So good to hear from you again, @AsleepAtTheWheel – have you moved in S16 yet? I’ll be keeping Prof Marshall’s words in mind in about 9 days when we launch our younger son.
We get a very small discount on the car insurance for having the kids away at college. It has to be x miles away from home.
Our insurance dropped by over $2000. That is from having one with no car at an out of state college and one taking the car to another city in state. It was a happy surprise for sure.
D doesn’t have her license yet, so we’re good. Also very glad neither of my older kids bothered to get their licenses until after they turned 18. So expensive!
I wanted to pass on my great find this morning, though I’m probably the last to know: half.com. D is renting her textbooks if at all possible, but wanted to keep one for one of her education classes (that she just added on Monday). The bookstore sells it for $100 new, $75 used. I found it online for anywhere from $65-80 used, plus shipping. Finally I just searched the title on Google and was directed to half.com, where I found the same book “opened but never used” for $50 INCLUDING shipping, as they have a coupon for 10% off. I’m sure that all the books are not literally half off like this one, but boy, it beat everyone else by a long shot. It will be the first place we look once D has her spring schedule.
S is my first kid to have a problem with not having all books in hand on day 1. (He did have all books except the two that a professor updates, and has printed and bound to sell the kids each semester.) He ordered last week online at the school bookstore, but they are still not in. S got an assignment yesterday, due tomorrow and it has to be written on and torn out of the workbook. No class website. I’m envisioning the professor responding to 200 emails from kids without books today!
Ugh. @psychmomma Does the bookstore know when they will get them? My sister is having a similar problem- she ordered her books a couple weeks ago, as soon as she could, and she still hasn’t gotten the “your books are ready for pickup” email. Classes start on Monday.
@psychmomma That professor deserves it. He probably did not get his updates in on time and he should know the bookstore doesn’t have them yet.
This whole “don’t buy the books until the first day of class” thing is really annoying. I am not sure why it is so hard for a professor to turn in an accurate booklist in advance of the semester. You end up with kids waiting to buy books in case they do not need them but then when they do, it is a scramble to get them in time. I don’t know why but this was not an issue “back in my day” undergraduate anyway.
I got my masters a few years ago and the first class of every semester was filled with- “do we have to buy the book? Can we use a previous edition?” I never had a professor say no to the first question and the answer to the second was always - “use them at your own risk.”
I wish schools would make professors answer those questions for students ahead of time so everyone could buy their books ahead of time. Not sure where this process broke down.
We emailed the bookstore (their preferred method of contact) but have not heard back. I told him to go in and see if they have any of the books he needs. They may be swamped and behind in entering them in the system to email that they’re ready for pick up. Of course S wanted to do the homework the minute it was assigned yesterday. Via email, he received an extension since the books aren’t in yet.
I feel sorry when this happens. It’s not that our kids aren’t perfectly capable of handling these glitches - they certainly are - it’s just that with all the new changes in such a short time period, I wish most things would go smoothly.
The timing of buying/renting books is such a gamble - do you wait for the first day to see what books are really required or spend big money to get them early and possibly need to return some?
@mrsquietstorm9 - how was your move-in?
D ended up with the wrong version of the book for one class, I think the proff wrote the book and insists that everyone only used the new version - really how much can “understanding classical music” change from year to year?? She also found out she needs a few books and programs that are only available by downloading them and she was surprised she had to pay for them. Why this was a surprize I don’t know.
@3scoutsmom I know that book… yes… and it comes with a set of CDs for listening- really- Macbooks don’t come with a drive, and in the days of spotify- CD players are obsolete! So, I guess my kid’ll be purchasing an external drive.
@psychmomma Move-in was good! We actually moved in a two days earlier than the regular move-in date. She was part of this Leadership program, so she got to move in early and therefore we didn’t have the same traffic as a regular move-in. We took our time and wasn’t rushed to get out of the parking lot. It was great! The only thing that I didn’t like moving in early was not meeting her roommate. According to my D16, her roommate is “ok” and they don’t talk much. So I guess I have to go with that until I possibly see her for Thanksgiving or Christmas break.
D did have a prof say that she would not have chosen a certain book had she realized that it was so costly, and another who is using the text only as an optional reference as the primary “book” is the online lab. He said they are absolutely allowed to use a previous edition. Most all offer the option of renting the text. It seems like they’re trying to keep costs down for the kids. We toured one school where students who get Pell Grants are allowed to borrow texts for the semester at no cost. Great idea.
@sseamom That is a great idea! I never heard of that before.
We moved S16 into his dorm yesterday. @mommdc Yes - the weather was perfect for move in!
He has a single on the top floor with a sink and a big closet. Freshmen move in first, and there aren’t too many freshmen in his dorm so there was no waiting at all. We got everything up to his room in 2 trips using 2 carts. We were there all day to help set up. We took a break for lunch and also ran out to IKEA, Costco and Home Depot. We ended the day with dinner nearby. Misty eyes and a big lump in my throat, but no tears. He seemed happy to be there. We left this morning and just got home. I only got a 3 word text from him today and no response to any follow up. Trying to be patient and understanding. No news is good news, right?
We did the move in this morning and are back home. It’s still not quite real, since he’s been gone a week or so at a time before.
Since we visited my daughter after move-in, then came home to my other S visiting for a week, we won’t begin to experience the no-kids routine until Sunday night. I’m definitely dreading it. S has texted a little daily, so that’s been nice.
School posted some welcome week event pictures and I can see DS – from the back. – but it is definitely him. Love this school already. :x
Glad to hear move in’s have gone well! We are still in the midst of clothes packing but everything else is ready to go.
Good luck @readingclaygirl