Good to know I’m not alone, wisteria100. Sometimes my family tells me I worry too much. It’s a long, rough day, but I think you were a trooper to sit on the floor!
My daughter’s move in was quite a nightmare 2 years ago. She and 3 teammates had a suite in the freshmen village. (as do 90% of the freshmen). In July, the coach asked if someone would room with the last freshman recruit as they were now 9, so they’d be 4-3-2 in the suites. My daughter volunteered. Somehow the request was never submitted to housing (housing blamed athletics, athletics blamed housing). We arrived, the car was attacked by the Greek Life kids to carry the stuff up (second floor), and when we got there it was the original suite with 3 teammates. One mother came out waving her hands “No no no, she’s not supposed to be here” so the Greek kids carried everything back down to the sidewalk by the cars, I was told to go check in with the RA’s (in the same complex), and the RA said to go to the housing office over in the administration building. We left all my D’s stuff on the lawn because it didn’t really fit in the car. Went to housing, contacted coach, we thought someone was actually going to get back to us so waited in the housing office for an hour. Then we decided to go to Target. and Best Buy to get a computer. Then we ate. Then we went back to housing. No one seemed to care in any way. Then we went back to the dorm, by then all the Greeks had left, so we hauled the stuff back up. I figured we could at least put the stuff in her room (single rooms in a suite), which we would have/should have done when the waving mother shooed us out of the suite. Daughter was still trying to contact the coach on what she was supposed to do. I left at about 4, at 5 daughter decided to make her bed and that was it, she was staying put.
I went to a dinner with the parents and coach that night, and everyone including the coach was unapologetic, sort of an ‘oh well, ha ha, wasn’t that funny?’. It was really hot (Florida in Aug), and I was not happy. The next day I happened to see the head of housing at a parent orientation and he claimed it wasn’t his fault and he couldn’t get back to me the day before because he was busy moving 1000 freshmen in. Well, I said, it was really 999 because one freshman didn’t get moved in. He offered to move daughter and the other girl to an apartment off campus which is mainly used by international upperclassmen and grad students, and about 90% male. NO, I wasn’t going to have my 17 year old living with mostly 22+ year old men (and no RA because these were campus apartments) and walking to practice at 5:30 am across a 4 lane street, especially when she’d been one of the first freshman accepted and registered for housing 10 months earlier.
She stayed in the suite, the recruit she didn’t live with quit the team after the first year. That’s what she gets for being nice and offering to live with the last girl. The other 3 in the suite she did live in (original room) had filled the common areas of the suites with chairs, TV and gaming stuff, lamps, shelves in the bathrooms, appliances, Command hooks, cleaning supplies as they’d all been texting and planning for weeks and their parents were crazy about buying things in bulk. I didn’t buy anything (couldn’t have fit it in anyway). My daughter is a minimalist and took the same stuff she brought the first year to her suite the second year. No need for all that other stuff.
My other daughter went on a pre-move in bike trip so she got to move into the dorm 3 days early. She did get to pick the side of the room she wanted, but they were pretty identical and good/bad about each. She wasn’t feeling well so I helped her make her bed, unpacked some things, and left. Not really any drama. No help to move in but no one else in the elevator either.
4 years ago, DS moved in to his freshman dorm. Parking was terrible, it was hot, so finally we double parked. DD stayed in the car in case she had to move it for an emergency vehicle. DH, S and I went up to his room with one of the upperclassman helpers, and as we got off the elevator we were treated to a scene I will never forget. A sweaty young man had his head bent down into a trashcan, in DH’s words, having a Technicolor yawn. The helper didn’t miss a beat, and told us “Welcome to Columbia! - there’s your RA!” It turned out the young man had gotten dehydrated from helping move so much stuff, and then had tried to drink too much too quickly, but this was without a doubt an experience we will never forget.
At the parent orientation one parent asked “is there a limit on how long a parent can stay overnight in the dorm room with student.” Staff tried to nicely say “there are all kinds of hotels at different price points in the area, let me get you a list” and parent persisted! I looked mighty fine after that, lol!
I highly recommend the hotel near the helipad. 
When I was a Freshman I pledged a fraternity and after my first semester was moving into the Fraternity house. In order to do that I had to break my housing contract and my roommate was also breaking his to move into one of the campus apartments. During the winter break I had not heard anything if they accepted my request and neither had my roommate. We both show up that first day back from winter break only to find out that they did accept our request and that we were to have moved out the day before. The school in all their wisdom sent the notices to our campus PO box so the notice was sitting in our school mailbox. (This was before the day’s of e-mail for you younger folks).
So I start to pack things up and all the sudden there is a family at my dorm room door. They were the new residents and were there to move in and I had just started to pack and my roommate wasn’t even on campus yet. Took me about two hours to get everything packed up and moved to the fraternity house since it was just me and my small car.
