<p>^They should still be available as we get closer. Most Duke students don’t prepare for summer storage THAT far in advance. There’s a lot of other stuff going on in their lives. I once reserved a storage unit in Durham less than a week before move out (couldn’t get the one closest to me, but got one less than 10 miles away…).</p>
<p>I remember last year my S received plenty of flyers from storage places in the area. He ended up sharing one with 3 other people and it worked out fine. He did all this on his own, and I know it wasn’t more than one or two weeks before he moved out.</p>
<p>This was shared (quite timely) on our Duke FB pages today.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.smartmoveslogistics.com/”>http://www.smartmoveslogistics.com/</a></p>
<p>They look to be brand-new, but that price is amazing (perhaps by too much)?</p>
<p>WOW - thanks purpleacorn! This looks great! I will definitely save this website. I know I am early but I am one of those who need everything worked out ahead of time, not at the last minute. This goes against everything “college” so I’m trying to adapt.</p>
<p>Wow, I can’t believe we are not discussing Brown’s fire here. Apparently some students are still displaced?</p>
<p>Yes - I believe they won’t be in for a few more days. I saw pics of the charred room today in Duke Today. Very scary - thank God nobody was hurt!</p>
<p>S’13 moved back in to Brown today (I think). He said it smells like new paint, not smoke. The fire happened in the room across the hall from him. They had him in a different dorm for a few days (still on east campus, though I understand some got moved to west) and he had a single, but he missed his friends in Brown and is happy to be back.</p>
<p>My S was not displaced, although for a few hours he really thought that the room on fire was just above his and we worried (OK, I worried) about the electronics being damaged by water. All was OK though. But the explanation of the fire (backpack against the radiator) is really pathetic ;)</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.dukechronicle.com/blogs/bluezone/posts/2014/03/03/jabari-bars-delight-tenters-k-ville”>https://www.dukechronicle.com/blogs/bluezone/posts/2014/03/03/jabari-bars-delight-tenters-k-ville</a></p>
<p>This should make you happy as a Duke parent</p>
<p>TO ALL DUKE PARENTS: can you please tell me the pros and cons at Duke? I have a very bright kid. She was accepted to two Ivy’s, Georgetown, UVA, Vanderbilt, and a couple others. But it really comes dow to the ivy’s and duke. The Ivy’s give substantial more FinAid, and I had my heart se on an ivy, but this is her decision and she is digging fore reasons to side with Duke. One of the items she mentions is the flexibility in interdisciplinary work… someone help me out here.</p>
<p>@Cirques: Most important, congratulations to your daughter on her excellence and effort that resulted in these stellar admissions; as we are all aware, this is far from a routine accomplishment.</p>
<p>I could provide a detailed explanation of Duke’s strength in interdisciplinary and collaborative work, integrating across schools, fields and all experiential levels, and critically including undergraduates (and even freshmen) as full participants. Approximately 43 percent of Duke undergraduates seize such opportunities, and they consequentially learn a great deal more than normal course work provides. Further, this information has not infrequently been discussed on CC and it is reasonably prominent on Duke’s internet sites. However, I’ll delay that post, because I respectfully suggest there may be a more essential question for your consideration.</p>
<p>Obviously, one simply cannot err by attending any of the universities you mention – and, in fact, all will provide considerable lifelong distinction for your daughter. But they all differ, far less so in scholarship and intellectual strength/diversity, than in culture and – crucially – in optimal “INDIVIDUAL FIT.” Dartmouth’s culture and its environment considerably differ from Columbia’s, Cornell’s from Princeton’s, Duke’s from Georgetown’s . . . the list is lengthy, and you certainly understand my point. While many youngsters will thrive (and not just academically, which is fundamental) in ANY of these cultural environments, some others will not. To illustrate, if your daughter loves/requires urban “cosmopolitanness,” Dartmouth/Hanover is probably not an ideal fit.</p>
<p>Therefore, I respectfully suggest that ascertaining SOON where comfortable and happy “culture fits” exists is your daughter’s most indispensable task. Decades from now, there’s an overwhelming probability that it won’t matter very much if she graduated Duke or Penn, but I sincerely suspect it will likely matter a great deal if these next four years are really happy ones, in which she will flourish in every facet of her life, and will establish/enhance an insatiable zest for learning and achievement.</p>
<p>I’ll offer a final comment to conclude. The fit within the university’s culture and its environment encompasses a LOT more than the laboratories, libraries, and all things academic. Clearly, it also includes a great many other things on campus, in the community, and – sometimes overlooked – in the values and mores of the university’s several major constituencies. </p>
<p>If you would like, please don’t hesitate to PM re this question and interdisciplinary studies at Duke, as well.</p>
<p>Based on a quick history search of your posts, looks like the question is Duke Vs Dartmouth vs Harvard.
