Nuts and Bolts for New Students???

<p>Do many of the girls in the Commons have TVs in their rooms? We saw this a lot at other schools, but we can’t remember about Vanderbilt.</p>

<p>Yes, it is very common for both the men and women to have TV’s. Each room has both cable (if I remember correctly, 2 jacks) and wireless Internet.</p>

<p>my sons never had a TV in college and didn’t miss it because they are already wired up 24/7 with snapchat, FB, skype, twitter etc. this generation of college kids who arrive at colleges that are highly selective lived very spartan lives in high school often getting up early for sports and music and getting to bed late doing AP exam prep. </p>

<p>College is so exciting and students generally know what their friends are doing and where they are at all times via digital media. Sleep deprivation is a challenge for this generation of college kids far more than when we went to college with perhaps a hair dryer and a lamp for our desks. </p>

<p>Neither of our sons ever had a TV and they never missed it. Just made it more certain that they went to the gobs of things they can attend at a school like Vandy with 6000 undergrads and 6000 graduate students any hour of the day. Getting involved even when you are a bit lonely takes time…Vandy son didn’t make the cut for “training” in the media at Vanderbilt and had no history of writing in high school and just started showing up for media meetings and producing things. Duke son spent evenings in rehearsals or performing. A great deal of finding your way at Vanderbilt requires being brave enough to just start showing up for meetings in things that interest you, and perhaps dropping Activity A for Activity B by sophomore year as you figure out what makes you feel happiest in your free time.</p>

<p>I have no prob with TV for true sports lovers who need a way to chill but I will stick my neck out and suggest no TVs till year or so has passed.</p>

<p>Vandy’s cable also comes with free HBO so there are recent movies playing like 24/7. Pretty cool deal. We really only use our TV for sports and console games. Rarely use it just to watch TV. Not much time for that! It does seem that almost every room has a TV whether or not they use it.</p>

<p>Thanks Faline and Pancaked for the information. Daughter will swim for Vandy, twice a day practices and full pre-med schedule will probably eliminate need for TV. I am really just trying to anticipate the “unknowns” of college. She lives by TiVo right now–about four times a year during school breaks she can catch up on a couple of favorite TV shows.</p>

<p>Wow, swimming for Vandy! She must be a real trooper and talent. Nashville is a big Swimmers’ Town with a big Swim fanbase and good swim clubs, which is surprising since it is pretty landlocked. What discipline. Good for her!</p>

<p>Vandyswim, You might want to look into Belikin @tv. You hook it up to your home cable box and it allows you to watch you home cable anywhere in the world on your laptop (and/or smartphone), once you install the software. You can even watch shows that are taped on your home dvr (not sure about TIVO though). It’s great for students.</p>

<p>You can do that with Comcast too, and you don’t need to plug anything in. Well I don’t know if it has all those features…but you can still access the family account and watch stuff.</p>