<p>I’m a newbie and glad to be here! DS is my older son of 2. He will be at USC as a mechanical engineering major. I have to say goodbye to him twice as he leaves for a 4 week summer program at USC then comes home for less than 3 weeks only to move in for Fall Term in mid-August! </p>
<p>We’ve actually been purchasing alot of dorm supplies…bedding, bath, laundry stuff since time will be tight in early August. BB&B has so much inventory at different price points. I’ve been searching out 20% discount coupons to bring the cost down.</p>
<p>I’m so excited for him, but I am already missing him so much! Younger brother will really feel his absence. We got our first dog a year ago in anticipation of life quieting down. Friends thought we were nuts, but I’m so glad we did. Our furry friend won’t replace DS, but she does add to the mix.</p>
<p>What a nice new thread! Welcome to all the newcomers!</p>
<p>We won’t have much shopping to do. S2 already has his laptop and printer. He has had extra-long twin bedding since needing to buy it for summer programs. I’m sure he will need a fan for his room. He is our fashionista, so if the dorm laundry room doesn’t have an ironing board and iron, he will be getting one. We will get a fiberbed for his mattress as that is something he didn’t have for summer programs. </p>
<p>For kids who have a hard time getting out of bed, we recommend the Sonic Boom alarm clock with its bed shaker. It is the only thing that’s worked for my kid although he can manage to stay in bed even with it. When he has a roommate he always gets up right away so it doesn’t disturb the roommate. </p>
<p>fogfog, my oldest has ordered through Amazon Prime and had things delivered in a timely fashion. With the two day delivery we just send things to him in care of the Master’s Office of his college. The school does a great job of assigning roommates and suitemates. I’ve been quite impressed by the housing people.</p>
<p>Hi everyone. This tread is amazing. 57+ posts already since this morning! Congrats to all the AP scores. You must be proud of your kid! We’ll just wait for the mail for the 4 APs.
I am pretty new here, only started 2 months ago. I have a rising college freshman S1 and a HS freshman S2. S2 is leading a group of 60 scouts at a Colorado camp this week. Apparently it has been raining after raining there.
RE: laptop. S bought a HP online and it came with a free Xbox.
RE: Roommate assignment. S was approached twice for potential roommate. The first one was thru campus housing profiling and the second one my S met during orientation this week. Both kids backed off and today is the last day they can request a roommate. I can see thru his eyes his disappointment. This is an introvert child. We all actually are fine with the “pot lucK” roommate. But what I don’t understand is why these kids did what they did. Why bother to ask my S in the first place! That said,@Stillwater-I like the Stanford approach.</p>
<p>Amazon Prime is terrific thing for us. I pay $79 a year for unlimited 2 day shipping of anything that Amazon sells or does fulfillment for. My company actually pays for it because we purchase thousands of books for seminars that we give to clients. So the shipping for all those is $79 for the year and then we use it for everything else.</p>
<p>I use it for textbooks, clothes, food, dietary supplements, OTC medicine, presents, etc. for ShawSon. Unfortunately, they have not yet instituted it in Canada but maybe ShawD’s move there will be sufficient to tip the economic balance.</p>
<p>Apparently, Amazon offers it to students with a policy that it is free for one year. Not sure if they bill after the first year (that is implied). </p>
<p>Good to know momofboston that your D has saved the rain forest. One big concern taken off myh list.</p>
<p>We have used this extensively! Once it’s set up you can change the billing to any card, and ship to any number of addresses…School, home, grandma’s, all for free. You can also change the primary email from the .edu if you want. It was set up with my son’s .edu that he got from his community college. He never uses that email so we have it sent to his usual email (that I can access). It’s extremely flexible.</p>
<p>Wow. a lot of posts to catch up on already.</p>
<p>Welcome to all the lurkers who have come out to post on the new board.</p>
<p>Gibson - Great news on the AP sores. My D has 36 days left before she leaves also. I am assuming the majorettes are also reporting early. Since the dorms aren’t open yet, what do they do for housing? I don’t know what the plans are for D. She said coach hasn’t communicated that yet.</p>
<p>Amazon Prime - I signed D up for an account a few days ago. It definitely came in handy ordering D3’s summer reading books.</p>
<p>Dorm room shopping - I can’t seem to get D started in this area. She split up items with her room mate but then she misplaced her list so she doesn’t remember what all she is supposed to get and didn’t want to tell roommate that she lost the list. Finally did that this week so hopefully the two of them will reconstruct the list. The only thing she has gotten is a comforter.</p>
