Little pangs of jealousy when I read the posts of committed kids and some of you being done! I planned our spring break trip to Union>Trinity>Clark>Conn. We are going to call American tomorrow to see if they will work with us. Then have a tour scheduled for Rutgers and lastly Bard Admitted Students Day…juuuuust before Decision Day. We will be down to the wire! I want this to be their decision, but my gut says Conn or Clark are the best matches for them.
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With my S22 he decided on April 30. I think his mind was pretty made up a week or 10 days earlier, but he was hoping they’d give a little more merit aid right at the end if their numbers weren’t where they wanted (they didn’t). But despite the fact that I thought he probable knew, I wasn’t sure until then.
With S25, we’ve got our second and last visit next Saturday. I’m hoping that he’ll be ready to make a call within a week or so after that. I know that neither of the schools he’s really considering are going to give more money, so it’s just him knowing what he wants. He just declined a school today, so at least we’re knocking a few off the list.
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Likely the twin xl but a cheap one. My son’s got trashed. I created a dorm wish list on amazon that D25 and I are sharing for fun. Neither her nor her roommate have any idea of how they want to decorate yet.
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I look forward to hearing all about the trip and hope that the visits are clarifying. If you have time in Worcester, I recommend the Worcester Art Museum. I was just there today for a performance. Great place.
Edited to add: We are also no closer to committing. Still on break from college talk until admitted students day next weekend and another on April 18.
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Second vote for TwinXL. But my older kid said his room was always too hot in the winter so he preferred just a light blanket, like a waffle knit kind of thing. He didn’t have a place to store the comforter and ended up rolling it up like a giant long log, and using it as some kind of an extra padding bolster on the long side of the loft and the wall. I’m sure it looked GREAT. 
His sophomore year he was off campus and his bed was a regular twin size - the twin XL sheets fit fine, just needed extra tucking, and there his room was always cold so he actually used the comforter.
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@OctoberKate and @Kumihama-Cho I feel you. My S25 is failing a class. After several refusals to turn any work in, meet with the teacher, work with a tutor, an email from the teacher and a letter from the school saying he won’t graduate unless he has a passing grade, he finally decided to start working with a tutor- as in 2 weeks ago.
He is always unrealistic about how much time things take and has no sense of urgency until things absolutely hit bottom and then it becomes an emergency - which I think he really likes, to be honest. I think he is so bored in school, he “creates” these adrenaline-filled challenges for himself. It’s been like this ever year of high school.
To add to the “excitement”, he missed the make up of a test worth 100 points. Granted we had a family emergency on the last day he was allowed to make it up, so I hope the teacher will allow him to still make it up. But that’s how things are going over here…
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We leave for Michigan on Thursday, tour Friday, then off to Minnesota for 2 tours the following week.
Trying to figure out when to fit a tour of upstate NY in. That one will be a challenge to make. Maybe the earlier tours will give clarity and we won’t need to go there. I’m already tired just thinking about it all.
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HS Class of 2024 parent here. Congrats to all of your kids on their acceptances! There’s a lot of change coming up in the next several months. It’s exciting and scary, but you and your kids will get through it. 
In case it’s helpful, here’s some dorm things that my kid has found to be useful during freshman year:
- These moving bags. Similar to the zip-up ones that IKEA used to sell.
- pair of slide-in shower shoes
- This bedside caddy hanger-thingy that hangs off the edge of the bed
- nightcap drink cover scrunchie
- one of those Woozoo fans that everybody always talks about. Worked like a charm on move in day, which was a SUPER hot day!
- this tool set. comes in different colors. Other people on her floor have borrowed it.
- this cute cloud-shaped magnetic key holder. She & her roommate use this every day.
- this safe that looks like a dictionary. If somebody’s going to steal something from your dorm room, the odds are low that they’ll think to look inside a dictionary.
- this travel utensil set. Comes in a zip-up pouch. She’s said that this is the #1 thing she’s used the most.
