<p>I am surprised to hear that colleges close the dorms during winter and Spring breaks. Is that really true? There are plenty of International students + others who either cannot afford to/or choose not to go home.</p>
<p>University of Chicago allows students to live there through all breaks (except summer), since your room is yours all year anyway. There may be fewer dining halls open though.</p>
<p>When my son started at the University of Maryland, I was surprised to learn that more than half of the dorms close for Thanksgiving and Spring breaks (they all close for Winter Break). Kids are warned about this in advance, and those who live too far away to go home for the short breaks are advised to request housing in the dorms that stay open.</p>
<p>At my alma mater, Cornell, which had a lot more students who came from far away, the dorms only closed for the winter break. Lots of us didn't necessarily go home for Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>What do international students do during that long winter break, anyway?</p>
<p>Some dorms never close, e.g. Caltech. I suspect 'cuz of internationals and kids that live far away</p>
<p>Good advice about checking flight times and connecting flights. Certainly the kids don't want to be hanging around an airport longer than necessary but it's important to build in some time for connecting flights. This is especially true if flying in/out of a very large airport where gates are far apart. You need to build in time for delays, errors in reading gates etc. And not being booked on the last flight out of a city is GREAT advice.</p>
<p>"And not being booked on the last flight out of a city is GREAT advice."</p>
<p>For sure. Those are the flights I stress about. Sometimes they're unavoidable, but still...</p>
<p>At Dart, you have to apply for interim housing and move your stuff to another room, if you need to stay over certain breaks. I think it varies how much moving you have to do - remember Dartmouth is on a sort of quarter system, so there is more moving around than in a semester system school. D has only stayed over T'giving, and obviously she didn't have to move for that.</p>
<p>"Always a good idea to be prepared for such contingencies, and it's more difficult for college students to prepare than it is for adults. We have cars. We have credit cards. We can rent hotel rooms and cars. College kids often do not have cars, and they may only have debit cards that debit an account with a low balance. "</p>
<p>Our kids all go to college far from home. Each one has a copy of OUR credit card that they can use in emergencies. It has a much higher limit than theirs and will not be turned down. I highly recommend this for kids away at school. Then you know that they can purchase items and services if needed. Obviously they must know the rules and know that they CANNOT use the card without your prior permission or in an emergency situation. Our kids have had to use the card occassionally and we are glad that they have it.</p>
<p>Most schools do have selected dorms that stay open during breaks and those who choose to stay at the schools are assigned to those rooms when possible. Many international students go home during those breaks, and some of those airfares are cheaper than some domestic fares if they are bought by those savvy in how these fares work. My brother and his family went away for the holidays in Europe for about $400 a ticket. For longer holidays, timing is not crucial can pick "off fare" flights. My mother's ticket from Asia was about $800, but that was because the timing was carefully planned with little flexibility. Had she been a student and had we used some of those cheap flight services, we could have shorn $200 from that round trip price. Many international students know someone in the US, and may stay with a family, or go home with another student who knows someone. My son is good friends with a Korean classmate whose cousin is a college student and holidays often bring a number of kids from that college to their home. I know that I always had numerous invitations for vacations and holidays throughout college, so I don't think it is a big issue. At my son's college I saw flyers for those intending to stay on campus over winter break and were in dorms that were closing. Apparently they do move those who live those dorms that close to rooms in those that do not. So that option is often open too.</p>
<p>We're on year number 11 of having a kid in college, all of which were/are in the "north". This has never happened so, although yes, it is possible, it would be a rarity. Even the Colorado storms this year were certainly not something that happens with any regularity. A close friend has lived there for 25 years and has never seen the problems they dealt with this year. </p>
