Move-in will be here sooner than you think. Let’s use this thread to post helpful tips and past experiences to help the incoming freshmen (and parents) have a smoother time moving in.
Thanks @bemart14
Thanks. I saw dorm refridgerator is a must have. What about a microwave? We will be coming in from Tennessee but I have family in the Houston area to stay with or order and have items shipped to.
Housing – Read and Print off the housing contract, especially if your student applied without you reading it.
Housing Policies and Procedures: Read These. They are all important.
https://reslife.tamu.edu/procedures/
If you apply to housing and you decide to attend elsewhere, you need to decline admission decisions to every other university. This cancels your housing contract at TAMU.
If you accept admissions to A&M, and have submitted the housing contract, and later decide to live elsewhere, you MUST cancel the housing contract before May 1. Not doing so will result in you being billed for the entire semester. There is a prorated table in item #4 in the housing contract.
During the spring semester, all applicants will be given a date and time to come back and self-select a hall/apartment and room. Applicants will be given a date and time based on their Housing Status (priority, guaranteed or waitlist) and their Housing Priority Date.
In the unlikely event that you are not able to self-select a hall/apartment and room, or choose not to self- select, you must give A&M at least three housing preferences so that they can manually assign you.
Housing preferences are not a guarantee that you will be placed in these halls/apartments.
You will do this via the housing application.
In the event your student is placed in temporary housing (usually a small number of applicants that did not submit housing application within 30 days of admission decision) ResLife will use these three dorm preferences to assign a student housing, if a room is available in that style of dorm.
***They will not place a student in a higher tier dorm that what is listed as preference.
Most students will be self-selecting their assignment through the housing portal
Please see this link for self-select instructions: http://oncampusaggies.tamu.edu/Images/Site/TAMU/Room Self Select Instructions.pdf
You CANNOT select a room until your time slot starts, but please look over the instructions now so that you can ask any questions you may have in advance
Those who requested a deposit waiver may not be able to select a room until they have paid – please see the separate email with your deadline for paying the deposit.
Time Slot Assignment Schedule for all incoming students
Confirmed LLP Mid-to-Late April
Priority Housing Early-to-Mid May
Guaranteed Housing Mid-to-Late May
Once you apply for housing, your student may still have a red “X” under their “To Do List”. The red “X” will stay until housing is complete and assigned sometime in the spring. Just make sure you have green check marks on the housing portal.
@DaughterEngineer A lot of kids have one, but definitely don’t buy until she has roomie and they’ve discussed who’s bringing what. Most have their own fridge, but you only need one microwave.
If you live in the Commons Dorms, the mattresses are thick plastic covered (most likely other dorms too). Get a 1.5-2" Gel-foam mattress topper (I found a good one on Amazon $63.00 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079MFBQ3P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
Then put this over it to hold it in place Mattress protector that is thin and water proof and no noise. https://www.target.com/p/temperature-balancing-mattress-protector-made-by-design-153/-/A-53216352?preselect=53172213#lnk=sametab
You don’t need an enclosed mattress cover. These things are not fabric.
If you loft the bed in the Commons dorms, get Foam Plumbing Tubular Pipe Insulation and use zip ties to cover the metal bed rail that will be forehead level. A thinner pool noodle would do too. The pipe insulation is already split, so it is easier.
The microChill fridge/microwave is too small for two people to use. It is expensive to rent but necessary because the Commons dorms have very few plugs and applicances cannot be plugged into power strips. Rent/buy a second fridge.
You will not need a big, thick comforter in College Station. Add a flannel sheet or additional blanket. It’s humid.
2 sets of sheets, Yes, because it makes us feel better thinking they will change them.
If you have a fridge/MicroChill, don’t set it on the floor. This was great for us. and it is on sale right now. https://www.containerstore.com/s/platinum-elfa-mesh-compact-fridge-cart/d?productId=10017394&q=fridge%20cart
We used 3 of these bins in the closet and were great for sheets and towels and misc. Two stacked and a single beside it. https://www.containerstore.com/s/large-tint-stackable-storage-drawer/d?productId=11008015&q=stackable%20storage
Son also had this for folded clothes and other storage https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00275848/?query=undefined&icid=iba|us|unbxdsuggestion|201811132211556208_1#/40275846
If bunk is lofted and desk, dresser and small printer table are under bed, the Kallax shelf, fridge cart, and large bookcase (with small bookcase on top of it) fit perfectly wall to wall.
The window is narrow and long. We bought a black out 94" curtain and a 18" cheap expansion rod. Ta Da!
A small oscillating fan is nice. https://www.target.com/p/31-oscillating-tower-fan-black-holmes/-/A-11153981 or a smaller desk size I can’t find a link to the one we bought
This was great for son’s lofted bunk bed (Bunk bed shelf) https://www.dormco.com/Bed_Post_Shelf_Dorm_Room_Sized_Shelf_p/fg-bps.htm
Bunk Pocket https://www.dormco.com/Bunk_Pocket_Hold_Items_Bedside_p/a-bin-bp200.htm
and 6’ charging cords.
A safe for valuables, extra car keys, etc. My son kept his watches, extra key fob, my credit card info, etc in his safe and locked at all times. Make sure it will fit a laptop. All 3 of my kids took their safes from their dorms to their off campus housing
Everything you move in, you must move out. It is much more fun to move in.
