College move in day

I’l be transferring to a 4 year university in a few weeks and need some advice about move in day. The email I received said move in day starts at 12pm. How early should I get there? It’s a small school with 1500 undergrads and my building housing 150. I still want a decent parking spot though. Also would it be easier to move my clothes in trash bags. Like hang the clothe sin a trash bag the way you would a dry cleaning bag? Any other advice is welcomed. Thanks !

A lot of schools will have a loading zone in front of the dorm, where you pull up and volunteers will transfer your things from your car to some sort of rolling container and hold it while you park, so you won’t have to worry as much about getting a good parking spot. I think that trash bag idea is a very good idea, since it will keep your clothes clean while you move them. The best advice that I can give is to condense as much as possible while packing and pack strategically so that unpacking will be as easy as possible since you’ll have a lot going on!

I think the hanging trash bag idea is great. I think I invented it in 1979 because that’s how I used to move into the dorm. Yes they had plastic garbage bags in the old days.

If they say move in starts at noon, I’d be there at 11:30 and you still won’t be first in line.

Have you seen your dorm room? My son went to a summer program at a top university and the brand new dorm room only had about 30 inches of hanging space. He’s tall and his shirts wouldn’t hang completely because the bottom of the wardrobe was three drawers. There was no dresser at all in the room. It was much smaller than 70’s era dorm rooms. And more expensive of course. I can’t imagine that he would have room to stow suitcases or trunks if he were there full time.

Enjoy your first year!

Most colleges have some kind of schedule for the first day… it will show when you can get there. If they say at 12:00, then decide if you would rather get a good spot vs. wait a bit.