Keep a copy at home of everything important in the kid’s wallet. Front and back of DL, credit cards, health cards, insurance, bank cards. You will need it if you get a call at 2am that your child is 2 hours from campus (12 hours from home) and lost their wallet, cell phone and car keys! Don’t ask how I know this! Learn that you can wire money to any WalMart in case of odd emergency. I’ve had them with both kids!
Told my son to get summer storage unit - a good idea. His response, dump everything at a friend’s house for the summer. They didn’t mind (I talked to the mom later).
When flying if kid has a car and is leaving it at the airport make parking reservations in advance.
For a daughter that loves clothes a bunch of girls at son’s school have a party dress exchange message or FB or some sort of group. They all list what they have and share party outfits. If they mess the outfit up they have to replace it. The girl’s have been doing it for years and love it. My son needed to dress up a lot more than he thought he would so for a boy take a suit and at least one nice dress jacket.
Agree with Sue22. We did the same thing, and both sons came home to tell us it made life so much easier when navigating a new city to already feel comfortable with public transit. We encouraged them to use Metro to get to events and home after late activities starting in HS. It takes a little longer, but gives them independence and time management skills so they don’t have to wait 20 minutes for the next bus.
If you travel as a family, let them pack their own bags. Forgetting to bring socks or deodorant is a self-correcting event! Both of my sons were about seven hours away by car but a little under two hours by Southwest…if there was an emergency, we could get there or they could get home quickly (and that strategy worked). And two free bags…priceless.
We were thinking of purchasing some type of a lock box or storage container with a padlock to store ipad, laptop, passport, cash/creditcards, etc, to be kept under the bed or in the closet in the dorm room…
Our S lived in a dorm that had a safe built in to each closet in the dorm he lived in freshman year. I don’t believe anyone ever used those safes. He never acquired anything like that so I don’t believe he felt it necessary. Neither did D.
We advised him to keep things out of sight if he didn’t want them to disappear (eg in a drawer). It seemed sufficient.
@sunnyflorida Kids will never lock their laptops up. They use them too frequently. Get dorm insurance through NSSI for like $9 a month with a $25 deductible and skip the safe.
Mine had a short, two drawer filing cabinet that locked…and they could put items in there when they were gone for weekend, etc. Printer was placed on top of filing cabinet. Not all dorms have room for this, though…
@SunnyFlorida22 our homeowners insurance had riders for the kids’ belongings in on-campus housing. We added an electronics endorsement for very little.
A recent tip-unless the college is 30 min or closer to an airport, spend a few minutes deciding which airport hotel to stay at if your 6pm flight is delayed 5 hours and then cancelled and you are rebooked on an early flight the next morning. It is not fun looking for airport hotels at midnight.
When our S took a car to campus, he got that state’s residency and registered car there–his insurance was then half of what it was at home. When S went to grad school in different state, he applied for residency immediately…as his second year tuition was then in state rates.
WRT bank accounts, they did not need local accounts–just used the ATM’s. S did have to take checks to his junior year, as that was the only form of payment his off campus landlord accepted. And yes, he needed the tutorial from Mom on how to fill it out…along with how to address the envelope. School smart yes…street smart-not so much.
“Well, state taxes for one thing. At some point, your student will work, even if just for the summer, and state taxes go with residency”
Actually, they don’t. You can easily pay state taxes in one state (or multiple states) and reside permanently in another. Doesn’t get you out of paying those taxes, though.
@roycroftmom & @doschicos so if the college is in a no income tax state and home is in a income taxable state is there a benefit or no to switching over?