<p>AP Scores - we are just waiting for the mail. I agree with no reason to give College Board extra money. It won’t change her fall schedule at all since she was only waiting on the AP Language score and she’s not taking English in the fall.</p>
<p>I look forward to getting to know all the newbies on the board.</p>
<p>Wow! I just got home from the first day of my summer sign-language class and looked for the new thread. 5 pages already!</p>
<p>I did not know about Amazon Prime for students. I am going to have to check into that. We have sheets, laptop, printer and lots of little things (thanks in part to the 18 for 18th birthday suggestion). DS is waiting to hear about his roommate so they can make contact and see who is bringing what.</p>
<p>DS is working so much this summer and I am taking a class so we are having a hard time coordinating shopping. We may be looking online and they heading out individually to fetch things. </p>
<p>I am pre-mourning my empty nest. No specific triggers…just little moments in time.</p>
<p>Another newbie here-- I was waiting until new thread to jump in! My D1 is off to study neuroscience at USC this fall and we have already been to orientation and she’s got her schedule and housing all set. We have been really close, so having her leave in 6 weeks will be difficult. I do have S1 and S2 still at home, so that will help.</p>
<p>I have enjoyed reading about some of the similar things we are all going through right now. Makes me feel less crazy :)</p>
<p>@Stillwater: I wish Stanford would change their freshman housing policy and allow roommates to meet up and plan---- but the housing on campus is pretty great and at least they no longer double up freshman in singles like they did in my day!! They used to always have a “bible quad”, where they’d put a Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. However, I am biased since I met my husband of 22 years in our freshman dorm, lol.</p>
<p>We live rurally and buy almost everything online so Amazon Prime has been amazing for us. We willingly pay the $79/year but if we can somehow get it free by adding our S’s .edu email address, that would be a nice bonus You can definitely ship to multiple mailing addresses – we ship stuff to camp, etc. already. </p>
<p>This is our 3rd year of having the 3 kids at camp at once, and having those 3 weeks of “empty nest”. I guess it is good training for us eventually letting go. Last year we went to Hawaii for our 20th anniversary, but this year (esp. with college to pay for) we won’t be going anywhere, just hanging out together at home. They’ve only been gone for a few days and I miss them a lot!</p>
<p>We’re going to do most of the advance college shopping without our S since he is only home for 1 day in between camp and school (!). He made a list of a few things he knew he wanted before he left, but we’re mostly thinking of things on our own and by comparing notes with other parents. And I guess we’ll probably do some when we get there, because I’m really not sure what he’ll need for storage, etc. The beds in his dorm adjust in height so they can store more stuff under them if they want. and it appears that they each get a decent-sized closet as well.</p>
<p>Another newbie here! My D is leaving in 48 days for college. She is a camp counselor at a resident camp this summer, and will not be back home until 4 days before she leaves for school. We bought most of her dorm items before she left for camp in June, and they are all packed in her room, just waiting for college. We bought most of her things at BBB, Target, and Urban Outfitters (her comforter). She does not know her room mate yet, so we did not buy a fridge or a microwave, but most everything is purchased. Luckily, her school is not too far from home, so we can bring anything that she may forget.</p>
<p>Hi all, I’m new to this thread and appreciate the warm welcome! Great thread and great info! We love Amazon Prime also. S c/o '13 has and when it expires we’ll replace with D c/o '15’s email. She’s going to Harvard College planning to study Social/Medical Anthropology and Global Health. </p>
<p>After she took her last AP test she posted on fb, “Collegeboard, we’re over!” so I guess that means she won’t pay $8 for scores. I don’t think they’re useful to her anyway. </p>
<p>We don’t have dorm or roommate information yet and D is a camp counselor away until the end of July. I’m not sure when she plans to shop. We just found out she won a scholarship that includes a cross-country trip! She gets to take one guest expenses paid but both H and I want to go so we’re buying an extra ticket. We, we, we excited! </p>
<p>S is at summer school, a tradition at his college so we’re practicing empty-nesting already. So far, so good. We do miss the kids, though. Cell phones and good coffee help.</p>
<p>Congrats on all the fabulous AP scores. Good luck with roommates and dorm assignments. I’m looking forward to reading all of your move-in stories.</p>
