<p>How much to buy and take, and how much to buy there?</p>
<p>I live in the OC, about 2-3 hours from UC San Diego. It's not terribly far away, but the question is, would it be better to buy all the dorm stuff before we go for move-in day, or just take what I have already and buy everything new in that area?</p>
<p>[cross-board posted]</p>
<p>Find out what stores are near your college. If there's a Bed, Bath, and Beyond and/or a Linens-n-Things nearby, you may be better off buying alot of stuff there. However, if there's no stores like that REALLY CLOSE to the college (if they're across town, there's not really any point) you'd probably do just as well buying things at home and bringing them. You will discover that there are things you want or need later on anyway, so you'll end up buying something near your college anyway.</p>
<p>If you're driving, buy your stuff at home and bring it to UCSD (The OC is really only about 1-1.5 hrs away). There is UTC that's close to UCSD, but UCSD is in La Jolla; everything is always more expensive there.</p>
<p>Hey Syneria,</p>
<p>You can definitely do shopping at home in Orange County. You will drive to school I assume and so you can just pack your car up tight. </p>
<p>The DIRECT vicinity of UCSD is no good for dorm-type shopping, however, if you drive about 15 or 20 minutes (or less) you can get to an Ikea. The same shopping center has a Hold Everything (or maybe it is a Container Store) as well as a Costco.</p>
<p>One big issue is that if you really care about the things you're bringing into your new dorm (ie colors, etc), you really should get stuff relatively early for the best selection.</p>
<p>Particularly during "move-in", stores like BB&B, Target, Linens n'Things, etc are all pretty picked over. This wouldn't be much of a problem for S, but a huge issue for D who wanted things color coordinated and "cute".</p>