<p>I remember being astonished when D1 visited St. Olaf here in Minnesota. There is one big campus cafeteria and when we had lunch there I found it heartwarming that everyone drops their backpacks with laptops, ipods, cameras, etc either in little open cubbies outside the cafeteria or just stacked on the floor in the hallway! The tour guide said nothing is ever stolen. I was so impressed!</p>
<p>D1 attends a small private LAC in Iowa. They never lock their door. SHe is a senior and nothing has ever</p>
<p>Puzzled, glad to hear that they worked out. We just renewed D’s policy for next year - they include the semester abroad! She’s taking the laptop to Costa Rica…Since we have a $1000 deductable on our homeowner’s policy, this seems like cheap coverage.</p>
<p>The personal articles rider to the homeowner’s policy has no deductible and making a claim on it doesn’t affect other coverage. It’s inexpensive too so worth comparing to the stand alone policies.</p>
<p>I’ve been told NOT to add the rider to your homeowners as any claim will held against you forever. Better to get the independent policy for the dorms. We’re not to that point yet (senior this year), but it sounded reasonable.</p>
<p>Make sure they keep the door locked… that’s the biggest thing. As for items within the room, most rooms I’ve seen will have a drawer in the desk or something similar that can be locked.</p>
<p>Allthisisnewstome - did your insurance carrier tell you this? I’m sure there are variations from carrier to carrier, but I have heard this opinion from many who only assume it and have not checked with their carrier. The personal articles policy is a policy separate from your homeowner’s policy. Don’t assume a claim has any effect on the homeowner’s policy until you check with the company.</p>
<p>my college actually provides safes for each student in most (but not all, strangely) of the freshmen rooms. you don’t have to pay for them if they are never activated, but supposedly you can call a number to get the activation code and then just use it for the year. it costs somewhere around 100$ a year, which is a bit pricey, but then again it means you won’t have to bother with bolting your own safe into a closet (as my dad originally wanted to do!).</p>
<p>The thing about safes is that they need to be heavy enough or secured enough that the burglar doesn’t just take the whole safe with him/her & open it at leisure at another location. This is one reason that built-in safes are far superior to other forms. Of course, just keeping valuables out of sight and just having a lock on valuables slows down thieves and makes the item less attractive in a snatch & run situation but should not lull the student into a false sense of security. Cutting cables & locks is not all that difficult and it does happen.</p>