<p>Hi! Yet another newbie, though I admit I was lurking for a while on the other thread. </p>
<p>DD will be attending Johns Hopkins in the fall. A bit of a surprise for us–she hesitated applying there even though she knew a bit about it; her brother just graduated from there. Housing/roommate assignments don’t come out until late July, and she’ll be moving in mid-August for a pre-orientation program. We’ve bought a few things (Target had xl sheets on sale), we’ll get a few things as hand-me-downs from brother (desk stuff, fans for the non-AC dorm). Been holding off buying more b/c DD is abroad on a choir tour right now; also we’ll be moving stuff from west coast. Thank goodness for Southwest Air’s 2 free checked bags!</p>
<p>Someone wondered how their DH would react to the (partially) empty nest. I was surprised how hard my DH took it the first time–he was very sad for several weeks; maybe until Parents’ weekend the first year. I was also surprised I wasn’t more upset. Should be interesting to see what happens with the REALLY empty nest this time. But maybe this will be a good support group for us going forward.</p>
<p>Thanks Kathie for starting this new thread. I can’t believe I had to read five pages to catch up. Congrats to all those kids who took AP classes. High fives to those getting credit for their scores. DS is only waiting for one AP score which won’t count at Olin anyway so I will not give the CB one more $. DS has 13 other 4s and 5s he won’t get credit for, but may get some placement. Oh well. He is anxiously waiting his IB results which I believe are posted online mid-July.</p>
<p>Big HELLO and WELCOME to new posters. Glad you could join us. My DH and I have one son. He’ll he attending Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in the Fall. My husband has three daughters and we have six grandkids - two months to 14 - all in Israel. We live in South Florida.</p>
<p>ShawDad - can you post the link to the recording pen please. I’m think of buying an iPad or the like for myself. I’d welcome all opinions.</p>
<p>Summer shopping - I’ve made the list but that’s all for now. DS has no interest so it’s all on me.</p>
<p>^ Hey Shaw, I think I read about those pens…uses special paper, right…and with the voice record and pen memory you can download the handwritten notes into your computer with the voice lecture in the background?</p>
<p>Oh, my! I cloister myself for four hours and this brand new thread is on page 6 and our “membership” has multiplied.</p>
<p>Speech is done for now. Sent to the president who will deliver it and I can relax for the weekend.</p>
<p>As a journalist, I have this horrible need to know news right away, so I did call AP. Had to call to get his number first. All you need to get the number is his address, DOB, school and the list of tests. I was only on hold for three minutes. Then you call back the other toll-free number to get the results.</p>
<p>A 5 and a 4 and the credits he expected, so he will be happy. IB results arrive Tuesday, I think. Really only need to know IB Math HL. He gets no credit for Physics or Latin.</p>
<p>Enjoying a PBJ on fresh bread as my reward for finishing the speech. Have a great afternoon.</p>
<p>Welcome to all of our new posters! We’re always happy to add new voices to the chorus here.</p>
<p>By way of introduction, I live in Ohio and have two daughters. DD1 is a senior at a school about 2 hours from home and just moved into her first apartment there (trauma #1 for me). DD2 will be a freshman at Midwestern State University (trauma #2). She’ll be fine but the jury is out for mom & dad.</p>
<p>Decent news here on the APs. She only took 2 this year and did exactly as she expected which means she will get credit for one of them. I’ll take it!</p>
<p>It’s interesting to me to see the difference in how the orientations work at my daughter’s school (SUNY Binghamton) and how it worked for me at Case Western Reserve Univ. back in 1982. You picked your courses via paper mail…Freshman engineering students took Calculus and Chemistry and Computers and then you picked a couple of electives. I am pretty sure they gave you a smaller subset of electives to pick from. Then you went one Freshman orientation that started just before school started. </p>
<p>My daughter does not have as much of a specified course sequence…she has various general education requirements but she has to figure that out. And there are multiple orientations throughout the summer…maybe that is common at bigger schools. Unfortunately she has to go to the last one as we are currently living in Germany…she is worried all the good classes will be filled even though they supposedly hold back slots in popular classes for all orientation sessions.</p>
so Amazon Prime has been amazing for us. We willingly pay the $79/year but if we can somehow get it free by adding our S’s .edu email address, that would be a nice bonus 
You can definitely ship to multiple mailing addresses – we ship stuff to camp, etc. already. </p>