The common rooms are unfurnished. You can buy cheap furniture at the local target or walmart. You can also buy a refrigerator there or do the refrigerator rentals. Info on the refridg and or microwave rentals will come on some correspondence.
Do the rooms in Welch (and throughout Yale) mostly have hardwood floors?
^^ Yes. If you google “Yale Cribs” there are a number of youtube videos that show the inside of various dorm rooms. Many kids bring/buy a rug for their floors. Others just leave their floors bare.
My son also did not become friends with his freshman roommate. He was in L-Dub and didn’t have a suite. Other than sleeping habits, he and his roommate were polar opposites. My son is very social and in the past two years, he probably went out every weekend night but two. As a matter of fact, when he told me that he stayed in one Friday night, I asked him if he was sick. On the other hand, his freshman roommate never went out. When I say never, I mean never. At the beginning, my son asked him to join him, but after a while, he didn’t. He and his freshman roommate were compatible, but were never going to be friends.
My son found a group of friends with whom he was in a suite sophomore year, but they are not all together for their junior year. Three moved off campus, two stayed in the RC and my son is studying abroad this fall. His living accommodations for the spring are still up in the air.
Do the bedrooms within the suite have locks on the doors?
^^ Yes.
FWIW: Yale’s entryway doors can only be opened by swiping your ID card against a magnetic pad outside of the door. Only student’s that live in an entryway have swipe- access to their entryway door.
Once inside the entryway, individual suite doors automatically lock upon closing and must be opened with a traditional metal key. Student’s cannot set the suite door to “unlock” although many kids put duct tape over the spring-latch, so the suite doors remain unlocked . My son and his roommates did this and it unnerved me, as it seemed an open invitation for someone to steal a laptop or iPad, but fortunately neither he or his roommates had anything stolen in four years.
The bedrooms within the suites also have doors that also automatically lock when closed. Each student is given a set of keys – one for the suite, and one for their bedroom.
@YaleDad2019 - welcome to JE!! I’m class of 82 my D is 2018. Sons are different. They do not talk much ahead of time. But parents should beware - things are not like they used to be. No letters or phone calls. A lot goes on with the FB page and kids get so many of their questions answered there. It is the medium they are used to. There are moderators that answer their questions, so they are not just passing around misinformation among themselves.
Again, welcome to the oldest and best residential college!!
As far as the OP, freshman that are assigned to Silliman and Timothy Dwight love their colleges and do not miss living on Old Campus. Plenty of time for them to bond with other freshmen. Yale is building two new residential colleges which will have freshman living in them - as yet unnamed. So Silliman and TD freshmen will have others in their same situation.
@wchatar2 - nothing is trivial so don’t mind the parents on this thread or this forum. We are actually a pretty close knit group so welcome to the family. We have all been in your shoes and are just trying to add a little levity to the situation. We know you can worry yourself to death - this time last year I had so many spreadsheets and lists I thought I was going to go insane. Couple this with my only child - my daughter - going off to school, and I was bonkers.
We joke, we laugh, we poke fun at each other’s anxieties, but when it comes down to it, you will get the best advise from these old codgers. Good advice - not advice from family members, teachers, or your friends who are clueless about real Yale. It is not a crystal palace. It is the place where our kids eat, sleep, cry, laugh and learn how to live outside of our homes for the first time.
We will be here for you when your kid calls home for the first time in tears because he/she did not make the sports team they tried out for. When they realize for the first time in their life they are not getting an A on a test or in a class. When they are homesick and crying at 1 a.m. and you are on the other end of the phone dying to hold them.
So, welcome to our little community and soon enough you will be the one making the snarky comments to newbies!!
@buttercreamlilac - don’t start worrying about moving out in the summer yet. But since you will - here is some advice. There are companies that will come and take your kids belongings, store them for the summer and deliver them back to their new room the next year. My D used it and all her boxes of winter clothes, books, and bedding stayed. Also, her international roommates sent suitcases and boxes. They also picked up the fridge, sofa and area rug. You pay by the piece based upon their price chart. Price includes pick up, summer storage and delivery. Best deal in town for us. We used Dorm Room Movers though I know there are others.
@Tperry1982 Thank you! Just happened to ask my son this evening if he talked to any of the suite-mates, he said no, but all have since become Facebook friends! He is also going to take part in FOOT, so the day leaving home is approaching fast!
@Tperry1982 Thank you, although its hard to imagine my child calling in tears about anything other than being overwhelmed with work. Im sure many on this board feel this way but Im just amazed at how much more mature children are at 18 than I was. And he has surreptitiously been in contact with his room mates! It looks like Yale is actually going to happen and the note from admissions saying that they made a mistake isnt going to come.
Trust me. He will call. Happens to boys too. Novelty will wear off, work will kick in and they’ll miss home. Just a rite of passage. They survive and so will you.
Now that it is almost midway thru the first semester for my son- I feel a bit silly for my “worry” about what college he was assigned to. I wasn’t really so worried, but more curious as to how it might affect his first year. I now know that he certainly feels that he did win the lottery and that Silliman is by far THE BEST residential college. All of you were correct! He has settled in just fine and is making friends both in and out of his college. Thanks for support, especially wchatar2 who was kind and not dismissive or condescending.
@jrtgsdrule Im glad things worked out. My son is doing very well, I think, he has stopped calling except for the most urgent proddings. I just have to say, in his case Yale is living up to its billing. The courses sound rigorous and challenging but most of all engaging in the extreme. He has joined several clubs that sound like courses anywhere else. Im still jealous and am so happy for him. Although the Yale lexicon that someone posted a link to translated “Lets have lunch at Saybrook” as “I want to poison you” I think that he loves his college, is doing IMs and really gets along well with his room mates. Im so happy for my son, he sounds like he has found his "peeps’ and, if I can read the tea leaves correctly, romantic opportunities. All good. So far.
I don’t know about the other RC’s but my daughter believes Davenport is most certainly the best RC because they delivered a sheet cake to each of the entryways of the freshman dorms last night… ha ha ha
Lots of tears this am from my daughter because she will not be in Old Campus but in Silliman. I would love to be able to cheer her up and let her know that her disappointment will dissipate. I really know nothing about the college system and am feeling badly that she is sad and feeling left out.
Is he still happy with Silliman? I just received a crying phone call from my daughter because she really wanted to bo in Old Campus. She says all the best kids are in Old Campus and she will really miss out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
all the best kids are on Old Campus? What is that supposed to mean?
My DD was in Timothy Dwight. Within 10 minutes of arrival she had been thoroughly “brain washed” that all the “lucky people” get to spend 4 years in their RC, and that OC just has “youngsters”
DS had about as bad a roommate and room layout situation on OC as one could have without guns. It was a constant annoyance, but he still had an awesome year, and it made the second year with different roommates sweeter by comparison. @joannaas, I fielded a few texts from a disgruntled son, and it’s fair to say that he and one of the roommates will never see eye to eye, but trust me that your D will have a wonderful year.
And, I think they’ve removed the barbed wire surrounding Silliman this year 