Been There/Done That Tips for class of 13

<p>Okay now is the time when the threads will be overloaded with dorm/food/orientation questions, so I thought people with UMD experience can consolidate to help.</p>

<p>DORMS
1. Sign up ASAP...the later you sign up the higher chance they will put you in a double that was intended as a triple!
2. Seriously, consider purchasing the bunk/loft system, even for a "pure" double". The dorms are small. Bullet and I left to DS and that was a big mistake. Got to the room and realized it is very tiny (Centreville). If both of you fall out of the bed at the same time, one will land on the other!
3. FANS...both of you should bring one oscillating, because even in the winter, the heat will be so high you will want it!
4. BUY EXTRA-LONG...UMD last YR did not say to do that, my sister told me to. We got there and his roomie ffought with the bed mattress pad and sheet since he had Twin, we bought XL twin and it was a breeze!
5. EXPECT at least 2-3 hrs for move in due to elevators. As soon as you get there sign up for a cart! Expect to park far from the dorm!
6. DON'T SEND CLEANING PRODUCTS WITH YOUR CHILD, unless THEY WANT IT. DS's roommates Mom sent wet swifters, dry swifters, sm. trash bags and 8 months later they have not been opened! Just because you buy it doesn't mean they will use it!</p>

<p>FOOD
1. Be realistic, if you don't eat breakfast, and live in a dorm that is 5-10 min.s away don't buy the 3 meal plan.
2. MOVE them in with goodies! We sent DS with 6 12 packs of sodas, 2 cases of water, individual bags of chips (Doritos back to school), ind. cookie pkgs (same as doritos), micro popcorn, easy-mac, jerky, pop-tarts,gum, etc. Week 1 he was KING. Every other parent made sure they had things to keep the room clean, we made sure he had snacks when he got hungry at midnight!. According to DS, kids on the floor will enter his room late at night and raid his closet for snacks, they even search him down in the dorm when they are hungry! Think about this a can of soda costs a buck...you send them with spending money that is $12 for the same price I spent $3. When you are moving in and they have a fridge, it is cost efficient to spend 1 more elevator ride to dump food.</p>

<p>ORIENTATION
1. Send them with a sealed transcript since you will not be able to attend their registration.</p>

<p>Everybody else feel free to add onto my list, we are a Terp family!</p>

<p>Meant to say you may get a triple that was intended to be a double!</p>

<p>BOOKS

  1. BUY USED
  2. They have a website that you can buy on-line…it works very well!</p>

<p>Financial Aid

  1. Terp payment plan is a great program, but if you have FA expect glitches!</p>

<p>Any advice for those of us traveling 3000 miles to get to UMD and moving a daughter, with all her stuff, into a small dorm room? What’s best to bring? To leave home? </p>

<p>My son was a 2 hour car ride away when we moved him in 3 years ago, and the car was packed full. This will be very different!</p>

<p>jnrsmom–Don’t bring anything from 3000 miles away that you can buy at the local IKEA in College Park. Bring the essentials: clothes, books (though I recommend reserving what you can find at bookholders.com and pick those up), school supplies (unless you plan to buy them locally), and other things that you can only get at home.</p>

<p>Make it a family trip.</p>

<p>Drive with only her bare essentials…clothing! IKEA is right down the block from UMD, Bed Bath and Beyond is too! The only thing I would take with the clothing is bed linen! X-Long twin sells out quickly at any/every store! DS’s friend called UMD and told them he was OOS from the oher coast and was allowed to move in the day prior. </p>

<p>Buy the LOFT system, even as a girl, I believe the size of the dorm makes it worthwhile. I would even suggest to ask the roomie to do the same, this will allow them to have a room that is very open for living space.</p>

<p>UMD is very close to Baltimore and DC, make it a family trip. New Carrolton has a Metro station and nice hotels. There is a Hilton in that area. Use this as your staging area. You can easily take the train/Metro/drive to Baltimore/Annapolis/Baltimore/Pentagon/D.C.</p>

<p>^The Linens and Things that was right by campus closed. Nearest BBBeyond is in DC or Bethesda.</p>

