<p>I believe that the Smith computer discounts are for registered Smith students only. </p>
<p>Phone bills are not included in tuition...that's an individual's expense not related to school per se. At Smith, most students don't use the expensive long-distance phone service via the phones in their rooms, they use their cell phones.</p>
<p>If you travel to Manhattan every week, your grades are going to suffer.</p>
<p>Hmmm, buy a cell phone and get service too? Yeah, well I'll need to call my parents pretty often. Here, land phone is MUCH cheaper than cell phones and I doubt my current cell will work there (not that I use my cell here either, I normally use the land phone due to the costing). Is Manhattan that far? I was thinking of going over to my aunt's every weekend. And MHC says students can purchase through the Smith computer discount thingy. They seem to recommend that way of purchase for computers. I was wondering if there is a place nearby, South Hadley or NoHo, where there is a nice well-known electronics store or a place where I can buy a digicam at a discount. Most of my friends who went to the US to study aren't in that area so I can't ask them.</p>
<p>This year, MHC students can purchase computers through the Smith store...assuming that you want a laptop, student package, and printer, that's going to set you back about $2100 or so but if you get a Mac, you'll get a free printer if you order by a certain date. The laptops come with the complete warranty (3 years for Apple, 4 for Dell) and they're loaded with everything you need. The Student Pack is the one with the Office suite, ethernet cable, etc. Have them hold it for you so that you can pick it up upon arrival.</p>
<p>Click on the Catalog link for this year's catalog. <a href="http://www.smith.edu/its/computerstore/%5B/url%5D">http://www.smith.edu/its/computerstore/</a></p>
<p>Oh okay thanks. $2100 on a computer set is way too much though. But some things have to be bought still... like the Office suite educational version.</p>
<p>FYI TheDad, they got rid of the long distance service awhile ago. After our first year, actually. If you want to make non-local calls on the room phone, it needs to be with a phone card. Tsubie-chan, maybe an international phone card is your best bet?</p>
<p>G'08, that makes sense...the economics of the in-room phone made no sense when D enrolled, which is what my patchwork memory was recalling. A search for a good phone card probably is the best answer for T-c.</p>
<p>D's hoping to nurse her Mac laptop through senior year. We'll probably pop in some additional RAM. She's going to need a new one for grad school if that's the road immediately taken. There's got to be some kind of Rosetta stone that translates human years to dog years to computer years.</p>
<p>Windows for me. I have used it for ages. I wonder how much the Office Educational version would cost.. I couldn't see the price being listed anywhere there. Pity my home printer is one on 220 V, it's new and works just fine. So using an international card with the phone in my room? Sounds like a good idea. Do they have a variety of int'l cards with different rates? A friend of mine said with one card he could call for $0.036 all the way from Ottawa to here. o_o Then again, that's Canada.</p>
<p>New York is way too far to go every weekend. You won't have the time, the desire, or probably the cash to go there more than once or twice a semester tops. Boston is closer, but even then, you'll be very busy at school and with your campus social life so you probably won't go that often. Also, if you go to New York a lot, you will probably be a very lonely student because you'll miss out on all the building of friendships that happens over the weekend. My roommate went to her home (which was much closer than New York) every weekend during the fall to see her boyfriend, and then ended up transfering because she didn't feel like she fit in at Smith because she didn't have many friends. Largely this was because she was gone so much people didn't get a chance to get to know her. Also, weekends are study time (at least during the day) and you will need every minute of it. </p>
<p>You can use a phone card for long distance calls if you don't want to purchase a cell phone or use the school's over priced long distance plan. Phone cards are easy to purchase and pretty inexpensive considering what you get out of them. There are usually a few to choose from, though I think most are pretty comparable. </p>
<p>I would recommend that you just plan on buying a computer and then see if you can buy a cheap printer off of another student. Sites like the Daily Jolt (I know MHC has one) or Facebook have marketplaces where you can buy printers students no longer want for very cheap (i got a printer/copier/scanner that works excellently for $30). You can usually get by using the library printers temporarily until you find your own. </p>
