<p>Freshmen move in day is this Thursday, August. We have heard it best to wain until later in the afternoon to avoid the am rush but others have said if you wait until after, say noon, you will be waiting in line forever. Any advice?</p>
<p>Early early early is your best bet. Things get crazy after 12 since even the people who got there at 9 won’t be gone!</p>
<p>It truly is a zoo, but the orange-shirted Illini Guides really do make things go smoothly and are a big help. They have these plywood boards on casters that they pull with a rope to assist you in getting all your gear moved-in. Parking is a bit of a pickle, but it all works out incredibly well in the end.</p>
<p>I’m in PCH so I can choose which day to move in. would you guys suggest avoiding the 18th to stay away from the craziness of everyone else moving in at the same time? or is it really not that bad?</p>
<p>I’d avoid the 18th. and the 20th. (when upperclassmen return). The whole town swells up like a bee colony. The bookstore(s), Wal-mart, restaurants, etc. will be crawling with people moving their kids back to school.</p>
<p>We left later in the morning, arriving at 230 and had a very smooth move in, The kids helping were great. We were in within 20 minutes. The biggest problems were that the state decided to have construction barriers set up in both directions such that we sat in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour and a half each way. They were not even working on the road, just decided to place the barriers for when they next started. Aggravating.</p>
<p>Moved my D in a day early to her PCH to avoid the craziness of the 18th. It was a good decision. There were a couple of spots along I-57 (SB & NB) that were down to one lane, but there was not much traffic so it didn’t cause much of a delay. I saw signs saying road construction was starting on Aug 18th! Really?! U of I’s move-in day is the day you need to “start” a road project? I’m going to complaint to IDIOT(oops, I mean IDOT) about their stupid timing (particularly since zini said no actual work was going on on the 18th)</p>
<p>The backup inbound from the North was at least 3 miles, maybe 5. Heading Northbound, it was 2 or 3 miles. Terrible planning.</p>