<p>When we shipped my D stuff home from Interlochen after graduation, we bought shipping boxes (about the size that copy paper comes in) and shipped it USPS. It arrived in Alabama in 3 days from Michigan. Since we drove up for graduation, she shipped light weight stuff (clothes) and we brought the heavy stuff (lamps, fridge) in the car. Also, if you are not a member of Amazon Prime, JOIN! You can get a lot of what you need, shipped free. We did that when she moved to Interlochen. </p>
<p>Dorms - there are 3 “first year experience” dorms that are all first years… First year’s will rank choices for housing. They can request one of the first year dorms, or program houses or other dorms that set aside rooms for first year’s as well… or they can try for one of the co-ops. It really depends on the student’s personality, their needs, their tolerance level for certain things… Dascomb is right near the library and has a dining hall attached. (but it’s a pretty small campus so none of them are that far.) It’s on south campus, as is Barrows. Kahn is on north campus next to the other main dining hall. It’s hard to say what they personalities of each will be year to year they each have their reps, which may or may not hold true. co-ops can be a great option for meeting students from all years and integrating into a multi-year community, as long as the student has the time to commit. Kahn is newer and in much better shape - rooms are a good size, but closet space is nonexistent (4 foot high small wardrobes - that’s it. The other 2 have more traditional college dorm closet spaces… </p>
<p>Winter Term - hold off on tickets back. While a good number stay on campus, most don’t. Winter in Ohio can be rough and long… your student may elect for a winter term project at home, or somewhere else entirely where they can actually get some Vitamin D.</p>
<p>Shipping - you may want to consider doing ship to store/ local pickups if you will be going out there with your student. You can do pickups for BBB, Walmart etc. and it’s much cheaper than shipping… Dorm rooms are tiny… not much room for too many extras.</p>
<p>Parent’s weekend. Yes, it’s a crappy weekend for it. And frankly, the schedule is such that it’s not really set up for lots of together time with your student. It comes on the heels of safer sex week. Students do not transition well from that to parents. The weekend has parent -specific programming and then lots of on campus entertainment. It is after the regular season for most fall sports so I don’t remember any sports events on the schedule - not that it’s a focus for most obies anyway. Lots of parents skip it, from what I’ve seen/ heard. I guess the reasoning is that September is too soon for students just getting used to school, October has midterms and then fall break… </p>
<p>Barrows is in the north quad.</p>
<p>^ oops… spaced out on that!</p>
<p>Is there an Oberlin parents Facebook page?</p>
<p>I have not seen one. It would be nice to have.</p>
<p>My D always came home for fall break and for Thanksgiving. She was not into skipping classes so she usually flew home Wednesday afternoon on T’giving and back on Sunday night. Winter term she always spent somewhere other than campus. There is a winter term opera program Scubachick, so that might be a consideration for your D. Random comments after reading a few of the remarks above: Program houses can be a good choice - don’t discount them. On Parent’s weekend, we did go to a football game. However Oberlin is NOT known for having a good team (understatement). They have just put a lot of money into their facilities so perhaps they are also going to work on recruiting better talent. My daughter would have disappointed if we had not come for Parent’s Weekend her freshman year. It was sad to see some of the students whose parents did not come and they asked if they could hang out with us. January is unbelievably cold. I concur that students would like to be off campus. Relative to Christmas break, exams run late into the month. I would consider booking your Christmas flights early. If you haven’t reserved a hotel for graduation, do it now. Everything in Oberlin is already booked. Not kidding. When you prepare for summer break next year, put together 4 or 5 students and rent a storage unit. There is one right down from the Walmart. Call early so you don’t get stuck driving to Elyria. </p>
<p>Does anybody have any idea when the freshmen will get their housing assignments? </p>
<p>I don’t, gmfl71, but I’ve been wondering the same.</p>
<p>Is there interest in a Facebook Oberlin Parents page? If there is, I’d be glad to set one up.</p>
<p>Yes, my2sunz, I would definitely be interested!</p>
<p>DD believes that housing assignments will come by email on July 30. I would also be interested in an Oberlin Parents Facebook page. </p>
<p>I am interested in a FB page.</p>
<p>Last year the housing assignments came out quite late; it was nearly the end of July. There was a lot of chatter on the FB class of 2017 page about it…</p>
<p>As to the FB page. There isn’t an official one run by Oberlin but what about an unofficial one? I’d be willing to set that up if there really is interest? We could set up a few people as admins. If Oberlin wants to take it on as one of their own, I am sure that a transfer wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Oberlin is great with social media so I’m actually surprised such a beast as a parents community doesn’t exist…</p>
<p>I’ve created a basic Facebook group page for Oberlin Parents and Families. It’s a closed group, meaning those interested in joining will have to be approved by an Administrator. Just click the “Join Group” button at the top of the page to request. Which brings me to the question: would there be anyone else who would like to volunteer to be an Administrator for the page, in addition to me? Always good to have a few. Diddakoi? Anyone else? Here’s the link to the group page: <a href=“Oberlin College Parents and Families | Facebook”>https://www.facebook.com/groups/oberlinparents/</a></p>
<p>Thank you my2sunz! I clicked on the link and got “This page can’t be displayed”. I tried Oberlin Parents in FB but didn’t get anything. Maybe it’s the ****? Thanks again!</p>
<p>Okay…tried again, typing in <a href=“Oberlin College Parents and Families | Facebook”>https://www.facebook.com/groups/oberlinparents/</a> and got it.</p>
<p>Okay, CC changes “Facebook dot com” to the ****</p>
<p>Thanks! I’ve sent you a message over there. :D</p>
<p>This is a great initiative. Just clicked on Facebook page. D attends school with a parents Facebook page and it is a great resource for sharing tips and information. The college provides the administrator (someone from the alumni affairs office) and that person also informs and recruits new parents to the site. You may want to contact Oberlin to see if they will support the page.</p>