@vistajay That made me laugh out loud. My daughter’s recent comment was “we’ll be like the golden girls”.
@melvin123 that’s a very good point. It’s Eastern PA so snow is definitely a factor. I’ve already discussed with her having a crash pad at a friend’s suite (maybe leaving an air mattress and some toiletries there especially since she’ll be 21 next school year and I’m sure she’ll want to go out once in a while. But the snow is another great reason to have a backup plan!
@melvin123 When my DS was in PT school, there were several students who arrived pulling a trailer, set themselves up at the local RV park and were good to go. I thought it was genius. I’d not want this for a Freshman as it could be isolating (although you did mention a park with lots of students) but I can certainly see it for the later years.
DS14 has lived in university housing all 4 years. Freshman: in first year residential hall with vast majority of his teammates. Still best friends with a lot of these guys 4 years down the road. Sophomore: Fraternity house with previously mentioned best friends and about 10 other teammates. Junior: Same as sophomore year but with a better room as he gained seniority. Senior: Suite style university housing with those best friends, one of whom is his roommate from freshman year.
DD18 is required to live in in university housing for the first 2 years and then we’ll see after that.
I myself lived in freshman housing and then my sorority house for the next 3 years. DH lived in freshman dorm and then his fraternity house the following 2 years (he graduated early).
@TexasMom18 we still have 8 schools on the plate, but 4 that are more likely and we have made housing deposits at those 4 (some are refundable, others we will take a loss). We have only registered for 1 orientation which was a free registration, but we may need to make more decisions before we have answers. It sure can get expensive to wait on merit…
@melvin123, be careful about telling your D that dorm housing is necessary because of cost. At D’s school (where they are required to live in the dorms the first 3 years), most kids find that it’s less expensive to live in an apartment. D will be doing that next year.
With regard to signing up for orientation, we are not there yet but if you can sign up both places, I’d do it.
One PSA I’ve been meaning to put out there: if you are close on a decision, you may want to reserve hotel rooms now for move-in weekend. At some schools that are a bit more remote, those hotel rooms can go fast.
@suzy100 thanks for the input. And great PSA!
@melvin123 requiring kids to stay on campus is easy or very hard, depending on where your kid go to school. My older daughter is moving off campus for her junior year–all the landlords we talked with required both student and parent on the lease, so not worried about getting “stuck”. I would prefer my kids to stay on campus, just because I think that is linked with better grades, attending classes, etc. It is certainly not cheaper to stay in dorms at most of the schools we’ve investigated.
Yes; I agree that it can be cheaper to live off campus (depending on where the school is). I like the idea of my D18 living on campus for all the reasons @Booajo said and also for my daughter, she has dietary needs and I feel like it will be more likely she will eat regularly and somewhat healthy if food is readily available.
Bah. Can’t we just freeze our kids and keep them at home so we don’t have to deal with any of this? JK.
Also re: move in weekend and parent weekend/homecoming, etc. We found it much cheaper to stay at a vrbo than at the hotels in the area.
Back in the Stone Ages, I lived on campus for just one year. I had apartment roommates my sophomore year, then lived alone for the last two. I found the apartments myself, dealt with landlords, paid rent and utilities, bought furniture…my parents didn’t do a thing. I loved it, did fine at school, and felt confident, independent, and self-sufficient. It was in a small college town, though.
McGill kicks kids out of the dorms after first year, so we won’t have a choice with D! Given my college apartment history, I’m tempted to step back and let her lead. If she needs help, we will definitely help her, but she’ll be in the thick of it and may know better than H and I how to best go about renting.
“Back in the day”, I lived in the dorms with my high school friend my freshman year, lived in the dorms in a single room sophomore year, then lived off campus in an apartment with one roommate junior and senior year. I liked it but I definitely wasn’t as social junior and senior year because of it. My daughter is very similar to me and I think she will fare much better being around a large group of people, hence the reason I like the fact most kids live on campus all four years.
@ShrimpBurrito My D16 also did everything herself as far as finding the apartment, getting the paperwork, etc. However, the landlord won’t rent to students unless their parents also cosign the papers. So we did.
I have to say, I would feel very different about this if she was moving in with a boyfriend!
Back in the day, I lived with my boyfriend at 20 and married him at 21…well before graduating college at 23. I was fully self supporting before moving in with H, but still.
My D is a candidate for the US Presidential Scholars also - she scored 36 on ACT. I checked with her School Counselor, she’d never heard of this so her school did not nominate her. She received an email followed by something in the mail. Nice recognition but not sure worth time and effort.
Sorry was following up on a post I read back on pg 845 or so of this thread LOL
Yep, only one year in the dorms for me too. I would have found it way too annoying and stifling to be in a dorm all 4 years. 2nd year in a house (at the beach), 3rd & 4th years townhouse across the street from school. I only went home the first summer after freshman year so it would have been a total pain to secure housing for the summer each year.
D15 lived on campus freshman year but moved into an apt near campus for sophomore year with 3 friends. The entire complex was college students and each girl had her own bedroom with bathroom and walk in closet. Each bedroom had it’s own lock and key, there was an emergency call button right inside the front door and one in each of the bedrooms. There was a pool, outdoor grills, a movie room, rec room and a copy and print room. It was cheaper than the dorms- by a lot.
For her junior year she moved into a house with the same 3 girls and while the rent was much cheaper than the apartment, the extra charges of wifi and utilities made it about equal. It also came unfurnished so we had to rent a van to move furniture there. They will remain in the house for their senior year.
The 2 biggest issues have been 1)you have to sign a lease very early in the year for the following year so you need to know who your roomates with be and 2)the lease is a 12 month lease so you are paying rent for the summer even if they come home. Her apt lease and house lease overlapped and we were paying rent at 2 places for a couple of months over the summer. I checked with friends who have kids at other colleges and they had the same aggravating experience of the overlap.
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DD also got Presidental nomination with a 35 ACT. The cutt off is set to take top twenty kids plus ties for each gender in the state. Since we are in a small state, our cutt has been 35 for several years. Large states are always set at 36.
DD will apply as her EC are pretty spiky and they might get her to the semifinal round… but you never tell as there is such a glut of super qualified kids, even in a small state.
Our S16’s housing experience had been identical to @VaNcBorders D15. He and his 3 friends started house hunting in September of last year and had the security deposit and lease done by Halloween for a rental that begins this coming August! I was impressed with their ability to realize the need to start early and reserve early to ensure they have a good place for junior year.
Just remember these Kids will be young adults on their own in just a few (9)months. It is so hard to think about my husband and I and correlate that to our own son. If my darling S18 tells me he is dating X and then I meet her at Christmas and then he tells me he is going to move in with her sophomore year, I just might loose my mind but that is what happened with DH and I. Yes, morale issues aside. We moved in together Sophomore year. I graduated in 3 years and it took DH 5 but I wouldn’t marry him until he graduated. He graduated on a Saturday and we married on a Tuesday. I was in grad school and he was on his way to law school. It has worked out so far (24 years). It is so hard to imagine my baby meeting his future wife in less then 10 months from now. I hope that doesn’t happen but I cant say it wont.
So have those conversations with your kids about housing and then just make sure you roll with the flow, neither one of us had paid housing, that could have been a game changer but I am sure that we would have figured something out. None of the schools S18 is looking out require more then freshman year on campus. So in our hunt for the “perfect fit” He is looking at not only Freshman year but where will he live for the next 3 years. Is it safe, Is it close, affordable etc… that has been a factor at ranking his schools.