<p>The fine art and sweet science of move-in day</p>
<p>Students</a> descend on Boston campuses, packed with gear - The Boston Globe</p>
<p>Cute article - I’m sure college staff see quite a lot of memorable moments and interesting behavior during this process. I’ll bet they go home with some stories to tell!</p>
<p>There’s nothing like Labor Day weekend in Boston, when the population of the city increases by an estimated 100,000 people. As masses of students (and their parents) descend, entire section of the city are closed off to traffic. The T is full of kids with giant Target bags. THERE IS A BLOCK-LONG LINE OF CABS WAITING AT BED BATH AND BEYOND. It’s an amazing sight. And one of the reasons Boston is a fabulous place to go to school.</p>
<p>Labor day weekend in my little college town doubles the population from 30k to 60k. Target, BB&B and Stop and Shop are all madhouses. The highway is clogged and there is no parking downtown. Good thing we went to Boston to move DD into her dorm!</p>
<p>In LA, one BB&B had escalators for the “grocery” carts to go to the second floor!</p>
<p>^In Albany CA, the neighboring city to Berkeley, the Target store has this same type of escalator-- just for the shopping carts. Must be a CA thing!</p>
<p>Nope, not just in California. We have Targets with the shopping cart escalators here on the East Coast, as well.</p>
<p>My husband and daughter are in Boston for move in. Fortunately, she arrived on Monday, most of her stuff was shipped to her and the mailroom is right in her building. I did send them to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick up an order. My husband called the store to find out their hours and took a taxi, thinking it would be faster. They just barely made it in before the store closed! My daughter said the traffic was very bad because of the baseball game. I told her the people at BB&B must all be hating on them and she told me the store was packed, fifteen minutes past closing. I am a little jealous that I am not there and missing all the excitement, but this time alone with my daughter is priceless for her father. They are very close and I know he is going to have a rough time adjusting to her absence.</p>
<p>This is why, all those people who say, pack light and get what you need when you get there - I totally ignore that. Because mile long lines in 100 degree weather, jostling for parking and traffic with 50,000 other students? Is not how I want to spend the precious little time I have to see her off.</p>
<p>We bought pretty much everything over the summer and squashed it all in the car. We did go to Ikea mostly for fun, and got her a lamp. But happily for us, the big Cattle Ranch school down the road (from whence the 50,000 students come from) had started a week earlier than my daughter’s school, which is in the same town but more like a small family farm where they know all the cows by name. heh.</p>
<p>I think it was pretty damn smart for her school to not start and thus move in, the same weekend as UT.</p>
<p>Also they didn’t try to shoo us off immediately but had planned family events throughout the weekend. So you could drop your kid off and say “well, I’ll see you at the BBQ later tonight” and then give them their space but get to sort of gradually step back out of their lives. They had a convocation on Sunday to which parents went and afterwards, separate receptions for each different college, and one for the parents. It was obvious the say goodbye time was after the receptions. </p>
<p>I think the structured, school sponsored activities really helped a lot with the awkwardness and keeping parents from lingering too long, as it was pretty clear there were times for parents to be there, which meant the rest of the time was for just the kids.</p>
<p>They also had the various athletes available as volunteers to carry stuff during move in, and they had hot dogs, drinks and cookies in the dorm lounge for everyone.</p>
<p>I was really quite impressed with how smoothly it went and how the school was so sensitive to the needs of both the kids and the parents.</p>
<p>snapdragon, the “cram it all in the car” method works if you are a drivable distance. </p>
<p>Many of these kids showing up in Boston have flown in from the west coast or overseas. Shipping some items ahead and buying the rest when you arrive is really the only reasonable choice for them.</p>
<p>I’m with you snapdragonfly, but for a different reason. The prices in Boston were so much higher than where I live – Denver – it was physically painful for me to buy the stuff there.</p>
<p>1012mom: funny!</p>
<p>lafalum84: that’s true. It’s not an option for everyone.</p>
<p>But since it was for us, we did - therefore making it one less family clogging up the aisles for those who had no other choice! ;)</p>