Shipping to College

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I know I’m kinda late in the game, but any thoughts on the best way to ship dorm essentials from to the opposite coast? My son doesn’t start school for another two weeks. I was planning on having him purchase everything for his dorm room once he arrives in California. Since I’m trying to figure out how to get his trombone and everything else on the plane, I thought it might be easier to ship everything to him.</p>

<p>It sure was easier when I drove his older brother 2 hours to college!</p>

<p>Any suggestions from parents who have had to deal with sending a child to college on the opposite coast? We aren’t going out with him.</p>

2

<p>When my D went from SoCal to NYC for college we were able to ship 3 boxes to the mailroom and pick them up on move in day. They had to be a certain size. We were able to ship all of her towels and bedding plus a box of shoes. </p>

<p>We flew Southwest so we each took two bags and we managed to get everything to school. We purchased some stuff once we arrived in the city, but we were able to get all of her clothes there this way.</p>

3

<p>We shipped two large boxes ahead of D2 a few weeks before school started (if you mail in the next few days they will be there when he arrives, I think it was something like 8 days from our Midwestern city to California). The school gave info on the mailing address for this. We purchased some things (bedding, since it gets really picked over, shower caddy that she was picky about, etc.). She shipped some clothes, her favorite pillow and a throw pillow she wanted, stuff like that. The boxes were waiting at school and we picked them up in the mailroom right after we got there. She put the empty boxes under her bed and will use them in the spring when putting stuff in summer storage. It cost about $60 to ship the two boxes via US Postal Service.</p>

<p>We flew Southwest, which allows 2 free bags checked. She had a large sports bag, so that was good. I think we only checked 3 bags between us anyway.</p>

<p>The night before dropoff we went to Target with a list of stuff to buy there (desk lamp, toiletries, etc – we made the list up ahead of time). I was glad we went the night before dropoff, because the dropoff/orientation day turned out to be jam packed with stuff to do, and we would have felt really rushed to get our stuff on the drop off day.</p>

<p>How is your son going to get to a store to purchase right when he gets to campus? And I have to say, we bought quite a lot of stuff. If he is buying all the stuff for his dorm room when he gets there (bedding, pillow, towels, toiletries, lamp, pop up hamper, etc.), it would be tough to carry it all to campus even if the store was in walking distance. It might be good to shop this week and ship what he needs just to get his bed made and through a couple of days if you can. Then he can make a trip when the school provides a ride or walk if it makes sense to pick up the remainder of stuff.</p>

<p>He should probably have the trombone as carry on, and then an item to fit under the seat. Everything else on the plane will need to be checked (which costs per bag on almost every airline except Southwest).</p>

4

<p>Some airlines apparently hate muscians more than others, Ive had several friends ( who are professional musicians)whove had cases damaged recently when they checked their instruments.
Might be safer to have it shipped.</p>

5

<p>Shop at Bed Bath and Beyond and pick up at a store near the school. There should be a dozen similar threads on this topic.</p>

6

<p>The BB&B solution only works if he has a way to get there or it is really close to campus. Since his parents are not going along, and it sounds like he will not have a car.</p>

7

<p>Not sure how big a school your child is attending, but we shipped a number of items using Amazon Prime . . .for $75 a year, you can ship many, many different things via 2 day air - - for no shipping charges. </p>

<p>We did drive our son, but ended up shipping all his books through Prime (waaaayy cheaper than the college bookstore) and a number of other items that he/we forgot.</p>

<p>You can do everything from little cosmetic items to comforters.</p>

<p>Of course if you’ve already purchased everything, it’s not super helpful. Not sure where you are in the buying process.</p>

8

<p>Check with the school. Some have arrangement with UPS to deliver packages directly to the dorm during the first few weeks of the fall semester. It is a little pricy, but it was worth it for us.</p>

9

<p>When we moved D from Texas to NYC three years ago, she went with two biggest suitcases allowed with the essentials (one bag had 1 sheet, thin blanket, towel, tiny pillow, toiletries etc and the other had a week of clothing etc). Then I shipped boxes 2 at a time over a period of days. The boxes were sized so she could carry them herself from the mailroom to her dorm room, pretty heavy but not too. Actually started a couple days before she left. We had them all packed and prioritized before she left. Kid was dead set on having most of her clothes and shoes and books there with her, plus oddities like her cappecchino machine and her room and closet were huge so there was room. I think we shipped about 10 boxes total and did them UPS. I think it was about $30 per box. She could have used the shuttle to do BBB but her dad had offered to buy stuff from home so we took him up on it. That summer, I used a storage rental place to secure her stuff when she came home and they delivered boxes/tape then came and picked up, then delivered the day she returned to school in the fall.</p>

10

<p>When we used BB&B, there was an option to have it delayed until you would be on campus, & they would ship to your box.</p>