<p>As others have said, it would take an enormous blizzard to cause a problem such as this and chances are, your kid won't have to worry about this. Have you checked to see if the school does close the dorms over Christmas break? Many don't. My D is at NYU and their dorms are also open over the break for those who want to use them. This isn't unusual.</p>
<p>One suggestion I will make, though, is to get your kid a credit card when they go off to college. You can set the credit limit if that's necessary and then they will have it available for emergencies, including a scenario like what you've described here.</p>
<p>My S goes to school in the south ( a large state u). At his school all dorms close for winter break. One dorm is specifically for International students but it closes too. There are several open during other breaks.</p>
<p>S has one of the sleeping bags that stuffs into a tiny sack. I believe it is a brand called Kelty. It stuffs in a sack less than 12 inches long and about 6-8 inches in diameter. </p>
<p>College S. son has a Mastercard that has come in handy on numerous occasions (car broke down at college, had to be towed...emergency trip to Opthamologist for eye infection, etc). S2, a h.s. Jr. has a debit card (he has a part-time job) that is attached to our Mastercard. This way if he every gets in a jam , he can still use his card and the rest will roll over to our card. He knows this is for emergency use only. Makes me feel better to know he has something he can use in any situtation if needed.</p>
<p>When my daughter flew home for fall break last semester, she ended up missing her plane (long story). It was the last flight of the evening to our city, so she was stuck in O'hare airport in Chicago. She had never traveled alone before this, and I'd had lots of nervous anxiety about it.</p>
<p>She called us AFTER she had already rescheduled her flight for the morning, arranged a hotel room for the night (she even insisted that the airline get her a discount rate), found and taken the shuttle over to the hotel, checked in, ordered and received a delivery pizza for herself. </p>
<p>In short, she figured things out just fine on her own, including being smart enough not to call Mom right away because Mom was only going to panic and worry about worst-case scenarios.</p>
<p>Our kids are a LOT more resilient and self-reliant then we realize. If they're not, they probably shouldn't be going more than a few miles from home in the first place. :)</p>
<p>One thing we did realize after this whole thing is (1) from now on, unless absolutely impossible, she'll book an earlier flight, not the last one of the day (2) she'll always be sure she travels with her credit card, ATM card, and enough cash to tide her by overnight (3) she'll always have her cell phone charged and (4) Mom will try not to panic prematurely and believe that she's going to do just fine figuring things out when things like this happen. </p>
<p>She is, after all, an adult now.</p>
<p>No college is going to leave a kid stranded. Take a look at the Colorado College website and how they handled the situation this year when snow started the last day of exams. Dorms stayed open until Christmas eve...then when some kids couldn't still get out, the President of the college had a half dozen of them to his house for Christmas Eve. He has a blog on the President's page and he describes how much fun they all had. These schools are prepared for these emergencies.</p>
<p>Both of my kids colleges close during breaks but exceptions are made for international students. At my son's college students that live far away can also stay if they have permission from the housing office. I'm not really sure how it works since I think the dining halls are closed. Weatherwise, I have no idea what happens but I have faith that both colleges have some sort of way to deal with it. My kids have traveled enough by themselves that even though I worry I know they have the tools (debit and credit card, AAA card, cell phone, emergency car kits) to take care of themselves as well as I would be able to take care of them. </p>
<p>Son's college will be closed at Easter for Good Friday through Easter Monday but I don't know if that just means no classes or what. It's too short a period for him to come home. Guess he'll realize that in a month or so and figure out what to do.</p>
<p>Thank you, everyone, for all the information.</p>
<p>I really learned something here.</p>
<p>I had expected people to say things like, "My son makes sure to have X amount of money and Y supplies to cover this situation" or "My daughter and I called all the motels near the college to find out which ones will rent rooms to people under 21." It never occurred to me that the college itself could be a resource for kids in the situation I described. I don't think it would ever have occurred to my daughter, either. Now she will know that if this problem does occur, talking to the RA or Residence Hall Director would be a good first step.</p>
