Parent of a freshman moving from the west coast. Can someone shed light on what to expect on move-in day. How long will it be? Will there be time to do store runs? What will student and parent orientation involve?
Hello:
Sorry I didn’t see this before so I apologize if this is too much info too late! We are West Coast. Last year Bay area and moved this year to Sacramento area.
First, congratulations on RISD. It’s a great school! My son is starting his 2nd year. All good.
Orientation Day is great and well organized. My son wasn’t reliable about relaying all the info to me but know they do send your student a schedule for that day. Pretty much the parents leave after the mid-afternoon event at the church following the auditorium presentation. Most students want to get on with the many wonderful events scheduled for them so I would suggest other shopping happens earlier but you can make anything work.
We stayed downtown w/no car and wheeled his suitcases up to the dorm area (about 10-15 minute walk) where a very organized check in was happening. They even give the parent a ticket to get into the dining hall (which is pretty good!) and eat which I really appreciated. We had sent all boxes through a college deal with fed x where they send you labels, boxes, pick up from your home, and ship to the designated address or deliver to dorm (depends on school). RISD has a mail room, sent there, and those guys were fantastic even carting some of our stuff over to the dorm – so nice!
Bed Bath & Beyond will do a direct ship but they ship stuff in many separate boxes & thought that would be a hassle so we bought stuff and sent through one service. BBB also offers a service where you buy your stuff and pick up at the BBB in your designated store – so you could pick up stuff there if you have a car.
On the RISD website there is a link to a website where you can rent fridge/micro and they have access to drop off w/out student being there. There is also a laundry service. Sadly, it went largely unused by our son. The dorms have W&Ds.
This year the question for us was what to do with his stuff over the summer? I missed it but there is a link somewhere to a service that will pick up and store over the summer and authorized by school to return even if student isn’t there yet. I didn’t know that but I found a terrific service – Lana Drew at ldrew20@gmail.com (also has a website) who can handle anything for you. She had son’s stuff packed and stored for the summer and is delivering for us on return for a reasonable rate. She also connected us with an airport service – shuttles from Boston easy but could not find good service from Providence Airport where he normally flies in and out. He had missed a flight when cab didn’t show on a snowy day.
Please let me know if I can answer anything else for you!
Pamela