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<p>People have mentioned Landrum attic, and there are also self storage places you can rent.</p>
<p>As for the first time… can your parents send them after you are already at WM?</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s the other option. My dad said he could mail them the day we leave and have them delivered on move in day. I just don’t want to deal with that much luggage in the airports. We’re coming out a few days early so we can do the tourist thing. Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>Great info! Thanks so much. One more questions, laptops? I know this may sound silly but do students take their laptops to class each day? My son wants one with a larger screen and I was wondering if that would be awkward to carry around. He thinks working on a laptop with a larger screen with be better but I was concerned about portability. Thanks again for all your insight.</p>
<p>For some classes using a laptop is quite hard as it may deal with lots of images that you would have to draw. For the big lecture classes maybe about half of the students bring laptops (although some professors prohibit them), but for smaller classes the proportion is much lower I have found. Personally, as someone with a large screen (which can make doing work more efficient as you can fit two documents side by side on the screen) I would not take my laptop to class - it would just be too bulky. I also use it as my TV though… Some professors also put the lecture slides online before the class starts so some students like to take notes directly into powerpoint while others may print the slides out to use as a reference while taking notes. It all comes down to personal preference, really. And yes, having a 17+ inch laptop is too bulky to carry around all day or fit on the little writing desks, at least for me.</p>
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<p>You/he may also consider a more portable notebook, and a larger monitor for the room that would do treble-duty as a large screen notebook monitor, tv, and DVD / game console display. Some notebooks have HDMI outputs, and some tv’s have VGA/DVI inputs. </p>
<p>I’ve had 17-inch notebooks - you don’t want that - too big to put down, too big for most bags, and a 9-pound notebook starts to feel like 90 after a long day. if it were me, I’d look for a sub-5 pound, 12-14-inch “gaming” class notebook plus a 20-24" widescreen LCD monitor with a CATV input (for the cable tv system at W&M), and whatever input interface is compatible with the notebook (there are a lot of choices, but HDMI or DisplayPort are probably the two I’d look for.) Some monitors also support DVI or VGA inputs, which are compatible with a lot more notebooks, but I’d avoid that if I could. </p>
<p>Macbooks have the Mini Displayport interface, so if you can find a monitor that supports that <em>plus</em> cable tv, that’d be great, otherwise, you’ll need an adapter.</p>
<p>It sounds like a lot of choices - and it is - but it’s not unmanageable.</p>
<p>Thanks, very helpful. I will share this information with him and let him decide. It does seem like a lot to sort thru esp. if you are not familiar with the options. Thanks again.</p>
<p>ooh, this thread is awesome! </p>
<p>another question: bikes. is it worth bringing my own bike down?</p>
<p>William and Mary is very pedestrian friendly. It is possible to walk completely across main campus in 15-20 minutes. That said, if you are living in Botetot, DuPont, Yates, Brown, or some other freshman dorm that is quite far away from the middle of campus, a bike may be a great idea. The longest walk between classes would be from Morton to Tucker, and can be done in exactly 10 minutes (the amount of time between classes). That said, a bike would be nice to reduce the hassle, but if you let your professor know at the beginning of the year that you are coming from all the way across campus they will be understanding.</p>
<p>If you enjoy riding your bike for fun, riding around CW in the evening can also be a good time. Not many mountain bike trails nearby, although the College Woods has some nice trails.</p>
<p>Basically its your decision based on where you live, your classes, the amount of time you want to spend with bike upkeep, the amount of evening activities you’ll be involved in, and other things like that. I was living in a more centrally located dorm Freshman year (Barrett) so decided not to bring my bike at first. I was planning on going home for fall break so if I wanted it I could bring it then. Bikes plus rain also don’t equal a good time. So if you do bring it, make sure you have a rainproof seat cover (a plastic bag works great) and a rain coat - its kind of hard to ride a bike and hold an umbrella at the same time.</p>
<p>IIRC, the campus police have a bike sale at the beginning of every year where they cheaply sell the bikes abandoned on campus over the summer (its possible to store them over the summer for free if you want).</p>
<p>Here<em>to</em>Help covered everything basically…</p>
<p>if you want to ride your bike, you should bring it. You don’t need it to get to classes. You can ride all the way to Jamestown and Yorktown if you want. Shorter stops might include an off campus bank or the bloom (grocery store) that is closest.</p>
<p>I did have a bike all 4 years, and I used it a fair amount. Multiple times a week at least.</p>
<p>I went to W&M many years ago, but some of my best memories are bike rides in the area. We rode through CW all the time - the night rides are great. There was also a nice ride to Carter’s Grove. We spent a lot of time riding on the parkway to Yorktown and Jamestown. When I was in law school there, I lived out near the Pottery and I rode my bike on Rt. 60 in to class - looking back, I don’t recommend that.</p>
<p>^^…did you bring your bike? if so, where did you store it?</p>
<p>I did have my bike every year, but I’m having a hard time remembering where I kept it during the undergrad years. Junior and senior year, I lived in a sorority house and there was room in a little storage room. Sophomore year, I kept it chained outside Chandler dorm, and freshman year - good question - it seems I brought it in and there was a place in the basement of Dupont that we could keep them. We probably weren’t supposed to keep therm there, but things were much more relaxed then. I’m sure everything has changed - this is 30 years ago. I had friends who hung their bikes in various places. There was usually room in the basement of the fraternity houses for bikes - they just had to be moved out for parties.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure they allow bikes in the summer storage rooms in the attic of Landrum. I found out you can store cars for the summer in a certain section of the parking deck too.</p>
<p>I always kept my bike outside on a rack. It was just a $300 mountain bike type… the kids who have serious road bikes tend to keep them in their dorm rooms, out of the elements. Over the summer I took it home. You can store them over the summer at WM, but I’m not sure if it is inside storage.</p>
<p>Hey Guys! I have another question…</p>
<p>To do SHOW day or not? </p>
<p>What exactly do we miss by doing it? Even though I definitely want to help out and perform community service, I really want to meet as many people as possible during orientation. Do you think that’s best achieved at SHOW day or by just hanging around the dorms?</p>
<p>I did SHOW day last year and had a great time. It helps to get to know the area too. I ended up not keeping in touch with any of the other participants in my group due to the shear number of people you meet in the first weeks, but I definitely had a good time and would recommend it. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to get to know others in your dorm at other times, and many of them will be at this event too. You get a cool t-shirt too =D
And the t-shirt is good for striking up conversations later in the month/year when you see someone else wearing one by asking them which event they helped with.</p>
<p>this is a fairly new thing… you shouldn’t feel obligated to do it. There are strong service organizations on campus that you can join if you want to do service.</p>