Stanford Parents Thread

<p>Please don’t take my comments above as suggesting that Stanford is a crime-ridden campus! Bike theft is a problem on many campuses. My son is not the type of kid to be security conscious about his bike, and that probably had something to do with the fact that he had his bike stolen. In any event, he much prefers riding one of his several longboards around campus, and he has not lost one of those yet!</p>

<p>Our D bought her laptop for college through the Stanford bookstore, and it came with a free printer. By the way, the price for the computer beat all other offers we found locally, online, and it also was better than buying through my son’s company which offered a special employee discount. So if you plan to purchase a laptop for your child, you may want to wait a bit and check out the deals Stanford offers.</p>

<p>Freshman student athletes move in the day before the official freshman move-in day, and even though that was “scheduled”, in our exerience the residential staff weren’t really well set up for kids’ arrival that day. We had trouble finding someone to give D her packet, etc. The next day was a totally different story (too late for us, though)–welcoming squads with signs, kids ready to help carry belongings to dorm rooms, greeters who welcome your child by name, people directing parking/traffic, snacks for the families at the dorms, etc. I would highly recommend waiting until the official day to move in, if I were you.</p>

<p>Dungareedoll,</p>

<p>Just to add on to what others have said:</p>

<p>If you want to get a cheap bike, plenty of people sell them or give them away on [SUpost:</a> Stanford University Classifieds](<a href=“http://www.supost.com%5DSUpost:”>http://www.supost.com). If that doesn’t work, check [craigslist:</a> SF bay area classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events](<a href=“http://sfbay.craigslist.org%5Dcraigslist:”>http://sfbay.craigslist.org) which has a specific section for Palo Alto and all of the cities in the Peninsula.</p>

<p>If you ship packages, they will arrive and be held at the new package centers, which Stanford recently set up (to some controversy, as now all students have to go to a centralized package center to pick up stuff).</p>

<p>Getting from SFO/SJC is a little pricey using Super Shuttle ($26 per person), but if you and few people plan together it’s not so pricey ($26 for the shuttle, additional $9 per person after that). But for getting *to *the airport at the end of each quarter, the ASSU sponsors (many) buses to each of the airports, for $12-14 per student. </p>

<p>The dining hall will be ready by the fall—sometimes construction projects look like they’re not going to be finished, but you’d be surprised how fast they work. And always having perfect weather means never having to stop because it’s snowing or raining. ;)</p>

<p>To get cheap books, go to [Uloop</a> College Classifieds - Jobs, Apartments, Textbooks, Carpools, Roommates, Tickets, Furniture, Scholarships, Travel](<a href=“http://www.uloop.com%5DUloop”>http://www.uloop.com) and supost. Students also hold various book exchanges every quarter.</p>

<p>^SuperShuttle is $20 each way to SFO or SJC with the Stanford discount.</p>

<p>Also, unless there has been a policy change since last fall, we were specifically requested not to ship packages ahead of our arrival on campus, and that they would be sent back if they arrived before we did. This also appeared in either Approaching Stanford or some other written materials that were sent out, so parents of '15ers should check about this before trying to send any packages ahead of Orientation Week. One other thing–we can still get packages at the very conveniently-located Stanford P.O. if they are sent by US postal service. You only have to go to the package center if the package comes by UPS or FedEx or some other private service. There’s no more direct delivery to undergrad residences, though, except for the Row.</p>

<p>Re the Thanksgiving holiday - I guess our family is a little weird, but our S has stayed on campus for all 3 years so far during that holiday, with our blessing. He is the kind of person who likes his alone time and peace and quiet. He doesn’t get much of that during the school year. There are some cafeterias open during the break, and he just loves having the campus all to himself for that week.</p>

<p>His other reason for not returning then is that he comes home for the Winter Break only 2 or 3 weeks later. He’d rather save the money and not have to deal with the crowded airports and possible delays. We do an iChat on the day and I have a nice “Thanksgiving dinner” for him in mid-December.</p>