- this air purifier. Has removed all of the weird “room funk” smells that can happen sometime in dorms. Aside from one cold she & roommate had for a couple of days in the fall, neither of them have been sick all year. Maybe this had something to do with it? No idea, but I’d say it probably helped!
- utility cart like this one from IKEA. Stores all of her snacks & other kitchen-y stuff in it.
- 1 plastic cup, 1 bowl, 1 plate from Target. the cheap $0.50 each kind. + a small container of dish soap & a small sponge so you can wash it all by hand yourself.
- one of those special “cook ramen in a bowl in the microwave” thingies
- a Brita water filter. Got her the filters that last 6 months and gave her 1 year’s supply of filters so she wouldn’t have to replenish them during school year.
- 3" mattress topper thingy
What I wish we had done differently:
- We should have bought a regular mattress protector instead of the kind that zips up and you shove the whole mattress into it. Between mattress & the 3" mattress topper, the topper slides around a lot and it’s a pain.
- not bothered getting her a special sleep mask that has noise cancelling head phones in it that you can connect via Bluetooth to another device (i.e., to use for white noise while you sleep). D24 said the sleep mask never stayed on, slid around too much, too hard to use.
- she could have used something like this desk hutch in order to get some of her clutter off of her desk. We ended up buying a lap tray thingy for cheap at a Daiso store and that’s been ok, but next school year, I’m going to buy her one of these instead to use sophomore year.
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Super helpful list - thank you! I started looking at what we bought for my S22 last night and some of the stuff I really liked is no longer purchaseable, so new links are always helpful!
To add to the list above:
- We bought this safe https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017ROYKWK - it fits his ADHD meds, which we didn’t want accessible (he takes out no more than a week at a time), extra cash, passport.
- The lofts in S22s room came with a bedside shelf - this was great and where he left things at night that you might put on a nightstand. If it hadn’t come with that, then we likely would’ve bought one. These aren’t available anymore, but we bought these baskets for the inside underneath area of the loft - basically to create some hanging storage for whatever odds and ends. He filled them with all kinds of random things his freshman year. His sophomore and junior year he had more room and didn’t need them, so I’m glad I didn’t spend much on them https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0868FL3VP
- This big laundry bag that you can wear as a backpack - has held up well for three years https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R7FP1HT
- second the woozoo fan. Although, to be fair, I got a little insane re: fans. I bought three. I don’t know what happened. It was like my mind went nuts - if I can JUST help make the climate better, than everything will be ok! My whole family made fun of me for this.
- I also second the moving bags. Surprisingly large, they fold tiny and can stay in the room if needed, easy to carry and durable.
- When you get your child’s dorm assignment, take a look at the pictures of the room. In S22s room, the chairs for the desks are wood, with wood seats and frankly, look insanely uncomfortable. I bought him this (this one out of stock, but you get the idea) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TMF3J8R which he totally made fun of, but then later told me he was really glad to have it. He sat at that desk for a lot of hours working on the computer, so a comfortable seat was a good idea.
- About a zillion different power strips. Ok, that’s an exaggeration. But at least three different power strip/surge protectors. Ones with different length cords, so they could be used all over. He didn’t need all three, but his were better lengths than what his roommates bought, so they ended up using all of his.
- Zip ties. Sounds weird. But super useful for tying cords out of the way under the loft and attaching things.
Things he didn’t use:
- Air filter and dehumidifier. I bought both of these things. The kid has terrible allergies, so I wanted to get dust/pollen out of the air, and reduce any likelihood for mold/mildew. Unfortunately, because of the temperature controls, they ALWAYS had their windows open. All year. So these would’ve been totally useless.
- More than one set of sheets/towels. I bought him extra pillowcases and a second set of towels. Never got used. He preferred to just wash what he had and put them back.
