<p>I need to fly to get to Stanford so I was wondering about the best way to get a few boxes of stuff to my dorm room.
It seems that your mailbox is not necessarily close to your dorm. If I send
boxes by US mail, will they be delivered to the mail box center?
If I have boxed delivered by UPS are these delivered to my dorm or the mail box?
Thanks</p>
<p>im going to check my boxes as luggage on the plane..southwest airlines allows 3 pieces per person at 50lbs an i have a total of 4 ppl coming ..so thats 12 boxes at my use..i think thats a real efficient and cheap way</p>
<p>If you send it by US mail, it gets delivered to the post office. If you send it by UPS, FedEx, or anything else, it's delivered to your dorm. You can have stuff shipped to your dorm as soon as you move in, but don't ship it before move-in day.</p>
<p>Do not ship by USPS to a dorm address, and do not ship by UPS/FedEx to your PO box.</p>
<p>What I did was a little risky - I knew that the shipping would be 5-10 days, so I had a box shipped 3 days before I left for Stanford. It got there 3 days after I arrived. This was fine with me.</p>
<p>What isn't good is having your boxes arrive BEFORE you. Housing might not hold it if it's shipped to your dorm. I'm not sure what USPS will do. I would assume they would hold your package at their office, though I don't know for how long.</p>
<p>Check with the housing or Student Life Offices at Stanford or the school you are attending. Most if not all have a system in place for receiving and stowing boxes mailed prior to move in day. But that doesn't mean that retrieving them will not be a nightmare on move in day. I've tried all three methods mentioned with my kids..sending boxes ahead, checking them as luggage and mailing them so that they arrive the week after move in day. It's now sort of morphed into a combination of the three. I no longer check extra actual suitcase thru that contain anything remotely valuable, said objects seem to 'disappear'. the USPO and UPS have proven very very reliable.</p>
<p>Yup, nikrud is right. housing.stanford.edu will answer all your questions about shipping stuff, but I'll reiterate the big points. Don't ship USPS to your dorm, sometimes it gets there, but more often then not it will end up in a random place that will almost certainly be far away. And the distance away from your dorm that it ends up is directly proportional to the weight of the box. True Story.</p>
<p>Also, you don't get your room number or your PO box number until move-in day. Celestial, did you just ship it to the dorm address?</p>
<p>Oh... I realized that I am thinking of my sophomore year, so I already knew my room number. =/</p>
<p>In that case, I think the place to ship it to would be your local HSC. They will definately have staff there during business hours, so your packages won't be sitting outside and/or unattended. Whatever you do, don't ship it to the Post Office because hauling it back to wherever it is you're living will be a PITA.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advise-- I'll have my Mom send the boxes UPS to my dorm after I get there!</p>
<p>Also, I learned the hard way that UPS will not ship to 'Box' numbers. Some schools use this method: STUDENT NAME
ABCD COLLEGE BOX # 3099
CITY, STATE
ZIP
So instead of putting 'Box # 3099', just put '#3099'. It will then get there just fine!</p>
<p>Stanford does not use Box # =]</p>
<p>You'll probably want to do something like this:</p>
<p>Street address
Dorm complex - Dorm and room number
Stanford, CA 94305</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p>618 Escondido Rd.
Stern Hall - Donner 208
Stanford, CA 94305</p>