Duke vs Dartmouth : Easy one . Go with Duke. It becomes harder with Duke vs Harvard especially because of the Harvard name and the FA involved. Not sure what majors and what interdisciplinary aspects your daughter is interested in. Like @TopTier said - you need to visit both Harvard and Duke ASAP to ascertain the fit first before looking into other aspects. </p>
<p>Cirques, I am a Duke '09 Mom who paid full ticket at Duke. My son loved loved his years at Duke but Dartmouth was his crush college (not admitted.) I would not hesitate for a second asking daughter to choose one of the colleges that offered the most significant financial aid. The only exceptions I would offer her if she was admitted to a more costly (to her) Duke would be if there is a program at Duke that was clearly superior than Dartmouth or her other Ivy. ie Duke is number 2 in the national ranks in biomedical engineering. Duke has a superior dance program. Duke has a better symphony orchestra (this mattered a great deal to Duke son’s mental/spiritual happiness). Duke has an Ambassador on campus which makes the foreign study school pretty world class. Does she dislike Greek life? Dartmouth students need to be open and undaunted by Greek life as weekend options are limited and Dartmouth has a huge Greek life compared to Duke’s big, but not predominant Greek life. (Our Vandy son would have been happier at the no Greek Swarthmore or Haverford but turned them down to take a rare merit offer at Vandy). I can’t emphasize enough how difficult the summer internship races are each year and how difficult it is to find viable work post graduation. Dartmouth’s summer school leading to a winter semester internship plan is excellent. Also excellent is school spirit and athletic team support, like Duke’s. Dartmouth in our opinion, really feels like William and Mary in the middle of no where in New England. By that comparison, I only mean that William and Mary’s campus is so historic and grounded in American history and you definitely get this same “history of America” feeling at Harvard and at Dartmouth as well. My two sons when to what we jokingly refer to as two of America’s world class robber baron colleges. A great clan of wonderful rugged individuals at Dartmouth, and very much a great liberal arts foundation plus great access to faculty members. Class sizes are simply not as good at Duke if you pick a popular major like Economics. If you can afford to pay full price, you are indeed choosing between an embarrassment of riches and can have the luxury of her choosing her best emotional fit. The freshman campus at Duke is a beloved experience but once they move to the main campus, life does tend to divide between Greek housing groups and independents. However Duke housing has many interesting alternative houses for non Greeks. I would be reading the finalist college newspapers backwards and looking at upperclass housing options. I can’t comment on life at Harvard but for a rugged individual, life there looks mighty fine. I personally think that Dartmouth seems more nurturing and tight as a community but Harvard has vistas for kids who are visionary and already good at running their own show. Hmmmm…one thing important to Duke son was the world class cultural events happening all the time at Duke. Duke spend a LOT of money on bringing in performances that you normally could only see in London or NYC, and the region appreciates Duke for this. Dartmouth also has a decent constant flow of speakers and performers but the Triad is more exciting if she would actually attend such events. Our son was a culture hound and sports fan…who spent a semester in Berlin doing this culture performance search nightly, and he attended many many great performances at Duke which is simply not as isolated as Hanover. Lastly, we know a few guys who somehow are always in shorts snow sleet rain…no matter. Do you like gorgeous weather? If so, pick Duke and you will actually see your classmates instead of their bundles of winter clothing. ha. enjoy these final decisions with your daughter. </p>
<p>Has anyone had their student not get the classes they need? My S was last in class choice for next semester and is now waitlisted for 3 classes - one lecture and 2 labs. Unfortunately, these are all requirements for his majors in Pratt and I don’t know what he would do if he doesn’t get them. Has anyone else had this experience? He is very stressed that he won’t get everything he needs. I am not as worried about the lecture as the labs. I would think there is more potential to “squeeze” someone into a lecture hall than into a lab section with limited resources. There has to be a better way to do this so kids get the classes they need to graduate on time!</p>
<p>Just to update - I am happy to say that they have opened up another lab section to accommodate those students who were closed out of the BME labs. The other classes seem to have worked out as well so everyone is back to being happy! On another note, I can’t believe that next week is the last day of classes!!</p>
<p>never mind</p>
<p>In case you missed it, there was twister warning at Duke this am…
<a href=“http://today.duke.edu/node/152505”>http://today.duke.edu/node/152505</a></p>
<p>New Parents/Students: Before you rent a microfridge during orientation, use caution. I just received a $30 bill from Collegiate Concepts, Inc. because when they picked up the fridge it has “water in it on pick up”. Their address is in Huxley, IA. … they are not a local Durham company. Instead of purchasing a fridge/mircowave for our 2017 student, we used this rental service upon move in. We rented the unit and they brought it to the room and picked it up, which is appealing. It was not inexpensive to rent for the year…I think a little over $100. But a charge that is nearly 1/3 of the rental for “fridge and freezer portions had water in them upon pick-up” is crazy. Go to Walmart or Target and buy new ones with the $130+…any one else with this experience? Wondering if they do this to everyone.</p>
<p>I don’t have any experience with the MicroFridge rental, but the water might have occured in the defrosting process. I was able to pick up a used fridge/microwave for $60 from an upperclassmen, which worked perfectly well (if you’re not wanting to buy new).</p>
<p>I am sure that all of you parents have received the sad email from Mr. Moneta last night. My hugs , thoughts and prayers are with the families of Alex and Kaila, and all affected by their deaths. As a parent of a college student, it is always frightening and sad to hear stories like that, as a Duke parent it really hits too close to home. Please talk to your student about the events, call or text them, tell them more often than usual that you love them, send them a care package if you are far, pick them up for Sunday dinner if you live close by. Life is too good, too precious and very fragile. Make sure they know that.
I have a sophomore and was so relieved and glad when he called me yesterday, about an hour after I saw a Duke Chronicle piece on fb. He needed to talk. I encouraged him to talk to other students if they wanted to and especially to listen to them if they were willing to share. There are huge academic and social pressures facing the kids at top academic schools, let’s make sure that we as parents understand those pressures, let’s work towards some relief.
Hugs to all :(</p>