<p>At this very moment, I feel like August 20th can’t come soon enough… S13’ turned 18 today and ugh… can you say moody?? Sometimes I long for a daughter who would actually talk to me… or even a son who would talk to me…I’m tempted to not do one single more thing in relation to college. Let him and his father figure it out. May 31st will come and go and he won’t have a roommate or a room. June will come and go and he won’t be registered for classes… but he’s an adult now, right? 
I repeat - ugh!</p>
<p>My opinion is that this is a very hard few months for the 18 year olds out there that are graduating from high school. They are very apprehensive about what is to come in the next few months and they all act out in different ways. They are testing their parents by testing themselves to see if they can go it alone.</p>
<p>My S grabbed that Blue Book last year and didn’t let me do anything. I thought he was letting deadlines come and go, but in reality he had everything more than under control. Parents need to let go and let them run with it, or hang themselves, lol :)</p>
<p>And just wait, come this time next year, you will have an adult return home for the summer who is confident, happy and independent of you. (too independent).</p>
<p>Purpleacorn, thanks for your reply. I didn’t clarify, we are actually booked to arrive on the 19th so we are there for move-in day & then one more day for orientation. We are leaving on the 22nd.</p>
<p>I feel obligated to post in this thread that O-week will be one hell of an experience for your kids. Give them some space to make friends and accept that they’re on their own now.</p>
<p>Just wanted to share my parents’/our O-Week plans (well, I’m making them, and that’s exciting for me). I’m hoping to be on a pre-O program (pBuild/pChange), but my parents and younger sister (she’s… eleven) are going to get into Raleigh on Saturday and be at the beach/Wilmington for a couple of days. They’ll be in Durham on Monday afternoon for move-in/orientation on Tuesday/Wednesday and leaving Thursday morning. We lucked out on car rentals through a Costco membership and are using my dad’s miles for the flight, so my sister is going to be able to have some fun before being bored to tears at orientation, and it’s not really going to cost us that much.</p>
<p>Anybody been in the Wilmington area before with anything fun?</p>
<p>Hey PurpleAcorn - Pbuild is on my son’s list, too, so maybe you will get to meet him!</p>
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<p>Thank you for that perspective! Yes, they can also be anxious since we are !</p>
<p>DS has decided to apply to Focus - that is it for now, just a decision 
I tell him that time is running out, but he says that he has it all under control 
He needs to be in Durham on the 10th to attend the mandatory retreat (they call it differently, I forget what) offered by the scholarship. Then they will be moving in good five days ahead of the rest of the crowd.
We have only found out today, so right now I am frantically searching for the best air fare with return for Christmas !</p>
<p>Ditto we turned down a lot of money,considerably more money at some top schools and free rides for Duke. we believe it is worth it.</p>
<p>Did you all get this letter? Supposedly from a Duke Alumni Association? But mailed from Kansas?
Is this a scam? Do people generally order directories like this one (supposed to be free to the student) ???</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure it’s legit. The link they have is the same link on the back cover of the Blue Book, and your son should have a link to the directory upload site through my.duke.edu as well. Though I know my parent isn’t paying money for something she’ll see when I give mine to her anyways.</p>
<p>Kelowna, my thought was that Duke uses an outside publisher for the book they give the students and this publisher is more than happy to sell their parents a copy, probably at an inflated price, and to make them feel like they are missing out or somehow not properly cherishing their offspring if they don’t take advantage of this special opportunity. It might be mildly amusing to look up a picture of their new friend, Joe Somebody, in the book, but we aren’t ordering one. I some ways it feels like one more way of letting them go and be on their own. (not that I won’t be checking out her Facebook page now and again! You know pictures of their friends will be showing up there. Haha!)</p>
<p>Does anyone have any advice or input regarding cell phone service on the Duke campus? Is there a provider that is known to have better service in the area?</p>
<p>I don’t know where I read this (somewhere in the vast amount of Duke literature we have accumulated) but apparently Duke has “boosts” on campus for both AT&T and Verizon wireless service. It was recommended that you choose one of those two. We have AT&T and my S said when he stayed in the dorm during BDD’s that service was great.</p>
<p>So, to turn things around, what are parents hoping / expecting to hear from Duke? There’s quite a bit that you won’t actually be told directly, but as someone that teaches all the Pratt first-year students, I was wondering what the expectations are</p>