<p>He doesn’t come home for Spring Break either, his own choice. Cafeterias are all closed then, so you have to scrounge your own meals, but our S enjoys doing that. We are very close to our S - have the best possible relationship. There are many ways to work things out.</p>

<p>My daughter is a sophomore and absolutely loves Stanford. We really do feel very fortunate that she goes there. </p>

<p>Just wanted to add:</p>

<p>Bikes ~ Don’t go expensive and definitely look into getting the repair and annual tune-up packages that the campus bike shop offers. Also, if you plan on being on campus the day before New Student Orientation (NSO), be sure to call the bike shop to make sure they will be open for business that day, meaning, they are super busy getting all the freshman bike orders ready, so may be busy with that. Also, the campus bike shop will have a “Debeautifying” booth setup at NSO to make bikes less desirable. Here’s a link to what they do:</p>

<p>[Class</a> of 2010 Debeautifying Booth - Campus Bike Shop - Stanford University](<a href=“http://campusbikeshop.com/articles/class-of-2010-debeautifying-booth-ig174/]Class”>Class of 2010 Debeautifying Booth - Campus Bike Shop - Stanford University)</p>

<p>My D didn’t have to do anything to her bike. Not very many people would want to steal a hot pink with yellow trim bike. :-)</p>

<p>Printer ~ We did end up getting our D a rather inexpensive printer from the Stanford Bookstore and it did take away the stress of having to find a printer in the dorm. They will most likely have some really cheap ones available for sale during NSO.</p>

<p>NSO ~ We arrived the day before and took care of some shopping, etc. They will not let anyone move in early (except for athletes and international students). We only know of one special circumstance - D’s roommate’s parents had to returned home due to an emergency, so roommate got to move in night before. Try to arrive as early as possible on move-in day, so you have plenty of time. We arrived at the dorm first thing in the morning and spent the entire day helping D get situated. There are parent/student events going on, but don’t feel obligated to go. The Convocation was very nice and the parent dinner after you leave is well worth going to. If I remember correctly, the dinner ended around 8pm. But, do leave when told to, no matter how hard it is. Our D was a wreck when it was time for us to go (she’s an only child and always had anxiety about leaving us) and we felt so bad for having to leave, but when we got a call from her as we left the dinner, telling us how much fun she was having and that she really was ok, well, that brought tears to our eyes knowing that Stanford is taking care of her and she will be just fine.</p>

<p>Parents Weekend ~ It’s usually the last weekend in February. In 2012, it will be February 24 and 25.</p>

<p>Congratulations to all the new Stanford parents…welcome to the club</p>

<p>The bike shop sells used bikes. We pre-ordered one for my son (a freshman this year), and it was waiting for him on move in day. There are many different models and we didn’t feel like it was that expensive, especially for four years. It’s so convenient to just have it waiting there. We also bought the tune up package, which we felt was definitely worth it. He rides that bike everywhere.</p>

<p>As per one of the moms on this post suggestion I have reading the Stanford Parent guide and I noticed that they mentioned that the dorms had heat but there was no mention of air conditioning. Is there AC in the dorms? Also since everyone has to go to the Post Office for their mail do you have to rent a PO box?</p>

<p>Thanks again… I’m sure I’ll be asking more questions… You’re all wonderful!!! Go Stanford!</p>

<p>OMG I just checked out the debeautifying link. Thats pretty funny. Although I’ll kill my S if he does that to a new bike. Thats fine if we buy him a refurbished old bike- I suppose.</p>

<p>Most dorms don’t have AC, because the weather is nice enough that in general it isn’t necessary. The only time the AC would be useful is during the summer sometimes.</p>

<p>You will have a P.O. box assigned to you, and you’ll accept the contract online. There should be info about this when you log into Axess. IIRC, they give you the P.O. box key when they give you your room key on move-in day.</p>

<p>thanks to you all for taking the time to provide very helpful information. momomom - how far in advance did you actually order your son’s bike?</p>