<p>If you want pricing options, your best bet is to call the computer store directly. They are open during the summer and can give you the best info. Or you could email them. </p>
<p>You should get a fan, it will be hot until November, but microwaves usually aren't allowed in student rooms (at least they aren't at Smith, we use the ones in our house's kitchenettes). </p>
<p>At Smith, there are usually vaacuums and brooms available for student use, but if you want stuff like Windex you have ot buy it yourself. You are responsible for keeping your own room as clean as you want it to be. Laundry expenses are all out of pocket, including detergent. The Smith laundry cost is $2.70 for a full cycle (wash and dry one load of clothes). </p>
<p>It will initially cost probably quite a bit to get you set up in your room and your life, but know that the cost you pay at the beginning of your first year ill be the highest because you'll need things like soap, shampoo, pens and pencils, notebooks, a lamp, etc that are small but add up fast. My recommendation is to keep an account with your bank at home that your parents can add money to online so you'll be able to finance the start up. Or else consider getting a credit card that you can put your neccessary charges on that your folks can have access to to arrange payments. </p>
<p>I say this becuase it's hard to estimate what you will need (especially since MHC is different from Smith so your needs may be different) and rather than have your parents send you with a set amount of money, one of the above options may be more flexible.</p>
<p>Thanks for all that info. I was just wondering what international kids have to go through, the procedure and stuff, to setup a credit card. I am trying to buy a camera, for example, and I will have it shipped to my aunt's at NYC as I drop off at her place before heading to South Hadley (hence I can pick it up from there). But to order it online, I need an international credit card which I don't have. So to avoid future paying issues, once I get there I need to get a credit card for myself.</p>
<p>re traveling to NYC regularly, D's typical "free" time was Friday nights. Period. Saturday & Sunday were definitely filled with studying, along with some EC...she's nowhere near the most EC-intensive person in the world. Regular traveling would have destroyed her grades.</p>
<p>Ditto what S&P said about the high initial cost of setting up your room & life.</p>
<p>You're unlikely to be given a credit card with no U.S. history. When you open a checking account, they will probably offer you a debit card, which acts very much like debit card but draws against funds that you have in your checking account.</p>
<p>:( Perhaps they'll visit me then.</p>
<p>Hum, can you shop online with these cards? :o (like ebay, amazon, tigerdirect -- the common ones)</p>
<p>"Perhaps they'll visit me then."</p>
<p>Umm...let me give you a quote from D when we visited during first-year family weekend: "It's great to see you guys but there's a lot of stuff I have to get done."</p>
<p>She's now had a taste of what a full time job is like. Smith is more work. "There's always something else you need to get done, all the way to the end of the semester." I don't know about your relatives, but I'd be reluctant to commit to a four-hour round trip just to see someone for an hour, maybe two. It's a fair bet that you're going to be much busier than you now envision.</p>
<p>Yes, you can shop on-line with a debit card. I'd get a debit card from a bank that minimizes your responsibility in case of loss, theft, or fraud. Unlike credit cards, debit cards with a $50 limit, debit cards are not so protected unless the issuing institution chooses to do so.</p>
<p>Smithies should get a job.</p>
<p>And what makes you think that many/most don't have one? Or a paid one plus some sort of community service? Smithies are busy...they're not locked in cells.</p>
<p>HAHA lighten up THEDAD . I better check my mailbox.I might get sued by the PC police HAHA.</p>
<p>SmithieandProud has given you very good advice that applies to Mount Holyoke as well. I would add that you will need money available to you in two ways: 1) Money deposited in a bank that will be available to you through a checking account or debit card. You will be able to make purchases over the internet or through stores using the debit card or get cash from a MAC machine, but you must have the cash in the bank account to cover the cash out or purchases (as opposed to a credit card, where you borrow the purchase money until you pay the bill). 2) Money deposited at Mount Holyoke that will be available on your One Card. That is the way you will pay for laundry ( which is at least the $2.70 per load as reported by SmithieandProud) and will be able to use it for certain on campus purchases (for example to buy text books, although you can purchase them with your debit card on line or through the book store.)</p>
