Parents of College Class of 2018 (A.K.A., "Is this the line to the poor house?")

[Gina]

This is the front of my son's residence hall.... will have more pics next week!

 

[Gina]

((Is the picture even visible?? I can see it in the post on my phone, but don't even see a placeholder if I look on my computer ))

 

[elgerber]

((Is the picture even visible?? I can see it in the post on my phone, but don't even see a placeholder if I look on my computer ))

I see it

 

[JeannieNM]

I do I do. Great dorm room!

Dd and I finished as much shopping as we can do for her iddy biddy dorm room. She and DH are leaving Sunday and stopping at the Grand Canyon on thier way to LA. I'm going to fly out Monday and meet them.

I was talking to my college friend today and we were talking about how we just took whatever sheets and towels our parents could spare. Mainly mismatched. Dd has all new linen etc. Times have changed.

Excited to see how her room comes together.

 

[njmom47]

DS (65' or 6'6, 220 lbs) is rooming with two other athletes, 62', 220 and 6'5, 190.
There is one single bed and one bunk bed. They're not even XLs.
I can't wait to see how this all plays out.
A co-worker gave me a fridge that her son used for college (he just graduated). Free is great!!
He moves in next Friday morning and has a 3 day orientation. Parent's orientation is Saturday so dh and I will get a hotel room. Not sure if any other hotels do this but we got $30 off our bill when we mentioned we were there for a college function. The hotel clerk told us that they have a deal for all the colleges in the area to discount stays for school-related functions.

 

[Pembo]

DS (65' or 6'6, 220 lbs) is rooming with two other athletes, 62', 220 and 6'5, 190.
There is one single bed and one bunk bed. They're not even XLs.
I can't wait to see how this all plays out.
A co-worker gave me a fridge that her son used for college (he just graduated). Free is great!!
He moves in next Friday morning and has a 3 day orientation. Parent's orientation is Saturday so dh and I will get a hotel room. Not sure if any other hotels do this but we got $30 off our bill when we mentioned we were there for a college function. The hotel clerk told us that they have a deal for all the colleges in the area to discount stays for school-related functions.

We used college discounts at 3 different hotels we stayed at for college auditions. It was always a great rate.

DS got his Welcome Weekend schedule today. He will be busy those first days. Move in is next Thursday and classes start on Monday. He won't have time to rest until Sunday evening. AT orientation they told us they keep the frosh busy so as not to miss home.

 

[IDoDis]

I'm usually a pretty savvy shopper, but I feel like I've failed big time with saving money on textbooks for the fall. I spent lots of time researching online prices, making local calls to used bookstores, and plugging the info into a nice spreadsheet that JeannieNM made for me, but I still ended up paying a small fortune of $620 and there's still one more custom book to buy with the "required" online code access for $175ish and it's nowhere to be found locally used. I was willing to risk DD not having the code on this book, but I was at a loss for finding the books to rent because when I searched by ISBN number there were no matches because of the books being "custom." I was able to rent one book cheaply on Amazon, but only one book.

So how do you know if you are getting the right book if the ISBN is different because the custom books have different ISBN numbers? Also, I worried about DD reading the wrong pages if she had a different version of the book. So, I have to chalk up this first semester as an expensive learning experience. Once DD sees how it works with her classes, she will have a better gauge for what the professors and instructors want in the future. Her scholarship has money in it for books, but I'd have much rather saved that money by renting the books and applying those funds towards the meal plan instead.

I know DD will have to use the online access codes for two of her classes for sure based on info from others who took the class. Also, she still needs 7 of the 10 books for her honor's class, but I can get those cheaply on Amazon. She won't have to read the entire books and will only have to read a play from each book, but finding the right version of each play or excerpt was not worth the time vs paying a few dollars for each paperback. I already bought the first three books which will be used during the first three weeks of school. She needed a clicker+, also.

 

[IDoDis]

This is the front of my son's residence hall.... will have more pics next week!

It looks really nice! Turns out it's not the same residence hall company though. The buildings built and managed by the same company as DD's dorm (A&M) are at the Laraeo campus.

 

[PlutoPony]

So how do you know if you are getting the right book if the ISBN is different because the custom books have different ISBN numbers?

About the only way is to ask the prof at the first class when they talk about textbook use. It IS a definite risk to get a book that does not match ISBN #.

The lesson my son learned last year as a freshman was to wait until the first class is over to get books. This is the biggest money saving suggestion I can make about books. He had several classes that didn't use the book and the prof essentially told them not to bother getting it. Before he went to school last fall we looked at his books on various websites, including the campus bookstores, and found where they were cheapest. Then after first class he had a game plan of where to go, whether to rent or buy,etc. Waiting until a day or so in to order from places like Amazon or Chegg was not a problem as far as getting the books in a timely fashion. They all do quick shipping so if you have them a week or so into the semester you are typically good to go. Also don't forget you can sign up for 6 months of free Amazon Student (i.e. Amazon Prime) using an .edu email and get free 2 day shipping. Most kids at his school used that a lot for a variety of things during the year.

