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<p>I am wondering too. THere are a couple of threads on this with no activity. I need to research what the Uni’s policy is too, regarding refunds</p>
<p>We have never bothered to get tuition insurance. I know there is always a slight chance of illness that would require withdrawal for a semester, but I did not do it for my older 2 kids (one graduated and one half way through) and I don’t plan to do it for this one either. I do plan to get insurance for the contents of her dorm room.</p>
<p>We will be doing the BBB pickup at college town also, but I don’t expect it to be mobbed. I am assuming families that are close enough to drive will have purchased their things ahead of time and it will be mostly us who come by plane there! Hopefully.</p>
<p>While we are discussing dorm stuff - what are you all doing about carpet (for those that have wood or tile floor). I was out looking at remnants and found a couple that were really marked down but they are not bound - does that matter? We got something in the mail about ordering a rug and having it in the room when we get there but I just would like to see it first :)</p>
<p>Carpet remnants that are not bound tend to roll up on all sides, easy to trip on. They will also fray. You should be able to get it bound at a carpet store. Most of our area rugs are carpet remnants that have been bound.</p>
<p>Never got tuition insurance. Don’t need a rub as all dorms are carpeted.</p>
<p>Ds leaves a month from today! :eek:</p>
<p>You all are the only friends that I have who will actually care about this…but I think this is a good sign… I saw a young boy in our small local village in Greece today who was wearing a Blue Devils t-shirt. I was so excited, but DS13b thought it would be weird if I went and talked to the kid and took his picture. I didn’t want to seem like a stalker, so I heeded my son’s wishes. I still wish I would have taken the picture, but I can’t share it on CC anyway! :)</p>
<p>^My family runs a charity in isolated villages in Mexico and we have a home in the city where we leave clothing and other items we don’t bother to bring home between visits. On one of our trips we found the majority of our clothes missing. It was a bit of a mystery until we went over pictures of the charity’s most recent work and found a picture of a farmer smiling next to his burro and a new community irrigation pump. Standing proudly next to his papa was a boy in my college t-shirt! My MIL had mistakenly given our clothes away. If you travel through the mountains of Southern Mexico don’t be surprised to see shirts from a certain New England college. :-)</p>
<p>I had to report in… After feeling like a rejected dodge-ball loser for not getting the BB&B coupon, I rifled through the junk mail again and found it! Stuffed inside of a grocery flyer. I felt like Steve Martin in “The Jerk” after getting the new phone book. “The BB&B coupon is here!!!” I waved my 20% off ENTIRE purchase coupon in the air, dutifully grabbed my daughter and headed off to buy out the store. (actually, we are almost done with shopping, but she needed a shower tote and BB&B had “the one” that was the right color combination to tie her entire room’s color scheme together.) Whatever. We are nearing the end of the list and I wanted to get it over with. As we entered the store we saw a sea of mother-daughter teams clutching lists. I thought we’d stumbled into an episode of the Amazing Race. One team seemed hell-bent on not getting sucked in to the hysteria - they came for the specific bargain dorm package advertised in the flyer and that was it. Another had carts full of every possible dorm item imaginable. And another mom & daughter team just wandered around…
Newbie Mom: “hmm, what do you need? Oh look, trunks - do you need a trunk?”
Newbie Daughter: “Oh, maybe. I think yes. There were people on the FB page talking about trunks. What do you do with a trunk?”
Newbie Mom: “I don’t know. You use them to move in with. But I don’t think there’s much use for them once you’ve moved in.”
I wanted to rush over and take them by the hand. I wanted to explain to them that a trunk could be a magical piece of furniture - extra seating, a table, a place to store your valuables when you discover that your roommate is a meth addict looking for valuables to sell… but before I could do so we were accosted by a bubbly but seasoned BB&B greeter who’d spied our near-empty cart, to see if she could help us find anything. (aka - everything in the store.) My DD and I exchanged a look that said “ha! We are pros… we know everything in this store. We have this college list DOWN. We’ve already finished our list…) The saleswoman was oblivious to our smug superiority and smiled as we politely said “no thank you” and moved on to a more bewildered looking team just entering the store. So that we could feel like we saved enough money with our coupon, we had to get those “few last things” that were absolutely essential for D’s college success. Like the shower scrubby that looked like a flamingo. We headed to the cashier and approached a woman who had clearly just come on duty for the day. And who had been living under a rock all week. She looked at our coupon and exclaimed " 20% of ENTIRE ORDER? Wow! How did you get that? I didn’t get that? I have to look for that one!” I smiled, secretly thrilled that she’d said it loudly enough to draw the attention of several other envious shoppers, and told her that it was a special coupon for entering college students and that she probably wouldn’t get one. She ignored me, and said that she was sure she’d get it tomorrow… We left with our purchases, which we’d kept to under 100 bucks and headed to the car. I gave myself an internal pat on the back for finishing off the list, while ignoring the voice in my head yelling at me about the upcoming credit card bill. And then D said “Mom, can we go to Target? They have that perfect bedrest pillow that I really really need.” <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>Loved this post, anniezz, I lol’d. Now, you have me thinking about a trunk. My daughter had one and she loved it. This son is priding himself on being a minimalist.</p>
<p>Anniezz, that was such an intense story! Lol</p>
<p>Loved that story, Anniezz. And yes, the trunk is vital!!
