@socalmom007, my daughter is somewhat scattered, and not terribly street smart, but she navigates the area around UW, and all around the city quite nicely. She had a purse snatched once her freshman year (her flaky ways saved her there, because she had not zipped it, and everything important fell onto the sidewalk, lol. The thief got the purse only) and a bike vandalized her junior year. But otherwise, no issues. It’s an urban environment, with the bad, the good, and the ugly right out there on display. It’s an exciting place for school with lots of opportunities a bus or train ride away!
Thank you so much for the feedback everyone as I help my girl work through this process!
Thanks for the link @Mom2aphysicsgeek. They have a lot of traffic going on in there. I appreciate you sharing it with me.
@socalmom007, CollegeFactual’s crime (well, and pretty much everything else) grades are…questionable. We’ll just leave it at that: questionable.
If I may, a slight thread highjack.
How the heck do you do a move in via airplane? D’17 will be flying in and will be limited in what we can pack. One carry on + one checked bag (x3?) D’17 will (probably if it opens on time) have the advantage of Target in the base of her dorm. I hope to have a ship to store option there.
D’17 is extremely low maintenance, so at least that will help. Maybe there is already a thread for this?
@Dave_N — For bedding & dorm items, students wander their local BB&B with a handheld scanner and order the items that will then be held for them at the BB&B near school. I have not used this but have observed the scanning in action. BB&B will mail you a 20% off all purchases this summer. I do not know how they know you have a student heading to college, but they do. Or you can stockpile those 20% off coupons now.
I don’t know how Target handles the college shopping process, but yes, its location in that new Village will be a huge plus.
P.S. She won’t need to pack winter coat, winter boots, gloves, scarves, etc. Saving a lot of space right there. Buy more sunscreen!
We plan to each check one bag and use one’s we can nest inside each other for the trip hokme without her. Winter clothes will go in to storage in Scotland over the summer. No point in bringing them home.
We are also doing move in via plane. It will be D and me going. We’re flying Southwest, so that’s 2 checked bags each. We have 4 of the large (but lightweight) “Tote A Ton” bags ready to pack.
I will have a rental car. We’ll spend a day or two running around to BBB (mostly ship-to-store) and Target, etc. She’s already picked out a bike at Target, and we’ll order online (including assembly) to be picked up at the store. Then she’ll have to ride it to the dorm, because I don’t think our compact rental car is going to come with a bike rack.
D is already thinking about which clothes warrant being packed, and what will be left behind. We’'ll probably buy all new socks and undies instead of wasting precious suitcase space on the oldies!
Whether a bike will be needed is another topic up in the air.
Congrats @jmek15 !!! <:-P <:-P
@youcee UCSB starts next year a week after our latest likely drop off date for S17. So, if you decide it would help to have apartment stuff shipped here for your older son, seriously that’s fine with me.
@VickiSoCal You could look into whether she could get a bike there. Kids here get used bikes at the start of the year. If it’s used enough, it’s less likely to be stolen.
Moving by airplane: When moving here after undergrad, we had more stuff than would fit in my tiny car (mostly books). We mailed it USPS insured and they held it for us a couple weeks until we picked it up. Don’t know if you can still do that. I agree with BB&B’s pickup service being what many people suggest.
I just wanted to add an update for DD, as she continues along her college journey. We’ve made a little progress, and I think we’re pretty close now. So here’s where we stand.
Where we thought she was going to go: Not Cal Poly
Where she thought she would go: Not Cal Poly
Where she is going: Not Cal Poly
@Ynotgo --USPS still offers book rate, but they now call it media and one can ship CDs along with the books. The rates are very reasonable and transit times are much improved. (CT to Seattle in a week or less.) However, you can only ship books (and CDs) at the media rate. Otherwise, USPS is frightfully expensive any time that I need to mail anything to older son at school.
I was looking into the health care power of attorney paperwork (we have never followed through with this before) and I am guessing you fill out the paperwork for the state where they will be attending school, not the state you live in??
Anyone know for sure?
Fwiw, for those of you with kids going to Bama, if you haven’t looked at the paperwork, it might leave you more confused bc it looks like they can’t legally sign until 19. (Our ds is now 21, so this is not an issue for us anymore.)
“being of sound mind and at least 19 years old, would like to make the following wishes known. I direct that my family, my doctors and health care workers, and all others follow the directions I am writing down.”
@ynotgo Bubblegum Alley - Not sure how I would feel walking through there!
@STEM2017 Congrats on the ASU scholarship, that’s great! decisions decisions…
@youcee maybe you can just drive two cars?! hopefully you can figure out the logistics so you can do both drop offs.
