Any current students or parents that can give some idea of what move in day will be like at IU? My D is going to be moving in on the 14th. I know that students who sign up for FYE program can go on the 13th and then regular move in day is the 16th?
What is it going to be like around campus and is there a better time of day to get there?
Also, when are the meal plans active? If she is going on the 14th but normal move in isn’t until the 16th will she have access to her meal plan.
The campus is obviously crowded around that time, but they do a pretty good job of handling move in day. When I moved into Wright, we were able to find a temporary parking spot fairly easily. Getting there earlier is probably your best bet. It seemed to get more crowded in the middle and later part of the day.
Her meal plan will work as soon as she gets there. I moved in 2 days early when I was a freshman, and it worked right away. There is also a ton of free food the first week, so she probably won’t use the meal plan much at the very beginning anyway.
Thanks for the feedback. We figured early would be better but wasn’t sure. Good to know about the meal plan and we have been told that the first week if she isn’t finding fee food then she’s not doing it right.
We are close enough that we can get there right when the dorms open and take our time getting her room set up. Once you drop off your stuff by the dorms do they make you park out at the stadium? Or if I can find room in the Jordan garage can you use that? I’m assuming they will have shuttles to move people around to their cars if they have to park out away from the dorms.
One problem that we hadn’t anticipated was the lack of curbside space in some of the dorms. If you’re in Forest or McNutt or Briscoe or similar you’re probably fine, but some Ashton or Collins buildings and maybe some at Union Street Center have very little, if any, parking nearby so even dropping stuff is not the easiest. Check Google Maps to see where you can drop off stuff. Also if you’re on a high rise dorm getting to an elevator could be entertaining.
If you’re driving to Bloomington from Indianapolis or further north make sure you are using Google Maps or similar. Construction traffic is outright ugly.
Thanks @turbo93 We are driving down from just North of Indy so very familiar with all the construction going on right now. She is going to be in Spruce in the Southeast so I don’t think there is a lot of curbside parking if any. I know there is a lot right next to Spruce and then the closest large parking area is the Jordan Garage. She is doing early move in as part of the LLC. The people doing the FYE program go in on the 13th so we were thinking perhaps the 14th wouldn’t be as bad since its still two days before the main move in date.
As part of the LLC she is actually on the first floor so don’t have to worry about elevator or stairs. Got lucky on that one.
When I saw the chaos on move in day last fall I was SO glad we paid the $35 or whatever it was to move in a day earlier. Money well spent, that’s for sure. As far as I know, anyone can pay for an early night in the dorms.
It’s $40 per day for early move in this year. They have a new FYE program that starts on the 13th. For her specific LLC they were allowed to move in on the 14th. Not sure about the other LLC’s. When my D signed up for her early move in it looked like it was only for specific programs but perhaps anyone can sign up to go early. I know her friend is going on regular move in day which I am more than happy to avoid.
For anyone interested, we moved D in yesterday and it was about as easy a move that I’ve ever had. We did get there early and so did her roommate. They had several carts and dollies that you could check out to help move items. As the day went on and more people showed the larger carts had a bit of a wait.
We unloaded at the curb and then moved our car to the Jordan Garage while we set up the room. Just be aware, if in the garage for more than 3 hours you will pay the daily rate of $26.
We walked around campus a bit and there were some dorms where traffic flow could be a bit of an issue and I imagine for those of you going in on normal move in on the 16th you’ll have a bit more congestion. I notices some narrow roads where cars were unloading that basically block anyone else from getting through.
We were in the Southeast Neighborhood and some of Central, didn’t get up to the North Neighborhood so can’t say what is was like up around Brisco. Mostly we were around Spruce, Wilkie, Forest and Reed.
Driving down from Indy, they seemed to have paused the construction so both lanes were open on SR37 the whole way. Hopefully they will keep it that way until after the 16th.
We did try to go get my D’s books from TIS bookstore but two of her classes hadn’t reported yet and three classes don’t have any textbooks so she will need to do that after classes start. We left campus around 1:30 pm and there was a lot more traffic and activity but still not too bad.
D has already met some other girls and they went to the men’s soccer game last night so all in all a good first day.