<p>Were any of the new students &/or parents following the CWS? So exciting to see the 'Dores capture an NCAA championship last night!</p>
<p>We’re getting ready for a family vacation and then it will just be two weeks until go2girl heads to Vandy for her Ingram Scholars orientation. We’ve bought her bedding and some miscellaneous items for the dorm but are waiting for BB&B to get in their college dorm stuff. So exciting!</p>
<p>@2VU0609 I think all members of the class of 2018 were following the finals! My Facebook newsfeed exploded when we won! Makes us all the more proud to be commodores :)</p>
<p>@go2mom, does BB&B come out with stuff that they do not have right now? Do you know when that happens? </p>
<p>Also, very proud of our Vandy boys! We were both feeling school pride already without even being there yet.</p>
<p>@jrmama496 – We, too, are starting with the great room clean-out and have been window shopping at BBB, Target and Container Store. If anyone has favorite options for stackable drawers, underbed storage, or closet hanging options, we’d love to hear them.</p>
<p>I would love to hear mattress topper suggestions. All the ones I have seen are either not the right size or way to expensive.</p>
<p>@Sorrento - I found a great folding desk hutch from the Container store that worked really well on my son’s desk. He put his books, notebooks, binders and even his printer on it. I also found a great little wooden shelf at BB&B that attached to his bed and he kept his cell phone on it at night as he uses his cell phone as his alarm clock. As far as stackable drawers, I bought the basic stackable plastic drawers (Sterlite?) at Walmart and fit two stacks of three under his bed. He didn’t loft his bed very high. Just high enough to fit the drawers. As far as the closet, I got him a little cart that was on wheels and had about three drawers. I put some extra toiletries and stuff like that in it. The closets have shelving in them. Search images of the common dorm rooms to get an idea of whats in the closets. Have fun with the planning.</p>
<p>@2VU0609 - we had been watching the whole series but the last three nights have been crazy! One of my son’s closest friends goes to UVA so I have had a house full of fans for both teams for three nights running and those games end late on the east coast. We were all geared up to support our teams and following all our baseball superstitions. It was a roller coaster ride for sure but worth it all to get the National title!!! Congratulations to the players. They fought hard and made us all proud!</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips, especially the hutch – would not have thought to look for one that big. No risk of it toppling over?</p>
<p>Last year I purchased a memory foam topper (twin size, 3 inches) from Costco for around $100 and had it directly shipped to campus. S loves it. I know that they are also available at the store.</p>
<p>Go9ersjrh, I was looking at the ones at Costco but they all say they are 39 inches wide when the dimensions we were given for the mattress are 36 inches. That seems to be the problem I am having. I can’t find the right dimensions.</p>
<p>We bought the Novafoam Topper. I checked the Costco Website and it says that it is 39 inches wide. S did not have any problem with it being too wide. He said that it worked well. Even when we made it the first time, it seemed to fit fine.</p>
<p>According to all three of my children, that memory foam mattress topper was the best thing ever invented for a dorm bed!</p>
<p>@Sorrento - the hutch was very sturdy. He had his desk against the wall so the hutch was also against the wall. When I visited my son in Feb. I noticed the shelves on the hutch had become a catch all place for his stuff so it did hold a lot of weight.</p>
<p>@Momthreeboys, the folding hutch sounds like a great idea!</p>
<p>Thanks, @Momthreeboys – looks perfect, has gotten great reviews, and is now on our list! Really helpful to know what these rooms do and do not come equipped with. We will be flying in so need to be uber-organized about shipping things or just quickly picking them up once we get to town before move-in . . . everything from the requisite mattress topper down to plastic bins and shampoo!</p>
<p>I found some nice compact umbrellas Samsonite / ShedRain on AMZN. Looks like DD is going to need rainboots and a raincoat or jacket. Can you please give me recommendations for boots and raincoat for my DD . </p>
<p>Does anybody know how to see if Vanderbilt has received the AP scores?</p>
<p>some girl parents will have more insight…I saw a lot of Vandy girls in rain for instance in rubber old fashioned rain boots made of plastic with colorful patterns on them that look fun and casual…they are not that expensive and a trend but won’t work if you are walking 10 miles in Paris. However, as a Vandy guy mom, I will throw in my ideas on good investment pieces. Will your girl consider service in distant places on Alternative Spring Breaks? some places can be rugged, some can be hot, some can involve heavy walking in cities. If so, you may want her to have at least one rain coat that is not so much fashionable so much as actual all-out Gear. Which you can look at online at REI, Sierra Trading Post, Marmot and lots of other hiking/climbing outdoors companies. Get on their mailing lists and you will get discount offers. I recommend at least one coat that covers your hips and is wind/water repellent…perhaps just a gortex or similar to gortex. Perhaps something that can be packed easily and is smushable. This will be something she can throw on over summer clothing, jeans or in far off lands on foreign study in all out downpours. It is worth the investment to get a true wind stopper and water repellant layer.<br>
Next is the underlayers. Guys may wear short jackets that look like polartec but actually have polartec that is also a windstopper. Best tip is the word Windstop…seek it out. They work so much better as you walk campus re preventing cold air from passing through to your core. Yet you can crush them into backpacks, sit on them, use them as pillows in the library :), let them fall on the DH floor and all is well. So you will need an underlayer under the gortex shell in cold snows and cold rains. Why not make sure that layer is also good looking enough to wear alone in dry weather. The Gortex top layer may not get used that much or may end up zipped up in its own pocket square smashed in a backpack just for “if it really pours”.
Regarding shoes. Not sure what girls are enjoying for days their backpacks are heavier and their walks are longer. I recommend one pair of short hikers that resemble tougher tennis shoes… that are waterproof (most important word is waterproof) for crossing campus with books on your back on slippery slate. It rains heavily in Nashville. The snows are infrequent but can be heavy. Dry feet are important. Few students really have snow boots in their dorm closets…(this is not Colorado or New Haven)…even so a good hiking shoe goes a long way on days that sidewalks are being shoveled…and may end up in as useful in your gear on alternative spring break as well. Break em in at home!
These are investment pieces. Your kid may get asked to go sleep in a tent or to attend Bonnaroo when it is muddy or to go on an overnight in the outdoors. Factor in those of you whose sons or daughters are still growing. But hiking shoes with or without ankle support will get used on a semester abroad as well as support your kid on messy snowy days as they pick their way across campus or get into a good snowball fight. We did send snow boots to Vandy son after the first year—picked up in some end of winter sale the year before… and he enjoyed them but they were an indulgence not a necessity. </p>
<p>Once I visited D’s suite in Towers only to see 4-5 pair of Target rain boots lined up in the entry. I think 3 of them may have been identical. Not sure if they are still as popular as they were 7-8 years ago. D also had a pair of LL Bean duck shoes in addition to the rain boots.</p>
<p>Any others’ students mentioned the online alcohol module? D was not happy with it - felt like it assumes that all the students are big drinkers (which she is not). Plus the first time through, it did not save her answers and she had to do a module over again. I will have to look at the parent version and see what my impression is.</p>