<p>We were at the Quality Inn Suites also. Too bad we all did not know each other was there. </p>
<p>Thanks for all of the tips on housing. I really liked the Cerro Vista apartments, but I want that dorm experiene too of having people walk down the hall and pop in. I am uncertain at the moment.</p>
<p>My daughter really wants the social experience of the dorms with inside halls. Although, when we visited a few weeks ago, we drove past Cerro Vista and Poly Canyon and she looked wistfully at Cerro remarking, “Now I kind of wished I had applied for this place. I like the idea of being able to eat healthier.” That’s right after we ate some Chinese food in 19Metro. 
I told her that she would be living in apartments for the remaining 3 years of her college experience there. She agreed that she really does want the dorm experience. It will make her appreciate her upper classmen years even more.
**
werty1992 wrote:</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the tips on housing. I really liked the Cerro Vista apartments, but I want that dorm experiene too of having people walk down the hall and pop in. I am uncertain at the moment. **</p>
<p>This is the exact kind of experience I hope she has at Cal Poly. Now I know I’m going to send the video! ;)</p>
<p>**slodad wrote:</p>
<p>They were there at UCLA and knew my son’s name, major and where he was from. It really made a large school feel small. My wife and I were very impressed…my son could have cared less! **</p>
<p>I went ahead and sent the video to Housing and asked about move-in day, in general. I mentioned that I had heard it wasn’t the most organized and then told them about UCLA’s move-in day procedure. I asked if Cal Poly has something similar. Maybe they’ll get some tips from this! :)</p>
<p>Thanks for all these helpful posts and tips. We are going to Open House next week and will take a look at the housing options by means of the tours.</p>
<p>You are welcome! My son and I will be there too. I am sure that the housing tours will be very popular next week! I hope you are able to decide after seeing them in person. Have a great time at Open House and maybe we will meet!</p>
<p>A bit of advice … don’t wait to book rooms in SLO for move in day. You can always cancel them, because every hotel in town fills up and families end up staying in neighboring towns. My daughter is a freshman at Cal Poly and loves it. Just be prepared to work HARD! ;)</p>
<p>Thank you momomom! I was thinking about this myself. Move in day is a Monday this year. Would you suggest we stay over Sunday night nad then we can drive home Monday evening. or do you think it is wise to stay Monday night too.
Thanks and I am so glad your daughter loves it! I am also glad to hear that students work HARD! I hear an awful lot about having fun, but not so much about studying. I think both are important!</p>
<p>Depending on the move-in schedule, I have a feeling my husband and I will just drive our daughter down on Monday morning. It’s only 2½ hours from us, so I’m not sure if spending the night will be necessary, although it might make sense to stay Sunday night just to make it less stressful. I know we won’t stay Monday. My husband needs to be back to work (teaching) We’ll see how it goes as it gets closer to the date. I might just go ahead and book a hotel room anyway. Never hurts to think ahead! ;)</p>
<p>momofmv, We drove from out of state (16 hour drive!), so we stayed the night before and a couple of nights after. So move in day is Monday now? It was on a Saturday this past fall and we got there early, right when the dorm opened and moved in no problem. You can’t really do that if you don’t spend the night (unless you live close, I guess!). </p>
<p>Students move in all day long and it is very hectic and crazy. Driving in and out of campus gets insanely logjammed later on in the day. Our daughter hung out with us that day as students were moving in to the dorm. She spent that first night in the dorm (they have activities for the students) and then the dorm had a parents “breakfast” the next morning, so we went back and met some of the students and their parents. We spent that extra night there as well, on our own, exploring the town and surroundings. It is a beautiful place to go to school, and we feel lucky that our daughter is able to go there!</p>
<p>Yes she works really hard (she is an arch major), although she said some majors are much easier. The engineering and arch students put in many, many hours and must be able to work hard and stay focused or they simply won’t make it through. She loves her classes, though (well, most of them, anyway!) and lots of hand-on work/projects has been great for her.</p>
<p>Good luck to you and your son. It is a great school!</p>
<p>Thank you again momomom! It sounds like staying Sunday night and Monday night would be the best. That way we are there early for moving in and can be there for anything he needs on Monday. We can leave Tuesday morning. What stinks is that is is not the weekend this time. My husband and I will need to miss 2 days of work and my daughter 2 days of school. I am a school teacher, so missing at the beginning of the year is hard. of course, my son only moves in to his first dorm 1 time and I wouldn’t miss it for anything! I will be booking our rooms soon. they give a discount for early booking at Holiday Inn Express. We are going to try there this time.</p>
