<p>Since I will be going from the east to the west coast, I'll be travelling with only clothes and bedding things (travelling very lightly!), and I will be buying everything once I get there.</p>
<p>The thing is, if I do bring the parents, the expenses of the airfare, the cost of hotel stays, and having to bring my little sister along will make things really complicated (and it's also a financial burden).</p>
<p>Therefore, I've decided not to bring my parents...</p>
<p>I’m basically doing this, but from south to northeast.Bringing enough bedding to set up the first night, some clothes, and then buying the rest while there. My parents aren’t going at all.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’d imagine the first day will be a bit difficult because we have to carry all our stuff around and do the logistics stuff on campus…but after climbing that first hill, the rest will be smooth walking. ;)</p>
<p>My suggestion is to buy stuff now and just ship it out. You probably won’t have the time to go and buy all of your dorm essentials once orientation and classes start. Shipping is expensive, but it will still probably be cheaper than the plane tickets and hotel expenses.</p>
<p>And going without your parents is fine. My dad went to college with just a suitcase, and he didn’t even have an apartment to live in when he left for law school. It’s not a big deal.</p>
<p>sunshowers23, I will only be staying in a hotel for one night (night before the start of Orientation), so it won’t really save me any expenses if I ship (it’s not like I’m going to get there early to buy stuff).</p>
<p>The thing is, my dorm will have have most of the essentials…I have an entire week of orientation (no classes!) so I will have some time to go out and grab a desk lamp, an alarm clock, tylenol, fan, tissues, and school supplies…</p>
<p>My parents probably aren’t coming with me either given the vast distance and ensuing costs/inconvenience. It’s going to suck having to say goodbye earlier, but I’m sure that given the excitement surrounding move-in and starting college that things should be ok.</p>
<p>I actually know a lot of people doing this, and from what I’ve heard, the only bad thing about it is that you have to carry all your things by yourself! Actually, if you don’t want to bother with going out and shopping for things, a lot of my friends are buying their things from Target and shipping it directly to their dorm (which is free if you spend over $50). </p>
<p>Yeah, my orientation is a week also. There’s a bedbathetc and target nearby the campus so I’m not too worried, I think once I get there, ordering online all the stuff and then just waiting a week.</p>
<p>If you can find the stuff you want at Bed, Bath & Beyond, you can get it all now & they’ll get it to the Bed, Bath & Beyond closest to your school, where you can pick it up. I think Target does something similar, and ships it to your dorm room. I’m only going to school 45 minutes away from my house, but if I was going far away, I think I would take advantage of that!</p>
<p>I ordered some essentials (like bedding) in advance and had them shipped to my school address so they were waiting for me when I got there. Smaller things I bought once I got there. Luckily the bookstore sold a lot of dorm essentials from egg crates to cloth hangers to extension chords to trash cans. This way I could easily make several small shopping trips over a period of a few days, which without a car was much easier than heading to a mall.</p>
<p>You will all be fine! A dear friend of mine came to the US to go to college from another country without his parents and was just fine. You’ll have a built-in excuse to ask for help and get to meet your dorm-mates.
Code H - contact your school to see if there is somewhere oncampus you can stay for that one night.</p>
<p>Oh, and I think Bed Bath and Beyond will let you order stuff in one store and pick it up in another - so you can order at home and pick up at college.</p>
<p>Some colleges have leadership clubs that are there to help out with move-in. Maybe your roommate will have a really nice family that won’t mind helping you out :)</p>
<p>I’m doing the same, albeit from the northwest to the south. I’ve moved back home from school by myself, and I would expect that moving in will be just as easy. Shipping items from home is a great idea, as is buying items from a store that has free shipping. You can fit quite a lot in your two checked suitcases, especially if you use the bags that you can suck the air out of with a vacuum (note that this only reduces the space taken up by the items, not the weight). Since you have a store near campus where you can buy things, buy the heavy/bulky items once you get to campus.</p>
<p>Well in my case, my dad flew out there with me but my mom and brother stayed behind. But I know people who flew out there by themselves. Do you happen to have any family/relatives or friends near your college town?</p>
<p>I will be going to college about 7 hours from home. Although I do not think 7 hours is far my mom does, if it wasn’t for my orientation being the same week I move in I think I also would have had to move in alone. So there is a high chance that many other students share the same situation as you. Since you will be flying it also may be more convenient to do dorm shopping at your new home. Good luck.</p>
<p>Oh yea as far as the shopping, if you have to buy anything, definitely buy it there. Even if you have certain things at home, if it is cheaper to buy those things than to ship them, then just buy them there</p>
<p>You’ll be fine, don’t worry about it. I’m sure your school has some sort of program in which other students will help you with your things (if applicable). I would recommend having the things shipped, that would be easier!</p>