I think you could learn a lesson or two about the emotional side of this. Did you really just send your freshman kid off and not consider accompanying him for the drop off at college? As far as I can tell, you gave no thought to how that feels to a kid when pretty much every other parent has their family there. Even if they took public transit, they had another set of hands to help handle luggage, set up the dorm room, run out for needed supplies, etc. A lot of the reasoning behind paying for the shuttle is that you have set your kid up for a stressful experience to start with by not accompanying them. How about doing what you can to ease the transportation side so at least he isn’t stressed from wrassling his stuff around by himself through multiple transportation modes? I think it is a great lesson for a kid AFTER the initial college dropoff – he will have 5-6 opportunities/year to take the cheaper option when traveling to & from home throughout his four years. But I wouldn’t do it to my kid on their first trip to college with all of their stuff, and I think most other posters wouldn’t either.