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<p>That was my rationale for insisting on a basic medicine cabinet when D was a freshman. She thought it was silly – “If I’m that sick, my roomie can run to the store and get me medicine, and I’ll do the same for her.” Turns out, they both came down with H1N1 at the same time and neither was able to leave the room for 4 days. (Their very nice RA checked on them and brought food and drink.) But she was mighty glad to have medicine right there in the room during that spell.</p>
<p>i love these tips!
EmmyBet, can you post a link to the what wasn’t used thread?</p>
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<p>This makes sense from a logistical standpoint, but I think some freshman might need a little time to get their feet underneath them before school starts, and that’s hard to do during move-in madness. Those kids would benefit from having a day or two after move-in to check out the campus, meet a few people, and have a chance to breathe before plunging into their studies.</p>
<p>I’m rotten at linking, but here goes:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/926984-10s-what-did-you-send-college-your-child-never-used.html?highlight=that+was+never+used[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/926984-10s-what-did-you-send-college-your-child-never-used.html?highlight=that+was+never+used</a></p>
<p>Hey, it worked! Lots of funny stories on there to calm your move-in jitters.</p>
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<p>Exact same thing happened to S1- Fall of 2009 and the H1N1 epidemic was awful!! Also with boys, even if someone in the room is still healthy, they don’t really look out for each other the way girls might. And S1 was too sick to move, so the medicine bag (affectionately known around our house as ‘the drug bag’) is vital. Complicating things that year was the threat most colleges levied to quarantine the kids with H1N1, leading most kids (including my son) to hide their condition to avoid being shipped off to some isolation ward.</p>
<p>Suggest to your kid that after you are gone, he or she look around the dorm and find a student who “looks like they need a friend” – then introduce themselves and make a plan to go to a meal or some orientation activity together. Then pick up another dormmate or two on the way.
Also suggest that your kid leave their door open (leave them with that doorstop!) unless they are sleeping, super-focused on studying, etc. – this also encourages new friendships. Introverted kids in particular need these suggestions and may even need suggestions on exactly what to say.</p>
<p>MIdwestmom~wonderful suggestions.
S2 's school has a Freshman retreat early September, he signed up so he could develop a circle of friends early on :)</p>
<p>I have dropped 2 off at 2 different colleges. Personally I like to move in first, you get first pick of bed (unless they have discussed it on FB previously) and it is easier to manuever. For D1 they either give you a morning or afternoon move-in time. We chose morning. There were 4 of us (D1, S3 (at the time age 12), DH and I) which worked out great. S3 hooked up all the electronics, I stayed by the car, DH and D1 hauled stuff from the car to the dorm. We arrived 30 minutes prior to when they told us to and got through the sign-in line quickly and were able to secure a cart. For S2 they move in over 3 days. BUT, they also have “move-in helpers” that can move in a couple days before as long as they help with the move-in. That worked out great (for us). There was no traffic or crowds to deal with. Although for him, there was a lot of downtime the first few days before everyone moved in and I think he got a little lonely. </p>
<p>We also use the plastic totes. D1 is on the semester system so we move her in with them, then I bring them home and then use them to move S2 in. And in the summer the totes are filled with all their stuff sitting in the garage.</p>
<p>Here’s a tip if you happen to have one: We put DS’s bedding in an Xlarge nylon laundry bag. We had this bag because he went on a backpacking trip in NM and it was recommended we buy these large nylon laundry bags to place the backpack inside for travel on the plane. So this bag has all his bedding and towels in it! One nice neat package to haul to dorm and then unpack. Bonus is that he’s going on a backpacking trip organized by the school, so once bedding is taken out, he can put backpack in for easy identification and to protect all straps while it is thrown on the bus to travel to the trip site.</p>
<p>And then he can use it for laundry too! :)</p>
<p>Hmm, we have a number of smaller laundry bags from camp (they color code them and give them to the kids to take home at the end of the session) and using them to organize some of the stuff is a nice idea. (We also have 2 huge duffel bags per kid from camp, and those will take the bulk of S’s stuff.)</p>
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Great advice</p>
<p>As a very shy kid who did not drink or party it took me about a year to figure out this strategy. On weekend nights I often felt the most loney as EVERYONE was having a blast as they headed out to parties to drink (usually to frat parties) … and this did not draw me at all …eventually I figured out what felt like everyone was really not everyone and in many ways self-selected out a bunch of people I would not likely be very good friends with … so</p>
