<p>Well, we finally made it past the decision part! Now it looks like move-in is the next big step. As I'm starting to map this out, I'm wondering how long do parents usually stay when moving kids across the country? Cost is an issue and so is the huge transition he is making ( going from small town Oregon to NYC) </p>
<p>I am insanely ill-prepared for this! :) </p>
<p>Move in for my daughter is Aug 29th. We plan to fly into Newark on the 26th (late) so will have a couple of days to shop and maybe see a show in NYC. We leave the 30th. </p>
<p>We found that our S didn’t want us to stay past the drop off date. We were in Chicago for a couple days after but really didn’t have much contact. </p>
<p>I drove my daughter from NJ to Chicago-area, and I stayed for a short time. We scoped out the room, and took a quick trip to CVS, where we picked up stuff she had forgotten, didn’t feel like bringing, or not thought of, like printer paper (why bring?) and a coffee cup (forgotten). I took her out to dinner, and then drove on to visit old friends in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s not my style to make their beds, set up their room, etc. So it didn’t cost me much.</p>
<p>This was my style for all my kids. THey really were very eager to meet their own friends, explore campus, and didn’t really want me around. There are often programs for parents that weekend, but I am also the sort that doesn’t care for such programs and speeches. But if you like that, you can stay for that. </p>
<p>For going completely across the country, and into NYC, that will be a bit more difficult as you will have to fly. You do not have to stay in Manhattan if it’s over your budget (although you can get inexpensive deals sometimes). Try Yonkers or Queens or even the Newark airport hotels. If you need to buy stuff, there are office supply stores in Manhattan. As far as how long you should stay, that would be dictated by your budget and your time constraints, but really, if they have to, many kids do this alone, or with minimal help. It’s all set up for them. When my oldest moved into Tisch, since we live 1.5 hours away, I drove him up that morning, helped him move the stuff upstairs, took him to lunch, then waved goodbye. But that’s my own style.</p>
<p>If you have to fly, Southwest is a great option. Each traveler can check 2 bags (up to 50 pounds) for free. If you fly with your child, then that’s 4 bags, or almost 200 pounds of stuff! You can also mail things via UPS, but it’s become really expensive - $75 or more for a large suitcase-sized box weighing around 50 lbs. </p>
<p>On Southwest, you can check large, moving-type cardboard boxes as your two free checked bags. (A third bag is $75.) A standard large moving box is 24X18X18; added together, those dimensions = 60, which is within the Southwest limit of 62. My advice would be to pack very well, use lots of STURDY packing tape, and make sure you’re well under the 50 lb limit. (One downside of a box - it’s much more difficult to lug around heavy boxes, without wheels, versus using wheeled luggage. Some sort of rolling luggage cart would be a real convenience - you could pack it in one of the boxes!)</p>
<p>LLBean sells a great X-large rolling duffel for around $100. We bought one for each of our kids years ago for camp - they’ve held up extremely well, and flatten down to a much smaller size for storage than a regular suitcase. Also check overstock.com - they sometimes have good deals, too.</p>
<p>NYC will definitely be more challenging than our move-in at Univ. of Minnesota. We’re planning to fly in to Minnesota the afternoon before, rent a car, and stay at a nearby motel. We’ll drop her stuff off at the dorm the next day, then be able to run to Target, Walmart, etc. to pick up things that make more sense to “buy there” versus pack and bring along (laundry soap, basic toiletries, etc.). </p>
<p>Hopefully someone with experience moving in to a very urban university (like Pace or Fordham) can provide some specific guidance!</p>
<p>We were able to mail a couple of boxes ahead of time, too. You should check and see if Pace allows that. </p>
<p>Mailing ahead sounds like a great idea. We are flying in on 8/17 ,our anniversary 
, late afternoon. Orientation is the 19th, move-in the 20th. We’ll use the 18th to get the necessities, and scope out the area. My son will not want us hanging around after move-in, so we will say goodbye and fly out the next morning. Son has the Bean’s XL rolling duffle, and it is great. That and a small duffle will stay with him. I don’t believe Southwest flies to Columbus, and I know Jet Blue doesn’t, so paying for luggage will be a bummer.</p>
<p>Vacuum bags!! My D went to Tisch for the summer program- we drove. No large cars in the family- we were taking the prius. EVERYTHING “cloth” (including bedding/towels etc) ended up in 3 vacuum bags- all of which fit in one decent sized duffle. Then she had shoes, toiletries etc… in a second bag. She and I carried everything she was using for the month to her room in one trip (and she had a TON of clothes). We bought ours on amazon, but they carry them at bed bath beyond etc. When it came time to come home we weren’t sure of the quality of vacuum that might be available in the dorm- so we brought a hand vac with hose attachment. Worked really well. I already bought 3 more vacuum bags- and am hoping to get lots of her stuff packed that way- we are still planning to use the prius for the move - though my sister offered her suv if things get out of hand! ;
</p>
<p>entertainersmom - you might check, but I believe Southwest flies into Columbus. My husband flew on Southwest from Denver to Columbus (via Chicago) when he and our D visited Kenyon last fall.</p>
<p>Edit: just checked the Southwest route map. They do fly to Columbus, as well as Cleveland and Detroit. Not sure which airport would be closest to Waterville, but you’d have some options (sometimes the fare differences between relatively-close airports can be surprisingly large!).</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! A lot of great wisdom here. </p>
<p>I’m all over the southwest thing… We used them to fly to Chicago and NY for visits and once you factor in the fee the other airlines charge for those bags, there just isn’t a better deal out there. Also love the no BS way they deal with seats. </p>
