<p>Sb said before that there is severe weather changes in Durham.
But since they said the first few months are extremely hot I'm bringing
lot of shorts, t-shirts, tangtops and flip flops. But if I will not be able to bring more clothing from home during the whole Fall semester (although I guess i can purchase and ship it to Duke), I many jeans, other pants, light long sleeved jackets (w/ zips) and sweatshirts do I need?</p>
<p>Play it safe and have at least one pair of jeans and one long-sleeved shirt with you when you arrive in August. One sweatshirt, too. It's a good idea to have some light-weight outerwear that you can use in the rain.</p>
<p>You will need the rest of the warmer stuff before winter break, so you can arrange to have someone send it to you later if you don't have room to take it with you for move in.</p>
<p>Note: you will accumulate a lot of Duke T shirts your first year. They are given away for just about any reason, it seems.</p>
<p>You'll want to have at least one pair of "real" shoes (not dressy necessarily, but more substantial than, say, flip flops), a pair of jeans or two, and various temperatures' worth of tops (or at least layerable stuff). Durham really does have a Fall and a brief Winter, which occasionally makes an appearance before the end of fall exams (though not always). </p>
<p>I agree with mafool that sometimes the best plan is to go ahead and prepare to have a box shipped out some time in October if it is looking like the weather is going that direction and you can't make a trip home.</p>
<p>i'm not going to be going back home until winter break. should i plan on bringing my columbia winter jacket and other winter clothing?</p>
<p>how much does it cost to ship clothing?</p>
<p>I've shipped boxes of clothing home for $5 or so...nothing incredibly substantial...but good size boxes to fit a few summer things.</p>
<p>I wouldn't worry about a heavy columbia winter jacket until after break. I'm usually fine with a northface fleece until post-winter, but it depends on what you prefer really. If it's a really cold day or night I just suck it up pretty much...you never have to walk too terribly far anyway:)</p>
<p>Daughter will be a freshman and doesn't even own a winter coat since we live in Southern California. Here we just make do with sweaters and sweatshirts. Should we buy her a winter coat now or wait till she comes home at Christmas? Would an unlined fleece jacket be warm enough until Christmas break? Thanks!</p>
<p>I had to pull out my winter coat at the end of November mostly because it was REALLY windy some days and the wind went right through my North Face fleece.</p>
<p>fiskelove - at home in the Pacific NW my D was rarely cold - wearing sweaters, sweatshirts and a light fleece jacket. In Durham - she was cold. During the short break in October she went shopping and bought a mid thigh length coat and asked me to send her hat, gloves and scarf. Remember your D will be waiting at the bus stops, walking from her dorm to the Marketplace, walking from building to building for classes, etc. </p>
<p>Also, the rains are very heavy and there are lots of puddles. A good pair of rainboots is a must! And there are a lot of cute patterns for rainboots these days.</p>
<p>Thanks, Westcoastmom! Where did you get her rainboots? Online? I've never seen any in the stores here.</p>
<p>fiskelove - Nordstrom's carries rainboots and so does DSW Shoes. However, I found a better selection on line at <a href="http://www.dianeslittlelambs.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.dianeslittlelambs.com/</a>.</p>
<p>I would also advise buying a coat that is rain resistant. The rain literally pours and then runs in small streams across the sidewalks. Remember your D is going to be waiting at bus stops with no bus stop shelters. LLBean has some great coats that have zip out linings and are rain resistant, but they may be too dull for your D. If you D likes wearing athletic shoes be certain to buy two pairs - so one can dry while she wears the other.</p>
<p>Target also has some cute rainboots online...I just bought some there because I figured I wouldn't be wearing them often.</p>
<p>Do you wear the rainboots over your shoes or instead of shoes? Sorry, for sounding dense, but it almost never rains here!</p>
<p>my S is a junior at Duke. Good news is the closets in freshman rooms are generally really decent to even better in the old dorms. I can't speak for the new Belltower though. (some people have gigantic private closets and are even nice enough to store things for people on the hall who pull rooms with smaller footprints.) In the old dorms on East, the rooms do vary by location in such matters as closets and square footage, but they are all decent in size. He keeps all his clothes at Duke for all three seasons, using a box for the couple of sweaters he owns to put back on his shelf since winter in Durham is only about 8 weeks long. He uses the thing you get at Bedbath and beyond that doubles your hanging space to hang all his shirts and just keeps the off season clothes hanging out of the way in the back of the closet. He also has a shoe rack that hangs in his closet so he can keep all his winter or summer season shoes there without it being a jumble. Much easier than hauling stuff home at Christmas. You will want your shorts again by March anyway so you might as well leave them at Duke all year.</p>
<p>Each kid gets their own closet, there is usually at least one shelf to stack plastic boxes on with sweaters etc for late Oct/November.
