I think in TD they only had curtains in the bedrooms, but who needs curtains elsewhere anyway?
Man! College kids today have all the luxuries! I don’t remember any curtains in any of the five suites I had at Yale. None in the common rooms, and none in the bedrooms, either. Even when I had a first-floor bedroom with a window on Elm Street. (There was a wall between the sidewalk and my window, though. You would have had to be at least 7’ tall to look straight in.)
I don’t know–I was in a basement suite in Farnam, where passersby could just look in, and I think we had something–blinds, maybe?
The common rooms and suites of Saybrook all have Yale-blue curtains. I can’t remember what Vanderbilt had when my son was there 4 years ago.
@momcinco don’t rush to spend $ on books, either. I thought my son should have his books at the start of classes his freshman year so we missed out on savings, even over Amazon’s used books, because there is a site for Yale students to offer used books for sale to each other. So you can save a good bit of money if you wait till your Yalie is on campus to see what’s available.
I’m wistfully reading through this prep thread as the Mom of a new grad…
That would be great, if there were already curtains. And it sounds like there must be, since so many ^ thought so. Now that I think about it, in all the videos the curtains were Yale blue, so surely that was no coincidence!
As for books, S is doing Directed Studies. From the little I know about it,it must be a ton of reading. Which means a TON of books. On the positive side surely that means that there are kids on campus who have whole sets of DS books?
When it comes to books you are absolutely right scoutsmom, we have to leave it to him, knowing that he will buy them gradually, and on campus. For D at her college she insisted that we leave that to her. She buys used books – borrows from other kids – uses library copies – reads stuff online – and often returns books at the end of the semester for a partial refund. Freshman year I hated the idea of her going into the semester with only a couple of her required books on hand but as a result she learned to handle it herself, and saved $. Of course none of her classes were science or math tho so there were no huge, expensive, necessary textbooks as so many other kids must buy,
Here’s a mantra to keep repeating to yourself: The kid’s will be okay. Say it again! As a parent, one of the toughest lessons sending your kid off to college is letting go. Your son and daughter will be okay though. They will make mistakes; they will fall down; they will pick themselves up; they will survive without you. That’s a transitionary-lesson that parents know, but actually letting it happen is very difficult.
Looking back on it, here’s what my son and daughter learned at college when not in the classroom: Your room doesn’t get cleaned unless you do it, the garbage doesn’t get emptied until you do it, the puke on the floor from your night of hard-drinking doesn’t get cleaned up until you do it, books don’ walk themselves back to the library, amazon prime is free for students so books can be delivered in two days with no delivery charge, waiting in line at the post office to get your books can take several hours, when you run out of underwear you’ve waited too long to do your laundry, studying a little bit at a time is better than cramming, when you get sick you need to take care of yourself and see a doctor, other students have more money than you, other students have less money than you, eating chocolate pancakes for breakfast gives you a sugar high and then you crash, beer pong is fun, pre-gaming with 5-in-5 (5 shots in 5 minutes) makes you very dizzy and nauseous, home cooked meals are better than dorm food, mom and dad did lots for me and I’d rather they keep doing it but I can survive on my own.
One thing I will say re: books. Amazon is for sure cheaper than the bookstore. The downside is, that at least in my daughter’s experience, the Yale post office is incredibly understaffed and overwhelmed at the beginning of the year. Even if Amazon said it had “delivered” her books, it could take a week more for her to “receive” them. Personally I told her to just buy them at the bookstore rather than try to save a couple bucks (since I was paying anyway). Of course if you can get them direct from other students that’s a different story.
The Yale post office continues to be an embarrassment to both Yale and USPS. I’m sure that students would appreciate the pay if they were to sort the mail at the residential colleges, and the mail would get to its intended destination much quicker and with fewer losses. Win-Win.
I’m with donnaleighg on this; paying more for a book is better than playing package lottery.
^^ Here’s what my wife and did with both my son and daughter. We paid their tuition, room and board. They were responsible for all their expenses during the school year, included books, toiletries, laundry, pizza/beer/date money etc. Each of my kids worked during the summer making about $3,000 each, and they worked during the school year, making another $1,500. That more than covered everything they needed. The net result is that when it came time to purchase their books, they didn’t want to spend their hard-earned money buying from the bookstore because that was too expensive. So, they purchased used ones on Amazon, and waited to get them. Professor’s must make copies of the required reading material available in the library. Students cannot check the material out, but can read them there or xerox the pages needed to read back at their dorm. From my experience, when you make kids responsible for their own purchases, they will do it on the cheap, which IMHO, is a good lesson for them to learn.
In my case my daughter WAS doing it on the cheap, even though it was MY money. I decided that, I wanted her to have the advantage of having the materials personally, from the beginning. MY choice. I think it’s wrong to assume that all kids spend wildly when it’s not their money. And my daughter earned money herself, both during the summer and during the year. It was my choice to include books as my responsibility.
Depending on your major, there may also be some books that you will want to keep, and so you may not want to buy used copies. Sadly, I also think the post office is so bad that I wouldn’t encourage my kid to buy books from Amazon if they had to be picked up there.
Donnaleighg, are you sure our kids aren’t related? DS was so over the top frugal that he wouldn’t get new hockey sticks after an off season when he grew 3", saying that the old ones were good enough (although they functioned better as canes than hockey sticks). He is actually freer with his own money than his parents’.
Tuition is expensive. The price difference of books is a drop in the bucket by comparison. There are enough impediments to focusing on school work – I said he was frugal, not a stick in the mud 
Scoutson did DS too and there will be lots of books available used and on reserve in the library. He did want to own quite a few of the books he read, though, because they made such an impact on him (and now he has to figure out how to move with his personal library, but that’s a whole 'nother story).
ETA: and every room I’ve seen came with curtains
Hey, I don’t doubt that the curtains are there now! I just know for a fact that dorm rooms did not include Yale-blue curtains 40 years ago.
My wife is a big fan of curtains, and sent them to college with both kids. I had to put up my son’s; he was so disgusted with the idea that he wouldn’t even touch them.
@gibby - I agree with you that our highly qualified kids will be ok. I think that sometimes, though, all the questions and plans for hyper-organization is for some of us parents rather than the kids. If I’m about to experience something big and new, I like to research to understand what to expect the best I can. Nobody I know has ever gone to Yale or done any Ivy League school for undergraduate. To me it’s fun and comforting to read about all the minutiae. 
Here’s another question on moving in. I recognize this may fall under parental micromanaging per gibby’s correct point in #46, but . . . any idea how many people the rental refrigerators are typically used for?
I just got the flyer from Associated Student Agencies and I can’t tell if my daughter’s suite might need one or two refrigerators (there will be four girls total).
I think it all depends on kid’s individual needs. My son had his own fridge for all 4 years at Yale, which he crammed with beer, vodka, milk, OJ, cheese, peanut butter, etc. Most of his other suite mates had their own fridges as well. My daughter shared the fridge with her 3 roommates.
Thanks gibby - I hadn’t even thought of individual fridges but that’s a good point.
@wchatar2 “And the most irritating thing is that he seems downright blase about the whole thing. Youth” Would you rather have a Thurston Howell III running around? One of the best things about Yalies is that they’re generally laid back. Let him drink it in.
I’ll add one cautionary note about buying couches from upperclassmen. Warn your sons not to do it. You have no idea about any item’s provenance. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/17360887/#Comment_17360887