Checklist for Parents of Incoming Freshmen?

I found out, quite by lovely surprise, that the student health center on campus waives the copay from students.

The Bed Bath and Beyond system worked great for us: we ordered what we wanted for her dorm at the store in our hometown - it was all reserved but we did not have to pay for any of it - we then went to the store closest to her out of state college (which BBB helped to identify) and looked at what we had reserved and paid for what we wanted. FYI: BBB will accept outdated 20% coupons and up to four per transaction. I think we also had a special coupon for college kids that gave 20% off our entire order. Also, we flew Southwest Air because they have free checked baggage. We checked large boxes instead of suitcases - my husband and I packed our travel items in carry-ons. We found large and study boxes at the Container Store.

Hey parents! I recently graduated from a small liberal arts college (Colorado College) and I remember move-in day very well! Bed Bath and Beyond worked great for me, since I had to fly! I also ended up shipping a lot of things…

Also…a handy tip for move-in day: scissors. Having a pair of scissors was so useful for opening packaging - It may seem like an obvious thing, but it’s a bummer if you don’t have them! Feel free to message me with any questions about move-in or college in general! I helped with move-in for freshmen for the past few years so I’m very familiar with the process! :slight_smile:

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@GCGrad1 Scissors. So obvious and so easy to forget or not bring. When I dropped my older son at school his primary concern as we were setting up his dorm room was to get us the hell out! So speed is helpful. Good luck post-college!

Question about rugs - do you just try to get something close to the size of the room? I would assume you don’t want anything too nice so you can just toss it at the end of the year. Ideas were to look?

I got a 2x3 - or maybe 4x5 indoor/outdoor rug from Target, because I’m living in a suite-style dorm, and my bedroom doesn’t have a lot of walking space and that fills up most of the room. I try not to be wasteful in general, and I wouldn’t want to just ‘toss it’ at the end of the year, so I got a particularly durable one that I can reuse or re-purpose. We’ll see how that goes!

@brucemag Thank you!!

@ITBgirl - My daughter decided on several smaller rugs. She had a fluffy one by her bed, and a mat in front of the mirror. The smaller rugs were much easier to deal with at the end of each year than a room-size rug would have been.

Don’t get anything expensive because you’re right, it likely will get tossed sometime before the end of college.

Re MenB. My doctor told me last fall to wait until the Men B was available. My kids spend a lot of time at the campuses in Santa Barbara and San Diego where the bad outbreaks were. Doctor said that getting Meningitis A shot was ineffective against this new and dangerous strain.
But, when we went to get the men. shot last month, my daughter’s Dr had not heard of this. He did look it up and agreed, the new shot was still not approved by FDA and was only available to kids on the affected campuses.
So, we got the old worthless shot, $200 later, and it satisfies the college requirement but it is meaningless and she is still not protected at all against the strain that is actually hitting campuses??
Am I understanding this situation? I read the cdc bulletin. Thanks for posting it.

As far as I know Trumenba was approved by FDA last fall and Bexsero earlier this year. So far it’s recommended for high risk individuals, in June the ACIP is supposed to meet and decide if they will expand the recommendation.
But our Pediatrician said they can order the vaccine, they weren’t sure if insurance will cover it.
Check with your local state health department or pharmacy and see where you can get the Men B shot. Your doctor should also be able to get it for you.

Yes, I also thought that my daughter was protected against meningitis with the shots she got in 6th grade and 11th grade, but they only cover I think A, W, Y, C serogroup, not serogroup B which was responsible for recent outbreaks at college campuses.

So if my D has never had a meningitis shot, should she get both A and B?

My D just had her physical. The doctor strongly recommended B for all college students. Because not all insurance companies have caught up with the FDA approvals, we had to pay upfront ($230) for Bexsero. Hopefully, our insurance will pay before we go (and pay) for the second dose because it looks like it’s covered on the insurance company’s website.

I would not call the other meningitis shot useless, @magpie - All meningitis is dangerous. This newer strain is simply one that has been extremely rare and therefor not vaccinated against here. Sounds like it will be soon. We were around the Princeton campus plenty last year during the outbreak. It was concerning. My older son had viral meningitis as a small child (just turned four with his baby brother at home). That was scary enough, and you can’t be certain that it’s viral for the first day or two. We spent most of a week in the hospital with him. All kids should be taught the dangers and symptoms of meningitis (and other serious illnesses like cellulitis). They tend to think they are invincible. They need to know when an ER trip is warranted. I managed to need one every year I was in college. I was just that lucky (freshman year I was mugged, so I get a free pass on ignoring symptoms for that one).

@1518mom, check the Novartis Vaccine Direct website, I think I saw something there about reimbursement in case insurance doesn’t pay. https://www.novartisvaccinesdirect.com/Bexsero/BillingReimbursement.

@suzy100, if you want to get those vaccines to protect your D I would do it soon. The menB shot is a series of 2 or 3 shots depending which one you decide to get.

My daughter had her meningitis vaccination in 2011. The doctor did not recommend an additional vaccination. So I should contact her and ask for memB? This was after I asked about the newer version of gardisil and she was clueless on that as well.

MODERATOR’S NOTE:

There is a thread on the meningitis vaccine.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1778615-meningitis-vaccines-p1.html

Immunizations must be top of the checklist for new college students, imho.

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Thank you to the poster who began the discussion in this thread about the meningitis vaccine. It’s helpful to have this information (and the experiences of other parents regarding it) in a single “checklist” thread.

I am reading today about a new Gardasil 9 vaccine, which protects against five more strains of cancer-causing HPV than the Gardasil Quad:
http://www2.aap.org/immunization/illnesses/hpv/hpv.html