<p>They might also need plates, utensils, etc. in their room for leftovers or midnight deliveries. Even if they have a full meal plan, you know they will want to eat at odd times as well.</p>
<p>@RenaissanceMom – thank you! I saw some excellent duvet covers (all cotton & nice patterns) at Ikea on-line but son wanted a comforter, so I found one at JC Penney. (He was torn b/c he really liked the look of the Ikea duvet cover, but doesn’t want the hassle of the duvet shifting around.) I don’t even know if there is a JC Penney in CT, but it arrived two or three days after I ordered it. All cotton, reasonably priced, happy son. I do need a floor lamp so will check the kvart one you suggested. I have to be up in New Haven with younger son for a Saturday program so I have six hours to kill!</p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful shopping hints. I think the last bedding item is the bed bug protector zippered case. Lots involved with bedding; hope it all fits in the car.</p>
<p>@CT1417, I never thought of buying DS a bed bug protector for his dorm bed. Now, you’ve got me thinking about it. We don’t use them at home. Do some students use them at dorms?</p>
<p>@4beardolls – I don’t know…. this is my first heading to college, so I just follow others’ leads. A friend suggested the bed bug protector thingy as the first layer, then the memory foam mattress pad (expensive!) in its own casing on top of the zipped bed bug thing, and then what you and I think of as a mattress pad that stretches over and around the other two, and then finally the sheets & comforter! BB&B had the bed bug thing but it was $60, I think. Tried finding cheaper alternative on-line but read mixed reviews. Also, need XL twin. </p>
<p>Think about how many people have slept on these mattresses…ick Some of them looked like they could have been mine 25 years ago! I got the mattress protector, then the foam mattress, then the mattress pad, then the sheets. Talk about the princess and the pea. </p>
<p>It’s a wise purchase. It was the most expensive thing I bought at BB&B…$89 before the 20% off coupon. I’ve had two friends’ kids get bed bugs at college, a set of twins in different dorms at Lehigh & another kid at UPenn just last year. Aside from the discomfort from the bites & the displacement of the kids from their rooms for awhile during extermination, you don’t want the bugs hitching a ride home. One of my clients picked them up at a fancy hotel. $30,000 later, her house is rid of them. They get behind the floor boards, which in her case, needed to be removed. Ok, gross.</p>
<p>My son1’s freshman room at brown got ants in the spring term, even though he & his roommate kept no food in the room & were both neat. His room was adjacent to a flat roof…you could see the roof right out the window. And the tiny red ants found a way in. He had to purchase ant hotels, is that what they’re called? But at least they weren’t bed bugs. I saw a review of son2’s dorm at tufts on an online college review site. Apparently, it had issues w roaches last year. Great. This kid hasn’t ever seen bugs in our house other than lady bugs outside our front door. I never saw a roach until my grad school apt, and was completely grossed out.</p>
<p>…adding bed bug protector on shopping list…</p>
<p>SO freaked out by bed bugs. D’s college says they check all dorms before move in with a bed bug sniffing dog, but there have been a few situations. UGH. Tempted to have her change clothes in the garage before visits home!</p>
<p>If there are bedbugs in the dorm, protecting the mattress doesn’t really do much to prevent them from hitching a ride home, does it? It will prevent bugs already living in the mattress from getting out, which is helpful, but I would guess they would be elsewhere anyhow.</p>
<p>Yikes, you guys are freaking me out!!! Do you think that colleges will tell you whether bedbugs have been a problem, if asked directly? D is going to a small LAC in a tiny town, not a large university in a city… I wonder if that decreases the odds of bedbugs?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, bed bugs are everywhere. It really freaks me out, too…especially hotels. I always check the bedbug registry online before booking a hotel. I’ll have to check to see if they have any college reports. Google bedbug registry to find it. </p>
<p>To help keep away bed bugs?</p>
<p>Try dryer sheets under the mattress pad. I know that sounds crazy, but I got that advice from one of our substitute teachers five years ago. She uses them in her room. Nothing comes near those dryer sheets, she said.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, been away for about a week, and there’s been lots of action on this thread!</p>
<p>Went to the two-day orientation with my son. He had a really great time, too. Met one of his roommates, who is from Ohio and will be running with him on the cross country/track teams. Dropped everything off in the storage unit, which should be a big help come the move-in – only three weeks away, too!</p>
