Trunk or Locker for Dorm Room

This thread has me spooked. I’m glad my kid lives in sweats, hoodies and jammies from Old Navy ? Nothing to steal here ! I just can’t even imagine locking up clothing in a college dorm which is supposed to be your home away from home. Like someone else said, You do you. I hope your fears of thievery are unwarranted.

BenniesMom1

You certainly need not be worried, regardless of what your child has to potentially be stolen. If someone is attending a good college, living in a dorm with locks (as is increasingly common), etc., then there is a small chance that theft will occur. I’m just a very paranoid individual, which leads to my particularly scrupulous approach to security.

TS0104

That’s encouraging to hear. I have heard the same from individuals attending college in recent years. My mother told me many stories of theft in her day, but those were certainly antiquated accounts. I will keep my valuables secure and make sure to close and lock my dorm if the latter is necessary.

ucbalumnus

I appreciate the enumeration. I will certainly secure those aforementioned goods with some fervor.

I would not stress about this until you figure out your dorm room set up. My daughter is in a “suite - style” room with rooms for 2 connected to bathroom for the 2 rooms. I believe her door automatically locks (based on the number of times she’s locked herself out) so the only way someone would have access to her room is if her roommates had people over. I don’t think they’d ever do that unsupervised. In addition, to get into her dorm at all you need to swipe in. So, to get into her room you’d need to both swipe in and unlock to door. While thefts happen at her school the ones I’ve heard about have been due to people leaving expensive items in common areas or somehow rigging their doors so they don’t lock when they leave. She actually jokes about how long things will sit in the common areas and no one touches them. She left a fairly expensive jacket in her chem lab right before Christmas break. When she went back 6 weeks later it was still there. But, maybe she just goes to school with generally nice people.

I think locking and unlocking items you use frequently would be a huge pain. And I don’t think you’re going to have space for a large locker or trunk in many rooms. But I guess you’ll have to wait until you see your dorm set up. I’d highly recommend not bringing crazy expensive items though unless you absolutely need them.

Another option is a device called “tile” (tile pro, tile mate, etc). You can get them on Amazon. It’s a very small device that you can put on or in an item you are worried about losing/being stolen. Then you can track the device on your phone if you want to know where it is. You can make an alarm go off, etc. It’s sort of like find-my-iphone.
My daughter has lost MANY coats since she’s been in school. We bought her these to put in a couple of jacket pockets since we got tired of replacing them. Now if she leaves them somewhere she can track them.

PrdMomto1 – I am glad your daughter has had positive experiences at her college. I think you’re right about waiting until I better understand the nature of my future living situation. Thanks.

@VinceLestrade

We bought our kids laptop locks…which they NEVER used. Big waste of money.

BUT they did learn that locking their dorm room door even if only going away for one minute was essential. So…I would suggest you do that. Lock your door at all times when you are not in the room. That will keep your valuables safe.

And don’t take anything really valuable with you…at all. If you are so worried about something getting stolen, either carry it with you at all times or don’t bring it.

Don’t ever leave your belongings unattended in an unlocked area.

Locking up clothes? Seriously…that is way over the top. What are you bringing clothes wise that is SOOO valuable to college. Leave it at home if it’s that valuable. Do you think folks are going to steal your jeans and sweats? Lock your room…view that as your big locker.

My son’s dorm room has a desk with a locking drawer. It is one of those big file type desk drawers with a metal loop for a lock. All the kids use a master lock or something equally sturdy to secure their belongings in this drawer. Drawer is big enough for his laptop, electronics and important papers.

We know kids at other schools where the desks in the dorms can also be securely locked. Check to see if the school you are going to provides desks or dressers with a locking drawer. It is an easy and secure solution and I am surprised reading this thread that all schools don’t provide something similar.

thumper1 — not all my clothes, really, just my coat and shoes. I’m in a really tight financial position, so I really can’t afford to lose anything that’s more than a few dozen dollars to replace. I think if the locks are good on my dorm, as you describe, I will be much relieved.

Dorm room door locks are good…but only if you use them!

What schools did you apply to? How many financial safeties are on your list? I wouldn’t spend a lot of time worrying about dorm life until you get an affordable acceptance.

@austinmshauri — The two colleges I have thus far heard back from have offered me full-tuition merit scholarships. I don’t know about need-based yet, so I’ll have to see if that covers room and board.

Congratulations on having two acceptances so far.

Are these meet full need schools?

What is your FAFSA EFC? Have you run the net price calculators on the websites of the schools you applied to?

Here is Emory’s NPC: https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/emory

Note that NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own a business, and/or have real estate holding beyond a primary residence.

@Mwfan1921 — Haven’t gotten anything back from Emory yet — the decision’s not until March. The two colleges I got info back from are ones I haven’t mentioned on the forum. Housing’s like a few thousand per semester. My FAFSA and CSS forms have been submitted to all 11 colleges I applied to, but my estimate for need-based is sort of low because it’s based on parent’s financial status and not mine. If I go to one of the two I’ve heard from thus far, I’ll graduate with minimal debt even with low need-based, and I can always get a job. My goal, though, would be to not have to work until after college, but I’ll have to see.

My kids both had no issues with theft that I heard of EXCEPT when S left his wallet and new cell phone on the bleachers in the school gym.

S’s dorm room had a safe built into his closet in the dorm room the school provided. As far as we know, neither he nor his room mate ever used those safes (room mate also had his own).

We strongly recommended both kids keep valuables out of sight (e.g. in a drawer or closet or on their person) so they are less tempting targets.

The kids are now done with college and still have no safe or locking footlocker or similar and have not had any theft issues.

@HImom — That’s good to hear. I hear that instances of theft on most college campuses are infrequent.

I wouldn’t expect a college that already awarded you merit aid to stack need based aid on top of that. Colleges base EFC off parents income because they expect parents to pay. Have your parents told you how much they’re willing to contribute?

You can only borrow ~$5500/year on your own. How much can your parents pay without borrowing? Will that and the ~$5500/year federal student loan cover the balance at the schools that gave you merit aid?

@austinmshauri — I know I can get federal student loans to cover the remaining balance for these first two colleges. I’m willing to get into some debt for a good education. My parents also may be able to pay, with me repaying them later on. I’m really not financially concerned, I just need to live very frugally.

If you got full tuition grants the net cost (room and board) is likely ~$13k. If you add travel costs, books, and health insurance it’s probably closer to $15k. You can only borrow ~$5500/year. Are your parents willing/able to cover the other ~$10k/year?

After merit scholarships, it’ll be a few thousand bucks maximum for the local option because I’ll be commuting. I’d only go to the second choice if they gave me additional scholarships to make it worth my time. The nine other colleges are wild cards; it really depends upon the scholarships I get. If it’s a really good college, my parents and I will go through hell to go there if need be — I can work, they can take out loans I’ll repay, I can take out loans, etc. It’s still TBD until March. I mentioned my inability to replace items because I know, if I were to go to one of these better colleges (where I’d live on-campus), my parents and I would be in a tough financial position, and I would not want to burden them with any expenses other than what was absolutely necessary.

Overall, the financial situation is not great, and I know I’m not in the same kind of place financially as many of the people attending these more prestigious colleges. Working towards a good college has been my life for years now — it has been everything to me — so, as I said, I’d be willing to go through a lot to attend. I really don’t want this to be my parent’s burden, so I’ll do everything I can to make it.