<p>^ That would appear to be against the Council of Master’s published policies but good news for Branford students. I don’t particularly see why a sofa is OK but a cube refrigerator is not.</p>
<p>[Council</a> of Masters | Policies](<a href=“Welcome | Council of the Heads of College”>Welcome | Council of the Heads of College)</p>
<p>YaleGrad/Dad</p>
<p>That is good news.</p>
<p>Though the “one couch per suite” storage (of the masters regs) is tough when the suite has 8 people in it…</p>
<p>I think the concern about refrigerators is that students will forget to clean them out, which leads not only to growth in the fridge but could also lead to mice, rats, insects, etc.</p>
<p>For those parents who are concerned about summer storage and other similarly minor issues: Try letting your children fend for themselves. Too many of my classmates and friends lacked the ability to take initiative. That might seem odd to people who think of Yale students as kids who do everything and are successful at anything, but, for some students, their success is artificial and built on the labor of others.</p>
<p>On the one hand, clearly there is nothing wrong with just letting a Yale student make his/her own arrangements for storage until fall; and in fact, I have seen many groups of students successfully moving heavy sofas and other furniture themselves. Furniture (sofa, futon, lamps, chairs, bookcases, etc. in reasonable quantity) can be moved to the room for next year, if the current occupants permit, as they usually do. About 5 large-ish boxes can be stored in the college storage space—possibly more depending on the college.</p>
<p>But if parents have the willingness and time to give the student a hand, why shouldn’t they offer the same help to their offspring that they would offer to their parents, siblings, or friends?</p>
<p>I think in part the storage issue depends on the student’s schedule at the end of the semester. There are some seminars where the papers are due <em>after</em> the under-classmen have to clear out of the college rooms. The deadline for leaving the college rooms is enforced in the sense that the key cards stop working at noon sharp when the students are supposed to be out by noon. In some years, my spouse and I have packed and shipped, so that QMP could keep working on a paper. We had a car, and QMP didn’t. We were fortunate to have the time available to do it.</p>
<p>I am fairly sure that we have not interfered with QMP’s development of the ability to put items into boxes for storage. I am also fairly sure that Yale gives no academic credit for “Storage Systems.”</p>
<p>My success too is “built on the labor of others.” I didn’t dig our well, we have gas piped in, we have electrical connections, I am entering this on a computer I didn’t build from chips (which I didn’t construct), I checked the US Mail a while ago, we have a lawn service, nobody in this household sews enough clothing to keep us clad, we patronize a dry cleaners that actually recognizes me when I walk in, we eat out . . .</p>
<p>Just to add a quick clarification: seniors and grad students in the seminar course did not face the same deadline for leaving, and could continue to work until the deadline without packing up.</p>
<p>Time management is an important skill. The issue isn’t whether students learn how to store things for the summer; rather, it is whether students learn how to do things for themselves, how to balance competing demands, and how to solve problems regardless of their difficulty. Asking for help to move some things is different from having parents, in place of their children, asking questions such as, “Is there a department or office that I could call about this? Even for a suggestion of a reputable and near-by commercial storage facility?” Also, I had assignments due up to and after the close of dorms, and I still managed to store all my things myself and do well on the assignments.</p>
<p>You must think you’re so clever. There’s nothing wrong with hiring services to do things for you. If you have analyzed the problem and determined the solution is to hire a service to do the work for you, I have no problem with that. But when someone looks at a problem and decides that they should dump it on their parents, their friends, etc. to figure out what to do., that person will someday face a problem where their past “solution” of having someone else figure it out won’t work.</p>
<p>
I fully agree that this is a very good point. But many parents may still have some difficulty of “letting go.” This points to the benefit of sending a child far away to college; this is because the overly concerned parents really can not help much when their loved one is one thousand miles away. (But there is always a anytime/anywhere communication tool like cell phone that makes it harder to cut the cord.)</p>
<p>However, this parent (me) has been “guilty” in helping his son move out at the end of the spring semester every year 
How many times have your loved one said to you in the past: “Mom/Dad, Don’t worry. I can handle it myself”? When you heard of this many times, your mission has been accomplished and it is time you really should let it go.)</p>
<p>YaleAlumnus-
You quoted ME in your rather critical post #1506. I think you are mixing things up. Yes, I started this topic. But I explained in one of my posts that my child is ENTERING Yale this Fall. She is very very independent, as she has attended boarding school for almost 4 years now.
Transitioning her belongings from one school to another will be a challenge for her, as we live a plane ride away. And there is no family car in the Yale or BS vicinity. I am pretty sure we will be involved and that much related to this will have to happen during her extremely busy graduation weekend and shortly thereafter. I am trying to avoid her just shipping things home and then re-shipping them to Yale. </p>
<p>I was just asking friendly advice. Thinking ahead about logistics. Perhaps you feel that she should be the one doing all the research. I do not feel I am coddling her to present her with some basic options to research further or contact on her own. </p>
<p>To each his own.</p>
<p>My goodness, we have already let go- since she was 14, she has lived thousands of miles away from her parents!