BTW, it is possible that one book can be used for multiple classes which helps. My son is on the 3rd semester using his calculus book (and no he didn't have to retake the same class multiple times )

 

[mom2rtk]

About the only way is to ask the prof at the first class when they talk about textbook use. It IS a definite risk to get a book that does not match ISBN #.

The lesson my son learned last year as a freshman was to wait until the first class is over to get books. This is the biggest money saving suggestion I can make about books. He had several classes that didn't use the book and the prof essentially told them not to bother getting it. Before he went to school last fall we looked at his books on various websites, including the campus bookstores, and found where they were cheapest. Then after first class he had a game plan of where to go, whether to rent or buy,etc. Waiting until a day or so in to order from places like Amazon or Chegg was not a problem as far as getting the books in a timely fashion. They all do quick shipping so if you have them a week or so into the semester you are typically good to go. Also don't forget you can sign up for 6 months of free Amazon Student (i.e. Amazon Prime) using an .edu email and get free 2 day shipping. Most kids at his school used that a lot for a variety of things during the year.

BTW, it is possible that one book can be used for multiple classes which helps. My son is on the 3rd semester using his calculus book (and no he didn't have to retake the same class multiple times )

Yep. Neither of mine will buy a book now until after the first class for this reason.

 

[sk!mom]

Today's the day. Move in tomorrow but it's a 4 hour drive so we're heading out today. Everything's loaded. We have family dropping by at 10 for donuts and final farewells. She just hugged her big brother goodbye and I teared up of course. I don't get to see many sibling affectionate moments.

We came home Tuesday night from an awesome vacation of Justin Timberlake, Harry Potter, and Disney. Our flight out of Orlando was delayed over 4 hours so we didn't get home until 1:00 am. Between being overtired and DD starting to pack her room I cried all day Wednesday.

DD has had a whirlwind 3 days of breakfast dates, lunch dates, ice cream dates, and last sleepover with her best friend. In the midst of all this her boyfriend broke up with her Thursday. They were going to try to keep a long distance thing going. She's mad more than sad. I'm relieved that even though it happened two days before she leaves at least it wasn't in the middle of freshman year when she's 4 hours away. He's really a good guy. He just realized it wasn't going to work.

Here we go...

 

[mom2rtk]

Today's the day. Move in tomorrow but it's a 4 hour drive so we're heading out today. Everything's loaded. We have family dropping by at 10 for donuts and final farewells. She just hugged her big brother goodbye and I teared up of course. I don't get to see many sibling affectionate moments.

We came home Tuesday night from an awesome vacation of Justin Timberlake, Harry Potter, and Disney. Our flight out of Orlando was delayed over 4 hours so we didn't get home until 1:00 am. Between being overtired and DD starting to pack her room I cried all day Wednesday.

DD has had a whirlwind 3 days of breakfast dates, lunch dates, ice cream dates, and last sleepover with her best friend. In the midst of all this her boyfriend broke up with her Thursday. They were going to try to keep a long distance thing going. She's mad more than sad. I'm relieved that even though it happened two days before she leaves at least it wasn't in the middle of freshman year when she's 4 hours away. He's really a good guy. He just realized it wasn't going to work.

Here we go...

I told my son last year, some things you don't have to do well, you just have to do. Getting out the door to college is one of them. Just get through, put one step on front of the other. Soon your pride in her accomplishments and spreading her wings will balance out all the tears.

A week from today I get to test my "theory" that the second year is a lot easier.

 

[IDoDis]

About the only way is to ask the prof at the first class when they talk about textbook use. It IS a definite risk to get a book that does not match ISBN #. The lesson my son learned last year as a freshman was to wait until the first class is over to get books. This is the biggest money saving suggestion I can make about books. He had several classes that didn't use the book and the prof essentially told them not to bother getting it. Before he went to school last fall we looked at his books on various websites, including the campus bookstores, and found where they were cheapest. Then after first class he had a game plan of where to go, whether to rent or buy,etc. Waiting until a day or so in to order from places like Amazon or Chegg was not a problem as far as getting the books in a timely fashion. They all do quick shipping so if you have them a week or so into the semester you are typically good to go. Also don't forget you can sign up for 6 months of free Amazon Student (i.e. Amazon Prime) using an .edu email and get free 2 day shipping. Most kids at his school used that a lot for a variety of things during the year. BTW, it is possible that one book can be used for multiple classes which helps. My son is on the 3rd semester using his calculus book (and no he didn't have to retake the same class multiple times )