Anyone done the rent a fridge/micro combo offered through College Products? Since we are traveling a decent distance, we thought this would be a good option. Plus, if something happens to it(stops working or what not, it’s warrantied) Just trying to save us from having to lug one up and down stairs, as they state they will deliver to room. As of right now, my daughter is looking at single rooms, so, for now, a room mate isn’t an issue. Thanks!!!
My daughter applied to an LLC for a specific dorm. But now she’s not sure she wants to do that LLC or that dorm. She has priority housing. If she gets accepted to that LLC, can she turn it down and still be able to pick a different dorm? She’s not 100% sure about the LLC so that’s why she hasn’t changed her answer on the housing website.
@Chemengmom Just know that most students have priority housing meaning they put down housing deposit within 30 days of acceptance. She really should try to decide now what she wants to do and to realize the most popular dorms fill up within minutes for the first group. If she’s a single (not going in with a roomie), then she’ll have better luck sliding into a bed then someone that is looking for 2 people. If that makes sense…
@DaughterEngineer Yes, wait until you talk with Roomie. I rented the MicroChill (so over priced but it is necessary to have outlet space). It was NOT enough for two boys to use. Roommate brought second Fridge.
My son is a gym junkie and tracks his macro and micro nutrients and kept certain foods in fridge at all times. The MicroChill is much smaller inside. There is also a requirement to size of appliances.
This is a must read and has a lot of useful info in it with things you never thought to ask. Alcohol is covered on Pg 26 and brought appliances on pg. 27. This is 2018-2019. the 2019-2020 will be out later. https://reslife.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/RULES_Reslife_Handbook.pdf
Every parent should sign up for the text service Code Maroon
http://codemaroon.tamu.edu.
I highly recommend this insurance for your student to cover his belongings. The accidental drop of the Apple Mac computer that broke the screen is a $900 fix. This would have covered it minus the 25 deductible. It will cover them if they reside in a dorm or apartment but not a duplex or single family dwelling. So, if they move, there are other companies. Apple Care doesn’t cover it.
@AggieMomhelp thank you. She is wanting a single and the dorms she wants are thankfully not the ones typically filled first (Hart Hall and Davis-Gary). She just isn’t sure about the LLC process (the one she applied for is in Hart Hall) and whether or not she’ll have the opportunity to turn it down, if accepted, and try for a room in Davis-Gary instead. I guess her issue is more specifically, what happens to her dorm selection process if she turns down the LLC? Does she still keep her priority housing slot or does she get bumped to the end? Etc…
@sweeney1996 I addressed the MicroChill in post #5.
It is not big enough if two people are to use the fridge and you will need a second one. Look for the line that I talk about the appliance requirements and that plugs are a premium in dorms, thus, that is why the microchill works. Appliances must be plugged in direct to the wall. They do have unannounced dorm checks.
@Chemengmom She can change her dorm preferences online until May 1. After that, it is a different process. That said, if it concerns an LLC, she may need to make her choice before her assigned room time, which are stated above when they receive their assignment time. If she is assigned a selection time during the LLC selection window, and she doesn’t want an LLC, the other dorms won’t be open to her to select.
@Thelma2 thanks for this thread!! I just sent my 21 year old son to Houston Galleria Container Store for the Elfa micro chill holder/rolling container, to put up for his sister next year. They had 2 left, and I know Elfa only goes on sale a couple times a year. Thanks! 
@bemart14 got it started for us all (thank You Bemart14)
I swear, that thing was great. You will have to put it together but it is easy. I snagged mine on sale too. Container Store will offer some kind of college days in July where you save a percentage. The only other thing I bought was a plastic bin for under the sink to hold the smaller stuff.
The way the sink plumbing is, a shelf wouldn’t fit.
Oh, another must have. I got a bin with a lid and made a medicine chest. Tums, neosporin, tablet pepto bismal, Immodium, thermometer, Advil and Tylenol, Excedrine Migraine, Mole skin (for blisters - girls you will thank me later. just put it right on top of a blister and you are good to go (another Navy Seal trick), band aids, his OTC allergy pills, extra chapstick, Auquafor, Saline wash, saline for eyes (to flush stuff out if necessary), cough drops, delsym, mucinex DM, dayquil/Nyquil gels.
And get the flu shot before you go in August. The flu is putting them down right now on campus. His freshman year, it was during Rush before Howdy Week and again that fall. It isn’t fool proof but so far, knock on wood for 3 in school.
@AggieMomhelp @Thelma2 , when will the Howdy Week schedule be published? Any guesstimate on when Howdy Week will occur? Is move-in before or during Howdy Week? Thanks for your help.
Oops. I just noticed the answer to my first question on another thread. Sorry for the repeat.
@CamandCam Residential Hall move in begins August 18 and Gig Em Week begins on Monday the 19th (I am going off last year’s schedule)/
The 18th will be crazy. My son actually moved in on Wednesday during Gig Em week due to being on a trip prior, so it is all good if they move in later. I believe the class photo on Kyle field is later that week.
The Gig Em Week calendar of events won’t happen til much later.
Thanks again @Thelma2.
@Thelma2 , @AggieMomhelp , are there any banks on campus, maybe in the MSC?
I believe Wells Fargo is in msc. There’s also a chase across university drive at north gate.