<p>One of the parents, riverrunner, brought up something that I didn’t think of: Teach our kids how to use their medical insurance cards, ie; knowing about the 800# on the back of the card, scheduling an appt. with their *primary *MD before seeing a specialist, etc. It’s the little tips like this that would be helpful for us as we prepare our kids to venture off on their own. There’s so much to do, that we often don’t think of everything. </p>
<p>So, feel free to add to the list of “Helpful Hints for our Cal Poly Freshmen”. I’ll start! :)</p>
<p>1.) If they don’t already know, teach them how to do their own laundry. You particularly want to show them how to avoid having pink underwear! ;)</p>
<p>1.) If they don’t already know, teach them how to do their own laundry. You particularly want to show them how to avoid having pink underwear! </p>
<p>2)Be sure they remember to let you know about prescriptions that are soon to run out. That way they can be ordered and shipped or ready when they come home for a visit.</p>
<p>1.) If they don’t already know, teach them how to do their own laundry. You particularly want to show them how to avoid having pink underwear!</p>
<p>2)Be sure they remember to let you know about prescriptions that are soon to run out. That way they can be ordered and shipped or ready when they come home for a visit.
momofmv is offline</p>
<p>3) Get him/her a credit and/or debit card and teach him/her how to use and pay for it.</p>
<p>Med Stop in the Madonna Plaza area is a good weekend urgent care option. Apparently the Cal Poly on-campus clinic is not open on the weekends. My son got sick with some horrid strep infection on a friday, I just happened to be out there visiting for the weekend, so took him to Med Stop on Saturday. They took our private insurance (blue cross/blue shield), so only had to pay our $20 co-pay. They were a little too conservative on the treatment because his initial strep test was negative, so they did not give him an antibiotic. I had to leave on Sunday, but he went back there on Monday on his own because he still felt terrible, and then they gave him a prescription for an antibiotic, and after that he got better quickly. I would recommend going to Medstop and setting up an account for your child with all your private insurance info, and doing the same at whatever pharmacy you choose, so it will be easy for them to go in on their own for treatment on the weekend, and to get prescriptions filled.</p>
<p>6) Your kids will likely drink or at least experiment with alcohol. Don’t be in denial, but rather keep an open dialouge with them regarding this. Advise them not to drink and drive, or get in a car with an intoxicated driver, know when to say “when,” go to parties with friends and look out for each other, etc. Last thing you want is your kid suffering an alcohol related illness and have them not want to call home because they’re afraid mom and dad will be too upset. A friend of mine dealt with this dilemma.</p>
<p>08, thanks for bringing this up. I’d like to know what Cal Poly’s policy on this is. Are they most interested in making sure kids who have gotten themselves in trouble drinking or using drugs get the help they need, or do they jump on the kids who bring them to the hospital? D1’s school has been very liberal about encouraging kids to help each other get help if needed, with no repercussions from law enforcement or the school. Is this how Cal Poly works? At our high school a few weeks ago, several students drove a kid to the hospital after a drinking related car accident. The kids who were trying to help were arrested. While I don’t like any of the possible ways this could have played out, I’m hoping by college, there is a certain amount of tolerance for kids who are in trouble and for those who try to help.</p>
<p>Other ideas for helping kids prepare for college:</p>
<ol>
<li> Help them get their computer/printer and so on up and working before they leave home. I know some of you have kids who have no problem with this stuff, but for those who aren’t all that tech-savvy, let them set everything up, including cables, backup software, registration codes, help phone numbers, etc. to make sure it all works and they know what to do if it doesn’t. I’ll just throw out, my D is a lovely girl who is not technically gifted. If I had to choose her ideal college boyfriend, it would be someone who can fix her laptop so I don’t have to try and do it over the phone…and here’s more: the move in website says you need this:</li>
</ol>
<p>Computer Network Connectivity: </p>
<p>High-speed connection to Cal Poly data network and the Internet.
Computers must have a 10/100Base-T Ethernet card installed.
Students must bring their own “twisted pair network cable” to connect the computer to the assigned in-room data wall jack. </p>
<p>Anybody know how long a cable one might need to reach from the desk to the jack?</p>
<ol>
<li> Get them to write a resume and outline of a cover letter and store it on said computer. This is going to come up sooner or later, and since they probably have some kind of brag sheet from college apps, this is a great time to write a post-high school resume with references and any jobs they might have had. This can be used this summer for jobs, during the year if an opportunity presents itself, and with some minor updates, for their spring job hunt for summer work. It will save some work in the spring, at a time when they won’t have a spare minute.</li>
</ol>
<p>Unfortunately, there were problems with alcohol during WOW last year. To encourage students to seek medical assistance, the SLO police have declared the hospital as a ‘safe zone’ where students don’t have to worry about getting arrested or in trouble with the university - when seeking medical attention. Here’s some info:</p>
<p>Regarding the LAN cable. My son is in Sierra Madre and we didn’t know what the room config would look like, so I brought a short (5-6 ft) and a long (25 ft) cable. Both LAN jacks were right next to each other, and right next to his roommate’s desk. He can use the short cable. My son’s desk was on the other side of the room. They could have re-arranged the room a bit, but they liked the layout. They could have run a 10 ft cable across the room and maybe covered it with a small rug, but I could see someone tripping over it and his laptop flying off the desk. He needed every bit of the 25 ft cable to run around the outside wall - but it is fine. You probably won’t know until you see the room. There is a Staples off the Madonna Rd exit if you want to buy a cable after seeing the room layout.</p>
<p>Length of ethernet cable
At move-in, we went to the bookstore, which had a bin full of long ethernet cables, reasonably priced. Glad we bought the long cables as they reached the bed, where a laptop could be used. The next year, the long cables easily reached across the room or to the bed.</p>
<p>Wireless hubs and routers are banned in the dorms. You won’t get an IP address for it when you try to connect. If multiple people tried to log in using the same IP, that would be detected and shut down. When maintenance checks are done, the maintenance people look for wireless routers. Don’t bother trying, it won’t work.</p>
<p>However, some people do internet sharing via wireless, where one computer is hard-wired and hosts a wireless network; others can share the network by logging in to host computer’s network (rather than logging in to resnet). Borderline legal, but if not a lot of bandwidth is being used it won’t be detected.</p>
<p>Apparently there are network problems with hubs/routers which have never been properly explained to me. Regardless, I have heard it is forbidden.</p>
<p>Wireless is available throughout the campus (including outdoor areas), with the exception of the actual dorm rooms. I’m pretty sure all dorm common areas and study rooms get wireless though.</p>
<p>from a Student,
Get a foam mattress pad for those dorm beds. Also, a pair of ear plugs. Noise canceling earbuds for those study nights. Thank me later.</p>
<p>Enjoy wow week… remember, there is much to do outside your assigned group. Once things get running, don’t skip classes no matter how tempting it seems. If there is one reason kids drop out their majors it’s because they’ve gotten into this nasty habit</p>
<p>^^ We definitely plan to bring a foam mattress pad! Thanks for the tip about the earplugs, too. Can’t say my daughter would ever wear them, but you never know!</p>
<p>I agree about not skipping classes! Thankfully, she’s been really good about not doing this in high school. In fact, good attendance has always been important. But, I know sometimes that can change in college. We’ll hope for the best!</p>