<p>I think you are late for move-in reservations … but start and see what you can find. The Bing hotels on Front Street are not <em>that</em> far and right off the highway. Depending on what direction you are coming in from, there are probably some good prices about 45 minutes to an hour away.</p>
<p>I am trying to find a lake front house for our D graduation 2011.</p>
<p>There are some nice b&B around the lake that are very nice if you want to make a long weekend vacation out of it. </p>
<p>I don’t think you need to stay until Sun. We arrived Thu and left Sat.</p>
<p>If you are going to need more than 2 rooms for graduation, I advise getting a B&B or renting a house on the lake for graduation. You do not need to do this 4 years in advance, one or 2 tops is enough. Houses are a great great option (i think better than hotels - you can cook yourself one night etc). If you rent a hotel, you should do it a few years in advance, however, for my sister’s grad in 2005, and my grad this year, my parents were able to find great places to stay less than a year in advance. </p>
<p>For my sisters graduation we rented a 4 bedroom house along the lake with a dock etc about 20 mins outside of Ithaca. This year my parents rented out a 4 bedroom b&b in trumansburg (25mins away). </p>
<p>For move in day, if you live far away from Cornell, come in the night before move in. I suggest staying within an hours distance so you can get up in the morning and drive to cornell for your check in time. Places would be in Trumansburg, elmira, syracuse, cortland, or binghamton. There is no need to stay close to campus and pay $190 unless you want to “experience ithaca” together before move-in but im not sure if thats worth the price. </p>
<p>My parents literally had me moved in, done with swim test, had lunch, walked around collegetown/campus, and down to wegmans on check in day by 2 pm and left. You don’t really have to stay 2 nights unless travel is prohibitive. Most of the events beginning that night are to help the kids get adjusted without their parents and meet friends. I think the first night there is a big ice cream social that all of the freshman go to and then some kids hang out at dorms, some walk in to collegetown to find parties.</p>
<p>are all swim tests on the first day? how do they decide who takes the swim test first?
to be honest im black and i really dont want to have to spend 2 hours straightening my hair after the first effin day because i had to take a swim test.</p>
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<p>It’s called a swim cap. Or not worrying about your hair. I showed up on my first day drenched in mud and smelling like I was in the back woods of the Dacks for the last week. Do you think I cared?</p>
<p>you can skip it perhaps? but then i think you have to take swim lessons 2 or 3x a week because they assume you dont know how. or maybe you can take it a different day before you graduate. i would just wear a swim cap. it is on the first day.</p>
<p>Last year, swim tests were offered on Friday (move in day) and Monday of orientation week. Students were given the option of date and time. (you sign up online sometime in the summer)</p>
<p>woody- people do book reservations for graduation when they drop off kids for freshman orientation. I know it’s crazy, but some hotels do take reservations 4 years in advance. Others book 1 year in advance. As I’m the cautious type, we reserved one room in 2004 for my d’s 2008 Graduation.
BUT-- the campus does book rooms in the dorms 3 months prior to graduation (around February). We easily reserved 2 dorm rooms for aunt/uncle/cousin etc. If memory serves me, it was around $130 p/p for the week-end. So it is definitely a much cheaper option than booking a hotel room for $400/nite with a 3 nite minimum. We paid over $300 based on reservations made in 2004, so I’m assuming rates are now close to $400/nite.</p>
<p>and graduation dinner reservation are taken in January of senior year. I’ll also suggest Taukanauk Farms (sp.) they didn’t raise their prices for graduation dinner- so we were pleased with that and the food was very good.
And don’t miss the Farmer’s Market- it really was very enjoyable-
Kid is on her way to Cornell right now. She’s going back for Slope Day!</p>
<p>i’ll be gone for a few days- but I’ll check back next week to see if anyone has questions about graduation etc.</p>
<p>also cortland is a good alternative for hotel rooms. D # 2 is a junior at Cortland. It’s about 30 minutes away- and an easy drive. But be forewarned- Cortland Hotel prices are going up too. Cortland just became the summer training camp for the NY Jets- so I hear hotel prices just went up alot during the summer.</p>
<p>apparently- the Jets were giving serious consideration to both Cornell and Cortland for their training camp- and Cortland won. I think it had something to do with the cornell campus being too spread out</p>
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<p>God forbid that football players actually need to walk up a hill to get to practice.</p>
<p>swim caps do not keep your hair from getting wet, so thanks for that. rude.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, you can probably take it on Monday!</p>
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<p>Could have fooled me. And I was on a swim team for ten years.</p>
<p>I swam on a team for 11 years…no cap ever kept my hair dry ;)</p>
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<p>Ha. Must have been that extra year. Or else my hair was short.</p>
<p>I do have a lot of hair</p>
<p>here’s some info from the 2013 website…
When is the test offered?</p>
<p>Anticipated test times.</p>
<p>Friday August 21st (Move-In Day)</p>
<pre><code>* 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
- 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
- 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
- 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
</code></pre>
<p>Monday August 24th</p>
<pre><code>* 8:30 am - 9:30 am
- 9:30 am - 10:30 am
- 10:30 am - 11:30 am
- 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
- 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
- 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
</code></pre>
<p>And u can register for times starting july 20th. Hope this helps : )</p>
<p>thanks for ALL the advice!!</p>
<p>Im embarrass :(… I can’t swim… haha… So I will probably be in a swimming class full of freshman (which i dont mind haha). Haha better start working out if I’m going to be taking a swimming class at Cornell xD</p>
<p>lucky for you…transfers are exempt from the swim test</p>
<p>Yeah but I want to learn how to swim haha… And I thought only juniro transfers are exempted</p>