Parents of the HS Class of 2021 (Part 3)

We are with State Farm…

Is there anyone with a daughter who has the option to find a roommate online but has opted to let the college match her?

D21 and I are having second thoughts because it seems like every girl who has the option has found a roommate online. D21 didn’t want the pressure of social media matching, and D19 warned her that people are different IRL from how they present online.

Maybe she should take a look and see what happens . . .

Costco has a mattress sale. They have the tempurpedic topper (a great price despite not being on sale), but no Twin XL. Argh!

My daughter has that option and was only interested in random.

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Mine went random and had a great experience.

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:raising_hand_man: Unless something dramatically changes in the next few weeks, D will let the college pick her roommate.

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Thanks, parents! I already feel better. I’ll reassure D21 that there are other girls out there who’d rather go with random.

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Does USAA have an away at school option? My husband didn’t think so, but he may have only asked about the occasional driver option.

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I have visited my student at Hamilton over Thanksgiving. My son’s friends that were there were all international or California students. Dining halls were closed. We took everyone we could find out for a few meals. They survived just fine on groceries and by using the dorm kitchens. Not ideal, but fine.

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In our case, a bunch of her HS class is going to the same school, but D doesn’t really know any of them. There’s 500-600 kids per class. The FB thing is a bit of a “gauntlet.” D18 found someone on FB, but while they were friendly and respectful with each other, they didn’t appear to “click” to me.

Our strategy for D21:
"My mom always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”

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D21 will let her college match her. People are repeatedly telling me that the social media presence of matching is into a small sample of the kids and that many more go random. D21 hated the social media aspect of finding a roommate and was causing more harm than good. Your d21 is not alone.

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I believe they give a discount if your student goes to school more than 100 miles away from your home.

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According to Google Maps she’ll be about 170 miles away – thanks for the tip!

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@MommaLue At home, we have an under counter deionization by ion exchange filter that has a carbon pre-filter and mineral adding post filter. When I looked into a pitcher/tabletop device for the dorm, I found that Pur, Brita, and ZeroWater are the leading brands and there are many comparisons online. I picked ZeroWater because it was the best at filtration with almost total removal of harmful total dissolved solids. But they each have pros and cons so of course people make different choices.

My daughter is going random, she didn’t have enough time to start looking and was occupied with school and tests and million other things and the deadline was a few weeks ago. The college doesn’t have any kind of matching survey so it’s totally random. Neither of us are worried about it. She will have about a month to coordinate items once the dorm assignments are given. It would be nice to have some more time to bond over the summer and possibly meet up but it’s not a big deal.

As we’ve all noticed, many of the kids that post on the school IG accounts are more of the polished, photo happy, way outgoing kids, and that doesn’t vibe with my easy going kid. She would probably have had better luck finding someone on the school discord but again, not enough time after getting off the waitlist.

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Routes and pricing are a little crazy in recent months (as compared to 2 or 3 years ago), so I don’t fault anyone for wanting to get their ducks in a row and find something reasonable.

Yes, we have USAA and they have the away at school option, but must be more than 100 miles, I think. Fortunately our kids are far enough away that we we able to get the discount.

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Again, I was referring to one school, Michigan. And I don’t fault anyone for trying to find a reasonable deal on flights. We all do the same to save money on travel expenses.

It’s the “hand-wringing” from the OOS parents at Michigan, mentioned above. Michigan tends to have a higher proportion of wealthier OOS families. And for this reason, I choose not to read both D’s college Facebook forums for parents. D21’s college also has many wealthier SF Bay Area families. So, I let my DW read FB. She’s better at “filtering.” :wink:

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Right. Just pointing out that you can’t compare flight opportunities from 2018 to current times. Do wealthier and OOS parents ‘hand-wring’ more? I see plenty of it from in-state parents too, but I think some people are less comfortable with uncertainty and like to have a plan (sometimes wayyyy in advance). But yeah, it can be a bit much.

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Well, yes, I can only compare flight opportunities in terms D18 between SFO-DTW. Just that route. It’s the same as 2018.

As for your question, I don’t know. I was commenting on another post and I just don’t read FB at all.