Walking away when it was time to leave her–the first time is hard. I cried for an hour. When we got home, I cried again when I saw her empty room. But she had a great year. If she had any trouble adjusting, we never heard about it.
I’ve heard of this before, @bookworm, but I want to be sure I understand-for 7 days, ALL the students go from house to house-all 7 of them, so one day in each place, not knowing where they will all end up, or who will be their roommates? That brings up so many questions! What happens if too many kids choose some houses over the others-do they list their choices in order and there’s some scramble to assign them all at the end? What do kids who don’t find the ideal roommate-again, some kind of last-minute scramble? And do they have to lug all of the stuff from room to room to room each day?
It sounds like my worst nightmare and I think I’d avoid such a school.Packing and moving stresses me out-packing for VACATIONS stress me out. All the moving around would make me want to hide in a closet somewhere. And the not knowing-that kind of thing stresses me out even more than moving around! Thank goodness D hasn’t got this to deal with!
At my sons school they give you 3hrs to move into the dorm. We got a time stamped parking pass and you received a parking citation if you went over your time limit. There were no parent activities for that day but they did have parents day the second weekend after move in. I did great but the wife balled like a baby. It only took her walking by his room to start crying all over again. After a week she was able to accept the fact that he was gone. She was fully functional after we made it back from parents weekend. All I can tell parents is going to go thru the process and their is not much you can do about it. You will adjust and everything will work out fine. Heck we even hosted one of sons new friends. She was from Chicago and could not go home for some of the holidays. It will all work out.
No, they stay in their temporary room all week. They have dinner at each House ( I really don’t know if they spend a few hours there, but I suspect so). They do rank, and can include a place they don’t want. There are many singles, especially in a few Houses. My son didn’t get into his top choice, but within months he felt he was exactly where he should be. By getting to know kids over the week, he chose a roommate he was compatible with. It is a small school, so just this one week of orientation. On arrival, students carried his suitcases to his room. Same with moving into the new and permanent House.
During the summer prior to matriculating, son received funny material from the Houses. Think Hogwarts sorting hat. There is an 8th House, all singles, for those who want that. His friend moved there his senior year. If you want to be a social member of another House, it cost $5.00 for the year.
Thanks to all for sharing your experiences. My oldest will be leaving for college in a few short weeks. I’m excited for him, but I’m sad to see him go. I’m not sure how drop off will be. It will be a long 6 hour car ride home without him.
Be more excited for them than sad for yourself, you and your child have worked many years for this day.
ENJOY IT ! Get ready for the excitement of watching them become adults.
@bookworm that sounds a little better! I had visions of all these kids playing musical dorms. It sounded so stressful! Glad your son ended up where he was happy.
Ya, he liked the UG House system a lot. he chose to move into a dorm when he entered grad school, and stayed there 2 years. He was social chair of his hall for a year. His roommate was eager for an apartment, so they moved to a 3 person apartment after that.
700 mile drive. But we learned how to do it, including segment through Canada, in 11-12 hours. This straight-through method was our choice b/c we would have been worried about a break-in to our rented van.
This is our 3rd college drop off. The first (DD1, OOS) was pretty standard. We just rolled with the punches (August in the south real brilliant). The second (DD1, OOS, grad school) was a bit rough at first. She is 10 hours drive away, and a self declared homebody. She has a monster cat to keep her company, and an awesome single apartment. Went OK after a rough start, we stayed a week and visit regularly… Now we’re getting ready for DD2 (IS) and it’s pretty clinical. Boxes arriving daily from various sources, everything neatly stacked in moving boxes. No emotional issues. Shes’ going to our flagship (one of the two) along with many of her HS friends so it’s unlikely she’ll be lonely.
It gets better with experience.
@turbo93, I hadn’t even thought about grad school dropoff. Geez… 
D1 is a few years out of college, and I still cry sometimes when I drop her off at the airport after she visits.
Late in getting to this but THANKS to all who contributed their wisdom here!
Son’s drop off went great although I sweated out many pounds putting kid’s bed together while hubby checked email in common room :-/
Upper classmen greeted us to help our student move in. Was really touching and emotional. The actual only time I cried.
I’d say to future parents looking for wisdom you will plan and plan and it will basically go the way it’s going to go without your permission. Enjoy every moment and give your kid a huge hug, knowing you’ve given them the best tools you have. It’s an exciting time for them, bittersweet for us but life goes on.
PS they still ask you for $$$!