<p>Since my daughter's acceptances are on the opposite side of the country from where we live, we'll be flying out there when it's time for moving into the dorm. Anyone have any advice as to how many days we the family should book a hotel for? We'll have limited space to bring much with us so will probably end up buying some of her dorm stuff once we get there, etc. etc. Any advice form those who have been there done that would be greatly appreciated. We want to book hotels ASAP so that we aren't left out in the cold!!!</p>
<p>Not sure where your daughter is headed to college but you can go to your local Bed and Bath and pick out whatever she might need and then pick it up and pay for it at the local store wherever your campus is (assuming there is one). That way you aren’t packing it nor paying to ship it and you know it is in stock and waiting for you But WAIT to do it. You are soon to be bombarded with discount coupons for 20% off your entire purchases etc. Plus you don’t know what is allowed and not allowed by the housing office. There is no rush yet. You can do it all at your leisure over the summer. You also don’t know if there are restrictions on what you bring yet and there could be. </p>
<p>Don’t forget whatever you buy, you’ll also have to figure out how to store over the summer. So even though it might be easy to “pick up an ironing board” that could become an albatross to store. (The storage will could cost you more than throwing it out and starting over again as an example). WAIT to see where the roommates are coming from and what they are packing.</p>
<p>Also, depending on where you’re going, who says you need a hotel? (Where are you going?) Check out VRBO and rent an apartment. Could be cheaper and fit your family more comfortably. We did that and the good thing was there was a living room which meant there was a place to start accumulating the stuff we picked up which we would not have had if were entirely reliant on a hotel room.</p>
<p>It depends what school you are talking about. If it is in an urban area you don’t have to reserve as early as in a more isolated area. For our D at PSU we always make reservations way ahead as there are limited hotels. For her graduation next month I booked almost a year ago. </p>
<p>When we first moved our D across country she pretty much only took her clothes. We pre-ordered bedding and supplies and picked them up there. She has left everything there when she has come home. As for warm clothes, she bought most of it there- it was easier and she shopped with her new east coast friends to make sure she got the right kind of clothes.</p>
<p>AND Bed, Bath, and Beyond takes expired coupons. We saved HUNDREDS of dollars with my daughter last year. She picked out what she wanted in Florida, and we picked it up in Illinois. I had $5 off coupons and 20% off coupons- tons of them. It was soooo easy! BBB also has online lists for just about every college too!</p>
<p>Sorry, just re-read and realized you want to know how long to book for. If I remember, once our D got to school there were orientations and planned activities for new students, as well as level placement auditions. We really didn’t see her much once we spent a couple of hours moving her in. We explored by ourselves while she got together with classmates and roommates and then left the next morning after seeing her for breakfast. I think it was easier for her that we kept it short- it gave her a chance to meet new people before classes started. Not too many parents hung around.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great suggestions!! You guys are the best! It’s so awesome to have this site to get all these kinds of questions answered by people who have been in our shoes :)</p>
<p>takeitallin is likely right. Once you move them in, they’ll ditch you. Plan any extra days in front of move in day not afterwards. They’ll be off doing their thing. </p>
<p>We got to NYC 3 days in advance. One of those days was the actual move-in day but she had the last time slot after 4 PM. The first day we gathered stuff, got her student ID. The second there was a few more things to gather and then a little bit of being a tourist. The final day was for anything last minute plus the big schlep. That felt about right for a long distance move to a major metro.</p>
<p>halflokum beat me to it! Once the actual move-in happens, they will be ready for you to “rip off the bandage” and go…and even if they aren’t, there are lots of planned activities through both the university and the MT department that they need to attend.</p>
<p>Let your student and their roommate bond over getting their room together and buying some last-minute things. They will never need/use many of the must-haves on those packing lists anyway (ironing board), so go (much) less than you think you need at first.</p>
<p>p.s. If I was moving them to a large/touristy area like NYC I would get there a day early and have a little “looking around” time, and make sure my student was comfortable navigating. But even if you can’t…the other kids will help them figure all of that out.</p>
<p>I echo what halflokum said about VRBO. I haven’t stayed in a hotel in a really long time because it’s usually a LOT cheaper to rent an apartment or house short-term. HomeAway is also another option for that. If you’ve never used it before, it can seem risky, but look for people who have established rentals and have lots of positive comments. This may not be quite as useful for those of you who have kids going off to college in remote areas, but if you’re traveling to a sizeable city, you might be surprised what prices you find. Other ways to cut down on cost here are a lot of times, rentals offer free parking and you have a kitchen so you can buy groceries instead of three meals a day. If you think you want to go this route, I would recommend looking as soon as you know where your kid is accepting their offer because the cheapest places always book first! Hope that helps!</p>
<p>One more thing I thought of that can save you money. If you find an airline that doesn’t charge for the first checked bag (JetBlue or Delta with the right credit card are two I can think of) and you have everyone that is traveling with you check a bag full of your student’s things, that can cut down on costs. We did that and left some of the suitcases with my daughter so she could use them to pack up and move out in the spring. Other people swear by shipping options like collegeboxes . com (that may not show up in cc correctly) which will ship, store and deliver directly to the dorm room. We didn’t use them but will now for summer storage since again, they’ll pick up from the dorm and deliver to next year’s dorm which means she can easily deal with it on her own instead of needing someone to come and help her.</p>
