This is my oldest child and I have not lived in dorms. If someone can guide me to place where I can find list of essentials specifically for GaTech freshman experience students. ( All schools are different - climate, dorms , what necessary, what is available, electrical equipment etc.) We will be 13 hours away and can use Amazon prime, but I would rather my daughter start school focusing on classes vs. finding out what is missing first month of school.
We also need to buy new laptop. I would rather buy something middle ground (not very cheap, not very expensive.) Since she is going to be BME student - there would be probably some programming (but not extensive), but probably some 3d modeling etc eventually. Can somebody give advice, what parameters we need to look for?
I know many students find on campus electric scooters useful (campus is huge and hard to be on time everywhere.) Dorm form specifically stated that scooters are not allowed in the dorm. Do students keep them outside? How do they charge them? Are scooters popular on campus?
Thanks.
If you are not already a member there is a good Facebook group that has this type of info “Georgia Tech Current or potential Parents”
Congratulations on you daughtre’s BME apceptance! This is quite an accomplishment. I would agree that it’s best to be situated before classes are underway. Items such as clothing, school supplies, appliances, toiletries, and fuenishings can mostly be purchased in advance — just make sure you have a large vehicle to transport them in. Stores such as Target and BBB are not too far from campus and easily accessible if you have a car in town. It can be helpful to check in to a hotel a few days early. With regard to electronics, i think a 13 or 15” Apple laptop is sufficient. Have not had good luck with Dells. Many students also like to take notes on an iPad, and many use noise-canceling headphones. There are short-term use rental scooters scattered around campus (to the chagrin of some) but these should not be necessary on a regular basis. I don’t know of anyone who actually owns a scooter. If the student is a brisk walker they should be able to get to where they’re going on time. GT recently added 5 minutes to the break between classes to make it easer.
Thanks. No she will not have a car in town (accept with us on arrival day.) Will probably come with regular bike. Most “shopping” will have to be done using bus and Marta, Amazon, Instacart or Uber if absolutely necessary. It is great to know about added break time ( I remember 10 minutes break and constantly being late 20 years ago running around campus :)). Why only Apple? Are Apple popular among BME students? We never used Apple products in the family. I thought majority of software will not be Apple compatible. Does GaTech record classes now?
This is not school specific advice, but be advised that most of the dorm shopping lists you will find will have way, way too much stuff. Even those that the college may provide are usually a list of both essentials and nice-to-have and extras.
My D went to school a flight away and we found Bed Bath and Beyond Pack and Hold service to be very useful (but again…watch their “list” you need about half that stuff). You shop in person at your local BBB, or online, then everything is gathered at the BBB nearest the school and you pick it up on move in weekend. The benefit to this to me is to avoid having EVERYTHING shipped to the school, which means so many trips to the schools’ mail center which is crowded at move in, and then walking all of those packages back to the dorm.
Thanks! Great list.
She won’t need half of what the lists say she’ll need. I had one kid who took everything and the kitchen sink to her dorm room. Six duffel bags, mostly clothes and decorations. I know she had 4-5 coats as she was going to a cold climate. She had a fridge (she bought it at a sale they have the first week of school, like a big garage sale), her roommate brought a microwave, they had a coffee maker - none of it was used that much. She had some desk lamps and other stuff like that but little of it was used. Second year took 2 duffel bags. By the final year she was down to one duffel and maybe a box.
Other kid was a minimalist and took very little. She stored her stuff over the summer and had 3 rubbermaid tubs, almost all stuff she had collected over the school year from her sorority. I don’t even think she had 3 tubs of stuff when she graduated.
Less is best. Might want to send more clorox wipes and other disinfectants than suggested on the lists.
I fretted over the computer for my engineering daughter too. Turns out any computer is fine. If they need to run some big program, the school will have computers for that. Daughter #1 got her computer from Costco when the state had the tax free days for back to school (usually Aug 1). Engineering daughter couldn’t decide, ended up just getting one from Best Buy (and paid the sales tax) and it was fine. At the time, it was suggested by her school NOT to get an Apple because of some programs, but I don’t know if that was really a thing or if it still holds today (this was 6 years ago).