Tips for new freshman parents
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Anonymous
Wow don’t wait. They are not available for delivery or pickup from IKEA. I just bought from amazon and quantity is low and dropping. A bunch from DCUM must be ordering! Lol |
Anonymous
At St. Mary's college my dd was told they are giving every student this stuff: masks, hand cleaning stuff and some other things I forget but, enough to last the semester. |
Anonymous
Can someone link what they are referring to as 'Ikea bags?" |
Anonymous
Go to amazon and search ikea Frakta storage bag. Get zipper one. |
Anonymous
Thank you, pp! |
Anonymous
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There is a rush on those bags every summer. Get them now.
Also, read the rules for what is and is not permitted at your kid’s school’s housing. DS’s school: no extension cords, no lamps with more than one bulb, limits on fridge, microwave size. Some schools don’t allow command strips, etc. |
Anonymous
I went to college in fall of 1994 and freshman weren't allowed cars on campus so NO freshman drove themselves to college. |
Anonymous
It depends on the college of course. Apparently my kid’s college (no one is allowed to live off campus unless they prove they live with their parents or are married) allows freshmen to have cars on campus. My kid does not have one. |
Anonymous
No command strips? How do people decorate |
Anonymous
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Things are very different this year. No one is really sure if the kids will remain on campus for the entire semester, and a good many are going to send kids home at Thanksgiving with finals to be taken from home. My kid's school has the freshman moving into singles with everyone leaving school at the Thanksgiving break.
So -- with that kind of schedule in mind, the plan is to go very, very simplistic. 1. No winter stuff at all. He will have a couple of sweatshirts and a light jacket and something for rain. He can take winter stuff back with him after the Christmas/Year End break. 2. Good basic laptop for school work. Nothing to nice. There is always a decent chance it will get broken. He is a pretty nice gaming computer currently and will likely take that for his room. Classwork will be done on the laptop. 3. Should have his Fall schedule finalized here soon. He will need to get the books and other reading material ordered and shipped here so he knows he has everything and can take it with him. 4. Has to get a decent printer. Nothing great, but in this time of Covid, the hours and timing of stuff like printer access at a libriary could be very limited, i.e not at 3 a.m. kind of thing. Better to be able to print a paper in your room and have it ready to go. So, obviously, a couple of reams of paper too. 5. We have a small frig from earlier students. Get one if you don't have it. 6. 2 sets of blankets and sheets for the bed. Extra pillows. If you can get one -- a plastic sheet to go above the matteress is a good idea. Someone is going to get sick on it sometime. Your kid, another kid, it is going to happen. It's good to be able to just pull the whole thing up -- throw the sheets in the machine and the plastic sheet can be pitched. (replaced asap). 7. Office supplies -- pens, pencils, notebooks, whatever they regularly use or might use -- good to get in advance. They will not think about "note cards -- I need note cards" until 11 p.m. on the day they need them. All of this stuff can be stored in a box in their closet until needed. Easy enough to take with and leave over break. 8. 2 big suitcases worth of clothes. Everything has to fit into 2 big suitcases. That is more than enough room for a semester's worth of clothing. My daughter brought way, way, way too much. "I might need this" kind of thing. She was a soccer player. She did what all athletes end up doing -- wearing the school supplied sweats and team shirts -- not because they looked great, but because the school provided free laundry service for team gear. Include something nice that they could wear to a dance or faculity meeting and leave it at that. 9. Do not take a car as a freshman. There will be way too much pressure to drive somewhere -- the mall, a restaurant, to get beer, etc. . . No car. No pressure You do not want a kid getting a DUI and that is very easy to get in a college town. 10. Shoes -- one nice pair, one decent set of boots for when it rains. They can bring winter stuff back from break. Don't over do it. 11. Talk about what they will do for exercise to stay reasonably fit. Having clothing that they can wear to workout in. What ever they like to do is going to be on campus. If they like to run -- look at campus maps. Shoot the X-Country asst. coach an email and ask what trials he/she runs in the area and whether there are any particular safety concerns. 12. Have several talks about safety. Kids think they are immune from issues and they should not be scared about where they are going to school They should, however, be aware. Campuses -- even when a kid knows they are in a city -- seem safe. There are phones and guards, etc. etc. but that is no substitute for traveling in a group or at least with someone -- even for guys. Figure out how they can get an escort and program the numbers into their phones. Along the same lines -- have the talk about keeping their room locked. Kids always think "no one will take/want any of my stuff", and yet stuff gets stolen all of the time. Get a wrist bracelet so they can lock their door and put their key on to take a shower if the showers are down the hall. Get them in the mode of locking up every time. Going to the cafe for a coffee? Lock up. I'm only going to be gone 2 minutes -- Lock up. No one will think you are paranoid. If you don't lock up they will think you are stupid for not locking up. 13. Talk about and figure out how they will handle Covid stuff. This is a changing thing. Will they have football games, for example? At my kid's school the student entry pass for all sports is cheap so he is getting it. If there is no football then maybe there will be some basketball or whatever this winter after break. But, at a big football school, the student season tickets to football are going to run several hundred dollars. What is the school saying about it now. Talk about it. The point of going to live on campus is to be able to do stuff. Go to games. Go to concerts. Participate in clubs, etc, etc. Talk about how to do that stuff at their school. |
Anonymous
| I’d like to know from parents of upperclassmen how kids prevent stuff from being stolen in their dorm. My child has a MacBook Pro (hand me down) and I’m genuinely scared that either the roommate or a roommate’s friend will try to steal it. Same concerns with iPhone and paper homework assignments, if those exist. I know this question sounds gross. No idea who the roommate is yet and won’t know until July. |
Anonymous
PP. This was fall of 2005 at a rural university. |
Anonymous
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/images/products/frakta-trunk-for-trolley-blue__0711261_PE728099_S5.JPG?f=xs https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/frakta-shopping-bag-large-blue-17228340/ Zipper ones are best, but the open top ones have their use as well esp when my kid was in a rush to clean out his dorm room this spring Also “less is more”! |
Anonymous
We got a locking trunk for our daughter. I think some laptops you can buy a locking cable. And make sure you purchase renters insurance for all their belongings. |
Anonymous
Where do you find renter’s insurance? Can you add it to your homeowners policy? |