<p>BTW, I discovered a great service at Bed and bath. You can go to your local store, grab a scanning gun and go around the store in peace, or with mom, and choose what you want/think you need. Then you pay at that store and you pick up at the store closest to your school. I also believe you can have them shipped to you. Of course if you want you can always just order online and have everything shipped to you. Also, grab one of the 20% coupons they always send, or sign up and they will send an online one and there is usually free shipping and you will be fine. Oh, I just saw someone else mentioned the service. Well, ok just for those like me who had never heard of it before. Best think on earth. Had my son take photos of his dorm room and email them to me, scan stuff in the store and he went and picked them up locally. Definitely faster and efficient than have him call me five hundred times on what type of sheets, towels, whatever to buy.</p>
<p>it’s just nerves, you’ll be fine! I’m only 17 and i’m taking 2 large suitcases from asia all the way to Canada in the fall… BY MYSELF. I’m not freaked out at all, and i’m sure you’ll be fine too!!</p>
<p>Don’t do the linen company. It’s crappy stuff that pills and is over priced. Bed, Bath and Beyond is good, but you can also just order from Amazon where you can read the reviews and have it shipped right to the dorm for free.</p>
<p>I can totally understand why you are all bugged out. It is a big move to make by yourself. One god note is that once you have done this, you will not be the least bit worried about taking on many new things again. </p>
<p>Remember that there will be people that can help you at the airport with your bags. There will be skycaps all over the place at baggage claim with carts. They work for tips, so once they haul you to where you need to be, keep that in mind. Tip a minimum of a dollar or 2 a bag. A skycap will also help you to find a cab.</p>
<p>Contacting the school ahead of time as other posters suggested is a good idea as well. Personally, the more info that i have, the more comfortable that i will be. You can look online to see where the airport is in relation to the school just to get an idea of how far it is, for one. There is a ton of info on the web that you can check into well before leaving on your trip. The route, cab companies, public transportation, the routes available. If you check things out, you will probably feel better. Check with school first-they might even have lists of people trying to cab-it together.</p>
<p>I agree it would be easier to take a shuttle than mass transit. But, if you do want to use mass transit to save the money there is an airport line from the airport right to Temple U. You want to take the purple line. </p>
<p>Here is a link that might help you. <a href=“Routes – Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority”>Routes – Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority;
<p>Again, if you take a cab or shuttle it will be a little more expensive, but will be easier and give you some peace of mind. You will have enough stress starting out in a new area. The school will probably have an orientation that will include info on Septa and you will have plenty of time to figure it all out when you aren’t tired and dragging luggage around with you.</p>
<p>Once you’re there, Philadelphia has a College student welcome event that I think sounds like a lot of fun [Campus</a> Philly College Day Philadelphia — visitphilly.com](<a href=“http://www.visitphilly.com/events/philadelphia/campus-philly-college-day/]Campus”>Campus Philly CollegeFest | Visit Philadelphia)
</p>
<p>^ kathiep
Thanks for the info on Campus Philly. It looks like a terrific opportunity.</p>
<p>You can also get a 6 month free membership for Amazon Prime for students and get free shipping and two day delivery which would give you another convenient option to get items you may need. You can cancel when the free membership is up.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind about things like this and everything else big and scary: just don’t die.</p>
<p>As long as you manage to stay alive, no matter how bad the situation gets, you’ll be around to resolve it. You might get lost w/o any contacts, a serious accident might occur, etc., but they’re really nothing to truly worry about.</p>
<p>You already know where you’re going and what you’re doing; you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>If you do decide to take a cab, make sure you get an agreed-upon price straight from the driver before getting in. What it “should” cost and what the driver tries to charge you can be very different numbers. Shuttles and trains will not have this issue.</p>
<p>cool info about the college day and amazon membership, thanks everyone!</p>
<p>Don’t take train. Train station in Philly is an underground maze. It’s tough to carry the luggage around to get out on the right street. Shuttle van or taxi will drop you where you want to be.</p>
<p>First off, I just have to say that it is amazing how many helpful people are out there. Makes me feel good to be a human! curleq94, don’t freak out. If your college was one town over this would not be bothering you. You just have to take a plane, you can do it. Be prepared and you will be fine, infact this is part of your education. School is only a part of your education. Being on your own is just as important.</p>
<p>Being from CA, OP likely has never taken mass transit before.
