<p>Re Bed Bath and Beyond:
FYI – they will take expired 20% off coupons. So, have all of your friends save their mailers for you and don’t worry about the expiration dates.</p>
<p>Regarding dress clothes, Lorelie is correct. My son got his first tux as a freshman in HS, his second as a jr in HS. He is just finishing up his jr year in college and got a new tux over spring break. I hope this one will last through grad school.</p>
<p>Resist the ensemble and/or designer beds for dorms. Use your old blankets and covers, your XL twin sheets from your oldest or cousin (or jersey knit fulls will stretch to XL twins). Send the hangers they give you when you buy clothing and send those. Send the old, thinner towels (they dry faster in dorm dryers). Save your $$. Things will not come home, and you will be crabby.</p>
<p>Lorelei, LOL, and soooo correct!</p>
<p>Actually jersey knit regular twin sheets stretch just fine to fit the XL twin mattresses…both of my kids did that.</p>
<p>We did our linen shopping in our linen closet and did as Lorelei said…sent the old stuff. The good thing…by the time DS graduated, most of the towels and sheets were pretty sad. We told him to throw them away…saved us having to move them home!! </p>
<p>Both of my kids took the comforters OFF of their beds to college. It was their little bit of “home”.</p>
<p>Tascam…all I got out of daughter was…it’s okay…sound quality not quite as good as I’d hope…Might want to ask operadad as I believe he uses one (from post I have seen from him on other forum)</p>
<p>Looks like most of the professional opera singers on other web site use either the Edirol R09 or the Edirol R09(H??) some also use the Zoom H2 and Zoom H4…I think they say the Edirol is easier of the 2 but the Zooms may have a few more gadgets.</p>
<p>Any of them will probably be adequate for recording practices…</p>
<p>S took my college bedspread for use in his dorm, and his dad’s spread is on his bed in his room (we are not all that big on redecorating at our house). He had it with him one summer program, and his roommate to be walked in with his dad and an identical bedspread from dad’s college days. It is one of those corded spreads (something like it in LLBean catalogue)…a nice red shade…always looks nice, does not really wrinkle, dries quickly, never fades…I bet my grandchildren will use the same spread. We still have those great acrylic blankets, the soft clingy ones, though the taffeta edging is off of most of them…nothing else is as cozy, and S has one of those with him, too. They dry quickly too. When he has gone to summer camps, we have sent older pillows and told him to leave them there. I tried to get rid of towels that way, but he used them to pad some other things he shipped home.</p>
<p>Mezzo Mama, REALLY all a performance major is REQUIRED to take to college is their “instrument” (that includes voice) and a strong will to work hard. DS went to school initially with a used OLD desktop computer. His first “recorder” was a handheld cassette player that I think we got at Radio Shack. The quality was awful, but it worked for him for a while. For the “upgrades” we found these made great combo birthday/Christmas gifts. For example, DS’s Zoom H2 was a combo birthday/Christmas gift. His newer laptop computer was a two year birthday/one year Christmas gift and others (grandparents) contributed to it as well. His new instrument case was a graduation gift. For grad school graduation, we are purchasing the IPhone for him, AND getting him a new set of “clothes”. Note, in our case, DS is STILL using the tuxes, shirts, slacks, suits, etc, that he wore in TENTH grade. Nothing is too small. Tux pants are usually “expandable” a bit (look at the inside waistband). And as I noted in the above post…no one got new sheets, towels or other dorm linens. Those came out of our house. Kids were happy to have them, and we were happy to see them go!!</p>
<p>Could someone help my daughter with a reality check…Today she sent DH a picture of an apartment in San Fran with a note asking if she could find 5 friends to rent it with her…Price per month…about $6,0000…Deposit $9,000…HA… I’m still laughing that she thinks we would put our neck on the line for those amounts! Wait till I tell her she can’t have a new bedspread :)</p>
<p>That a girl…keep her hungry and appreciative, opera-mom…H and I are laughing and laughing. Too funny!</p>
<p>BTW: opera-mom, your box is full, tried to PM you, but rejected.</p>
<p>I hate to be the bearer of bad news for San Fran…but that doesn’t sound like an exhorbitant rent if it’s a nice place in a safe neighborhood. DD rents a house with a total of 7 students. They SHARE bedrooms. Rent alone is $4800 a month. Add in utilities (internet, electric) and it is steep per person. BUT it’s cheaper than on campus housing. (bay area, but not San Fran).</p>
<p>Thumper…I know rent is high…dorm room for her next year is $800/month with no food included…But…I’m not putting my name down for that $9000 deposit…yikes.</p>
<p>Lorelei…did a little house cleaning…message away!</p>
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<p>DD and her six roommates had to put first and last months rent down for their apartment…they split it seven ways. We didn’t pay the full thing. I do agree…$9000 sounds HIGH. Maybe they really don’t want to rent to students!!</p>
<p>That seems like a crazy rent for an apt, even for San Francisco. I occasionally look through craigslist for the various young people I work with - and, although most of them end up living in Oakland or Alameda, because it’s cheaper (or closer to work) - you can still find places in San Francisco for way less than that in a decent neighborhood. But first and last month’s rent, and a security deposit is pretty much a given. So that $9,000 makes sense on a place that rents for $6,000.</p>
