<p>My official move-in day is this Friday (THANK GOD), but since it's my sister's birthday and my younger siblings have school, only my dad would be able to go and both my parents want to be there, so they decided they're going to take me on Saturday instead. The school is fine with this, and I was until I talked to my friend, who has already moved in at her school. She said on the very first night, they had roommate, floor, and whole dorm meetings, and that she got to know a lot of people because she and her roomie hosted a movie night in their room with other girls on their hall. To me, it just sounded like a lot was going on that day, and I feel like I might be missing out if I'm a day late. It also doesn't help that I'm super anxious about going to college- not nervous, really, but just stuck in this awful anticipation stage- to the point where I literally can't sleep. That probably sounds ridiculous, but that happens to me whenever I get really anxious or worried about something that I can't control. Anyways.....What should I do about the moving in, though?</p>
<p>Oh, and I should also mention that classes start the following Monday…</p>
<p>At some schools there is more than one move in day. If Friday is the last move in day, then you can count on there being a lot of things going on that night and then on Saturday and Sunday.
I would assume there would be some type of Welcome to College activities for the freshmen…maybe you will be able to find a schedule online.</p>
<p>I think those first few hours are important but not that important. Sure you won’t be able to meet people en masse where everyone is basically at the same level (new, nervous, trying to be open) but being one day late will not hamper your whole first week experience.</p>
<p>So I say try to figure out what you are missing and then make your decision from there. If there aren’t any planned activities that you would regret missing, just move in early Saturday. It really won’t matter much in the grand scheme of things.</p>
<p>You have a whole year to experience the crippling student loan debt and horrid antics that come with dorm life. I’m pretty sure that missing one day isn’t going to kill the potential of you having a social life.</p>
<p>Making friends takes time. It doesn’t just happen overnight. Trust me, you WON’T be missing much that one day.</p>
<p>Yeah I think it’s fine to miss move in day. You probably won’t have people to help you move in and you won’t get to meet people in your hall the same day they all meet each other but it’s just one day. And yeah a lot of people try to be sociable and meet a bunch of other students that day but it’s really just one day. You’ll still have plenty of opportunities to hang out later.</p>
<p>It depends on the university. We did games, outdoor activities, and got into groups. To me it felt like summer camp all over, so I skipped part of the activities. Our president had a parents meeting and then had us, the incoming freshman, come in and give flowers to our parents to say goodbye. It was rather like a funeral and every parent was sobbing!</p>
<p>Our floor meeting wasn’t until the next day. We had a “say your name, major, and a weird fact about you” thing, so it was rather stupid. Most of the guys on our floor were student athletes, so they (not to stereotype) weren’t the most persinable people. We had a rules meeting and signed papers with our roommates. Nothing too ground breaking. </p>
<p>Missing a day really isn’t that much. Your university will have freshman activities going on for the entire year, especially the first week of school.</p>
<p>I’m going to take the opposite stance, and say that I think you should make every effort to move in on Move In Day. At most schools, there is tons of help from older students, and most schools have a very good way of helping parents to say goodbye without taking all day. Scheduling begins for new students and those early bonding times begin. Can’t your family celebrate your sis’s b-day on Thursday evening instead? The fact is that as of now, there may be many times when you just won’t be able to be around for a fam. event, and everyone sort of has to learn to adjust. If your younger sibs are going to school, don’t they have friends they could go home with after school, or skip the day all together to bring you to school? In these cases, your sibs aren’t going through a brand new event the way you are about to. They are already established and have their friends. You are the one who needs to make the most effort to have a strong new beginning right now, and if that means changing the rest of the family’s schedule for the day, so be it. That’s what we did for my D when she went off to college. I even had to take the day off work, but HER important day came first for the entire family!</p>
<p>Don’t miss move in day for freshman as they will most likely have activities planned and I think you will want to participate and get a start on feeling comfortable, meeting people, and just generally getting adjusted. The meetings may sound stupid but they are held to get the rules explained and have the RAs meet the students and the students start meeting each other. Participate in every possible welcome event (social and other) for freshman - they are you chance to meet other freshman!</p>
<p>Another vote for not skipping it. Show up on Saturday and you’re going to feel like every other kid on your floor is on a first-name basis with each other and you’ll be the stranger they haven’t met. Its not the end of the world if you don’t go, but it certainly would make things easier if you did. There is a reason the college scheduled move-in for that day instead of just saying “show up sometime on the weekend”. </p>
<p>I’m sorry both your parents won’t be there to see you off. They’ll survive the disappointment.</p>
<p>It’s certainly not the end of the world if you miss the one day … for a couple days you’ll be behind in getting to know folks but catch up soon enough. That said it seems to me moving the birthday celebration seems to be a more Solomonic solution … you only have one first day of college while the birthday comes every year.</p>
<p>Both sides sound equally convincing…To clarify, my little sister’s birthday isn’t really the sole reason for waiting until Saturday; it was just something I felt bad about. I didn’t want my mom to be all weepy or whatever and ruin her birthday. My mom didn’t want to have to call on my siblings’ friends’ parents to give them rides, which I personally think is ridiculous. Ideally, I’d like to have both my parents there, but at the same time, it might be less stressful with just my dad, who is a bit better at controlling his emotions.
I’m a generally introverted person, and when I brought up to my parents that I might be missing some move-in day activities, they were surprised and said they thought I would want to skip those things, anyways. Maybe I normally would, but since this is a chance to make friends in a new place and I’m not generally so great at making friends, I kind of want to take advantage of any opportunity to meet people I can get. Also, I’m staying in the honors hall, so I feel like they might get us together for some kind of special event. We have a banquet later on in the week, so I’ll meet everyone there anyways, but it might be more fun and relaxed in an informal setting. I guess I’ll just ask people I know from my school and see what their advice is?</p>
<p>I think it’s a good idea to ask people from the school if you know older students there. Are there any planned activities that are posted online? I know at my school the welcome week activities had a schedule online. For informal gatherings, you can always invite people to a movie night or going out to dinner or something Saturday night. I’m sure there will still be things happening on Saturday that you can be involved in.</p>
<p>Missing one night really isn’t that big of a deal, even in the beginning. The people I met during welcome week and move-in, I never really hung out with again, to be honest. I made more friends joining orgs, in classes, at work, etc. The friends that I lived with, I became friends with throughout the year–not because we hung out the night I moved in. Your dorm will likely have activities throughout the year as well, and probably during the first week, even if classes do start on that Monday.</p>
<p>Make the decision that you think works out the best for you, and don’t worry too much about it. Either way, it’ll be fine. There will probably still be stuff going on during that following weekend and throughout the year. Any impromptu gatherings that happen on Friday night could just as easily happen on Saturday night. And if you do miss your sister’s birthday and move in on Friday, it’ll be fine as well.</p>
<p>But that was just my experience. People at your school may be able to tell you if moving in on this particularly day is extremely important. In the grand scheme of things though, I doubt you’ll even remember this a year from now =D</p>