<p>(Note: obviously if you find a cheaper fare on an airline that charges for baggage, one would want to do the math to see what makes more sense.)</p>
<p>With our oldest, we arrived at the airport around 1pm the day before move in, and we spent the afternoon checking into the hotel and picking everything up that we had ordered online at BBB, which took a couple of hours, including picking up small items (utensils, etc.) that we had not ordered online. He also wanted some last minute clothes, so we made a trip to the mall, and then had a nice dinner. If we had arrived much later, I don’t think we would have had enough time to run all of the last minute errands. The next day was move-in, which included a special family dinner and a talent show. We left the next morning - the day after move-in. Since this time, we will be flying across the country, we will fly 2 days before move-in, so we have a full day before to pick everything up at BBB, etc.</p>
<p>Ahhhh I read this whole thread and it makes me sad! Don’t get me wrong…this kid is READY. But reading this makes it so real. Starting in the Fall, she will be a plane ride away. <sigh> I will miss her.</sigh></p>
<p>Did you all see the post about the “parent cafe” page from nicksmtmom? I checked it out but it is kind of scary due to the length and breath of the posts! Anybody think it might be a good thing to start a parent cafe for us MT folks? I really appreciate the comments above as we are new to the whole college thing and I know there is so much wisdom to be gained by those of you who have been there, done that.</p>
<p>I think it’s a great idea to start a new class of 2017 thread under MT. Although a lot of knowledge can be gained through parent cafe, it can also be extremely overwhelming to weed through all the pages. Thank you to all who have posted here. So much good advice and I need all I can get. We’re moving our D from Hawaii to the Midwest and definitely have to limit ourselves on packing space. Not to mention travel time. Keep posting.</p>
<p>Just have to post what happened to us on moving into NYU 2 years ago. We got there 3 days early, did the B and B thing, stored it in the hotel room (as B and B gets REALLY crowded and emptied out the longer you wait) saw a show and played tourist, AND THEN, the hurricane hit! Everything was thrown off for 2 days! We were stuck in the hotel without AC, not much space due to all the stuff, and only the snacks we’d bought at Duane Reed to munch on, since the elevator wasn’t working and we couldn’t get down off floor 23 easily. It was kind of a riot except that my d was furious that our booked tickets to see Daniel Radcliff got canceled when Broadway closed, too! But the worst part was when we were finally able to move everything to the new room, said goodbye after dinner (all the parent orientation got cancelled, too) and I had to get back to the hotel and open the door to an immaculate and empty room. THAT WAS TOUGH! I will never forget move-in time and wish you all the best! Using one of the box companies to bring crates to pack in in the spring, then come back and take it away and store it for the summer, and deliver it to the new dorm in the fall works great!</p>
<p>Hi hawaiimtmom!! When we moved our D to Colorado we planned a family trip (3 of us). We booked with United and got 1 free bag each - so most of the suitcases were filled my daughters stuff (and she brought her guitar)! We booked a hotel through Hotwire close to the campus and rented a car. 1 word…TARGET!!! I think the whole school was there buying stuff (made me wish I had shares in the company…). I think we stayed for a few days then my husband and I flew back to Hawaii via 1 week in San Francisco to take the sting off sending the only kid off to school so far away!</p>
<p>My husband and son flew from LA to NYC and arrived Thursday night before the scheduled move-in on Sunday. (I met them there after getting other S checked in at his school) For our NYC son, we used a day to get “sundries” (a huge run at CVS, etc.) and “school supplies” – (Office Depot/Staples). We also did a run up to Macys for a few basics he needed. Honestly, we probably could have arrived Friday night and we still would have been OK, but this way we weren’t rushed. We ended up picking up his Bed, Bath & Beyond order on Sunday morning (so we didn’t have to move it twice) and it was very convenient because the store had a shuttle bus going back and forth to campus. I second what supportive said about the BB&B coupons. Start collecting them now. They will take the expired ones. We used one for every single item. On Sunday, our S had a late day check in time for his “floor” but we were able to check in with the res life people a little early because that morning was slow. We “borrowed” the luggage cart from the hotel (with permission and a tip!) and rolled over his suitcases and misc purchases in one fell swoop the few blocks to campus. We have funny pictures of that on the streets of New York. Meanwhile the other parents were asking where we got the cool cart! The day of checkin, the RA requested that parents be off the floor in the early evening because the students had their first floor meeting. It was a good reason to leave and let the new roomies get to know each other. We checked back with him the next day to see if he needed anything else (we ended up exchanging a power strip and getting him a few more supplies) and by then he was busy in the swing of placement auditions, etc., so he was on his way. As for luggage, he flew with a large suitcase (checked) and a roller and a backpack taken on board. My husband brought another large suitcase of Son’s stuff (checked) and then had a roller and backpack for his own stuff. So son basically made it there with two big suitcases, a roller and a backpack. We also ended up doing some UPS and Priority Mail shipped boxes a few weeks later with winter coats, boots, favorite sheet music, etc. We’re already figuring out storage for a lot of the stuff for summer. :)</p>
<p>if you pre-order at your local Bed, Bath & Beyond, your order will literally be ready at the store near campus in carts or on a palette, shrink wrapped, with your student’s name on it on the day you specify. you can go through everything right there and add or subtract items. That way you don’t have to worry things will be out of stock. (if you decide you don’t want something you pre-ordered, you just pull it out of the order and set it aside – no penalty)</p>
<p>Some of us rural folks are in trouble. I don’t think there is a BBB or Target anywhere near IThaca. In fact, I’m not sure there is any big box store. But there must be something that IC and Cornell use! I have also been told to invest in a duffle style suitcase for your trip as that folds down and can be stored under a bed and out of the way.</p>
<p>^^Wrong. Forget that comment. I just found a Target, BEst Buy and Sears at the Ithaca Mall.</p>