<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>Son and I are deciding either to 1)ship his things (about 2 big boxes) to BSA and pick them up at BSA’s designated locations, or 2) bring them with us (we are taking planes from CA)?</p>
<p>If we are taking the things with us, then we have empty luggage issue afterward. Also, I feel that shipping maybe a safer option than transporting on plane regarding to the “things get lost” issue. </p>
<p>I searched the forum, and some ppl here suggested not using any BSA’s service at all. I’m confused. Has anyone used this particular service of BSA ([Brown</a> Student Agencies -](<a href=“http://brownbsa.com/students/storage/ship_to_brown]Brown”>http://brownbsa.com/students/storage/ship_to_brown)) before?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t need to ship to BSA - you can ship directly to your son’s address at Brown. The format should be:</p>
<p>Firstname Lastname
Brown University
69 Brown St, Box XXXX
Providence, RI 02912</p>
<p>Anything shipped there will be available for him to pick up and he’ll get an email confirmation when it arrives. It’s by far the simplest solution - I have no idea why BSA is advertising a paid service when students can receive packages for free.</p>
<p>^Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>So if we ship the boxes directly to his Brown address, we will have to pick them up at J. Walter Wilson building, right? Can he pick up the boxes before move-in day(9/1)?</p>
<p>He can pick them up any day as long as the post office is open. Do you have your son’s mailbox number? The only reason to use BSA is if you don’t.</p>
<p>^yes he got his assigned number last week. </p>
<p>Does the students get email notifications at the same day when Brown received the shipments?</p>
<p>The student will receive a notification from the PO box when things are sorted on that end. Unless they have taken the suggestion to hire on a bunch of student temps for the first few weeks of each semester, there does seem to be a back log of at least a few days from arrival of packages to pick up availability. (Compared to the date you will see in your UPS or USPS routing on line info.) For the first few weeks large packages have in the past actually been diverted to a larger storage area (near the Charles street parking garage) for pick up.
I doubt that BSA would be substantially faster? I think that is a new service. Does it matter?<br>
Re taking on the plane: you have to figure in the extra luggage fee vs the shipping fee. What I do when travelling with stuff to go one way is buy a huge (biggest allowed) suitcase at a thrift store or yard sale, and then donate it to charity after I unpack it. Make sure it’s not overweight once packed. (I’m doing this for overseas charity work, so I get one piece checked for free, and 50 lbs instead of domestic 40 lb limit, and my second suitcase isn’t much more $. It’s nice to come back with only carry on or everything including carry on into the one bag checked. )</p>
<p>He should get a notification the day they process the package. Sometimes it can be a day or two behind when they actually receive it as it’s busy at the beginning of the semester. In the email, it’ll tell him whether to pick it up at JWW or at their auxiliary center (usually for larger boxes, only beginning of the semester) on Power Street (in Grad Center).</p>
<p>Thank you again, everyone. As always, you are so helpful!!! :)</p>
<p>No problem! Hope everything works out. I remember stressing about getting all my stuff from home (also in the Silicon Valley area) to school.</p>