<p>Just returned from 2 jam-packed days of Orientation at USC- exhausting but well worth it.
Was rather surprised and even hurt by DS- he quickly made friends with group of kids in his school and left us in the dust. Was almost rude when we attempted to touch base.
There was a session for parents only about the “letting go” process for parents and child and it said that often the student picks fights and is sullen as way a way to make the separation process less stressful. Makes alot of sense and puts it in perspective, but the rejection still stings.
The good news is that we saw him happily engaged with new classmates, new environment, and new life… much better than clinging to us. I must keep reminding myself of this.
Others have this type of experience as move in approaches?</p>
<p>Minnymom: I think I would have been more worried if our son wanted to hang out with us during orientation than with his new friends. The rudeness may just have been aggravation on his part. Imagine being his age, making friends with your new classmates and having your parents calling, texting, etc.</p>
<p>Keep reading your “Good news” sentence over and over to yourself. That’s how it is supposed to be. You have raised a well-adjusted, ready-to-fly college student. He’s not rejecting you; he’s showing you that you have done your job well.</p>
<p>Even if your student intends on waiting until they are 21 to drink it’s important that they understand their universities policy, attitude, and how they handle underage drinking. It should be clearly stated to them. Another source is to check college p r o w l e r dot com (removing the spaces) to see the number of alcohol related arrests. A low number probably means the university views it as a health issue, not a legal one. If I look at two of the large public universities in my state, both with reputations for drinking cultures, one has a large number of arrests while the other very few. On the surface you might think drinking isn’t an issue at the other school. Not so. They simply treat it as a health concern. That’s not to say students get a free pass. It’s just a different approach.</p>
<p>Minny- I experienced the same type of behavior from my S. I ended up attending several sessions intended for parent and student alone. S never saw his dorm room. While I was a little irritated to be blown off like that I was glad he made friends. I was a shy kid and had trouble integrating into college life, so it is more important to me that S make friends than see his dorm room before move in day. OTOH, I do wonder what the heck he was doing awake all night with these new friends. :eek: If I was only 18 again!</p>
<p>Congrats to Avondad! Any pics?? </p>
<p>I have not seen anything about alcohol awareness at S’s school, but I expect they do something with the freshman those days before classes begin. From discussions with RA’s it sounded like drinking was tolerated so long as no harm was done and the it was not bothering others. We haven’t had any “issues” with S so far, although I am sure he occasionally drinks.</p>
<p>
that is what I am thinking. </p>
<p>
This is why I take care of getting the incidentals that add up to a lot of money because H freaks out. I stayed in a triple with a common room during orientation at S’s school, the common room came furnished with a coach, kitchenette and other stuff. I would go cheap on anything I would buy, I suspect rugs and furnature will look really used at the end of the year. And then who gets what? Makes me kinda glad S is in a very small double. </p>
<p>We are very fortunate that S got the large scholarship he did and we have more than enough money saved to cover the balance for S’s 4 years of college. Thanks to CC I feel I am pretty savy about what we can pay for out of the 401K and what we need to use other piles of money to pay for. We have 3 different piles of money and I get emails and phone calls from H daily wanting to move this or that money around to make the best use of it after we have already decided on a course of action. 
