<p>Holy cow, how many laptops did you have to replace?? My D was actually more worried about HERSELF falling out of bed, but it only happened once and it wasn’t a loft, thank goodness. She thrashes all over the place at night.</p>
<p>I learned my lesson and always buy the accidental damage protection. It’s made for people like us :o</p>
<p>When my dad dropped me off at college, he said “Do whatever you want. Just don’t tell me about it.” lol</p>
<p>Well, thank heavens for the insurance plan, which I HIGHLY recommend. Also, good thing hes a tecchie/engineering type and could replace the screen on the laptop. He did a great job and it worked well, but the hinges were not really repairable. And one day he forgot and picked it up by the screen (top)… and the bottom(computer) just fell on the floor :(. Fortunately, that led to the perfect graduation present 
I don’t think he’s broken this one… yet.</p>
<p>** ETA I just saw your post romani. Yup-- the insurance is WELL worth it.</p>
<p>awwww - she sounds so scared. there are definitely some words of advice to pass on though. just not ALL of them.</p>
<p>I really liked your advice. I predict that when your daughter gets homesick that she will read it over and over and find comfort in it. GL to her!</p>
<p>Hypermom-PsychoDad gives two thumbs up to your post.</p>
<p>@SansSerif - this is exactly what I will be telling my kids :)</p>
<p>Thanks for my morning laughs! :D</p>
<p>Best one I’ve ever heard…Don’t ride in police cars.</p>
<p>Hyper,</p>
<p>I know I’m just piling it on, but a lot of that is bad advice, IMO, unless you know exactly how things work at her college. </p>
<p>For example, my kid was heavily involved with an EC. There were try-outs at the beginning of freshman year. If you didn’t try out, you couldn’t join later in the year. You had to wait until the beginning of sophomore year. If you did that, there were fewer spaces available and there was virtually no chance that you would ever become an officer. That’s true of a lot of activities. At my kid’s college, following that advice would mean you would probably never make the college orchestra,marching band, any of the choral groups, mock trial, model UN, debate, the newspaper staff, a club sport, or the program tutoring kids in local schools (for which you had to go through a training program, only offered at the beginning of the year.) It’s just not realistic to think you join any extracurricular you want later in the year. </p>
<p>Don’t go out after dark would mean not eating dinner at a lot of schools. At others, it would be inconsistent with the advice of not cutting classes. At lots of schools, it would rule out certain majors, because students have to go back to the lab to check on experiments. It also rules out a lot of ECs. Meetings of ECs at my kid’s college are often at night, so that they don’t conflict with classes. So, if you aren’t willing to go out after dark, you can’t join the orchestra, glee club, and many other groups. </p>
<p>Announcing you won’t drink may mean you’ll feel more pressure, not less. There are certain people who take delight in getting the kids who announce they will never drink to drink. It’s like painting a bull’s eye on yourself. I don’t mean you have to drink–you don’t. It’s just that it’s often better not to make some grandiose announcement that you never will. </p>
<p>I did almost all of my studying in college at the library. I went after dinner–it was dark. I stayed until just about midnight, when it closed. That was actually the SAFEST time to leave because a big horde of people left at the same time to walk back to the dorms. I got back to the dorm and began my shower shortly after midnight. So did half the girls on my hallway. </p>
<p>If you haven’t investigated “how things work” at your D’s college, I’d hold off on a lot of the advice. </p>
<p>Good luck to your D–and to you!</p>