<p>After <em>almost</em> everyone leaves to go out drinking and partying make a pass down the hall and see who is left … these kids are likely other kids who are not drawn to drinking and partying … and see if they are interested in well almost anything; going to a movie, going to see a dorm mate in a play/concert, going to game, taking a trip into town for pizza, playing a game or ultimate frisbee/soccer/touch football, playing a board/card game, etc. After initially feeling left out I eventually realized the migration to parties was one of the best ways for me to find my tribe (by avoiding the migration)!</p>
<p>Instead of a tool kit we bought a Leatherman/Garber all in one tool.</p>
<p>My daughter’s Leatherman got a lot of use by her and by her friends. Handy multi tool.</p>
<p>Walk in there with swagger and your head held high. Works every time.</p>
<p>Thank you for the tips</p>
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<p>Yes, it was bad for a while there. D’s school told the sick ones to stay home; although it’s a residential college, so “home” is the dorm and they all eat in the same dining hall. Once the bug arrived on campus, it was inevitable that all students would be exposed. Some were able to fight it off, many others got sick to one degree or another. D missed an entire week of class, and she said that on one day, only one-third of her physics class was in attendance.</p>
<p>I didn’t read through the whole thread, so sorry if these have already been mentioned.</p>
<p>I’m going into my 4th year living in the dorms and my 2nd as an RA. Just some things that have been helpful for me:</p>
<ol>
<li>If you’re going to leave your door open while you make trips, make sure at least one person stays in the room. Move in & move out are by far when we have the most thefts/crimes of opportunity.
2.If it won’t fit in the SUV, it probably won’t fit in the dorm room.
3.If you don’t use it during a normal week at home (or if you didn’t wear it in high school), you probably won’t NEED it in the dorm.
4.Don’t give in to the “garbage mound”. Take the time to walk your trash out to the dumpsters/garbage chute/whatever. We always have a HUGE mound of boxes/trash/whatever after move-in weekend around small trash cans. Remember that someone will have to properly dispose of all of that.
5.Read your housing agreement BEFORE you get there. Parents, please ask your student to actually do this. You don’t want to unpack it just to have your RA tell you you can’t have it.
6.They have stores wherever you’re going. Don’t panic thinking you have to have everything you will ever need right when you get there.
7.Students: go easy on your parents. This is hard for them.
8.Parents: remember that it’s hard for us too, and we’re feeling about a million different emotions at one time.
9.While bringing a ton of people to help move your stuff in might be tempting, it will also decrease the amount of space in your already small room and can be very overwhelming for your roommate/suitemates.
10.Wear close-toed shoes. Things will get dropped, and chances are you’ll be walking a lot.</li>
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<p>HisGrace, those are excellent additions. </p>
<p>Freshmen move-in for us was amazingly easy: the football team swarmed over our van and moved EVERYTHING, including my H’s toolkit and van maintenance manual. However, at winter break, we had to empty the room and take everything home for a month. We made a few adjustments for second term, mostly items that would help with organization. The two things that come to mind are coat hangers (I hung all of his t-shirts so at least they started the semester off the floor) and a milk carton for shoes. I never realized how much space those big shoes take in a small dorm room. The dress shoes stayed in their own box in the bottom of the closet, probably used only once but necessary. The every day shoes and athletic cleats and volleyball shoes and hiking boots . . . Were all over the floor when we went for parents’ day. </p>
<p>We brought the huge bin that all of the miscellaneous stuff got stuffed into. It is still sitting unpacked in the place it was dumped in May. Before he returns in 3 weeks, I will help him eliminate probably 90% of it because it wasn’t used and is very unlikely to be used.</p>
<p>Too funny lotsof quests! We had similar bags of unused stuff from my older College grad when he came home every semester. Freshman year I bought him a 20 pack of hangers, hung up a few shirts and one pair of dress pants and suggested that he hang up more. Came back for parents weekend and he only had about 5 hangers. I asked him what happened to his hangers and he said a girl down the hall didn’t have any so he gave them away. His clothes, meanwhile, were in clean or dirty floor piles.</p>
<p>“A girl down the hall didn’t have any so he gave them away.”</p>
<p>Not sure which part of this statement is funnier; that a girl didn’t have hangers (lol) or that he used that as an excuse (to meet the girl…“Um, I have hangers if you need them”??)</p>