I know he is nervous about the huge increase in tuition we are now paying for 11yo D’s new private school, but that is also budgeted for, although the budget is tight. God help the kid who asks for something as little as an ice cream right after H thinks through the budget. S has learned, but D has never learned</p>
<p>OK, what is the consensus on bed bug mattress and/or box spring covers? I haven’t been able to find an independent review of brands and these things can be pricey - saw one for the mattress for $130! What I was able to understand is that if bedbugs exist in the boxsprings (do colleges have those? or just mattress?), the cover just contains them so they can’t bite or get out onto other things. Ewww. Ds is moving into a dorm that had an outbreak last spring where the college had exterminators treat the area soooooo, I am thinking they are on top of this? Maybe naively I am thinking they must have spent some time this spring/summer making sure they didn’t have any more issues? Anyway, I have a problem outlaying money for something that doesn’t exactly solve anything but skeevy mattresses that have been around for god knows how long, that bothers me too. What do you all think?</p>
<p>AK - I am not buying the bugbug matress cover. I did look at the school matresses for evidence of bedbugs and saw none. And to be honest even if S’s school had an outbreak I am not so sure how worthwhile it is to spend money covering one matress. They get into everything don’t they? sofa’s, suitcases, etc. I am buying S a matress topper thing but that is the extent of extra stuff for the bed I am getting.</p>
<p>I bought a bed bug mattress cover, and a foam mattress pad Be careful if you go to BBB, since the signs with the prices that they have in front of the mattress pads are deceiving. We bought one that we thought was $79, when we paid for everything (we had filled a shopping cart), I thought that the total seemed high. We looked at the receipt in the car and realized that the mattress topper was $199- which was more than we wanted to spend. We ended up exhanging it for a less expensive one.</p>
<p>D came home for the weekend from her job at camp. We have only seen her for less that 2 hours, but during that time, we did order her textbooks. She has a student Amazon account (thanks to CC for letting me know about it), and I was amazd that the price of her books at Amazon was $50 per book less expensive than her college BN bookstore.</p>
<p>Amanda - I hear you!! We made a bit of a dent on college shopping today…towels, pillows, mattress cover (plain jane), etc. I saw the bed-bug worthy covers for about $65 at BB&B and choked. There was a less expensive version at Target but it either didn’t come in XL-Twin or they were out. We also halted at the memory foam toppers that were $200. I know I can do better. It’s one luxury item I’m splurging on because of the hardware Bluejr sports due to reconstructive surgery.</p>
<p>If we can find the bed-bug cover for the price we saw in Target (around $40) then I’ll go with it simply to have the mattress covered, knowing the benefit will probably be minimal. I am not spending more than that. I agree, if bedbugs become an issue one mattress covered will not do a whole lot.</p>
<p>edit: FWIW, I did find the brand (Aller-Ease Bed Bug Allergy Mattress Cover) I saw at Target today online at Kmart (link below) for $39.99. I also saw it online at Sears for the same price. I have NO idea the quality but it is less expensive then the same product at Amazon or any bed-bug product at BB&B. Target online was sold out.</p>
<p>[Clothing</a>, Toys, Electronics, Jewelry, Jaclyn Smith - Kmart.com](<a href=“http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_096BM002000P?prdNo=21]Clothing”>http://www.kmart.com/shc/s/p_10151_10104_096BM002000P?prdNo=21)</p>
<p>note: I crossed posts with gsmomma. I agree, the items at our BB&B were not well marked either. I kept hunting for a price checker!</p>
<p>Good morning all! We fell to the second page :eek:!!</p>
<p>I read a bit more on these dreaded bedbugs (I know, get a life!). Bluejr’s university did have some information and a link to another webpage. It did the job of sufficiently raising my concern beyond yesterday. So, I did find a different mattress encasement @ the $40 range on Amazon that is highly rated on the bed-buggy website. It falls in the economy range, but for those that don’t want to spend $100, it has the smaller zipper, etc.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Buglock Encasement, Twin XL: Home & Garden](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Protect-A-Bed-BOB2209-Buglock-Encasement-Twin/dp/B004P1I57A]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Protect-A-Bed-BOB2209-Buglock-Encasement-Twin/dp/B004P1I57A)</p>
<p>I promise this is the extent of my bedbug posting here. :o</p>