- Reserve a “super shuttle” or similar service in advance to go from airport to door of your dorm
- Bring only 1 or 2 suitcases, or 1 suitcase and 1 carry on. It’s best if suitcase has wheels and rolls
- Weigh bag at home before leaving for airport so that it is under 50 lbs
- Buy a coat. If this is too hard in CA, then it can wait until you are in PA
- Keep a list of everything that you are using in your daily routine now to create a list of what you will need.
- Whatever does not fit into the 1 or 2 suitcases, mail in a box to school</p>
<p>It’s scary going to a brand new place so travel light so that lugging all of the stuff doesn’t stress you out more and keep an adventurous attitude!</p>
<p>Sometimes it is better to just get as many suitcases (large duffels) as possible because the airline charge is small compared to shipping. If you are a frequent flyer you get 2 for free. Also, everything depends if you are going from a high tax state to a lower tax one.</p>
<p>I’m just responding to the first post, but believe it or not, 30 years ago, I did this myself. A 17 year old girl. Never been out of town on my own before. Now that I’m a helicopter and I have to accompany my son to move in, pick him up at breaks, I freak out thinking that I did this on my own. But I did it. And I survived. You can do it!</p>
<p>Congratulations on your first step to being a self-sufficient adult!</p>
<p>I didn’t read all the posts, so I don’t know if anyone has suggested this yet. Rent a parent. Well, not a parent, but a person who will pick you up, help you get settled, and drive you around as needed for a day or two. There are services that do this for the elderly and others who need help. </p>
<p>A day of knowing that someone will meet you at the airport, help you with luggage and and help you settle in will make both you and your parents more comfortable.</p>
<p>I also agree with YoHoYoHo. You won’t need to have everything with you in the first few weeks of September. You can either get stuff in Philly, or have it shipped. You can always buy a coat, clothes, etc. from catalogs and have items shipped to your dorm. My kid has lived with two international students who both only showed up with two suitcases apiece. They’ve been fine (most freshmen discover they’ve brought too much stuff to school anyway). At the end of the year you’ll look around your room and wonder where everything came from!</p>
<p>I picked an old trunk I got from Army Surplus with towels, linens, pillows, and school supplies. I shipped it to Miami, my campus city, by air freight. It was either delivered to my dorm or I took a cab to the airport and picked it up. These were the days before UPS and FedEx. I packed everything up at the end of the semester in the trunk and shipped it home for the summer. I had a traditional regular dorm room, not the super suites so common today. No kitchenware and no light fixtures, no frills. I really think kids coming from far away need to keep it simple. You’ll be happy you did when you have to get out of the dorm right after finals are over.</p>
<p>Also, an aside on the Amazon Prime membership - I recommend keeping it after the free 6 months. You get free shipping at the student discounted price of $39 for 3-4 years after. That’s incredibly cheap, and well worthwhile assuming you do any ordering.</p>
<p>I’m sorry–didn’t get through all the 90 plus replies, so may be repeating information. My daughter has been going coast to coast for school for quite a while, but it was just this year that I found out that some colleges are affiliated with shipping services, such as college boxes dot com. I have used this service once, and it solves many problems. They ship the packing materials to your house (amazing) including tape. You download shipping labels. They pick the boxes up at your house (amazing). They ship them to your school, and even hold them if it is too early for delivery. If they have a relationship with the school, they will actually deliver the boxes to your dorm room. Amazing! For all that service, it costs less than I was paying just to ship the boxes myself. Even if your school is not affiliated with them, they might be with a similar company. If not, you can still use this company, and they would just deliver your boxes to the mailroom, and you’d have to lug them over (usually schools have carts you can use.) When you are leaving for the summer, same thing. They deliver empty boxes to your dorm, you pack and print labels, then make appt to have them picked up at your dorm, then they are shipped home or they can even store them. The way I finally heard about this was from a mother I know who packed their kid up to go from CA to DC. Move-in was during a hurricane-like storm–luckily they flew in early, flights were cancelled, students were delayed, a big mess. I said, you poor thing, how did you manage to get his boxes to his dorm in that weather? Oh, they were already in his dorm room. I was floored! What is so great about this is that instead of having to go to local stores and figure out how to get things back to your dorm, find washing machines, etc., you can buy sheets and towels at home, wash them a couple of times, and pack them. They send you more than enough boxes for everything, including pillows. They will ship a desk chair if you wanted. So when you arrive you are totally ready to go, as if you’d packed up the family SUV. Sorry to sound like an ad, just can’t believe the tribulations I went through until I figured this out.</p>