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Decisions, decisions. S25 has some great options, and so we attended the local MIT Admitted Student event in our city. At the event, the kids immediately gathered by themselves and started gabbing, while the parents awkwardly chatted. Later, I asked S25 what the kids were talking about. He said, “Oh, you know, theoretical math and stuff.” Happy that he may have found his crowd, but I also felt very old! In my day, we’d talk about music or movies. . .
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Hi All,
D25 had a pretty eventful weekend: she was nominated for prom court (prom this coming weekend), her chamber orchestra qualified for State on Saturday, and Sunday morning she woke up to an email from Cornell that she had been selected as a Meinig Family Cornell National Scholar. Super excited for her.
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We are headed to San Luis Obispo today. It is about a 4 hour drive, so not bad. Touring Cal Poly tomorrow. We will also do some prom dress shopping before heading home on Wednesday.
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Thank you! I am just trying to get knowledgeable about Yale and do not even think I know the right questions to ask. More looking to read up on others’ experiences and questions. Just reading CC helped me a lot, answered questions that I did not even think of, but are helpful.
how many of these did you need @sbinaz ?
For D24, I bought 4 but really needed 5 or 6. Your mileage may vary depending on how much stuff your kid decides to bring! D24 didn’t fit all of her stuff in the IKEA-like moving bags. But it fit a lot of her clothes and all of her linens.
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We bought five and I think used three. But, to be fair, I also bought some of these shrink pack bags to really compress some of his stuff. https://www.amazon.com/Hefty-Shrink-Pak-Bedding-Reusable-Vacuum/dp/B0C69P3HYW
After freshman move in, we never brought it all home. He had a storage unit or moved into his offcampus housing about the same time the school year ended at the end of freshman and sophomore year, so after that first big hauling of stuff to college, we’ve never yet brought it all home.
Because he also uses a desktop computer with three monitors (so big and bulky), and because all four of us wanted to go for move in day, we ended up driving up in our car + a rental car so that there would be enough room for all the stuff. We left the rental car there and the three returning home drove back in the family vehicle. When it’s move out time, I suspect if there’s more than one parent (e.g. if we can’t use the whole backseat) we will need to rent something again.
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Same with us for D23, they fit a ton of stuff and she’s in Texas so her clothing was small 
I taped the bags shut and checked them on the plane. She also ordered half of Amazon and it was there waiting for us when we moved her in.
My daughter gets a lot of use out of these plastic drawers for under her bed.
https://a.co/d/hVGNBHX
You’ll also want a long charger for phones etc. Sometimes the outlets are far away.
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We had to set a timer for college talk on Sunday- D25 and I can sometimes talk for hours in circles and not get anywhere. She was a little surprised when it cut her off but then thanked me for sticking to it!
^^^
Meant to post the above on Sunday and it didn’t post for some reason. Meanwhile I’ve been catching up on the what to buy threads. Super useful, I’ll be looking at these later!
Today we toured one of D25’s top choices, Middlebury. It really clicked and I think she is willing to let some choices go.
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I could write most of that first paragraph word for word. My kid has always had it too easy in high school, even taking very hard loads, but still got straight As. Right now, also struggling in AP English simply by not turning in homework. OrgChem, AP Stats, AP Psyc, nearly 100% in each class (105% in OChem), but he hates English. He kept telling me he turned in the missing assignments, but I found it that was BS. When I talk to him about it he basically said he could not turn in another assignment and still be a B in the class and graduate and the college he is planning on going to wont care, thus he doesn’t care. He isn’t wrong, but that attitude is killing me.
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I agree with the annoyance, but I mean, at some level you’ve got to learn to prioritize what you prioritize. If you’re happier in the sciences than the humanities, you need to be somewhat competent at the humanities (perhaps particularly basic writing), but it doesn’t need to be your focus; similarly, if you’re happier in the humanities than in the sciences, you need to be somewhat competent in the sciences (perhaps particularly basic arithmetic), but it doesn’t need to be your focus.
Which is frustrating to watch, but it’s also an exercise in reality.
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