<p>Good morning all,</p>
<p>Beautiful day in NJ.</p>
<p>Blue~Very good point on the drinking and the “how schools handle incidents” S1 and S2 are aware of the policies in their schools and in RL, so the ball is in their court. My advice to them is “losing control in any circumstances is never a good idea”. Being from abroad I still can not wrap my head around the all drinking issue, but I am learning :p</p>
<p>Regarding bedbugs. Did not buy any cover last year or this year! Nor planning to, there is a spray you can buy at BB&B.Did not get this either. Will get an extra padded mattress cover :)</p>
<p>I wanted to mention that Sears has a great selection on sheets, cover etc…and are usually very well priced. Also when September comes around every dept. stores has college items on clearance…just a thought to save $$</p>
<p>
Minny~Oh so sorry, about the independence your S is showing but how wonderful to know how well he is fitting in already.</p>
<p>Waving to our West Point trainee. I hope she is doing well! As I recall this is the phone call week-end. Thinking of her all the way 
</p>
<p>Also waving to Militarymom, Momdoc (missing you) and all lurkers 
</p>
<p>Cheers, :)</p>
<p>BI: On the topic of bedbugs, my niece’s dorm had an outbreak last year and it was not fun. I ended up buying a cover for S2 that is supposed to be both bed bug and dust mite proof. S3 is allergic to dust mites, so we have encased his mattress/pillow since he was tiny. I bought the combination type so that S3 can use it when S2 is done with it.</p>
<p>Good morning! I had found the other thread earlier this spring and after posting a few times, got a little sidetracked. I’m glad to have found the new home here and will try not to get so behind this time because it becomes a little overwhelming, but wow! Thirty pages already after just over a week!</p>
<p>My DD1 is a music education/harp performance major at Crane (SUNY Potsdam) and is looking forward to starting next month. She graduated on June 25th and we had a party for her over the July 4th weekend. Somehow, I thought it would be a good idea to fit a two day orientation (and a travel day) between the two! We did survive, however, and it’s nice to know that we have nothing else to do between now and move in except shop. </p>
<p>Potsdam does not do any sort of a roommate survey as they felt they couldn’t predict roommate success with it: do you put like people together and hope they aren’t too similar, or unlike people and hope they aren’t too different? They do let you request someone before June 1st and DD and her roommate from camp last year requested to live together as they know they are compatible without being on top of each other (and she lives on the other side of the state, so it’s not like they’ve been best buddies for years).</p>
<p>Shopping is going well. We had to buy some things last year as she lived in the dorms for camp, so she has twin xl sheets, shower caddy, fan, things like that. She also found a great down comforter on black friday for $20 and for Christmas and birthday started receiving things like an egg crate pad, towels, large pillow, etc. Hoping to start seeing the big sales in the next week or two. </p>
<p>Also at home is DD2, HS class of 2013. Although she participates in music as well, her thing is sports, so the college search will be quite different this next time around.</p>
<p>Taking over our life at the moment is our new four pound puppy! We had been talking about it for some time, and I finally told DH that if we were going to get one, it had to be soon because I wanted it to be DD1’s dog as well, and not a replacement for her. It is so much more work than a newborn, but I like that the girls are older as they have been a great help with him. I just wish we had waited until after graduation!</p>
<p>Looking forward to chatting with everyone.</p>
<p>Morning All</p>
<p>On bedding–I had bought an egg crate topper twin XL and a mattress pad-- twin xl - the quilted one–Not an encasement/bedbug thing. They were not expensive and I bought them at Target. Am sure BBB carries similar … I am sure they were less than $50 per item–might have been less than $25 per item. I will check the tags and let you know…</p>
<p>On buying common room items / furniture I did find a hotel furniture place that resells furniture from hotels–chairs, lamps, coffee tables etc…A local Walmart, a local Ikea,
I really don’t want to pay $400 for a futon etc ,
then more $ for the area rug, lamps etc
a refrigerator …
Am hoping that with roommate discussions and perhaps email with the parent of said roommate–we can come up with a buget to let our students’ work with - and consider now.
Having double is a two edged sword as the common room will be furnished by two families instead of 4, (economics) though may make space and personality balancing easier.
