<p>ebeeeee, at a rural school, we look for schools that offer buses to the mall/walmart/target etc. as a year round service. I know that your son is in the city, so he has easy access to public transportation, but for a rural school, my son would not be happy with a bus that is available only for the first 2 weeks of school.</p>
<p>very true. DS can take and does take public transportation everywhere. Those first weeks though they bought larger items that would have been difficult to deal with on the T.</p>
<p>ebeeeee, I understand. I just wanted to point out that as an educational consumer, I would not be happy paying through the nose for my child's education, and having my child stuck on a rural campus without either campus, or public transit to get around. There are rural schools that do this. My son would not attend those schools. We like rural schools, but there must be some type of transportation to get to a mall, a grocery store, a hospital, a doctor's office, and it needs to be offered year round (not just for the first school week).</p>
<p>This may be a tough suggestion for you as a tarheel ;), but check out the schedule for Duke's orientation program if you haven't already. Included in the activities is a Durham Bulls game and something to do with the Tobacco Warehouse center (or whatever it is called). Some of these regional activities would make sense for our friends in Chapel Hill, too.</p>
<p>One thing I liked very much about move in at Duke was that the parental schedule was 2 days long- probably 1-1/2 really-(optional, of course) and included panels and discussions for parents only. The students had their own. We had a picnic lunch and a barbecue dinner with the students. This was great for many reasons.</p>
<p>(And I stick by that request for champagne, scented hankies, and foot massages for the parents. I will withdraw the request for handsome men with palm fans because of the disrespectful sexist nature of that request.)</p>
<p>I don't have much to offer that hasn't already been offered. However, I do have a couple things:</p>
<p>THE most helpful thing my D's school does is an online asked/answered section on the Residential Life webpage. People can ask questions about the residence halls & someone from the staff posts answers. GREAT info!! There were links to residence hall room layouts (including window & closet dimensions), loft rentals, carpet vendors/installers; specifics about things like laundry facilities, kitchen facilities; etc. Check it out: <a href="http://www.furman.edu/housing/rumorfact.htm%5B/url%5D">www.furman.edu/housing/rumorfact.htm</a>. It was extremely helpful, allowing us to really plan in advance.</p>
<p>D thought their orientation week was a bit too long. She must not have been the only one, because it's been shortened for next year. Lots of good stuff, just too spread out ... she was excited to get everyone on campus & get classes underway. So I guess I would say keep the time filled with fun stuff to do!</p>
<p>^^^ agree with you, kelsmom, about looong orientations. Son mentioned a problem with that, too.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your suggestions and ideas. </p>
<p>As for the target bus, we already have that event on the schedule as it is very successful. </p>
<p>I agree that orientations can sometimes be too long, but this week isn't actually a week of "orientation" per-se. </p>
<p>We have several program ideas started, and hopefully more to come. It's wonderful how many of the ideas y'all threw out there that were discussed today among the other coordinators!</p>
<p>I guess that means we are on the right track!!!</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>