<p>Two questions please for smith parents and students.
My D is coming from Europe and we don't know how much stuff girls usually bring to college. This is quite important since if the total weight exceeds 50 kilos, it would be cheaper to have it sent beforehand than paying excess baggage. Plus she doesn't want to stand out by being too obviously different ( Amazing how important this can seem to them...) Obviously winter clothes with lots of woolies, towels and bathrobe, computer, ipod and "normal teenage bare necessities". I was told to buy sheets in the US since bed sizes are different, but do we have to provide blankets, pillows, duvets as well? Do most students decorate their walls, bring favourite stuffed animals or is this considered juvenile?
Second question. How hard is it to get one's driving licence while living on campus? D won't have time to take the test in France as you have to be over 18 and he costs a simple fortune (over 3000 dollars in Paris where assessors systematically fail you at least once to make you pay more!)
thanks for any help and suggestions</p>
<p>When I came to Smith from Seattle I had the same sort of weight concerns with my baggage, so here's my advice: BUY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IN NORTHAMPTON. </p>
<p>I came with two suitcases full of clothes, a couple of posters, towels and my down comforter, and that was just about what I needed to start with. For one thing, it's cheaper, but more importantly she'll be better able to asses what her room will need/what she wants when she gets here. </p>
<p>Most students come with very little unless they are driving to Smith. A lot of my stuff I have accumulated here and a great deal of it I bought cheap off of Smith students as the year went on ($10 TV/VCR, $25 Fridge, Free bookcase, etc). For examples of how to buy cheap things off of Smith students visit smith.dailyjolt.com and check out the Marketplace. </p>
<p>You do need to provide all your own bedding (duvets, comforters, pillows, blankets, sheets, etc), but you can buy that here unless she has a particular attachment to her own stuff. They run shuttles to the big mall for just such purchases during orientation. You will also probably need to buy curtains, but again, that's something that's good to do here once she's had a chance to size up her room. </p>
<p>It is definitely normal to bring stuffed animals and other memorabilia from home (I was considered very weird for not having a teddy bear my first year, and my friends actually took me out to Build-a-Bear to make one this spring). The adjustment, especially first year, can be hard and so it's very nice to have stuff from home that you can cling to. </p>
<p>People mostly decorate their walls with photos from home and/or posters. You can bring your own or choose from the fairly good selection at Faces downtown. </p>
<p>Out of curiousity, where in France do you live? My sister lives in Monmarte, and I can't wait to vacation in France when I go JYA next spring.</p>
<p>And by asses I actually meant assess. I go to Smith, I swear.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I was told to buy sheets in the US since bed sizes are different
[/quote]
If Smith uses extra-long twin mattresses -- most colleges do, including mine -- they are 36 x 80 inches (91 x 203 cm). I don't know about the rest of Europe, but Swedish single beds are 90 x 200 cm; if the same is true for France, she could just bring her own sheets and not have to worry about that during orientation (that's what I'm doing).</p>
<p>S&P is correct: buy as much as possible in Northampton or one of the two local malls. You're limited on what you can take on the airplane and shipping raises the actual cost of many items prohibitively. </p>
<p>TheMom did a spreadsheet as D prepared to move, with the suitcase contents starting with clothing and "must have from home" items and then segregating by probably purchase site--drugstore, bookstore, office supply store, etc.--those items to pick up when we arrived. It went pretty well.</p>
<p>D got a STRIDE and it was the opportunity of working directly with a supervisor which convinced her to go to Smith. So she gets a stipend. I think she could probably also earn money by helping out in the French department (language lab or conversation classes). So how much extra money do you think she'll need during the year?