Re fleece..not going to help you when you are tramping around West Campus with a laptop, your books and a long way to walk and you also have to get yourself to East on a blustery cold day. I recommend one windstopper fleece jacket..look at REI outlet and sierratradingpostdotcom. My son never used his gortex coat the entire two years, but he does have one pullover waterproof jacket to put over fleece.
Windproof fleece will do you most winters at Duke. Plenty of Dukies opt to wear shorts in the winter but they will keep their upper bodies warm with fleece wind stoppers or layers of fleece and a sweatshirt and a cap.
My son is happier in khakis year round rather than jeans. You will see preppier clothing like khakis a lot but I see plenty of hoodies and jeans on campus..I would say Duke is more casual than many other Southern colleges although you will see some kids in prep clothes and nantucket red pants around too. Dress at Duke is quite varied just like the student body.</p>
<p>fiskelove - the rain boots take the place of shoes. That's why you can now find rain boots with neat designs and patterns on them. They have become a fashion item! You can find the burberry plaid, argyle prints, other plaids, skulls, flowers, paisley, etc. There are even cowboy rain boots!</p>
<p>does anyone have a pic of how large the closet space is in one of the freshman dorms? i just want to see how much of my wardrobe i can bring and how much i'd need to ship.</p>
<p>and does every person get their own closet? or do you have to share among your roommate(s)?</p>
<p>my S and his roomie freshman year got the smallest room with the smallest closets on the hall. Each boy still had their own closet about the size you find to service a full hotel room like a Holiday Inn Express or a Hampton Inn. A few closets had been tricked out with a few more details by former residents. Top shelf and enough room for a full year's wardrobe for a boy..and my son has more clothes than most boys did and hangs up everything, shorts shirts long pants, jackets, formal wear item or two, so he used one of those things that adds another bar that hangs from the top bar to hang pants on.<br>
Don't bring everything you own...really Duke is pretty laid back but bring a variety. If you don't wear it a lot and wouldn't wear it to study in the library or to haul books around, leave it at home. Duke has many stone paths and stairs so bring shoes that aren't slippery. Bring a few fancy things after Christmas if you want to attend rush parties. Plenty of people who don't care to pledge still run around to those parties with their freshman hall buddies just to check it out. The only reason you would have to share a closet as a freshman is if you triple. The kids who happened to get walk in closets on my son's hall were really nice about taking some stuff for kids with smaller ones.</p>
<p>do we get dressers?</p>
<p>When I overnighted, my host and her roommate shared a closet.</p>
<p>this is sad, I thought I would have any needs for my winter clothing again and
wear shorts all year except wear jackets and jeans for a month or so</p>
<p>wait so what are the months that i may need pants and fleece?
everybody seemed to be saying oct/nov but when does that season end
and when can i wear short again?</p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>^^^all depends on the rate of global warming!</p>
<p>And some students wear shorts regardless of the temperature outside.</p>
<p>Really, it varies a lot--even within one week. I'd venture to guess, though, that you'd be safe to plan on shorts again by mid-March or there abouts.</p>