<p>The only downer came with class registration. He had a hard time getting the classes he needed, especially math. He is on a waitlist for Calculus III, and one of the advisers told us that there are 20-plus kids on that waitlist, so look for the school to add another class or two. The biggest issue came when they went to start registration with him. The first set of advisers were new, and they did not how to handle all his AP/DE credits. So, after being a little flustered and frustrated, he left with only one class on his schedule. I did not want to leave the school until we straightened everything out. We went over to a different set of advisers, and they got him classes. He’ll probably spend a couple of weeks tinkering with the schedule once there are some openings. He was happy about one thing – no Friday classes.</p>
<p>Also made a side trip to Nashville and had a blast!</p>
<p>We got my son’s fall schedule yesterday. RIT constructs it for first-year students, and it might take a few weeks to settle out. They meet with their advisor on August 21 and can make changes then. My S’s looks pretty good – everything as expected with one non-major-related class that was randomly chosen – Intro to World Music. He thinks he’ll probably change it. I’m enjoying the Facebook group’s general panic over schedules, and the wise advice to just chill out and let the students and the school deal with it. I’m so excited about college, wish I were going myself, but it is time to start letting my S take the reins. It is hard!!</p>
<p>I made the mistake of looking up d’s profs on rate my professor, and now I desperately want her to change her math class. DH tells me I need to leave it to her. Hard to know when to let go and when to step in!</p>
<p>I will not say the college (in the north), but my niece’s dorm building had mice and rats - I recently toured this flagship university, and had a tour guide that was an RA in that building during that time - she agreed the university took way too long to get that problem exterminated.</p>
<p>We live in another state (in the south). H came home yesterday and said there were rats in the ceiling of the mezzanine offices (above the production plant) - seen, one or more running down cabling, and then trapped. EEEEK! I use to work there, but my office was on the ground floor in another part of the building. God knows how many rat nests there are there…waiting for progress report today.</p>
<p>Speaking of bed bugs, any problems with any schools in AL? Have not heard about any from older DD. Younger DD going to UA in the fall.</p>
<p>Elementary schools occasionally have the head lice issue. Fortunately we have not had either problem in our household. </p>
<p>D’s school has a rather unique, and IMO complicated, scheduling process. Students select 12 courses and then place them into 3 groups of 4 classes relating to the student’s degree of comfort with and interest in the subject. The school constructs the schedule from there. D researched the courses and profs (got to love Rate My Prof) and made her selections. I made an excel spreadsheet showing the times of each course section. It helped her to see which of her selections were mutually exclusive and some of the scheduling possibilities. Of course, not knowing which of the 12 courses she will get, and some having multiple sections/times, it’s nearly impossible to know what her schedule will look like. She is hoping that her courses are back to back (or close) on each day instead of spread out. I’m not sure when she will get her schedule. I hope it’s before orientation so she has time to shop around for books.</p>
<p>When I went to college, we just picked the classes we wanted to take. As long as you didn’t pick classes that were only offered at one time and conflicted with another class with only one time, you got your schedule. Availability was never an issue. </p>
<p>@JAM113 Yes, it’s a set with sheets and everything so it has to go back.
@collegetime18 My son loves mexican dips and chips as a snack so I expect the bowls will be used for that. He also loves one specific type of soup. It’s a snack for him- or something he can make easily if he’s sick and doesn’t feel like going to the cafeteria. Sometimes they have a class or work that prevents them from eating at normal hours. Plates are for pizza!<br>
@Felicita I’m freaked out by the bed bug thing too and use bedbugregistry.com all the time. That’s one of the reasons why I stayed in the Poconos when moving my BarnardGirl into her dorm. It was the closest reasonably priced hotel without bedbugs. </p>
<p>When I was in college, the dorms that tended to have the roaches and rodents were the ones that were open year round. The others were fumigated when empty but these were never empty. Yeah, I lived in one of those. </p>
<p>I went hunting around in the basement and found some old silverware that my son is happy to take to school with him. One less thing. </p>
<p>^ Oh, yes, our basement has been a treasure trove for at least half the dorm needs. I actually started a box about 4 years ago where I put things for her future dorm/apartment… stuff I’d have sold at a yard sale or donated to Goodwill but knew she’d eventually use, like our old blender, silverware, plates and mugs, etc. It seemed so far off and unreal at the time - hard to believe that time is actually here and she’s moving out on her own and will need these things!</p>
<p>Bedbug registry website does not seem to have colleges… either that or none of the colleges in the Northampton, MA area have bedbugs! I hope this is a good sign.</p>
<p>SOSConcern: My older son is a graduate of UA. Never had a problem with bed bugs, and he lived in two different dorms on campus. He did use the dryer sheets under his mattress pad, too – just in case.</p>