D14 in New York state has 5 days off and S16 outside Boston will have a week off for Thanksgiving break. Both will have to settle for finding their own local options for Thanksgiving. They are 6 hours away from each other…but the travel logistics (not easy to get from “here” to “there” either direction) make it iffy whether they can find a way to get together over the holiday. They will be flying home 3-4 weeks later for their big holiday break, so no additional airline tickets in our budget.
Similar to @palm715 statement…our deal when colleges across the country were chosen - two round trip tickets each year.
At DD’s school there’s no need to purchase personal printers. The dorms have facilities with printers and computers for everyone to use. One less thing we have to ship cross country.
No printer needed here either. The current students I’ve spoken to and become friends with say that nobody has them because it’s just not worth it. You get printer fees worked into the student fees anyway.
Last year my D had a print station right in the dorm. Nice for last minute printing esp in bad weather.
This year she is in an on campus apt but I don’t think they can print in every building so I might send my printer with her and she can use it with her laptop with the printing cable.
And I can get a wireless printer for at home, it’s nice being able to easily print from different devices.
D’s dorm has a computer center with printers so she won’t need one either. But even if she did, we’d likely buy it once in town-not a thing I would pay to ship, or we’d take advantage of Amazon Prime. In fact, we have a whole “buy there” plan for move-in. Turns out that pretty much every store we could possibly need to shop at are all within a mile or so on the same road and close to school. We’ll go with a list and knock it out in one day, I hope. Anyone else shipping as little as possible and doing most of the purchasing on-site?
@Cheeringsection I think you’re right about transportation between Milwaukee and Chicago. I have a good friend in Milwaukee whose kids shuttle back and forth between her home and dad’s in Chicago. I know she doesn’t often drive them herself. I can ask her for suggestions, if you’d like, @labegg .
I agree that printers are available for students but, I still plan to buy one because unfortunately my have-to-do-everything-at-the-last-minute-DS will inevitably be needing to print a paper at 3am that is due the next day. Having the ability to print in his room will be worth it.
@Ballerina016 I will add that the most expensive flight to book is the Thanksgiving flight (from school and back). That is the one that I book as soon as possible. My son doesn’t always know if classes are going to be cancelled…his school has classes scheduled through Tuesday afternoon. Every year we book a Tuesday night flight and at the last minute professors always seem to cancel classes. My son has to travel 1 1/2 to 2 hours to the airport…depending on which airport he is booked out of. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving I always plan in extra travel time.
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even start dorm shopping yet. I was expecting to see good sales today, but so far don’t see any. All this logistics of buying large items for her dorm room is still a little difficult for me to comprehend since we will leave her at her temporary dorm after orientation and she will have to move to her permanent dorm by herself.
This might be weird to say amongst all the flight logistics but I’m really happy I’m going to get to see my parents especially my mom more than once a semester. Possibly Labor Day because we have no classes, then Parents weekend at the end of September, then Columbus Day long weekend (no classes Monday and Tuesday) and then of course Thanksgiving. It may be too much for some people but seeing my family every few weeks really matters to me. The longest I have ever gone without seeing my mom is 5 days and that was when she was away. Longest I have been away 3 days, 2 nights
Not weird to say at all @readingclaygirl. Some students want closer and some want farther. Some will change their minds after they try what they thought they wanted and will transfer. There is no right answer. I am glad that you feel that you can have what you want.
I am bringing my D home for Thanksgiving this year. I booked direct, nonstop flights - we’re grateful it’s about an 1-1/4 hours flight .I think we can review how it works out next year. I think Amazon is going to be the go-to in our household. Am sending my D out for preorientation, and will follow a week later for move-in day.
Hard to do when it is 90 degrees and humid, but am having her do an inventory now so she knows what she has and an idea of what she will need. Ohio winters are more brutal than Massachusetts winters, so she probably has most of everything she will need.
@readingclaygirl, I think it’s great that you know what feels right for you. My S did not want to be far from home either. I doubt he will come home much but I think he’s more comfortable knowing it is an option.
Anyone sending a drying rack with their child’s laundry supplies? I guess I should’ve taken a look at the laundry facilities when we were on campus. D has a decent amount of ‘lay flat to dry’ items. Now, whether she will actually do that is another thing. She also cuts the tags out of everything the instant it comes home. She may need to start a journal of care instructions.