<p>RE: Loft/bunk beds. You’ll get info this summer about pre-ordering them. If you wait until you get to campus, you may have to wait a while to get one delivered. Last fall, they had some kind of problem and either didn’t have enough beds, or didn’t have enough people to deliver them. D and her roommates had to wait about 2 weeks, with several snafus.</p>

<p>Terp payment plan was kind of strange last year, even without FA. It’s kind of a separate process from what you see on the Testudo financial site. I probably won’t do it again, unless I absolutely have to.</p>

<p>Books…agree, buy used. And, it’s probably best to attend the first class before buying books. Even though the system shows the required books, D found that the profs still varied and she bought books in advance that she really didn’t use. (1st semester, she wanted to have everything all purchased ahead of time. After realizing how much money she wasted by buying new and buying some she really didn’t need, she waits now. She buys books new that she expects to reuse in the future (some of her major books), but buys used for everything. The best is to find people who have already taken the class, and buy their used book. They get much more than the bookstores would give them, and you can usually get it for less than you could anywhere else. Of course, this doesn’t really work for the 1st semester, but you can find out who’s taking classes that you plan to take in the future…</p>

<p>There’s also a Target store close to campus, and there is a bus that will take students there, so if they need something after you’re gone, that’s a possibility. Also, the CVS store downtown CP (walking distance) is fairly well stocked, too.</p>

<p>Awesome thread…thanks for the help! S is going to UMD and the insights on moving in are very valuable. I especially like the insight on the food in the dorm and the lofts. :D</p>

<p>I moved D into college 14 hours drive from home last summer and I agree, buy stuff close if you are coming from so far away, but watch out for things being sold out during move-in weekend. I know at Virginia Tech (which is fairly remote) you won’t find anything within 30 miles on move-in weekend but UMD has plenty of options in the Washington/Baltimore region.</p>

<p>What about window shades/blinds? Any advice on what is used in the dorms and what is preferred (if anything) to bring?</p>

<p>Dorm room come with blinds. My little brother bought relatively cheap storage ottomans for extra seating/storage in his room.</p>

<p>We did that too! The Wal-Mart type stores on wheels, but if you don’t have a loft it takes up room. For guys it is a great place to store games/controllers for Xbox and another seat! TRULY, the room between 2 beds is the width of a desk! then it is 1 person wide until you hit a wall from the side of the bed and 1 window! 1 person wide until you hit the other desk and 2 dressers. There is not a lot of room in the dorm!</p>

<p>DS also took back after winter break Nintendo 64 ( I was going to pitch it) The kids including girls love playing it more than Xbox, since it is retro! SOmething that nobody else has.</p>

<p>Make your dorm room that is unique! It can range from having Toss A Cross (the tic tac toe game with bean bags) that can be placed on the floor as a decoration, to Surround Sound (he took that, I don’t rec it for guys, they make the walls the vibrate!) to ATARI. On DS’s floor they have a room that is nerf dart guns! There are girls that they hang with b/c they have the comfy chairs for watching movies (guys bring their PS3 to play DVDS) Think communal living!</p>

<p>Talk to me about the beds. I thought I read that they DON’T have XL Twin at CP, and that you have to be 6’5" to request one. Is this not true?</p>

<p>You’re right, Pax, but pima is also right XL sheets fitted sheets are a lot easier to put on the dorm mattresses. If your kid lofts the bed (or is in the top bunk), and you make the WILD assumption that they’ll occasionally wash their sheets through the school year, it’s just a lot easier. There’s a little bit of excess sheet length, but it’s a heck of a lot better than having the sheets creep off the corners.</p>

<p>Gotcha. DS is 6’5", so he’ll request the longer bed and hope for the best!</p>

<p>Good luck. My 6’ D feels cramped, so your son should definitely request the longer bed.</p>

<p>Another reason to buy XL is because if you buy the really thick mattress covers that wil make getting the sheets on a struggle. I watched our DS’s roommate fight with the bed to get his sheet on It’s similiar to putting a full on a queen, it can be done, but you will be sweating by the time you finish.</p>

