>Regarding Notification of US Box Payment:
@my2sunz, DS got an email from the Post Office I believe.</p>
<p>There are four options to pay
Online
APC
By Mail
In Person</p>
<p>my2sunz - I got an email from usps.com because I had set it up to remind me. Other years, our only reminder was a paper bill in their actual P.O. box. Maybe they received an email from the post office, but if so, they forgot to mention it to me!</p>
<p>I will ask my daughter about it, I don’t recall her saying she got any reminder about the mailbox.</p>
<p>If I am remembering correctly, I think my incoming freshman has to sign up for the PO Box and put in some info from the NetID, or something related to the Yale id info. I think after it’s paid, the kids take a paid recipt and completed form to the post office and then are assigned a box. I don’t think they lern their bo number beforehand.
My student is out of the country right now so this is one of the “to do” things on the list before move-in.
What are the best ways to ship? Do we send all packages to the res college for pickup? I had wondered about this when it comes to books. Since vendors use UPS, USPS, FedEx etc etc</p>
<p>Love the Post Office …have tried 3 times to renew PO box online. Obviously I’m doing SOMETHING wrong. I get through all of the screens, then when I click to authorize the payment, I get this error message:
“Invalid Address or Zip Code match.”
Now, the address they ask for is the PO box address, which has the zip code of 06520. But something else shows the PO as having a 06511 zip code (the Yale Station po on Elm St.) BUT, they don’t ask for the post office zip code, they ask for S’s address.
Any help from those of you who have already successfully renewed?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Haven’t renewed P.O. Box yet and D will probably do so in person when she gets to campus. Despite some negative posts on this forum last year about the service at the Yale Station P.O., we were on the whole pretty satisfied with it. We sent a few priority mail flat rate boxes to her during the year. Sending via UPS was more inconvenient because packages got delivered to the Master’s office, which was more out of the way for D than the Yale Station P.O.Box was. It is also easier for us to mail at the P.O. at our end than to send by UPS.</p>
<p>I used the zip code 06511 when I renewed.</p>
<p>thanks, Yalemom2…I’ll try that. Or just have kiddo do it in person when he goes back.</p>
<p>Hi, Yalemom2, I’m slightly puzzled by your post. The Post Office on the Yale campus (in or near old campus) has the zip code 06520, or at least it did up through last year. Is 06511 somewhere else?</p>
<p>QuantMech - I know the address we are given has 06520, but when I renewed the box yesterday, it filled in 06511 for me. I don’t remember why/how that happened originally - I registered on the usps site a few years ago (this is my second S at Yale). I too am puzzled!</p>
<p>Hi folks,</p>
<p>I’m actually a minor-league computer geek, but certain aspects of my knowledge are a bit dated. Hence, I’m unsure about some options offered by the Dell “partner store” (from which we’re probably about to buy a laptop for our Yale freshman). Any advice regarding these?</p>
<p>Bluetooth - I don’t know what this might be used for on a laptop.</p>
<p>RAM - Should 4 GB be enough to last a few years, or should we invest in more?</p>
<p>Screen - On the 15.6" monitor, how much of a difference is there between basic HD (1366x768), HD+ (1600x900), and FHD (1920x1080) resolutions?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your opinions.</p>
<p>MarathonDad,</p>
<p>I have been in contact with the Yale computing staff (who, by the way, are amazingly responsive), and I raised just this issue with them - that parents would probably appreciate knowing what options make sense and what don’t in the context of the typical computer usage of a humanities or a science/engineering student.</p>
<p>Anyway, the base price is reasonably high because this is a higher-end laptop that is meant to last. For this reason, I upgraded to a larger disk.</p>
<p>One thing you did not mention in your post was the free upgrade to a 64-bit operating system. The 64- vs 32-bit issue was one of the ones I brought up with the Yale staff, as I didn’t understand why the default was not 64. Of course, the upside to the 64-bit OS is that it allows the RAM to be maxed out, either now or in the future. If you go with 32 bits, you will be limited to 4 GB RAM. I have found out, on the other hand, that one downside to 64 bits is that some older device drivers may not work with it - not likely to be an issue. Also, while most existing software should work on 64 bits, apparently this is not universal - still not likely to be an issue, though. The Yale staff person said they were going to work with Dell to get the 64-bit OS listed as the default.</p>
<p>That said, if you get the 64-bit OS, should you get 4, 6, or 8 GB RAM now? I am a pretty heavy computer user and run some serious applications for work, and I am doing reasonably well with the 3 GB on my own laptop. My daughter will not be a science/engineering major, and I figured 4 GB was sufficient for her work, which I assume will involve mostly paper writing. Maybe if she were a science/engineering major, I’d think about getting more, but memory can always be added later. (I don’t know, though, if it is possible to get Yale staff to do upgrades to hardware.)</p>
<p>If you go with 4 GB for now, you can get it over 1 DIMM or 2. If it comes in the 1 DIMM configuration, then you can add more memory in the other slot later, either 2 GB or 4 GB, to bring the computer to a total of 6 or 8 GB, respectively. If it is comes in the 2 DIMM configuration, however, then when you go to upgrade to 6 or 8 GB later, then you will actually need to replace some or all of the current 4 GB to do so.</p>
<p>As for Bluetooth, there are two uses I’ve had for it, transferring files between my smart phone and my computer and connecting a wireless mouse to my computer. I figured that my daughter may want a wireless mouse, so I bought one and got Bluetooth.</p>
<p>I was initially going to go for the high-end resolution screen, but the mid-range one is similar to the pretty good resolution of my own laptop. My daughter looked at mine and thought that was fine, so we saved a bit of money there. Another option I had proposed was to get the low-end resolution screen and then buy a good external monitor for use in the dorm room.</p>
<p>My daughter plans to carry the laptop with her to classes and take notes on it. I think it is important for her battery to last a long time, so I did not hesitate to order the 9-cell battery. The bigger batteries always add weight, but we thought it was worth it. Because she may be taking notes in dark lecture rooms, we ordered the backlit keyboard.</p>
<p>We ordered the computer in the middle of the week last week. It was to take 10 business days to fill the order and a few days to ship, but we received the computer within a week. I don’t know if you will have the same speedy response, so I want to make you aware of the times involved.</p>
<p>One thing I have remaining on my list is to figure out what my daughter should use to back up her files. I need to do a bit of research. Have you looked into this at all?</p>