<p>My daughters roommate, also an international student, used one of the computers in the dorm computer center for most of the year. She acquired a used computer late in the year. There are enough computers between the dorms and the library, so that you can survive without one. </p>
<p>I definitely agree with what the other posters have said about leaving campus or having visitors come every weekend or even once a month. You will have many opportunities as well as academic challenges at Mount Holyoke. Make the most of the opportunities and rise to the challenges. Keep an open mind to the diverse group of colleagues you will meet. They will greatly enrich your life. Best of luck!</p>
<p>I wouldn't say she's neccessarily unlikely to get a credit card without US credit history. Most of the banks in the area offer credit cards to students with zero credit history, but they have high interest rates so you have to make sure you can pay them off every month. </p>
<p>Debit cards can be used online, they function exactly like credit cards only you can only spend the money you actually have in your account. In that way, they are safer than credit cards (you won't be able to run up balances higher than you will be able to pay). </p>
<p>You can also get a credit card in your home country and use it in the US, so long as it's a major brand like Visa, MasterCard, or American Express (AE is not accepted in many of the small stores in town though). </p>
<p>The same goes for a debit card. You can open a checking account in the US, but you can also keep your account (if you have one) in your home country and use it instead.</p>
<p>Heh, getting a credit card here is tough. Part of the reason my SATs screwed up was cause I had to pay the money via a check as I didn't have access to a credit card. Here, you need to have visited a foreign country in the last few months or something and then you are legible to apply for an international one ortherwise not.</p>
<p>TheDad, I think it depends. For F-1 visa holders, it's basically school + 8-10 hrs of on-campus job per week then coming home for the summer as we can't work off-campus till work permit issued... that is a typical freshman. A friend of mine who went last year said she found schoolwork easy and even with the work-study she felt bored because she had too much free time. She is a very good student of-course, but perhaps high school for her here in this country involved more work (my courseload was 21 courses for two years which still felt pretty slack). Then again, she didn't socialise that much and did say someone she knew was having a hard time because her grades were suffering due to too much ECA.</p>
<p>Sure considering now I will have to take care of myself and won't have maids, grandmother and mom running after me or dad buying things, it will be a lot more responsibility on my shoulder and that will probably burn me out combined with the schoolwork. I didn't think that'd be a factor with American kids though, as they tend to be more indenpendent at this age. It's probably about the way how their lifestyles change once in college, whereas here it's so as well but in a different way. </p>
<p>Another friend of mine, who is American and living in Maryland, said he thinks I won't have much time for my current activities once I am in college cause college professors like to treat their classes like the 'only class you have'.</p>
<p>Also, he says his calculus professor started his class with 'whoever said calculus was easy?... and my friend didn't laugh. I am just wondering, while it maybe a lot of work, do the girls enjoy the experience?</p>
<p>I know this doesn't relate much to the schools in context here but I'm gonna to answer that question from my own experience. I go to an engineering magnet school in my county where I'm one of very few girls in my grade. And yes, the school is extremely difficult. To say the teachers treat our classes like "the only class you have" is an understatement sometimes and it is definitely hard as hell. (Of course this might be attributed to the fact that half of my class procrastinates so much, two of us use this site :), we start our work at 11 and don't go to sleep until 4) And we have to take college classes on the side too. So even though the work is a lot and going to a school with so many arrogant boys (not you brian, if you're reading this ;) ) is really annoying, I still love it. I feel that I am actually learning something vs. a normal high school where I could get easy A's not doing anything. I love being challenged.</p>