<p>CC is a very educational place.</p>
<p>I had to post after my outing last night. I had a meeting about 15 minutes away. Snow was in the forecast but it wasn't snowing when I left or even after the meeting ended around 8:30, so I decided to go to a favorite grocery store that's close to where my meeting was, but a little far from home. I was in the store for about 30 minutes (got stuck at checkout when the cashier couldn't find the price for my clementines and wouldn't ask for a supervisor for quite a while) and when I walked out the snow was coming down pretty hard and it was sticking to the roads. </p>
<p>Ughh. Generally the best bet when it snows is to take the big roads as those are the ones that are plowed first, and if not plowed at least you have tail lights to follow if you can't see the white or yellow lines, which I couldn't. There are a few hills between the grocery store I was at and my home so I had a slightly stressful 30 minutes following a truck up and down the hills until my turn off. As I'm driving I thought about how unprepared I was - no hat, my regular fleece gloves had gotten covered with dog hair and were in the washer so I had one stretchy glove for my right hand. I was wearing clogs instead of boots and I didn't even have a scraper in the car because at home I park in the garage and that's where we hang it! The only way I was prepared was that I did have my cell phone and it was charged. I finally made it home but couldn't get up the driveway so I'm parked in the street. So! For those of you whose kids will be in Northern states, remind them not to be stupid like me and to be ready for bad weather even if they're only going out for a short trip...</p>
<ol>
<li>If your child mentions that it's cold outside, remind him/her that 80% of one's body heat escapes via the head. All those blood vessels to the brain. So always carry a head-hugging knit ski-cap (called a "tuque" in Canada) in a backpack; takes up no room and really makes a difference. If howls of protest ensue ("bad hair day") then remind them that they probably unzipped the hood to their coat last October. Perhpas it's living in their dorm closet. Reinstate it.</li>
</ol>
<p>OR:</p>
<ol>
<li>Do like some elderly freinds or ours in Eden, NY. Her name is Eve, and he's Stanley. Eve and Stanley have a farm, although they're 80 years old and originally from Brooklyn. In a recent storm, they went out momentarily (they thought) to feed their farm animals without heavy coats. Suddenly, a tree fell, blocking their return to their house.
Fortunately, sometimes feed a local wolf who hangs around near their farm, hopeful. The wolf came up to Eve, who says, "His eyes shone golden" and then he started digging furiously under the fallen tree towards the house. He actually tunneled under it, then returned to Eve an hour later with his nose-skin all worn off and bloody paws from all the frantic digging. He started nudging Eve into the tunnel entrance and she realized he was saving her. So she wrapped her arms around the wolf's hindquarters.
She yelled, "Stanley, hold onto my tush!" But Stanley wouldn't. He said the tunnel reminded him of the foxholes when he served in the military at Okinawa, and he refused to go in.
Eve yelled, "Stanley, grab on NOW or you will DIE." So Stanley did, and the wolf dragged them both down, then up the tunnel to the porch of their house.
This was picked up in the newspaper, so you may have already read about it. </li>
</ol>
<p>Anyways, those are two choices if your kids are worried about the winter weather.</p>
<p>Wow. That is some great story. I suspect it's not going to work for many college kids, or anyone who isn't a folklore character ("Once upon a time, there was a little old woman, and a little old man, and they lived on a farm . . . ) I suspect it's not going to ease Marian's concerns about bad weather, either.</p>
<p>My reaction: There are WOLVES in Eden NY?!? I've spent time there; I had no idea.</p>
<p>Impressive but a little hard to believe Wolf story, paying 3, sounds like a "rural legend" but will believe if you say you know these folks personally.</p>
<p>Now I can see a new CC ranking --collleges with largest nearby resident wolf populations!</p>
<p>Kinda off-topic but what the f***:</p>
<p>Just read somewhere that wolves have been taken off the endangered list in Michigan and Wisc., and a few of the other North Central states. The story above is Snopes-worthy.</p>
<p>Eve told my spouse the story, so in fact I'd like to know myself if you all think it's true or we need to get some assistance for Eve (aside from wolves). She is 80...hm.</p>