<p><a href=“5-sites-that-can-save-you-big-money-on-textbooks”>http://college.usatoday.com/2014/07/29/5-sites-that-save-you-big-money-on-textbooks/</a></p>
<p>My sons college did a massive study (univ of rochester) and it showed no greater success using a survey vs not on how they got along. </p>
<p>We leave in an hour!! The car is packed, I’m just drinking some coffee and giving the final animal care instructions to my mother in law.</p>
<p>We got d to pare down the amount of clothes she was going to bring. She finally moved to being excited about it all vs the tearful goodbyes. </p>
<p>I use Cheapesttextbooks.com for books</p>
<p>Also thinking of you guys all day today @eyemamom!</p>
<p>BarnardMom, that’s almost eerie about the common interests of your S and his roommate, given that U of M does not screen the roommates. My S was pleased with his roommate assignment at Rice, which does do roommate screening, as the two appear to have much in common (STEM majors who like chess and soccer and are history buffs, especially Asian history). However, he also received info on his two suitemates, who will share the adjoining room, and he does not appear to have that much in common with them though they do with each other. I am thinking that the matching Rice does only involves roommate selection and not suitemates.</p>
<p>@eyemamom Safe travels to you! </p>
<p>I agree it’s kind of eerie. They are both in the Residential College which attracts a certain kind of student, but still. I don’t think there are that many kids who watch Willifred and Legend of Korra. Or maybe I’m wrong. </p>
<p>Safe travels, @eyemamom!</p>
<p>@2016BarnardMom - Never heard of Willifred, but my kids (and DH) watch Legend of Korra. </p>
<p>My D’s suitemates sound pretty compatible so far, as well. They are all Honors students (given that its the Honors LLC) and many are into various types of theater or music. One other is even from California, which is pretty amazing considering that Temple is not super well-known out here. Their majors are all over the map, but all sound like good suitemates for D.</p>
<p>addall.com is a good site for comparing prices on textbooks. In the end my DS ended up getting them all from Amazon (free prime shipping) and the campus bookstore (things that can only be purchased there). Even if another place had one book for a couple of bucks less, having to pay shipping negated that advantage. </p>
<p>^ I am hoping that my S gets along with his suitemates even if they don’t have all that much in common, except for being Rice students in the same residential college. The suitemates are both extremely athletic, one of them even being a scholarship athlete who was all-state (Texas) in high school in his sport, and the other one being a highly accomplished two-sport athlete, though apparently not going to be a varsity athlete at Rice. My S and his roommate are not the athletic type.</p>
<p>My DS1’s freshman roommate was a varsity athlete, and he was not. (I think they got put together because of allergies/asthma requirements for an air conditioned room.) They never became good friends, but they got along fine in terms of being considerate to one another. There are plenty of other opportunities to make friends if your roommates or suitemates don’t turn out to be a perfect match.</p>
<p>DD found out officially on Tuesday who her roommate is and where they are living. It was the girl who had contacted her based on having the same land line phone number. They are texting and messaging back and forth but I don’t think they’ve talked yet. DD was babysitting Tuesday when the news came out and then we went to see “Finding Neverland” in Cambridge that night so no time to talk (as an aside, the show was amazing!! Hopefully it will be going to Broadway afterwords. And I took a picture of her with Jeremy Jordan so she was beyond thrilled!)</p>
<p>Anyway, where they are living seems to be a good place although not one she was thinking of as it’s not where most of the freshmen are housed! She didn’t want to be in the “Freshmen Zoo” and was hoping to be on the old Pembroke campus with newly renovated dorms and lots of other first years. Instead, she’s in a small dorm that is right in the center of campus (and right near Frat Row - ugh!). But they have a huge room and are very close to the dining hall so she’s excited about that. And they’ll have a prime location for the a capella sings under the arch!</p>
<p>Hopefully the girls will be compatible! I just haven’t seen DD much to be able to talk with her and see how things are going. She was out last night with all her besties and just headed out again after getting home from work. Now that we know where she’s living and what kind of storage they have we can finish up the dorm shopping. Seems they have two large closets in their room so we’ll be looking for over door racks and other things. </p>
<p>Also, due to Brown’s shopping period, I haven’t even thought about buying books as I’m not sure what classes she’ll be taking. She knows which First Year Seminar she got into and knows what she wants to take but one class is in flux so I don’t want to make any purchases yet. Hopefully this week or weekend she’ll be able to look more at the classes and figure more out. And start writing her thank you notes as she has lots to do from her party!!</p>
<p>Even with my textbooks for grad school recently, I would just Google the ISBN and find which place had it the cheapest. It was usually Amazon but every now and then, it was somewhere else. </p>
<p>@akmom124…hold off on the books! S1who is a senior at brown shops classes for two weeks before making final determination. Sometimes he has to drop a class even though he loves it bc it isn’t going to work out academically w his whole work load (he’s a STEM kid, and he’s got big eyes…it’s usually a 5th class). This will be his second year as a meiklejohn (a first-year peer advisor). Maybe your daughter is one of his advisees…that would be a hoot!</p>
<p>^^ for kids who aren’t sure if they are sticking with a class, that can be a good reason to buy through the college bookstore if the want to have the book right away – the bookstore will usually take returns of books in new condition during the add/drop period. For most schools without a shopping period, though, it can be difficult not having your books by the second day of class, so if you’re getting them shipped, you do need to allow sufficient time.</p>
<p>Hope y’all don’t mind what’s probably a trivial question, from a first-time college Mom, but typically how many sets of towels does a guy need for the dorm? He got TONS of towels as graduation gifts, and I can’t imagine that he needs to take them all; however, the kid does bathe twice daily! Thanks.</p>
<p>@RenaissanceMom - That would be funny! Do the pair the meiklejohns with advisees by concentration interest or is it random?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I was just looking up the books for her seminar and found out that they list the comparable prices at various sellers on the website - very cool! She’s got to look into some more classes to take - she’s got to pick her UCAPP one as she was accepted into that program. And she won’t find out if she can take the intro theatre class until orientation. She doesn’t have room for those three AND the intro public health and neuro courses she wants to take so we’ll see what one disappears this term. In the meantime, I should probably start searching book prices for DS’11’s math and econ books - those are expensive!</p>
<p>@1mississippi, I sent 2 sets, but my son only showers once/day. In my family, we reuse towels several times before washing. I guess it depends on how he feels about reusing towels, and how often he will do laundry. </p>
<p>@calla1, Thanks, he is ok with the idea of reusing towels, as long as only he has used them, LOL. As for the laundry question, probably seldom, if I had to guess. He is ordering more jeans tomorrow from his workplace, LOL, for that very reason.</p>
<p>^ 2 sets of towels: bath, hand, wash
2 sets of sheets, but 4 pillowcases total. More apt to wash those weekly, or every other week, & it’s best to keep their faces clean so that they don’t break out.
@akmom124, my son is a neuro concentrator! As a meiklejohn my S has had mostly STEM kids but some humanities, too. Not sure how that’s determined.
If your daughter wld like to talk to my son, PM me.</p>