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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Advice re: dorm rooms --

1) Don't mail everything ahead of time and expect the dorm mail rooms to be on top of things. At my kid's large state university, the parents' FB group was reporting weeks' worth of delay in sorting and distributing packages, and some apparently grew legs and walked away because there wasn't a secure place to store everything.

2) Don't go overboard on decorating your kid's dorm room like it needs to be Insta-ready at a moment's notice. At the end of the year, so much stuff ends up in the dumpster -- no, your kid really doesn't need peel and stick wallpaper, fake ivy garlands to hang all around the room, multiple toiletry and make-up carts, etc. It's mind-boggling.

3) It's OK if your kid doesn't match with a roommate ahead of time. I see so much on the parents' groups about kids who are frantic that they didn't find someone to live with who is going to be their best friend forever and ever and ever! Random matching will be OK, and if it's not OK, it's a good opportunity for the kid to negotiate with the roommate and then advocate for themselves for a transfer/roommate switch if things really, really, really are not OK.

4) Depending on where the school is and how transportation is going to work - consider whether you can stage summer/fall/spring vs. winter clothing so their entire wardrobe doesn't have to fit in the closet/drawers.[/quote]

Some sound advice here. Fortunately DS didn't take that much, so we were able to swing most of it in checked baggage on the flight and the winter stuff during fall break. Dropped DD in car. Pretty full, but could have been worse (based on the cars we saw at drop off). Heard horror stories from friends who shipped.

Both kids ended up at schools with no matching allowed for room mates. DD didn't go down the rabbit hole of many of her HS friends and coordinate headboards, quilts, etc. While I was relieved that wasn't happening, I was also worried that meant that she was in denial about leaving for school. Worked out well as their room size couldn't accommodate headboards (which I didn't want to pay for- some of her friends were getting custom ones!) and her room mate probably couldn't afford to spring for a tricked out scene. They coordinated on a full length mirror and that was it. DS is even in tighter quarters in a triple. The 3 roomies agreed on a frig and that was it.

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