<p>Questions for you guys about things that most directly relate to a college a long way from home.</p>
<li> Visits home. How often? How expensive? Any ways to get great tickets?</li>
<li> Cell phones. Do you have one for home and one for Pomona or do you have nationwide service? Which works best in the Claremont area?</li>
<li> How did you guys get TVs, computers, fans, etc. to Pomona? Did you buy stuff like that once you were there or is there a better method?</li>
<li> Any other thoughts/tips/warnings that would be helpful particularly for those of us who may travel a great distance to Pomona?</li>
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<ol>
<li><p>D visits home 2x/year--winter break and summer vacation. Cheapest flights are on Southwest out of Ontario, but <em>only</em> if you manage to snag the cheap tix as soon as they become available.</p></li>
<li><p>D got her cell phone at home but with a national plan. She has T-mobile that works well outside but can be spotty inside her bunker of a dorm room. Verizon also works well, from what I understand.</p></li>
<li><p>She watches TV on her PC. Dorms also have pretty large flat-screen televisions in the common rooms. Bought Dell laptop with bay and LCD monitor while at home and shipped out in boxes with other stuff prior to flying out there. Stuff was waiting to be picked up. Bought other stuff once there.</p></li>
<li><p>Don't bring out too much stuff. D had us bring home her boombox during Family Weekend because she listens to music on her PC. Also, you don't have to bring out too much clothing with you. You can always get more "cold-weather" gear when you go home for winter break.</p></li>
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<p>I was wondering the same sort of stuff, since I'm in the Chicago area. I'm also considering Northwestern, which is 15 minutes from where I live...a big difference. Is it worth it to go so far?</p>
<p>well... Northwestern and Pomona are very different schools, not even considering the location difference. Do you want a bigger or a smaller school? Do you want a city or a suburb?</p>
<p>Don't worry, I'm considering all that other stuff already. Right now I want to know about the travel/distance aspect of it. Is it worth the inconvenience of traveling in order to experience living in another part of the country for four years?</p>
<p>1) it's really up to you, some of my friends in nyc went home for fall break, thanksgiving, christmas, and spring, but obviously not everybody does that. it's really up to you. you have to leave during winter break, but there's usually a fair amount of ppl here the other times so you don't get bored. this year the campus was pretty deserted itself during spring break, but a lot of ppl went on otl (on the loose) trips instead of going home. personally no matter where you're from i would recommend not going home until thanksgiving just bc it will make you more independent and force you to interact more w/ ppl here. everytime i've gone home its been about 200 if i buy my tickets a few weeks in advance (i live in tn), so the price isn't that much. plus if you went to a really isolated school you'd probably have to pay more to get to a decent airport (dartmouth-boston airport = like 30 bucks i think). ontario is like 10 mins away.</p>
<p>2) i have verizon and love my plan bc there;s free nationwide long distance nights and weekends, which is when i usually call home anyways. you don't really need that minutes to talk to your friends here bc if you need to see them you can just walk to their room. i'd recommend getting a plan w/ free nationwide nights and weekends with some day minutes. you should be fine just keeping your current phone, don't worry about getting another one just for claremont. and you can have a room phone for campus extensions/local calls.</p>
<p>3) i bought my big stuff (bed comforter, tv, chairs, microwave, fridge, etc) when i got here bc its expensive to ship stuff (50 for my bike, which was broken down into smaller pieces!), so i would def. recommend just flying out a few days early to go shopping. you don't really need half to stuff i mentioned, i rarely use my tv (and there's one w/ cable in all the freshmen lounges anyways), you can bum fridge/microwave room off other ppl in your floor (although i shouldn't say that if like half the freshman class is reading this). mudd-blaisdell has a/c, but none of the other freshman dorms do, so wait and see what dorm you're in and def. buy a fan if you don't live in mb, since it can be hot at night like the first 1-2 months of school.</p>
<p>RHS - I know you're a freshman but what do you plan on doing with your stuff come May? Do they have storage areas or will you have to ship it all home?</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know how AT&T/Cingular works there?</p>
<p>I wouldn't let the travel make or break your decision. It seems pretty minor in the scheme of things. Try to figure out where you think you'd be most comfortable, fit the best.</p>
<p>1) I went home for thanksgiving and christmas. Thanksgiving was such a rush I'm not sure it was completely worth the approx. $250 it cost. But I know others who have gone home for every break. There is usually enough stuff to do if you stay around (except for christmas break), but if you want to get home more often, you can go as often as you can budget for. </p>
<p>2) Verizon seems to have by far the best service on campus</p>
<p>3)Buy as much stuff as you can out here in Cali, much better deal than shipping. Works best if you have a car or a parent who comes out with you initially with a rental car so you can drive bulky things from stores back to the college. (Target and other big stores are all about a 20 minute bike ride away, a bit far to easily walk.)</p>
<p>Do get a good bike lock. My S came out of class to find his lock cut(not a flimsy one either). Not a lot of crime at all in the area but would recommend the strongest lock available. There is a bike store within walking distance.</p>
<p>this year there was this new program that gave away like 6 bikes for you to rent just for the semester, but other than that i don't think you can rent a bike. if you wanted to you could probably try to find somebody with a bike who's going abroad each semester and borrow theirs, but that might be sort of a hassle. and yea, lock you bikes!! claremont is safe but bike theft happens quite a bit. in fact some of my friends bring their bikes into the dorm just to be 100% safe</p>
<p>There is some storage on campus and a great number of private storage
facilities very close by. Anything you need from TV, micro waves etc. etc. can be bought in close proximity to school-there's any and every kind of shopping within 10 minutes of campus. There is a bike shop in the "village" immediately adjacant to campus that is excellent. The village also has several banks, record store, restaurants and a fairly significant expansion of the village area should be completed by next school year.</p>
<p>Shopping malls are within about 15 minutes or so in most any direction and Los Angeles, the biggest shopping mall of all, is about 45 minutes away.</p>