<p>Hello! We are flying into Logan and renting a car to drive up to Dartmouth. I would appreciate your suggestions as to where are the best towns along the way or around Hanover to shop for dorm essentials. We dont mind a bit of a drive, either. We are interested in big box stores, Ikea, TJ Maxx, etc. Thanks in advance your your ideas.</p>
<p>You’ll find TJ Maxx, KMart and WalMart in West Lebanon about 10 minutes from Hanover. The flight from the west coast followed by the drive is long enough that we never even considered shopping en route, but you may be made of hardier stuff.</p>
<p>^thanks^ </p>
<p>Is there an Ikea nearby?</p>
<p>I think you need to wait and see the room before you start making big trips to IKEA as you will not have a lot of room for a lot of extraneous stuff . Also remember, what ever you put into the room, you will have to store and eventually have to bring back home</p>
<p>Sybbie has a point. If you’re in the Choates, for example, there’s not a lot of extra floor space. You need to think about how to use the space under the bed and on top of the wardrobe before you add more furniture to the mix. The closest IKEA I see is south of Boston. [IKEA</a> Stoughton Home Page - IKEA](<a href=“http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/stoughton]IKEA”>http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/stoughton)</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions.</p>
<p>Ikea is a good idea for easy furniture. Homegoods also holds sales which makes their more premium furniture affordable</p>
<p>Just dropped off daughter after flying into Boston. We first went to Bed Bath & Beyond and Container store in Boston. We then found everything else in Lebanon. </p>
<p>Her room looks great!</p>
<p>i just need 5 more posts to be allowed to Pm</p>
<p>My daughter was just accepted ED and I found your posts from last year on dorm room tips. I think we are going to drive the 18 hours, so we can purchase ahead, but do you have any advice on Freshman dorms? She is an athlete so will be going in July. Thanks!</p>
<p>You’re assigned a dorm as a freshman. No choice involved, except that I recall D being able to express preference for single/shared/suite/etc. Not sure what sort of advice you’re looking for apart from what we covered before (e.g., under bed storage, need for a fan, desirability of mini fridge, etc.) but ask away!</p>
<p>You partially answered it in your response. D wondering if they let you list your first three choices (or something similar) and if so, then are some dorms better than others. I would think single is lonely as a freshman (although probably coveted as a senior). Are the shared rooms in a better location or newer than the suites? Also, since she can’t have a car, do the kids bring bikes?</p>
<p>I don’t recall being able to list a dorm preference as opposed to a type-of-room preference. D also thought a single might be a bit lonely as a frosh, but it might have been preferable to her shared double. Most of the first years end up in the Choates or the River dorms. Neither is really high end but them’s the facts of life. The River dorms look nicer from the outside (but seemed to get as many complaints as the Choates), but they are a LONG walk in winter. The Choates aren’t exactly in the middle of things, but they are much closer to Baker-Berry [library] and many/most of the halls where classes are held. All the dorms have a variety of shared/suite options. You can find the floor plans on the college site, although it takes a bit of searching. About the only way I know of to get into a better location is via one of the affinity houses – such as whatever the dry [no drugs/no alcohol] option might be this year. </p>
<p>Hanover isn’t really big enough to need a bike, although there are a lot of them. D played rugby and found it handy for getting out to the pitch north of town rather than always relying on teammates with cars for a ride. I would call it a non-essential that you might want to decide on after she gets there. There is a big sale of used fridges/etc. early on (right at the end of Trips?); not sure if bikes are part of it. They might well be. I know that one of D’s good friends was constantly repairing bikes at part of a college program/office whose name escapes me.</p>
<p>Having just moved my daughter in in September, my experience was that several of the stores in Lebanon (TJ Maxx, JC Penneys, K-mart, and Walmart, etc.) were sold out of a lot of the essentials we needed such as an XL bedding set and a desk lamp. In hindsight, we may have been better off doing our shopping in Boston rather than driving to every single store near Hanover trying to piece together what we needed. Normally I wouldn’t mind doing such things, but after flying across the country, it was all pretty exhausting. Good luck. You’re going to love Dartmouth!!</p>
<p>In the River there are 2-person “suites” that contain 2 small bedrooms connected by a small common room. So you have a roommate but also have privacy. I think that’s a great combo. My observation, both from my own freshman year and from S’s, is that freshmen on a floor tend to bond regardless of whether they are in singles or doubles. I think it is infinitely preferable to have a place where you can go and close the door and be alone.</p>
