<p>I have been reading this board for a few months, and finally had a reason for my first post.. </p>
<p>My daughter is attending the program at Exeter this summer. We got the info packet in the mail today and it said that laundry facilities are not in the dorms but are walking distance from campus. We had been planning on her doing her own laundry (managing chores like this is one of the reasons for attending the program) but the "walking distance" to the laundrymat had me a bit concerned. </p>
<p>How far of a walk is it? From the worst case dorm location? In the summer the clothing will be light and I wouldn't expect her to do laundry more than every weekend. The service is $100 for the five weeks which seems steep to me for a job she is capable of doing. Just wanted to get a sanity check from current students.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>She's going to be SO busy...I'd take the $100 fee and chalk it up to paying for more worthwhile experiences, like ec's and meeting amazing people. She'll get enough of a real world experience without being bothered...where is the laundry place you're talking about...did they give an address? If there is one right in the stretch of shops should be okay...if it's on Portsmouth Ave. I'd say NO WAY...too busy and dangerous.</p>
<p>pay the 100 bucks, i did exeter summer school, and it's a long walk carrying the laundry down to the laundromat..holy cow, and u gotta wait forever at the laundrymat too</p>
<p>I was at Exeter last summer, probably the same program as your daughter. I had the laundry service and it did save time. On the other hand there were many kids that went to the laundromat at the same time, so the walk isn't too bad (i had to go to the laundromat too, and i walked with a bunch of my friends). The time it takes to walk to the laundromat doesn't interfere with very much, she will find that on weekends and most other days she will have a good amount of free time. </p>
<p>I agree with Bearcats that it did take forever to wash the clothes.</p>
<p>The laundromat is on the corner of Main and Lincoln, about a ten-minute walk from most dorms. Lots of kids use it, mostly on the weekends.</p>
<p>thanks for the info so far. We are still mulling it over. They didn't give us any info except it was walking distance from campus. I did read in another thread that people weren't too thrilled with E&R cleaners, the service they use. I guess anything can be less great that how you would do it yourself.</p>
<p>I did a program like this at Milton when I was in HS and I didn't use a service but I don't remember how I did my laundry. I assume I did it myself, I don't remember walking so I assumed I did it in the dorms.</p>
<p>Do most prep schools not have dorm laundry facilities? This was unexpected for us.</p>
<p>more follow ups-</p>
<p>bearcats and preptobismol (cute name) during the summer program could you give me a general idea of how many did the service and how many did their own? prepto why did you have to go to the laundrymat? I assume the once a week pickup with 3 day turnaround wasn't sufficient?</p>
<p>Is the laundry at Main and Lincoln the one which isn't in the nice area? </p>
<p>Doing laundry and basically managing her life for 5 weeks is the reason for doing the program. She is looking forward to the course work. I am not trying to channel through my own experiences, but the self reliance I got at the summer program I did was the best college prep I had before going away to college. Yes a lot of this was the hanging out with friends and the academics/sports were awesome also. But getting these basic organizational and time management experience is one of the main values I see in doing a program like this.</p>
<p>Jackief, I would guess that more kids do the service than their own, maybe 70/30. There are <em>a lot</em> of bags downstairs in the dorms when it's laundry pick-up day. The laundry at Main & Lincoln is in a reasonably nice area--it's really a couple of blocks from campus. I agree that there's some value to kids having to do their own laundry, even though living away from home while taking classes and doing sports is pretty challenging for kids who haven't done it before even without the laundry part.</p>
<p>By the way, the dorms <em>do</em> have laundry facilities, but for some reason they don't let summer kids use them.</p>
<p>Thanks for the answers collegeprof! I have a coworker who lives in Exeter and I got some townie feedback from him also. Then I tracked on gmaps pedometer and it seems like 1/3 mi from the farthest dorm to the laundry, but there are probably cut throughs I didn't account for so maybe 1/4 mi. D was reading the booklet last night and noticed the part about laundry being off campus and I mentioned this to her, and she said it seemed reasonable. I was expecting a complaint about not doing the laundry service.</p>
<p>I agree that classes, sports, ECs, socializing is a lot to juggle, which is why I think doing it during a summer that doesn't really count is a great experience to have before being thrown into this environment as a college freshman.</p>
<p>i would say that it was about an even split between those that took the service and those that did their own. yah, with sports and all i went through quite a few sets of clothes, and so i had to do my own laundry (only once).</p>