D23 moved in today. Such a great, enthusiastic welcome from upperclassmen driving up the hill. Even though it was raining they were out there for hours screaming and cheering with signs. There was no sign of her roommate and no response to texts (this was a randomly assigned roommate the school doesn’t allow choosing for freshmen). Then finally a text saying that she was taking a gap year. So mine might end up with a single, not sure. She was a tad bummed not to immediately have someone to know and we left her walking to her beginning of orientation by herself 
How is the dorm room? Any better on the inside than it looked from the outside? 
perhaps she can join someone else who might have a missing roommate?
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It’s actually very nice. But the walls are weird plastic-like trailer walls and nothing seems to stick, so not sure she’ll be able to decorate like she planned.
The student needs to intro herself to the neighbors around.
But they might like the relative quiet. Many like a single. No roommate putting a sock on the door or creating a mess or having the lights on when you want to sleep.
But they will maybe need to make a bit more effort up front.
Many will be envious of your student.
If there are forced triples in a double, there might yet be a roomie.
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She had singles at her BS the last two years of HS and didn’t start there until Jr. year so she’ll be fine meeting people. And she actually would prefer the single. I know the school has lots of singles, and I don’t think they put anyone in a triple if they didn’t want it. They also have 3 day orientation camping trips starting Thursday and met their groups today.
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The student greeting is fabulous! D moved in fall 2020 (COVID), yet they still had the same welcome.
Re the roommate taking a gap year: Hamilton is experiencing a housing shortage. I doubt she’ll be alone for long.
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Has she tried painter’s tape? Read it on another parents page to put that on the wall first. May be worth a try.
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That’s interesting, but will painter’s tape (i.e., blue tape) hold any kind of weight? I don’t know, but I would love to know this.
D’s college recommends 3M “Commander Strips”, so that’s the solution we’re trying for next week.
But it reminds me to throw the blue tape we have in the boxes of stuff we’re taking as you can never have enough blue tape!
Based on experience, use the painter’s tape to put on wall before Command hooks- it will help prevent wall damage. I know command hooks aren’t supposed to cause wall damage but they can especially on whatever the walls are made of in college dorms.
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You can stick the command strips on the blue painter tape. The added bonus is that you don’t damage the wall when you remove the command strips later.
(Edit: I see that @Malsandhuskies posted the same thing. Messages crossed)
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Thank you both! Very useful tip!
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3m hooks- tape didn’t even slightly stick.
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Her walls are literally plastic, with seams. It is so insulated you can’t hear the super loud hand dryers in the bathroom on the other side of the wall, she said she needs a dehumidifier because her pillows feel damp. Now I’m worried about mold!
PLENTY of dehumidifiers available on Amazon. I bought a reasonably priced one and it is amazing how much water it pulls from air.
Hopefully, the college dorm rules allow a dehumidifier.
Totally understand the dangers and inconvenience. She should ask the college to come up with a fix where it can put a dehumidifier in the bathroom. No one should have to deal with this when there are so many easy fixes that the college should take care of!
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One thing I would suggest to any family that is renting a car for their student’s move (or really anything) and has a reservation that can still be canceled: check current rates.
I had rented a large SUV for a somewhat astronomical rate several months ago. For kicks, I checked current rental rates two weeks ago and found a BETTER SUV with much better terms (from a rental company that we have a high status with) for half the price.
All travel stuff is dynamically priced, and, if the likely conditions are that the car (or even hotel room) might not be rented, they will absolutely drop the price.
Worst case: you spend 5 minutes checking it out on the internet. We saved nearly $500 on the rental by doing this.
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If concerned about mold, ask reslife or whomever manages the facilities for safety/ proper infrastructure functioning to test for mold and humidity.
Get a hygrometer in meantime for observing temperature and relative humidity. There are inexpensive digital ones.
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Autoslash is a service that does this automatically - not affililated with them, just love the service for finding the best car rental!
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I miss this thread and will be back later today to read through the latest updates!
We are hanging on by the skin of our teeth. My daughter has special needs and I am doing everything I possibly can to support her and never judge or admonish (because frankly it would be very counter productive).
But she starts school right after labor day and still isn’t registered for classes. I think she is paralyzed. I am urging her to reach out to her contact in the disability office to as for support. But she has to be the one to do it.
Somedays we are on top of the world and sooo excited about her school and this coming years. And some days she is paralyzed. The goal a year ago was to keep her options open as long as possible for this fall and see what happened. Still waiting to see if she actually goes! She and her sis are supposed to leave on their road trip in one week and I am flying to meet them there.
Extreme back up plan is to request a deferral last minute. She really wants to go though. Fingers crossed!
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All moved in! It was super exciting. My son has been very laid back this whole summer, not really expressing any sort of nervousness or excitement… until this passed week. It was cute, the night before move in he couldn’t sleep and just hung out with his parents in our room just chatting.
Move in day was great, and he was off and running with his roommate and random people he met. We did stop by the next morning with donuts (he actually woke up on his own), and said he was up most of the night playing poker… umm, note to self, make sure I lower his withdrawal limits on his debit card (lol).
It’s all good. I assume I won’t hear from him again for at least a week… and that’s probably how it should be.
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