<p>That’s a kind offer. I’ll start with a question. What are the two or three biggest reasons you see first-year students struggle in your class? And how do kids get themselves through those struggles?</p>
<p>SomeOldGuy - I think the first thing I notice is that many students get overwhelmed by the opportunities presented to them in the first couple weeks of school. There are student activity fairs, mailers, posters, intro sessions, and all kinds of other things. The natural inclination for some is to Do All The Things, and you find yourself on thirty four mailing lists and six things that you could do every hour of every day. Figuring out how to engage in those things that <em>truly</em> interest you while still leaving time for some exploration can be a struggle. I think for this one, when the first break hits, students have generally figured out where they can put their time as far as extracurricular interests, but the initial onslaught can be tricky.</p>
<p>The second thing is how time works in college, particularly time that should be dedicated to academics. My class has a lecture and a lab, so students are in the lecture part for 150 minutes per week and then lab for up to another 170 minutes. Non-lab classes are generally just the 150 minute lecture; some classes have lab <em>and</em> recitation which can bring the total closer to 350 minutes. Regardless, college folks are not in class as much as they were in high school, usually, and part of that is because of the amount of work required <em>outside</em> of class. Many students will find the pace of college courses to be challenging and will also discover that the same time-management skills that worked in high school will probably not cover it in college. Add the number of distractions alluded to above and a person can get behind fairly quickly. The main solution I would put forward to this is start the semester by putting together a master class calendar with assignments, labs, and tests – those should be on the syllabus (at least the tests should). Keep track of what all is due and strive to get things done early. Also, I would say, strive for variety. If you have 4 hours for one class and 4 for another, I would generally recommend <em>not</em> trying to do all 4 for one class straight; vary things a bit. On the other hand, some people perform better attacking things serially. Main thing is to not feel paralyzed by the <em>total</em> amount of work - break things up into achievable blocks and take a break whenever something is accomplished.</p>
<p>The third thing, for my class in particular, is that people who haven’t programmed before tend to not believe me at first when I tell them it is learning a foreign language and thus you both need to learn the vocabulary and the conversational skills involved. The former can be done through memorization and cramming, but the latter can only be done through practice, trial, error, and correction. Occasionally, when I tell people to re-write some of the example codes in the book or work some of the unassigned problems that either have answers or where answers can be found through other means, they seem incredulous that I would recommend doing work on something that isn’t directly related to a graded assignment… Getting over that, and being willing to treat programming as the language that it is can really help!</p>
<p>Does anybody know if the bed linen packs ordered through the campus stores are of good quality? That seems the best possible option for us but I was feeling unsure.</p>
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<p>D and I have to decide on dining plans. I know this has been discussed earlier, but I just want to make certain whether the freshman can eat all their meals at the ‘regular’ food places - not just on East Campus… does anyone know for sure? Thanks!</p>
<p>Thanks, DukeDoc99. That’s good practical advice. When Devil Child started high school, we intentionally limited his ECs freshman year until he got his feet underneath him academically. At Duke, that will be his choice to make, but I may remind him about that and do a bit of “coaching” on easing into campus life in a way that makes sure he understands what his coursework is going to take before he commits to too many other things.</p>
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<p>The “board” portion of the dining plan is for 12 meals at the Marketplace on East (breakfast and dinner) a week. The points portion can be used anywhere on campus (or off campus eateries delivering to an on campus location). Freshman have a choice between three plans (which vary in the number of points):</p>
<p><a href=“http://studentaffairs.duke.edu/sites/default/files/u1379/contract-firstyear-FY14.pdf[/url]”>Duke Student Affairs;
<p>Food points (or flex) can always be purchased at a later date, so it’s better to undershoot and simply add them later (since you’ll lose a portion of any unused points at the end of the year).</p>
<p>[Plans</a> and Points | Duke Student Affairs](<a href=“Duke Student Affairs”>Duke Student Affairs)</p>