Any info available on the driving test?</p>
<p>A STRIDE stipend IMO is more than sufficient for regular spending money. If she needs more she can always hire out as a French tutor either at the Jacobsen Center or just on her own, or she can get another on-campus job if her STRIDE work isn't too demanding. </p>
<p>Laundry money is the one truly fixed college cost. Laundry is $2.70 per load to wash and dry ($1.35 for washer, $1.35 for dryer). I do three loads a week, so that ends up being like $10 per week I spend just washing clothes (Extravagant and sad, I know, but I'm very messy). </p>
<p>Other than that though, living in Noho is pretty cheap (at least on campus), and pretty much everywhere gives student discounts (including the movie theatre). You're biggest costs are laundry, eating out, and those damn cute ballet flats they sell at faces (okay, that's my biggest cost anyway. I have no shoe discipline). During vacation times she'll need extra cash for bus tickets to Boston or New York, or maybe out to a friend's house</p>
<p>I'm coming by myself from CA and I'll have two rolling suitcases of the carry-on size and a duffle bag. One suitcase is for clothing, one is for bedding, and the duffle bag is for toiletries and towels. I think that everything else can be easily purchased in MA. Winter clothes can probably wait as she won't need them until October at the earliest.</p>
<p>I believe that with the exception of two houses, all beds at Smith are the normal twin size. I'd wait until she gets her housing assignment before buying linens.</p>
<p>On drivers licenses:</p>
<p>On the STRIDE, there is a $5k scholarship toward tuition, and (when my d. had it), a $1700 stipend. It was quite sufficient for her for spending money, though we paid for all the initial move-in stuff separately (didn't cost us more than $300.)</p>
<p>I'm from Illinois (approximately 1000 miles from Smith) and drove here in a minivan with my family. Since your D is an international student, she will be attending the international students' orientation yeah? If I remember correctly, that starts the same time as Bridge, and earlier than all other pre-orientation programmes. Unless your daughter is living in Lamont next year, she'll need to bring a set of sheets with her (maybe you can pick those up between the airport and Smith) and a pillow (I believe) because she will be staying in a house other than her permanent one for the week. Usually it is not quite cold enough for her to need a blanket or anything at that point in the year, but I think they do provide a thin, scratchy one (at least, they did for Bridge, which is in Chase, right next to Lamont). </p>
<p>Other than that, I brought two moderately sized suitcases filled with clothes and ome jewelry, a small fan, coffee maker (illegal), blankets and pillows (we were driving so those were used during the trip, otherwise we would have bought them at target or something once there), a flute, a laptop computer, and one computer paper box filled with books and shoes, since I have an ongoing love affair with both. My parents later shipped a small computer paper box filled with long sleeved shirts and jumpers, but other than that, it's all I brought. Even with the things I've accumulated over the year (more clothes, more books, posters, a shadowbox, a zen garden and an elephant shaped coin bank) I'm estimating that I will be able to put everything other than my fridge and standing lamp in a large 45 gallon rubbermaid tub in the trunk room and then bring home a medium sized suitcase with just clothes. I'm guessing your daughter will be doing something similar over the summer. Trunk room regulations are getting tighter, but she should be fine.</p>
<p>Also, Smith uses water and energy efficient washers which have a smaller capacity for clothing and ironically, probably use the same amount of energy and water, if not more. Two loads of washing here is probably equivilant to one at home, at least in IL.</p>
<p>I'm doubtful that they can drive much worse in France than in Massachusetts. That said, it doesn't address the test. (Mass. drivers are among the worst I've observed here in the States.)</p>
<p>I don't go to Smith nor have I tried to get a driver's license in MA. I'm also a US citizen. I did ride the bus into Boston the other day with a friend who was trying to get a license (she flunked the test in CA while in high school), but I don't know who it went.</p>
<p>But based on everything I've learned about French culture and driving laws, I can assure you that if it can be done, it is cheaper, easier, and shorter to do in the US by a lot. You can start the process in MA when you are 15.5 (just the classes), but once you are over 18, it's really easy. Easy enough the French government shouldn't be letting its citizens transfer their licenses to France if they got them in the US, because they won't have had to gone through a tenth of the crap French citizens do.</p>
<p>For MA licenses, etc, start here.
<a href="http://www.mass.gov/rmv/%5B/url%5D">http://www.mass.gov/rmv/</a></p>
<p>I really don't agree with what TheDad here. Seriously I know some bad drivers and Ive never seen anything like them in Mass. Actually the best drivers imo (meaning can do the most without getting into accidents) are those that learned in europe oddly enough. Well...i'm not talking about italy here and I'm not going to say anything about illegal practices (such as my mom going an average of 100mph). </p>
<p>And they're soo nice too! I know this might sound pathetic but when we were visiting I tried to cross the road and the cars actually stopped to let me cross. My mom got to the other side and stared at me and my confused expression. Never before in my life have cars stopped to let me cross the road. I'm used to crossing whenever there's a little break in cars, then waiting in between the two different directions and crossing when the other side is clear of cars. I know I'll be killed one day but hopefully I can be in western mass. where I'm almost positive it wont be by a car.</p>
<p>My wife and I agree that Boston is the Olympic training ground for auto dressage.</p>
<p>Karen, there's a huuuuggeee difference between Northampton and Boston, IMO.</p>
<p>Sorry, I didn't mean that the french were bad drivers, or were badly taught. On the contrary, but driving schools belong to a real mafia and they really take you for a ride (sorry about the pun) when it comes to pay fortunes to get the d- paper. In any case, even if D had time to take the test in France, it wouldn't be valid in the States until 18 months after the test. In fact, since you can't take the test on an automatic car, and parking in Paris is worthy of being an olymoic sport, I personally consider that we drive rather better than most nations. There's not much we CAN boast about, so.....</p>
<p>Even in and around NoHo, the lane markers on the streets appear to be regarded as merely decorative, tailgating is endemic, any kind of signaling is regarded as an eccentricity to be avoided, and merging often resembles a game of "chicken," a competitive contest instead of cooperative enterprise.</p>
<p>Uh, yeah, Faces is pretty much like heaven. Only in heaven I'll get everything for free.</p>
<p>haha free is always the best. =P</p>