Don’t want the busy-ness or anxiety of all of these freshmens’ parents racing around to buy stuff drive it… kwim?</p>
<p>mommylaw, what tragic news. One thing that your D may want to do is to write down any anecdotes or memories she has of the younger sister, and give that to the family. Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. Memories are incredibly precious things to give to the bereaved. </p>
<p>Avon, congratulations on grandchild #4. I like babies. Especially when I can hand them back to the parents. :D</p>
<p>VAMom, thanks for the school info info on BBB. The general link for selecting any school is at [Find</a> My College Bed Bath & Beyond](<a href=“http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/bedbathandbeyond/storelocbts.aspx?bts=1&]Find”>http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/bedbathandbeyond/storelocbts.aspx?bts=1&)</p>
<p>fogfog, I’d be a little wary of buying anything used in this new era of bedbug outbreaks. </p>
<p>D1 off to DC for internship gathering. She has turned into an Olympic-level packer.</p>
<p>Good Morning!
Jam- Congrats on joining the puppy club! We got our first dog ever about 15 months ago. We have a sweet female cockapoo. I felt the need to spice up our household a bit in anticipation of DS1 leaving for college. It was a good call (I regretted it during the most intense puppyhood months, but our girl is settling down.) Our oldest does love her and DS2 is over the moon in love with her. I enjoy mothering a household and am not ready to relinquish my job! Having a dog is helping me deal with a quieter family life.</p>
<p>**I have taken the first and last move-in dates for this countdown from the list on this thread. To try and list all of them would be overkill to say the least.</p>
<p>First move-in is now the University of Georgia on August 9th. (Excludes cadet training at West Point)
Move-in day in 29 days.</p>
<p>Last move-in is University of Southern Oregon on September 22nd<br>
Move-in day in 73 days.**</p>
<p>If there are earlier or later move-in dates, please post them so that I can pick them up and adjust the countdown postings.</p>
<p>on bedbugs: how do you check if your child’s dorm has had an outbreak recently, and do the mattress covers actually do any good. I thought that if there were bedbugs they’d be other places in the room too, and they would just end up getting onto the outside of any mattress cover as well. thoughts or links I should check out?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Right…I am thinking potential case-goods, lamps etc…maybe, maybe not.
Definitely not up upholstered pieces.</p>
<p>In fact, an alum posted on the U’s board here on CC posted to Avoid (run away) from used couches from upperclassmen–as they are gross…for many reasons and not something you want your freshman sitting/sleeping on…</p>
<p>Hi everyone. Thought I’d join the thread - I think I posted to the other one a couple of times. My younger daughter made up her mind fairly easily on what schools to apply to and then where to go…not much angst here!</p>
<p>She doesn’t move in until September 17. Our older daughter (2013) heads back on August 22, so we have time and energy to handle both. #2D thinks she has a RM - a cousin of a friend of hers - but the RM self-selection closed in June. They appealed & it looks like it will work out. </p>
<p>So here she is today with her BF painting her bedroom. I can’t quite figure that one out. I mean, she’s moving in 2 months & she has to redecorate? Ah, well. </p>
<p>It is definitely different launching a 2nd child. we certainly have learned a lot over the past 2 years about RMs, when & how often to come home, trials and tribulations. </p>
<p>I said to my H this morning, “What am I going to do this fall when I can’t blame it (the clutter) on the girls?” </p>
<p>Anyway, looking forward to hanging around here.</p>
<p>Welcome back Zeeba & JAM. </p>
<p>We are now the caretakers of my parent’s 10 year poodle puppy as they cannot take of him anymore. They will get him back when we travel which used to be our job. My parent’s really miss him. We love having him. My son begged for a dog for years. Since my DH is my caregiver, he did not want another responsibility until now when he retired and has time. I highly recommend a dog or cat to an empty nester. Older animals need homes just as much as puppies/kittens and there is no training involved.</p>
<p>DS’s school does not allow any used upholstered furniture unless the student knows where it came from.</p>