Just a PSA to share - a friend of mine’s son got mono his freshman year and was unable to get back for start of second semester. Luckily, they had gotten tuition insurance. It is well worth it to get it even if you don’t think your child will have academic issues, there are many other things that can go wrong and college is way to expensive to pay for an unnecessary extra year!
@Momma2018 - Great reminder on tuition insurance! And there is dorm content insurance too - we got for DS17 - have not had to use either so far but it is great to have the peace of mind! DS18 has 4 schools he is pretty interested in so far (and accepted too) so we finally made plans to go to a few accepted student days at Case, UMD, Tulane and Richmond. Not ready to put down housing deposits (do not how if possible without accepting the admission offer at these schools) or make hotel plans for move in dates just yet though. Still 3 more reaches to hear from - late March time frame.
Where does one find tuition and dorm content insurance?
@sekere62 @parentscc My S18 also got the US Presidential Scholar nomination with a 36 ACT. I just looked at the list of candidates and there are definitely a lot of ties because there were around 89 candidates for Alabama (the first state on list).
My son will probably not apply. Essay fatigue has definitely set in, spring sport is starting soon, and we have been to Wash DC too many times to count. But we do love DC, and highly recommend that every kid get there if possible.
Unless this honor is something that he can put on a grad school application, it is not worth it to him :-/
Possibly shortsighted?
https://www.gallagherstudent.com/students/student-personal-property/
We got student personal property coverage for my D through Gallagher, it has been around $90 a year for $3,000 coverage (laptop, phone, etc).
My D was able to live on campus for 3 years at Pitt. She and her roommates are looking for an apartment for next year right now.
Seconding @suzy100 's PSA on booking hotels for move-in once you know the school. We booked ours for move-in and Parents Weekend a week or two after S18 got in ED, and the hotel we’d stayed in when we visited the school was fully booked for move-in. (But there were plenty of other hotels and we got another one that’s also walking distance to campus - no need to stress if you don’t know which school, but once you do know, go ahead and book the room. Or go ahead and book now at whichever schools are in the running, as long as the rooms are nonrefundable and you’ll remember to cancel them if you don’t need them.)
@birdie3 I think most colleges offer coverage through a third party insurance agency and will provide you with information when you enroll. You can check with your child’s school and you might also check with your own homeowner’s agent. My friend said it cost her an extra $400/yr and was well worth it.
We got dorm insurance for our DS here: www.CollegeStudentInsurance.com
There are three move-in dates for Syracuse and we have already reserved a hotel for each of those days. Easy enough to cancel the ones we won’t need once we learn which date DD has been assigned. We also already have a hotel for Parents Weekend and have put in for the lottery for the on-campus hotel. And we also have her Thanksgiving flights booked. Call us planners lol.
@2014novamom despite the fact my daughter hasn’t committed yet we are fairly certain that we know where she’ll end up and we already booked hotels for Parent’s Weekend and Move In Week haha. I’m glad to see there are others who plan a bit like me! 
My S18 just got a letter from the Mayor of the city that the University is in. It goes on and says how much the city enjoys the University and the students and welcomes him to the city with open arms. Thought it was pretty neat. He has been accepted to 7 schools and only one letter from a Mayor. Made me think about all the University’s and how much the town supports the school and the students. Anyone else receive something from someone not related to the University?
Dang!! I thought I was a planner, but you Parents’ Weekend bookers have me beat big time. I guess if I had a better sense of where my son will end up, I would be doing the same. I am tempted to go ahead anyway, but maybe I should wait until I at least know where he got in . . . it’s such a long time between early rolling admissions and RD admissions!
Thanks to all of you who alerted me to doing this important planning. I made reservations at the 3 most likely schools for both move in day and what used to be “parents weekend” back in our day and is now “family weekend.”
As @pickledginger said the Family weekend reservations are much harder to come by and much more expensive
We have never attended parent’s weekend for our oldest, too crowded. We have found it works better for our family to visit on a different weekend.
@Texas1820, Pittsburgh is the only school where my son has received a letter from local government. I was very impressed by that. Where we live, there is a lot of animosity between the local government and the university and I couldn’t imagine a letter like that being sent out. I also thought it was yet another example of Pitt’s “smooth operation” - very well-coordinated.
@burghdad, I wasn’t the one who had words of wisdom about Family Weekend, but I am happy to hear them! Maybe I should book a whole bunch of refundable hotels after all?
Did you all call to confirm when each school’s 2018 Family Weekend will be? A quick search of websites seems to show last year’s dates now, not 2018 dates.
We booked our hotel for move-in weekend in Nov. We visited her school last October and didn’t realize until we got there that it was family weekend. Hotel prices were ridiculous and the restaurants in town were all full. We’ve already decided to go up a different weekend next year. She’s an athlete though, so we’d rather go when we can see her compete anyway.
Wow! So many organized parents…I’m envious. D’s top choices are all in large cities so I am not as concerned. But if it becomes a problem, we will just take our RV.
@pickledginger Just did web search with school name, family weekend and 2018 and was able to find them
We’ll be making several trips to ds top choice school in the never future and did some research on local hotels. I picked one that meets our needs and has a good perk point program and we’ll be staying at the same hotel each visit.
Syracuse posted the date on their Facebook page.
Ok, so a question. My DD has been invited to a Scholars weekend at a college, and they offered her a hotel because it starts early in the morning and we are too far to drive in the morning.
For the scholars program, they are saying that she can bring one guest (and only one guest, quite specific).
However, we will be traveling back from a ski trip elsewhere earlier that week and we’re planning on just stopping and attending this program on the way. So we would have myself and my hubby and younger teenage daughter who would be using the hotel room. Do you think this would be an issue? Hubby and younger DD would just hang out in hotel during the actual Scholars program (but she would get to see the college in general).
I really don’t want to take two cars on the ski trip…
Are they saying one guest for the program? Do you think they would care about who sleeps in the hotel room? I guess I could get a second room?