@DMV301 and @dfbdfb thanks for the amazon advice, that is weird they link somehow… I’ll have to do a little more research on that and make sure I get that set up for her.
@VickiSoCal Scotland: I agree - big expense for multiple trips. Had you visited before? If not, and if you can do the drop off, that’s great - St. Andrews and surrounding town just look beautiful and for you to get some touring in and see first hand where your daughter will be living will probably give you some peace of mind and should be fun!
@RightCoaster - D has her own AmEx card on my account already and most places do take it, despite popular belief, but it’s also not a bad idea to open up one bank checking account that has VISA or MC logo and ‘chip and pin’ as a back up and one which you can deposit money into if needed. No need to wire money, he will get the best exchange rate by taking cash out at the ATMs. We used Wells Fargo debit card and had no issues with fees. But that may have changed so just check - all the ones mentioned so far are good alternatives! It’s more rare but the occasional mom and pop restaurant or shop will only take cash, so just make sure he knows going in what method of payment they accept.
Dorm Mountain No mountain for us either since we’re travelling to France. I figure 2 large checked suitcases for her - I found out the dorm supplies sheets and towels, but who knows what the quality is like. I figure once we actually get to see the room situation, we will probably just spend the day buying stuff. I liked the list we all created earlier on this thread about the emergency tote full of medicines for under the bed - and I’ll probably just buy whatever toiletries she needs when we get there. She got an heated jacket for Christmas so I think that will be good, at least to start. I’m sure the college will give us a list! I already have adapters for plug ins and that kind of thing. Unfortunately we cannot send anything ahead of time and the dorm does not accept packages, she has to pick up any mail at the student center which is not close to her living quarters.
Goodbyes I plan on giving her a giant hug wherever we say goodbye whether there are people nearby or not! No discussion lol.
@Dave_N - we do a fly in for S14 and we check as much as we can in the checked bags. We also bought the bedding at the local Walmart (similar to the BB&B option where you can select ahead of time and pick up on site). Each summer we pay $5 per storage container to store things in dorm basement storage. It is something you can ask about with Resident Life to see if this is an option. Also, the mail room has specific requests about when you should ship boxes because they get overwhelmed at the start of the school year…another thing you can check out with the mail room ahead of time. Finally, if you are shipping boxes, I recommend doing an inventory of each boxes’ contents. This year, a box that I shipped was missing and I didn’t know the specific contents. I wish I had taken a picture or written down the details. A week or two later, the box resurfaced and it wasn’t an issue. Lesson learned!
Capitalone I believe doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees.
You should let your CC company know before you travel out of state or country.
I never had to do move in by plane but others here on CC gave good tips. Bring mostly clothes for first semester. Store suitcase under bed.
Bring home summer stuff and take winter if needed at break (or parents bring if visiting).
Buy sheets and towels, toiletries, snacks there.
The bulkiest stuff we took in our van were storage totes and plastic drawer carts. You can buy what you need there. See what kind of space they have in the room and what is needed.
@VickiSoCal I hear you. We considered having 1 parent fly out w/ D for move-in, but in the end we decided saving money was less important than allowing both parents (and younger brother) to participate. I don’t think you’ll regret it. With her being so far away, I think it will bring you and H peace of mind to be able to see her dorm room, etc.
@mamaedefamilia We got a Capital One Mastercard before leaving for the Netherlands only to find out that many places only accepted cash or Mastercards issued by Maestro which is apparently a European card issuer (and they didn’t accept Visa or AmEx at all). But we were still glad to have the Capital One MC for the reasons you stated at the places that did accept it.
@Dave_N We’re flying Southwest. 2 checked bags each at no extra charge. We’re also requesting that in lieu of stuff, relatives give D gift certificates to Target, Amazon, or Bed Bath & Beyond. We’re planning to do most of D’s dorm shopping when we arrive.
Hey @jmek15 Congrats to you and your son! Wow, Purdue, fine choice, I’ve read that their engineering program is top notch. I’m going to have to read up on Purdue, that’s another school where I know the name and reputation as a quality school, but don’t know much else about it.
You must be thrilled!! Glad you can relax a bit and enjoy the rest of senior year.
I enjoy reading about all of the different schools the kids in this thread have applied to. I’ve learned a lot.
@thshadow thanks for the update. Why no on Cal Poly?
Appreciate the info on $$$ issues for students traveling overseas. I have not done a lot of research on the subject and I have not traveled overseas in a long long time. My travels have been limited to mountain resorts and islands 
, so I’m not a worldly traveler.
We will not be flying to London with son7. He leaves with a big group of kids from NEU and they travel together. We hope to visit him once he is settled in over there. But he’s going to have to figure stuff out on his own for a bit. NEU has some RA’s there so they will probably be helpful.