Think before you post.</p>
<p>Re post #1506: I generally find that an intelligent person can do things when he/she has to. I don’t criticize people who have the young people in their families handle things, starting at 18, or (as sometimes happens around here) even 10. </p>
<p>But I don’t see the point in arguing for “hands off” if your student has a problem, when you would freely offer the assistance to parents, or spouse, or friends.</p>
<p>Also, I think that Yale has somewhat of a systems problem when the dorms close before work is due at the end of the year, depending on the courses the student is taking.</p>
<p>We have used this service before:</p>
<p>[2</a> Young Studs Moving LLC -Connecticut Mover- Mover in Connecticut- CT Moving Labor](<a href=“http://www.studsmoving.com/locations/CT/index.html]2”>http://www.studsmoving.com/locations/CT/index.html)</p>
<p>
If you refer to me, I apologize. I was mostly saying that I myself have had some difficulty in letting go, not referring to you!</p>
<p>Thus, I found CC about the time when DS was applying to college and have been hanging around here since then, even though DS is a Yale Alumnus already!)</p>
<p>
The “worst” case that I have ever heard of is the parents helped even when their child was almost 30. (At 30, he had just completed college and started the study in a PhD program.) But if you know their family’s special situation, you would not think the parents were doing things “out of line”; you would think their parents did things very appropriate for their family’s special situation and think they are great parents. The key is not to be judge anybody else because nobody really knows another person’s situation in details.</p>
<p>Also, YaleAlumnus, you’re male, I would guess? And/or you weigh more than 105 lbs? And you can lift a box of books that weighs 60 lbs?</p>
<p>
I once read somewhere that the reason why Yale closes the dorms so quickly after the final is the liability issue. If this is true, the real fault is that law suits are too common here.</p>
<p>This issue is more serious for the Yale Summer School. many high schoolers may attend the summer school. Yale does not want to be responsible for the student’s potential problems for their party after the end-of-summer tests.</p>
<p>
I do not try to be critical of anybody here. This just reminds me of a post on CC that is so funny (for somebody like those parents who are against the “sex week” at Yale, it may be the other way around: not even funny!):</p>
<p>A daughter was very busy in moving from one state to another (likely moving after graduation or for an intern job during summer). The mother dispatched her husband (the daughter’s biological father) to help run some errands for the daughter. One of the task was to pick up some pills (or fill a prescription?) from pharmacy. A problem was that one of the items was 6-momth supply of birth-control pills. The father said to his wife after he had picked up the pills: It just does not feel right that a father has to pick up birth-control pills for his own daughter! (They are not Catholics but the father is likely more conservative than other family members.)</p>
<p>Save for this paragraph and the next, I’m going to stop replying to this line of conversation: Let children live their lives and save your help for when they really need it. What is too much depends on the child. I say this for the many classmates/friends/acquaintances who are certainly intelligent in some respects but are unable to solve relatively simple problems. Such problems range from basic life problems like storing one’s things for the summer to academic problems where people are too afraid to go talk to professors, seek out opportunities when they aren’t having their hand held, etc.</p>
<p>To performersmom, I didn’t quote your name because I was using your questions as a general example and did not mean to imply anything about you or your daughter. I recognize that parents can have independent children but still want to provide them with helpful information. Also, going to boarding school doesn’t necessarily mean a child is independent. I have seen both extreme independent and extreme dependence from people who went to boarding schools.</p>
<p>From my knowledge, Yale closes its dorms early primarily so they can be cleaned and set up for commencement housing, reunions, summer session, other summer programs, etc. Of course, like any other activity at a university, liability is also a concern.</p>
<p>You are probably right, YaleAlumnus, that Yale is closing the rooms partly for set-up for commencement housing (particularly) and summer programs. Many universities have cut short the time that students spend on campus prior to the beginning of classes in the fall, or after classes in the spring due to liability concerns, and also due to concerns about damage to the property from drunken students (sadly).</p>
<p>Still, Yale is the only place I actually know of where students cannot remain in their rooms while they still have assignments on the normal class schedule. This seems to be to be prioritizing the commencement guests and summer students and/or liability concerns over the underclassmen doing their regular academic work. I doubt that the professors pay any attention to the dates the college accommodations close.</p>
<p>(Incidentally, my university gives student 8 hours to pack up after all work is due.)</p>
<p>Yale College mandates that all assignments are due at 5:30pm (maybe 11:59pm depending on how you interpret the rule) before dorms close for non-seniors the next day at noon. The assignment deadline applies even to seniors. Of course, professors are professors and will do what they want. A student could always mention this to their residential college dean who would likely talk to the professor to “fix” this, but that’s probably not a positive outcome for the student, other students, professor, and dean. For classes (typically seminars) that provide this extra time, the assignment is usually discussed well in advance of the deadline and is usually one that can be completed well in advance of the deadline.</p>
<p>Also, the more I think about the actual college residence arrangements at Yale, and the difficulty of moving items to storage for a person of either gender who is not strong enough to lift and carry heavy items, the more annoyed I get, I have to admit.</p>
<p>There are many residences at Yale which are on upper floors that are not served by elevators (once a student has left Old Campus). In some cases, the stone stairs slope down toward the center, where they have been worn away by many years of students’ feet. Realistically, a student who cannot navigate the stairs with a 45 to 60 lb. box–to say nothing of furniture–is going to have to impose on someone (friends, parents, or others) or pay to hire services, such as the one mentioned above. </p>
<p>Incidentally, that was a helpful link, mcat2, for people who need to hire assistance in moving/storage.</p>
<p>Re the Yale mandate about the due dates: I can’t say that it was “more honored in the breach than in the observance,” but it was honored about 40% as much in the breach as in the observance. Professors at my university have similar restrictions–but in this case, mostly about not requiring papers in lieu of the final exam to be submitted ahead of finals week. This one <em>is</em> more honored in the breach than in the observance.</p>
<p>Most of the Old Campus dorms do not have elevators either. From my memory, Bingham is the only dorm on Old Campus with an elevator. And I think that serves only the tower entryway.</p>
<p>Ok, it’s worse than I thought. </p>
<p>For parents whose students are deciding on Yale versus other schools, this is an extremely minor issue in the overall scheme of things. I wouldn’t weigh it at all.</p>