<p>I found some big cheap bags at the thrift store the other day. Not great luggage but will certainly make the trip there and cost me about 20.00. I plan to just use my carry on so S will have four bags to work with. That should do it, even for the clothes hound that he is. </p>
<p>Still doing research to see if the orientation is a have-to thing or if he would be ok missing it. Two trips would be a lot harder for us to pull off than one. It would be great if that had an orientation day right before move-in like I hear some schools do. Even if they only made it available to kids flying in. They have to have some flexibility, they have a lot of international students too. </p>
<p>After college move in do any of you have a parents’ weekend shortly thereafter? My daughter’s is exactly one month later.</p>
<p>@Octaviar, I think Southwest flies into LGA. Might make sense for the move in trip with a bunch of bags if the math works out but in general, if you fly in and out of LGA, you’ll always need to account for cab fare too because getting there by public transportation is clunky. If your son flies solo for orientation or for other reasons, he can get to/from JFK via the subway on the cheap and from Pace, that’s straight forward on the J, Z or E lines plus the AirTrain ($2.50 + $5.00). An MTA stored value card can be used on the AirTrain too. (My daughter has one that auto loads when it reaches a certain threshold.) I do not recommend doing the subway with a bunch of big bags when you move him in. Lots of stairs and no elevator and in the summer, those subway stations are boiling hot. Spring for a cab on that trip regardless of which airport you fly into. When he comes home with a carry on or you visit with a carry on, $7.50 on public transportation is the way to go. (There is also the LIRR to Penn Station which is faster and more expensive but from Pace which actually IS where so many subway lines go to JFK, I’ll bet it’s just as fast to grind it out the entire distance on the subway than to take the subway to Penn and then transfer to LIRR.) </p>
<p>As a fellow northwester who also has a kid in NYC, I have had better luck with JetBlue which also has direct flights from Portland. You can check 1 bag without additional charges. In general, do the math. There are direct flights to NYC from our area that are often much cheaper than Southwest. Be open and shop for the bargain. I have never found Southwest to be cheaper in my experience (could be but not yet) and you have to connect.</p>
<p>You will discover as have we, that the most expensive part of the whole equation tends to be the hotel unless you are lucky enough to have friends or family that live in the city. (We do not which is a bummer.) One night in a NYC hotel with taxes often costs as much as the plane ticket. We almost always use AirBnB now if we are staying multiple days. When we moved my daughter in for the first time a couple of years ago we got there 2 days ahead of the start of her orientation to gather up the things she needed plus have a small amount of family time before she ditched us for bigger and better. 2 days is enough and your son probably won’t want you hanging around at all or at least not with him after he has moved in because he’ll be off discovering his new world. </p>
<p>One comment about flying in with lots of luggage. Be prepared to take some of that back home with you as most NYC dorm rooms will not have space to store a lot of luggage.</p>
<p>@Octaviar i will message you with specifics regarding Pace move-in. It is a well-oiled machine and you don’t need to over-think it. The school will schedule a specific time for your son’s floor and it will go quickly and smoothly. You don’t need to hang around afterward, as your S will be busy right away with floor activities and theatre department welcoming activities. I’ll message you. </p>
<p>Also, for those of you sending kids cross-country to cold climates, they will not need winter items right away. Save the big bulky coats and boots for a ground-shipped box sent after you get back home. Use your luggage only for the items your kid will need right away. Yes, they think they need every item of clothing they own, but they don’t. Also, remember that the lists provided by Bed, Bath & Beyond are designed to sell, sell, sell! Your kid won’t need everything on there and you may end up with duplicates with the roommate(s). Better to buy the basics and know that virtually everything else can be purchased later. </p>
<p>One more thing – especially for those with kids far from home. We have had to be very judicious about when we visit our boys. Because those visits involve a cross-country flight, we can’t spend precious travel dollars on generic events like parents’ weekend. If you’re in the same boat, I recommend saving that money for seeing your kid perform if you can. And sometimes we’ve had to split up – dad went to one cabaret one year, mom to another cabaret a different year. Additionally, and this is tough when you’re used to seeing every performance of the high school play and musical, you may be forced to pick and chose the parts you go see. As heartbreaking as it was to miss it, we simply couldn’t justify making a cross-country trip to see our son be in the ensemble of a show when he had 5 minutes of stage time. If money is tight, think long and hard about when the kids will come home too – Thanksgiving flights are especially expensive and we were indeed thankful when both S’s went with a local friend for the holiday freshman year. </p>
<p>This is great guys! Checking out jet blue now… I was under the impression that JFK was much farther away from pace? </p>
<p>JFK is an easy subway ride right to Pace at Fulton Street on the Manhattan-bound A-Train. </p>
<p>And fulton station now has elevators and escalators – we did it for move in with no issues; but were very familiar with the area and had visited NYC many times. If you feel more comfortable, use a taxi the first time; but don’t be afraid to dive right into the subway system – it will be your son’s best friend.</p>
<p>mountainhiker - We are in Brunswick, near to Portland. I’ll check it out!!
Luckily for us, son’s school holds the auditions for the year in August or September. We will know early if he has been cast. If not, we still plan to see a show. I’ve already thought about timing trips to bring or take home stuff he won’t be using ie. bring winter jacket, boots/take home winter jacket, boots.</p>