<p>Opera-Mom,</p>
<p>Have you looked at the Monroe? It’s a resident hotel. I think it’s mostly students. You can live in a shared room, 2 sizes, one with a sitting room and more closets, the bargan one is a smaller shared room with one closet, for under $1000.00 a month and you get two meals a day and it is in a very nice neighborhood. That’s where my son was looking at.</p>
<p>WELL…seeing as we’ve already plunked down a deposit on the dorm room (It’s actually a dorm shared by 3 colleges (the conservatory, a culinary school, and I think the other is an art school??) it really is a mute point…I just get a kick that DD is still sending, almost on a daily basis, apartment info…She will have a small single room that looks out over the street…(rooms are not great but she will survive)…I will definately send flip flops for the shower rooms…I opened one when on tour and it was warm, moist, and smelled like mold/mildew (was probably recently used).</p>
<p>The saving grace of this dorm is that it is a stones throw from the conservatory (2 short straight blocks)…The conservatory is within walking distance of both the opera house and the symphony…will be good for the first year till she gets her feet on the ground…There is one other girl from her school who will also be in the vocal department and has signed up for the dorm…Next year…I’m sure it will be an apartment for her…but by then she will have a chance to team up with girls she has had a chance to get to know and would enjoy living with.</p>
<p>Thanks for info on Monroe…will keep it in mind for following year</p>
<p>Have a friend who has a son in SF; the young man just bought a house. Said “house” is 500SF and cost him $899K!!! He could have moved the family garage out there for less and had more room to spread out!!!
O-M, have you told D that she is not going to be living in an apt, no matter how sweetly she pleads and begs? Without that line in the sand, you may find your INBOX crammed with links to luxury apartments with views of the Bay until the very day she departs for college! I have a feeling mine may have done the same thing had she not had several friends who attend NYU and have to work as much as they can whenever home just to pay the additional costs for living in a major city (and they live in dorms or sorority houses too!). Methinks I am very glad that she fell in love with CIM and is pleased to have a dorm room that looks out over a park. We did however, find a really pretty bedding set,at Target, which is sitting in the box of “college stuff” in the attic. I am finding that if I pick up an item or two whenever I am out, the sticker shock isn’t as bad, and I am doing well with accumulating towels, rain boots, flip flops, etc, so far. I am one who would rather keep the old stuff myself and send her off with new items and am just more comfortable doing it that way. I do hope that her room mate likes pink though…!</p>
<p>this is a great thread–i hadn’t thought AT ALL about how DS would store his music in his dorm room and it is going to be interesting since at the moment, it is ALL OVER the living room and kitchen (the usual state of affairs). He has three metallic vertical cans advertised as magazine holders in which he is supposed to file 1. current violin rep 2. current piano rep 3. current ensemble rep. He has an enormous plastic box in which he is supposed to keep his compositions. Right now it contains his college hoodies and t shirts and the living room armchair contains the composition manuscripts. </p>
<p>thumper, i loved the idea of letting them take their bedspreads from home. </p>
<p>no one mentioned music stands, so i thought i would toss that in. </p>
<p>thx for the tip on the tuxedo shirt. DS has owned the same tux since 9th grade and i wasn’t planning on getting him a new one, but an extra shirt is smart.</p>
<p>Instrumentalists who will be in chamber groups will need a collapsible stand…get a good quality stand with a solid back, it will be sturdier. For instrumentalists, remember an organizing home base container of all the extras (mutes, extra strings, rosin, dampits), as well as metronome, tuner, etc.</p>
<p>And the little things both parents and kids forget: a copy of the health insurance and 'script cards for your kids (if you haven’t given them one already), extra pair of eyeglasses if applicable (or a copy of the current 'script), one of the decent eyeglass repair kits with extra screws, available for about a buck, an extra car key if they’re taking a vehicle (make sure they have a snow brush, ice scraper and snow shovel in the trunk if the clime warrants it).</p>
<p>For the string players, think NOW about your bow(s) and rehairing. Depending on where you’re going, you may want to talk to your local rehairer now and arrange a by mail quick turnaround arrangement. If you work with an internet rehairer, take the addy with you. Sames goes for for your luthier, stop in before you go and see what can be done for quick turnaround repairs, seam pops, before they happen. If you’ve had longstanding relationships, they are normally willing to accommodate, but it’s always nice to give them a heads up before you go. One of the first things to check at school is a local recommendation for an alternative rehairer and luthier. Faculty, upperclassmen and grad students will have input and recommendations. Lay in a couple of extra string sets now, from your favorite/most cost effective source. You will burn through these, as well as bow-hair.</p>
<p>Similar prep and thoughts for other instrumentalists.</p>