D and I are away on vaca and I instructed DH on the phone, “DON’T THROW AWAY ANY MAIL! THERE’S A COUPON IN THAT MESS AND I’M GONNA FIND IT!!!”</p>
<p>You’all are cracking me up!!! My coupon is sitting in a basket in our kitchen. Can’t decide when the right time to redeem it is :)</p>
<p>Anniezz - great story!</p>
<p>I think we all need to poke a little fun at ourselves these days. ;)</p>
<p>(And we didn’t get a trunk either…trying to convince my D to take the one that I used in college, but I have no idea where the key for it is. Can you get a locksmith to change out a trunk lock? )</p>
<p>None of my kids (or me) has ever seen the need for a trunk. Oldest D had 5 beds and dressers in one room her freshman year - she did the bed risers and underbed storage, no room in there for a trunk as extra piece of furniture. S is an extreme minimalist and did not even use underbed storage - he has very little stuff. Still waiting on room/room mate information before starting our shopping for this D. We will fly in on Saturday, do some shopping/pick up a BBB order, move her in Sunday morning, and head home Monday morning. I’m hoping there will be a little time Sunday to run to the store for items she didn’t think of, but there are activities planned for the afternoon and evening.</p>
<p>I did not go to move in with the oldest 2, H drove them and moved them in. There were usually conflicts with the other kids’ schedules. That way I could do my crying at home. I know I will be teary all day that move-in Sunday, nothing I can do about it though. I cry at TV commercials, There’s no way I can avoid crying at leaving my youngest at school over 2000 miles away! I guess I had better put tissues on the college list!</p>
<p>Mamabear, 5 to a room? Yikes!</p>
<p>D will be leaving soon for a summer program and may not get home again til Christmas, so she needs to store off season clothing etc. If she brings a trunk, the expectation is that it will go under her bed unless the housing fairy rewards her with a large room. My older son is a minimalist too… everything for college in 2 suitcases and his book bag…</p>
<p>Anniezz…It’s nice to see other parents seeking the best deals (i.e. with BBB coupons) We (well…“I”) are doing the pack and hold here too. DS could “care less” about decor or necessities. Still awaiting roommate assignment. Math and science placement tests complete. My son has to complete foreign language placement by 8/1 (please do not let procrastination set in)…after 3 years of AP courses and planning ahead…we decided to let DS “breathe”…before kicking it in high gear. Meanwhile…today we join the wisdom teeth extraction X4 club…say a prayer for us</p>
<p>brownpartyo5 - wisdom teeth extraction seems to be the thing to do -many off dd’s friends are having it done this summe - YIKES! Make sure to take some funny video when he’s drugged up - seems to be a hot thing on YouTube!</p>
<p>I was reading the Move-In Faux Pas thread that has been restarted. Makes me think about how involved we should be on move in day. I think I will just ask my DD. The people posting on that are very different - some literally pull up - take the stuff out of the car with the help of upperclassmen and leave to the opposite of mothers washing walls and communal bathrooms! Hopefully DD will be ok with us doing something in between!!!</p>
<p>We have definitely decided to have dd and her roommate go into the room without their stuff - arrange the furniture the way they want it (with the dads help :)) and then bring the stuff up. I think it would be very difficult to move furniture with all the “stuff”.</p>
<p>Checking back in! Grad parties are almost over just one more for DD13 to go tonight. It’s technically a going away party for one of her awesome classmates who was a foreign exchange student from Japan.
Glad to read the last few posts on dorm room shopping, as that is where my head is at right now. D13 got her first choice dorm. She’s in a single (Columbia has singles for Freshman). We got two Bath and Body 20% flyers for some reason. Originally we were going to drive to New York but we canned that idea and bought tickets to fly. We’ll be taking the baby so it will be far better this way. Columbia has a trip to Bath and Body built into the itinerary for move in days. We’ll order here and pick up there. I’m also shipping quite a few of the bulkier things, and they’ll hopefully be there when she arrives. They don’t have air condition in her Dorm and it will be hot, so she’ll need a fan. I’m debating whether to ship it ,or get one from Bath and Body.
I’m nervous about traveling with the baby. I’ve never flown with my kids . The last time I was in New York I was in elementary school. My Grandma lived in Queens. I know zero about getting around New York city with an infant. Here in the midwest suburbs it’s all about carseats and bubble wrapping your kids lol. I’ve read that in NYC a baby can go in a cab without one?
For experienced parents I have questions:</p>
<p>Are memory foam mattress toppers worth it? If so whats the best one?
What’s the best way to get pictures to stick on the walls? same with drapes.</p>
<p>I’m interested in the ‘stick posters on walls’ stuff also. We bought some of the 3m hooks, but they are only going to work for hanging stuff in closets, etc. Need advice on how you get posters, framed paintings, and other stuff on walls</p>