<p>Other than the requisite job search, do any of you have summer travel program or other summer suggestions?<br>
My D usually has her summer well-organized far earlier - but her original plans have fallen apart. She plans to work for at least part of the summer - but I thought some of you might have suggestions that we haven’t considered. She has done college programs the last two summers and was looking for something different. Thanks for any input.</p>

<p>I just noticed that Collegeboxes (the storage service Stanford uses) is now offering a “ship to school” service. They will hold your boxes at their facility and deliver to the dorm on the date requested. It’s worth a look, especially for incoming freshmen. [Stanford</a> University - Student Housing - Living in Housing](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/rde/shs/living/storage.htm#door]Stanford”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/rde/shs/living/storage.htm#door)</p>

<p>Regarding the bike service package that the bike shop offers: I’d recommend not getting it. It’s pricey and doesn’t offer that much of an advantage. And to be honest, a Stanford student should learn how to change a damned flat tire if they don’t know how to do it already. Also, all the oil, etc. is available for free outside the bike shop, and there’s also a pressurized air pump by Sweet Hall. Their “tune-ups” are also pretty useless unless you have an absolutely terrible janky old bike.</p>

<p>I’m finishing at Stanford now and brought my own bike from home, which was my brother’s old one and is now 16 years old. I’ve had problems with it (broken chain, broken axle, etc.), but even with those pricey repairs, I still spent waaay less than if I would have bought their scam-y “service packages.”</p>

<p>Yes, the service package may be considered pricey, but I definitely wouldn’t call it “scam-y”. If you think your student can handle any repairs, tuneups, etc, on their own, then it’s probably not worth getting. But, if not, it’s well worth it. We decided it was worth the cost and D has taken full advantage of the services provided, including the free loaner bike. She is definitely not one to do any of those services herself. It may not be worth it to everyone, but definitely worth it to some. And actually, the current price of $150 is for four years, so $37.50 isn’t an outrageous amount to pay for the services they provide for the year.</p>

<p>^ my point is that you likely won’t require any of those tuneups, repairs, etc. or if you do, it’s rare and not costly. So in the end, you lose money. My friends, who are also seniors, have this perception as well.</p>

<p>Stanford will do this a lot to incoming students and their parents–make you think that you’re getting a good deal for whatever because it’ll save you money and be useful over four years, etc. (like that dumb discount card they give. the bike shop bikes and service packages, bike insurance, etc.), and most of it is pretty scam-y. Not technically a scam, but usually useless to students. They’re preying on the typically deeper pockets of students’ parents sending off their little angels to college. And the parents tend fall for it, hook line and sinker.</p>

<p>I’m not saying you’re one of them–your daughter may actually get her money’s worth–but I think for most people, it ends up being a waste of money.</p>

<p>We weighed the options, knew our daughter would never service her bike on her own and decided to get the service. For us, it was well worth it and we’re glad we had it available to us.</p>

<p>Ydnar–</p>

<p>We ordered the bike through Stanford over the summer. Here is the link: [Bikes</a> for Sale - Campus Bike Shop - Stanford University](<a href=“http://campusbikeshop.com/product-list/bikes-for-sale-pg65/]Bikes”>Bikes - Campus Bike Shop - Stanford University)</p>

<p>There are many choices and we specified a “used” bike, which means a student used it during the summer school session there. It was waiting for my son on move-in day. They do a great job at the bike shop at Stanford!</p>

<p>I got the bike shop’s service pack and it has definitely been worth it for me. I have a pretty good bike that I use a lot–both for daily campus transportation and longer weekend excursions–and having it serviced and tuned-up regularly keeps it running optimally. They do same-day turnaround on request if you have the service pack, which comes in very handy. I also very strongly recommend getting the “security” pack, which includes things like cables to keep the seat from being removed, anti-theft devices for the wheels, and of course the all-important U-Lock. The bike shop’s price for the security pack is about the same as getting all those items yourself, so I think it’s a good deal and they will install all these things and have it all ready for you when you get here.</p>

<p>I’m thinking about mailing my bike, which is quite nice, across. Do some people do this or am I simply wasting money?</p>