<p>Architecture does sound incredibly hard at CP, but it is an awesome program. Your daughter did well to get in there! My son will be working hard in engineering too. </p>
<p>How often do you get to see your daughter? You live 16 hours away! That must be tough this first year. We live 3.5 hours away, so not so bad. We have driven down in the early morning and went home the same day for an engineering tour. Not fun to drive so much in one day, but it is doable.</p>
<p>2leashes I think you should stay Sunday night, so you can relax and be close by for Monday morning. the traffic can be really bad on a Monday with people working and all of the students moving in. Just a thought. I am going to book the Holiday Inn Express. it looks nice and is right on Monterey. It is a little cheaper than the Quality Suites too. Check it out and let me know what you think.</p>
<p>Move-in day is a zoo, around the dorms, around campus and around the downtown eateries. With as many families converging on campus at once on move-in day, theres not much Cal Poly can do except to do the best they can with a crowded situation. Everytime weve moved in on freshman move-in day, weve learned to expect a zoo. Its only once a year and its part of the Cal Poly experience. Enjoy it. It will be unforgettable.</p>
<p>For the last few years during school breaks, my son has taken the Amtrak (bus & train) home by himself without any problems. The bad experience described earlier seems highly unusual.</p>
<p>When we were there a few weeks ago I asked an RA why they changed the move-in day to Monday. She said it was to avoid TWO weekends of partying aka DRINKING before school starts. Makes sense, but what a shame that these students’ actions causes inconvenience for parents. :(</p>
<p>Later, at home I spoke to a Cal Poly freshman (someone my daughter used to play basketball with). When I mentioned this to her she said there had been some issues with *current *Student Group Leaders who were taking the incoming freshmen to parties and basically allowing them to drink and get rowdy. So, it sounds like Cal Poly is trying to figure out ways to alleviate some of this craziness. At the same time, it would still be nice to keep move-in day on a weekend. I wonder how other schools handle this. Probably many of them look the other way. </p>
<p>I know that SLO has a new noise ordinance and are trying to keep things “in order” when it comes to excessive partying/drinking. As I read somewhere, even though SLO is a sweet little college town, it’s also a big tourist destination and family-oriented city. Not to mention the somewhat well-to-do retirees who live there. I don’t blame them for wanting to keep SLO a bit S-L-OOOOO and also welcoming to its visitors. AND, a fun place for students to call home for 4 years. It’s all about balance, not always an easy task to fulfull in a college environment. I know—I live in Santa Cruz! ;)</p>
<p>Week of Welcome last year was a bit over the top, not so much due to the incoming freshmen but because upperclassmen arrived early to SLO and were pretty rowdy. There were several incidents of alcohol poisoning reported, and probably a lot more unreported. As a result, Cal Poly cut back on WoW days and now it seems the Monday move-in is another part of the strategy to keep the first week sane.</p>
<p>I drove my son down in the morning, timing the drive to arrive for his afternoon move-in time to Cerro Vista. I think he had a relatively late time slot - it wasn’t crowded at all and no one checked our pass. We were able to park right outside his room, unload his stuff, and drive back home the same day.</p>
<p>Being 16 hours away, we don’t get to see her very often, but she is so busy that I can’t imagine her coming home much anyway even if she lived closer! We did go to parents weekend and wished we had picked a different (less crowded) weekend to go visit, when hotels were cheaper and downtown/campus not so packed. </p>
<p>Yes, the Monday move in is very inconvenient for families. My son will be starting at Stanford this fall, and move in day is Tuesday --right smack in the middle of the week. Oh well, like you said, how many times do you help your son check into his first dorm??</p>
<p>Hi, sorry to ask what may be a dumb question in the middle of the thread, but we are out of state and my son and he has yet to visit Cal Poly. We are coming in for Open House. SO - the dumb question - what is the move-in date? I’m worried about a possible conflict in dates because my older child is at school in NY. It is quite an ordeal to move her in and out every year from the West Coast. An overlap in dates might be fatal for poor mom :(. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi! No dumb questions here!!! All questions are welcome!</p>
<p>Move-in for CP is Monday, Sept. 13th. They can get room keys and packets staring at 8:00am The students will be given a time slot for parking near their dorm. The time schedule and room assignments will be available on Aug. 20th. At 6:00 on Monday, Sept. 13th, there is an activity for the students at their dorms. Then beginning on Wednesday, they can participate in WOW activities. We will have to register and pay for that at some point.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>An advantage of the quarter system is being able to start school in September instead of August. Thanks for this info, momofmv. I copied and pasted into an email I’m saving to send to my daughter later.</p>