<p>At least S’s first year, the substance-free freshman housing was one floor of one of the Rivers, so asking for substance free would not get you out of the River. (Which seemed okay to me, other than the long walk, which is perhaps more of an issue if you need to go to the Hop to use a practice room, or something like that.) THe River dorms have a kitchen, vacuum cleaners for student use, and a large common room with a TV. A minifridge can be picked up at the sale mentioned above. Maybe it is because I have a boy, but I don’t think there is THAT much stuff you need. </p>
<p>You would find plenty of big box stores outside of Boston. But who knows what their stock would be like at that point, since there are zillions of other colleges in the area and they all start earlier. My inclination would be to select bedding online and either have it sent to D–I like The Company Store-- or do one of those things where you order online for pickup at a local store.</p>
<p>Here’s another tip that we found very useful. We live within 2 hours of Hanover but still wanted to economize on space packing and # of trips up stairs to dorm room. I used the large zip bags that you vacuum out the air to compress/ shrink down contents. I was able to fit all his linens/towels, blankets, comforter, pillows and winter stuff (winter jacket, hat, gloves, scarf - all in one trunk (newer ones are plastic and have wheels - much lighter and mobile). These bags are reusable too - I’ve used them for two years now. When we get the trunk in his room, it only takes minutes to open everything up and I take the bags home with me. (He does not redo everything for the trip home at the end of the year so we have more to carry then). You could use for clothing too but wasn’t necessary for us as all his clothes fit in one large suitcase with suits on hangers etc.</p>
<p>I imagine for shipping stuff these bags could come in handy although the boxes would be very heavy.</p>
<p>I think the bags came in a box of say 20 0r 25 of varying sizes - think they came from Costco. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^ Watch out if you’re flying rather than driving, since the bags reduce the volume but not the weight (mass?) and you can get yourself into overweight bag fee very easily. #itcosthowmuch?!?</p>
<p>Less is more. The Dartmouth Plan has some tremendous advantages, but it also creates a nomadic environment. If your family does not live near campus, you are regularly faced with staging your worldly goods in a storage place between the end of finals and when you leave for break which is usually as close to the end of finals as possible. Having a lot to move/store is a pain. As challenging, when you return, the storage center needs to be open during your hours of return. At a minimum, come back to school with some linens and a towel until you can get into storage.</p>
<p>Less is more. At Dartmouth, between first year and senior year, most do not live in a single residence all year. A typical sophomore year might be to regain your goods from storage at the beginning of the Fall; place them in storage for a Winter study abroad for which you need to pack and store everything after your Fall finals but before you leave for Thanksgiving; recover your items when you return in the Spring; pack and move your items to your Summer housing; and pack move your items, again, to your Fall housing or storage. The less you have to move, pack, and/or store, the happier you will be. By sophomore year, you will know if something is worth the effort. It is easier to acquire it than dispose of it. If you live near campus, ignore this advice, as you will have a support system show up with a car to deal with the dreck.</p>
<p>Less is more. Dartmouth students do not spend a lot of time in their room. For the first year, I would recommend that students lay out only the things they believe are essential, then bring half of that. If, after a couple of weeks, they are in desperate need of something, USPS flat rate priority boxes from home or Amazon Prime (which should be free for students) will be your friend. It is so much easier to add essential items based on experience and observation of the environment than to predict what you will need.</p>
<p>Less is more. As someone else has said, dorm rooms are not spacious. Do not buy/bring anything that takes up any cube until you get to the room and negotiate with your roommates what is necessary. </p>
<p>Less is more.</p>
<p>That last post is right on. signed the lease for “the place” for sophomore year before Thanksgiving of the Freshman year. For some reason they move all the time. yearly leased houses are sub-leased and sophomore summer may be in the frat/sorority… and the jr aboard…They do manage to find things on their own there though, somehow (swapping? Craigslist?). During orientation there is a big sale on campus of used things, mini fridges, lamps, hangers, bikes…all inexpensive. My son is a Junior so when he started there was only 1 store (walmart in Lebanon) to buy anything (big storm irene wiped out the others) all the freshman parents were waiting around for shipments (hangers…)</p>
<p>Yes agree, those vacuum pack bags helped us transport 2x the amount of soft items across the Pacific and over the continent! They are worth every penny. </p>