<p>D is attending Tufts this fall as a bio/anthro pre-med student. Looking forward to meeting many of you at the orientation day this August.</p>
<p>Don’t mean to sound ignorant. But what is a TWO group?</p>
<p>^ It’s the Wilderness Pre-orientation program … [Orientation</a> for New Students - Student Services - Tufts University](<a href=“http://studentservices.tufts.edu/orientation/preorientation/]Orientation”>http://studentservices.tufts.edu/orientation/preorientation/)</p>
<p>To the question before on ALLIES:
ALLIES is a civil-military relations organisation which seeks to bridge the gap between the civilian world and the military world by (at least on the Tufts end, which is civilian), introducing civilian students to the issues which dictate military life, policy, decision-making, and so on. We have relations with several military officers who study/teach at the Fletcher school, have frequent liaisons with folks from the service academies, and do a whole bunch of other great stuff. ALLIES started at Tufts and now has chapters at all service academies and several other schools across the country.</p>
<p>Has anyone had any experience with any of the other pre-orientation programs?</p>
<p>My D participated in the FIT program. She loved it. It is a good way to connect up with the students interested in athletics at Tufts. The leaders are mostly athletes or former athletes. The athletes at Tufts are very friendly with lots of school spirit.</p>
<p>Thanks Mastadon - I think that’s the program she’s interested in. She was wondering how it works with moving into the dorms - do they move into the room they are assigned for the year when they get there for pre-orientation, or do they get temporary quarters and then move again when the rest in the Freshman come?</p>
<p>hobbes, the FIT students move into the room they’ll have for the rest of the year.</p>
<p>My son is entering Tufts in the fall and I wanted to make up a Tufts-oriented basket for him for high school graduation. I’ve ordered some Tufts stuff from the book store, but was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on must-have gift certificates? Are there Jumbo dollars?? A pizza place that everyone uses or a popular destination in Davis Square?? Thanks…</p>
<p>@Twinnytoni
There are so many places in Davis Square and lots of different favorites. My D loves the crepe place - but that may not be as popular with the boys. One suggestion would be a Charlie card for the T with some dollars loaded. Also, most kids seem to collect anything elephant. For mine it is an elephant trash can and an elephant bookend. Another thought would be something from the Boston sports teams.</p>
<p>Bumping this back up…</p>
<p>Did the firt years get their choice of pre-orientation? My DD was happy to get a spot in TWO.</p>
<p>My d got into FIT which is what she wanted. I heard a lot of kids didn’t get into TWO.</p>
<p>Yes! My D is thrilled to get IO!! And she picked a room mate! Exciting times ahead!</p>
<p>Dorm Stuff Question: What is best way to get bedding/dorm essentials etc cross country? Is there a BB&B nearby school to order online and pick up there? Or does Target do that? and nearby? Any other better ideas? Also is there enough space under beds to store luggage? Buying D luggage, but not sure what she does with it for the rest of semester. Do most of you ship clothes etc in advance? Thank you parents!</p>
<p>Sorry- me again. Are the dorm beds bad? Do I need to get the egg crate bed toppers?</p>
<p>Coming from SoCal we did the BBB routine. You go into a BBB store, they register you (like a wedding registry, except you are paying for everything yourself 
) and give you a scanning gun. After you finish going around the store, they check for stock availability on the other end and tell you if anything is out of stock. Then you go back out and scan more if, for example, the fan you wanted won’t be in stock. Then you pick up at the BBB near Tufts. </p>
<p>Two cents of advice: do the registry on the earlier side if possible. With females this doesn’t always work, as they may want to coordinate color schemes or figure out who is bringing what. However, you can always register for everything and then take things out of your cart on the Somerville/Medford side of things. You want to register earlier because they DO run out of things (like fans). On the pickup side, check your order to see if anything was left out. They’re human, they do make mistakes. D1 ordered one of those large carpet rugs and we didn’t notice it was missing. That’s something which is too bulky to mail or ship, so she and her roommate did without as neither had a car. Not a huge issue but an annoyance.</p>
<p>We all went on a combination vacation/move-in, so we took all luggage with us on the flight out to Boston. D1 had a total of 3 bags, all soft-sided including two rolling duffles. No problems finding room to store them. Since she didn’t have much heavy winter clothing coming from a warm climate, that cut down on bulk. Remember, they can always buy things there and/or have things shipped from home. Less is more. </p>
<p>Following advice here on CC, I bought D1 a memory foam topper. Someone recommended a mint tea/green one from overstock because it had a nice odor. Very true, it smells like mint chip ice cream! That was shipped directly to Tufts rather than having it come to SoCal and then go cross-country. Again following suggestions from CC, had one cheap mattress pad directly on the mattress, then the memory foam, then another cheap mattress pad. D1 said her bed was acknowledged as the most comfortable on the floor. :)</p>
<p>Perfect- thank you so much SlitheyTove! And it is helpful that you are also from So Cal, so you understand our point of view!</p>
<p>My son says both his dorm beds are better than the one at home. YMMV.</p>
<p>Does Tufts provide a checklist of what to bring for incoming Freshman??? If not, does anyone have a good one?</p>
<p>classclown, there are tons of suggestions on the parents forum–maybe on the parents cafe. Take a look there.</p>