11

<p>If you haven’t already purchased the items, why not order them online and have them shipped directly to his school. I did this with my son. I purchased his bedding and towels from JC Penney (JCP.com) and his toiletries from Amazon. Everything was shipped for FREE.</p>

12

<p>We got a Target Red Card which allowed us to ship for free.</p>

13

<p>We just went through this. I found that it was cheaper to check them on the flight than to send them. Checking was $20 for a 62" linear box (These large boxes were available at our local U-Haul location for $3.99/ea). Shipping by USPS was over $70 and that was using the slowest service. Our airline, Frontier, even let us carry on a guitar at no charge. I did buy some new items online from JC Penney and Overstock. I had those shipped because shipping was free or minimal.</p>

14

<p>If you are going to check luggage, just make sure you understand the size and weight restrictions, because the costs really skyrocket if you go over those. </p>

<p>Also, if your son has his college email address and access to his email box now, he maybe able to sign up for Amazon Student for free – which I think right now is giving all the benefits of Amazon Prime (including 2 day free shipping) for six months after he signs up. (My D was able to sign up for that and get most of her textbooks with two day shipping, a lot cheaper than the campus bookstore, so even if your don’t purchase online and ship, that could work for him. Although Amazon does not take debit cards, at least D’s does not work – but she has one of my credit cards with her name on it, so she could use that).</p>

15

<p>For many or very large items, try Greyhound.</p>

16

<p>If this is stuff you already own, FedEx or UPS ground will get it delivered in about a week. The cost used to run about $1 a pound back when my d. was in college – not sure what it is now. If you don’t already own stuff, the student can sign up for Amazon prime at a discount, free for the first 6 months, and you can order just about anything with free 2-day shipping.</p>

17

<p>We were able to take D’s oboe and sax as carry-ons, but not sure if trombone case is small enough. You’ll have to check with airline. If they won’t allow as carry-on, then pack case into a somewhat larger box that hopefully still meets checked luggage size restrictions and pack around it carefully with plenty of solid styrofoam. If box is oversize, check with airline. As a special item, they may waive special charges for oversize, policies vary. If they’ll allow as carry-on, he needs to be as close to front of boarding line as possible. He should go with elite passengers and beg that he needs to get space for his precious instrument.</p>

<p>Second what others said about Target and Amazon. Register your son with Amazon using his *****.edu e-mail and shipping will be 2day and free. Target gives 5% off with their card in addition to free shipping. Your son can get his own Target card linked to his personal debit acct., instead of a credit card, but need to show them a check and since D didn’t have any checks, had to go to bank to have one printed. </p>

<p>Is his dorm walking distance to any shopping? Check with university about any special shopping events. At D’s school they had a special Target night during move-in where Target opened late evening to students only with a special extra discount and they ran shuttle buses back and forth to dorms. Only so much you can carry that way, though. There was a bike fair where the local shops brought used bikes to an area in central campus one afternoon.</p>

<p>Also, we were there with car to do extra shopping, and noticed that despite stores’ best efforts stuff does get picked over (pillows, bathmats, etc.) So be sure that any essentials for the first night are shipped ahead or with him. Have a roll toilet paper packed. There wasn’t even a starter roll in dorm.</p>

<p>D has already met local kids with cars who happily take carloads of new carless friends on weekend shopping trips.</p>

<p>We checked large sturdy boxes since they are easier to stored collapsed for end of year use for storage or shipping back than are suitcases. She took just one carry-on suitcase.</p>

<p>The last few days before we left were a blur of activity with D working both jobs until very last day, end-of-summer concerts, last minute packing. Then more tired from the cross country flight and coming into a much hotter climate than any she’d experienced(113 degrees!) But it was early enough on our arrival to do administrative stuff that day. I insisted item one was to march over to the music bldg, get the locker key, and lock up instruments. She and H grumbled, but it turned out to be the best thing not to have to worry about instruments during the unpacking and shopping. She signed up for a couple of auditions while she was at it. </p>

<p>If you order books through Amazon 2day, they’ll come fast, but if you get better prices through some other sellers they may take much longer. Directtextbooks has good comparisons. Your son can e-mail his profs to check that the listed books are the ones he actually needs and then buy or rent them now so he’ll have them first day of class. Though some profs esp. for freshman classes are pretty understanding and may photocopy initial pages of books since many kids have no book or wrong book. He should unpack book boxes first to be sure they sent correct book. D had one seller send incorrect book and we had to quickly arrange to get the right book. </p>

<p>When unpacking, he should keep in mind how he’ll handle end-of-year. Some items, like floor lamps, are a bother to store and transport. We saved those boxes and packing materials. But hadn’t thought of that in advance and threw out one box before it occurred to someone that it would be needed later and retrieved it from garbage.</p>

<p>My D procrastinated with packing. I think it was hard to think about really leaving. So as it was too rushed, things got left behind. The minute we got home I ran to the post office to mail her planner and spent time scanning piano testing music to e-mail, sigh… </p>

<p>Good luck to him at his new school.</p>