My roommate showed up about 30 minutes after I had started and he rushed to empty his things out as well. We were out of the room totally after about 3 hours of work and hauling things to our new places. Felt bad for the new guy as it delayed them in getting into the room and settling in. After getting everything moved I went to the student union to get my mail and sure enough, there is an envelope from the school with my notice that the approved my housing change.
@Lindagaf, I can picture having that same problem next year. HS senior D is 18, but looks quite young, as does her 23 yo sis. 16 yo S looks older (and more college student-y in my mind). People will probably have no idea which of them is the new freshman.
For my eldest, they had revamped the dorms. But it seemed as though the furniture was too big for the room…as in ou could not put the furniture around the perimeter of the room like all other dorm rooms ever. But my daughter kind of liked having the desks in the middle of the room so she would have a barrier.
And this year, despite numerous reminders to make sure she has all her medication with her, the youngest forgot some and I had to run back (there are specific reasons why she couldn’t make her way back home) and deliver them (only an hour away).
Also there was the surprise of being on the second floor last year but no elevator. >:-(
We just moved our son back into his dorm for his sophomore year. Because our daughter’s move-in day was later, she was able to accompany us, so we made it a family road trip. When we arrived, dear sister organized all of her brother’s drawers, folding his boxer shorts and socks into these neat little cubes, which she then photographed and posted on Facebook.
I’ve posted this before, I think. Maybe it will give new parents a laugh.
Move in for Lake Jr. was complicated by the fact that his remote college town was not served by my wireless phone carrier, unbeknownst to me until I got off the plane. That made running errands and connecting with Moms and Lake Jr. a major headache. At the parent picnic the Dean of Students stopped by our table. He was a courtly old fella and an accomplished engineer and researcher. I stood up and asked him why couldn’t his engineering students come up with a fix to the wireless reception problem. He laughed and said when he first arrived in town a few years back he had to climb the highest hill in town to get a signal from the lone provider in the region so he could call his wife back in Texas. Things are better today. Now they have TWO wireless phone service providers! I don’t subscribe to either. :))
Last year on the trip to move my son in we ran across a mother and daughter who had a flat on the highway. The mother had no idea what to do and the daughter was upset that she was going to be late for move in. She was driving a mini-van and we had to unload nearly the entire van to get to the spare. We made quite a pile on the side of the freeway.It was about 96 degrees outside and me and son was soaked. I finally put the spare on and told the mother to have the flat fixed before heading back. Found out later that the daughter and my son were in the same dorm. Daughter ended up taking son out to lunch at Chipolte for helping them out. I got to buy a change of clothes and take a shower because the wife refused to ride back home with me smelling like a hobo.
Our daughters move in was Monday and my husband was miffed at first that I planned a 4 day trip. Drive Saturday , pick up at Bed Bath and Beyond and Target run Sunday, move in and farewell dinner Monday, a drive back Tuesday. There’s no real extra cost because we have so many Hilton points from work travels amd we aren’t big vacationers.
After the exhaustion of 5 hour move in hubby was telling everyone my plan was brilliant.
^Our trip five days, and I’m so glad we planned it that way. Gave us time to decompress before getting back to the empty nest, where we are QUITE HAPPY!!! 
Well, we survived! Move in for D2 could not have been more different than the one for D1. Everything was very low-key, the room is spacious, and the roommate is lovely and has almost no stuff.
Negatives are that there were no students helping and no AC, but we weren’t expecting either so this wasn’t a big deal. Really different vibe at this school in general, but that’s also not a surprise – it’s why they picked different schools in the first place.
It’s a huge weight off of my shoulders, the kids seem happy, and I can breathe for a bit.
@Lindagaf, for the past 2-3 years my S18 has also looked older than my 2 1/2 year older D15 and for half a moment I wondered why nobody has mistaken him for the student moving in–of course it’s because she attends a women’s college. But I could definitely see it happening if we were moving in to a coed school; at a number of the college tours we attended over 2 years ago (when he was 14) he was mistaken for the potential student.
We’ve had relatively low-key moves as well–I’ve heard about crowded, hectic moves at many schools and was expecting a crowd at D’s school since all upperclasswomen were moving in, but we seemed to be the only family arriving and moving in when we did.
Congratulations, Pheebers! Well done! I find getting them all settled in at college, especially as freshmen, to be such a huge, intimidating and stressfull job. I kind of dread doing it, mostly,and I dread their leaving. That probably is a big part of why I procrastinate so much when it comes to the packing and shopping. And the expense, oh my gosh, the expense!!
My DD wanted to move in by herself - no parents. She took off with a packed SUV and I was worried. It couldn’t have gone better. She had a move in time and by the time she had checked in, her SUV had been completely unpacked and was waiting for her in her room. No waiting for elevators or carts. I’m glad I did not make the 8 hr round trip drive.
^Someone schlepped a car several floors above ground level?
Does your D go to MIT by any chance? 
^Almost! No, she goes to UT Dallas.
Wow, good for her!! =D>