<p>Astro I chuckled about the sheets being washed, showed up at DS’s dorm on Friday to see that he was sleeping on the down mattress protector with no sheet! Asked him if he wanted to bring the sheets home to wash them, he yanked them out of the closet and said nope, you see they’re clean, I just didn’t put it back on my bed!</p>

<p>Can you get a loft for the XL mattresses?</p>

<p>MOVE IN DAY:</p>

<p>Scholars, Gemstone and Honors move in the day prior than all of the other dorms.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Sign up for a bin right away! Do not think you can do it without one, b/c by the time you realize it is quicker, your wait will be very long…can be upwards of an hour. Realize evrybody is bringing their computers, printers, tvs, fridges and all of their bed linens too, thus for 20 bins you have hundreds of kids asking for one.</p></li>
<li><p>Work the elevator system. They usually have one that goes floors 1-4 and the second 5-8. If you live on those middle floors take either and walk up or down a flight, it is much faster. There were people that would ride 1-4 to the 4th and then walk up a flight b/c the line was so long for 5-8. (unfortunately for us DS is on the 7th)</p></li>
<li><p>Expect not to find parking in front, so be ready to unload as much as you can curbside and then park your car. Luckily Bullet and I took DS, so I was the protector as they shuttled the stuff to his room…in other words have a 3rd body! DS was allowed to move in at 8, we were there at 8:15, not a spot to be had, and was forced to park in the parking garage aorund the corner.</p></li>
<li><p>Think about showing up later for your assigned time, since most will show up right away. Next yr, we will be showing up at the tail end of the move-in time. They will give move-in times. LY for centreville, floors 5-8 moved in in the a.m. 8-12, floors 1-4 were assigned 1-5. Those who arrived around 11, got a bin right away and the elevator line was basically non-existent, for us to do do 4 trips up and down the elevator it took us 3 HOURS. Yes, I said 3 hours, b/c the elevators were jammed pack with everyone. Think about it 2 bins and 4 people is all 1 elevator can fit, and there are @ 75-100 kids on each floor! The kids who arrived later were the only ones with bins trying to get on, the rest of us were all in the room helping set up or only riding the elevator down to leave!</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure the fans you buy are working before you get there. We bought one and never took it out of the box, to only open it there and find that it had a broken base! </p></li>
<li><p>Make sure you have the remotes for the tvs and USB cords. We never thought about him needing a cord for the printer, so he had to buy one there (ordered through UMD tech and never opened the box to check), and we packed the tv, but forgot the remote. Same with the lamp, remembered the desk lamp, but not the light bulb for it!</p></li>
<li><p>Centreville Closets are small, for guys this is not an issue for girls it is! The dresser is also small. Consider buying under bed storage bins(the best bet is the bag type b/c they are more pliable than the hard plastic) for clothes if they are bringing all of their clothes (summer/Fall/Winter) There is no way they can fit it all in the closet. The closet is about 3 feet wide, with 2 shelves and a bottom shoe rack. Again no problem for guys, since most own about 4, but if it is a girl, big problem. Don’t think about buying an over the door rack, since it will not fit (door won’t close for the room) and the closet is a bi-fold.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>One other tip…start saving your change in a jar now, if you don’t already. We sent DS with @40 in quarters to do laundry in a mason jar. I did this knowing our DS is a child that money burns a whole in his pocket! He is the type of kid that would take 10 out of the ATM to do his laundry and then spend the 7 b/c it was in his pocket. It cost 2.75 to do one load. If your kid is a spender and you’re giving spending money it works out cheaper for you!</p>

<p>As far as I know you can, because the loft is just large metal poles that are extensions for the legs of the bed, thus, the length of the bed does not matter. I would agree that at 6’5 you need to request one…make sure you do it early. UMD really is a first come first serve system. On DS’s floor I know of 3 rooms on the boys side that were turned into triples, in that situation, they automatically put one bed into a loft.</p>

<p>Bulletandpima, I love this thread…thanks for such great information! Please keep this going. ;)</p>

<p>I agree…thanks so much. I’m going to cut & paste so I have all the info together!</p>