DD didn't open her books yet (they are shrink-wrapped with the code cards), so as long as she doesn't open the books, she can return them. She has already received work in her chemistry class which was optional, but will count towards 3% credit on her final exam. First, she had to take an online test which took about an hour. Right now she's in the process of completing about 40 online learning modules which has been taking her about two hours a day. The email she received said that she would have homework starting on the first day of class, thus encouraging her to complete all of the modules before school starts which is on Monday -- two more days!!! So, it sounds like she will need her chemistry book on day 1. This plan that the school is using for the large weeder classes like chemistry and biology is in place to increase the rate of students passing and not being faced with having to change out of a STEM major. Apparently, 50% get a C or lower, so the school is using these online modules before class starts to help the students be better prepared for the work given on day 1. She said the work was not hard, but has been time consuming.

She will know after this first time though how it all works and how much time the professors give to buy the books, and how many say not to bother with buying the codes. Hopefully in class they will give out a different ISBN number (on the syllabus) that is not their custom book. That was our big glitch in this whole process this time, otherwise I'd have rented the books. I didn't want DD stressing with a bunch of homework and not having the books. We do have Amazon Prime already so I can have the books mailed to her. Eventually DD will sign up for Amazon student and will do all of this herself.

On a lighter note, DD has been enjoying all of the activities on campus this week. There have been fun events every night. She came home last night to go to a going away party for a good friend who is leaving for college today, and then she drove back to school to attend the "Friday Night Live" event where there were photo booths, casino games, karaoke, video games on projection screens, a laser tag arena, a DJ Dance, tons of free food, etc... Tonight there's a block party on the street where the residence halls are. There's going to be an outdoor concert, bounce houses, free food, and a dance. Freshman Family day is on Sunday with freshman convocation and then DD is off to classes on Monday!

 

[Happy Snowman]

Freshman Bio and Chem were weed out classes at our DD's school as well...and it worked for a lot of kids . Our DD was a class tutor and she said several times how she wondered if they had had any chem in high school at all. Most had no idea how to write up a lab or even work with basic lab equipment. THey all wanted to be doctors though . O-Chem is a weed class at a lot of schools though.

 

[Pembo]

I told my son last year, some things you don't have to do well, you just have to do. Getting out the door to college is one of them. Just get through, put one step on front of the other. Soon your pride in her accomplishments and spreading her wings will balance out all the tears.

A week from today I get to test my "theory" that the second year is a lot easier.

Love this...the tears are going to flood my pride this week. DS asked today if I could keep his shirt dry. I told him to have another shirt handy.

 

[mom2rtk]

Love this...the tears are going to flood my pride this week. DS asked today if I could keep his shirt dry. I told him to have another shirt handy.

Good luck! I hope it goes well this week.

 

[coinkc]

Just got home from dropping my daughter off at school. She met her roommate and so far so good - I think they have the potential to become good friends!

They got their room all set up and were heading off to the first of many orientations scheduled this week when we left.

She was so happy and excited and it made me smile to see that. At the same time, I know I will miss her terribly... Lots of tears today but many more smiles so all is good in our world.

Hope everyone's kids have a wonderful year! Good luck to everyone!

 

[JeannieNM]

DD and DH just drove off headed for college via the Grand Canyon. We had a BBQ for DD last night, luckily we loaded the car before everyone came as the last guests left close to 11. One of DDs friends spent the night and left after breakfast this am. It really helped. DD cried most of the morning. Hard to believe this is happening. We did most of the shopping here because we know our way around home and Los Angeles traffic would have made it an ordeal. We will need a couple small Target etc. runs but hopefully that is it.

DD moves in on Tuesday. She has a 4 day dance intensive, her roommate arrives Friday, convocation is Sunday, and classes start Monday.

I better go pack a bag as I am flying out tomorrow am to meet them.

Best of luck to everyone.

 

[scrapquitler]

DD moves in next Sunday. Her roommate will be moving in on Wednsday because she is part of a peer leadership program.

We have books for 3 of DD's 5 classes so far. Grand total cost to date: $35. She needed a paperback book for her intro to performance, a paperback about viruses and a lab manual for one of her science classes. All purchased on Amazon brand new at the low price of $35. total. She also needs a Calculus 2 book, which happens to be the same one that she used last summer at the Community College for Calc 1. The remaining two classes don't have any required books listed as of yet, so I guess we'll figure that out when classes start.

I'm seeing lots of posts online from my friends who have already dropped their kids off, and I'm tearing up every time I see one of those. I know that I'm going to cry, and my daughter is going to get mad at me for doing it. She is still adamant that she can't wait to go and isn't going to miss us at all. I know she'll be happy there, but I think she's going to be surprisedd to find out that she does miss us, even her little bratty brother.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We took our son to college on Friday and I thought I'd not hear from him for a couple of weeks but he's already texting me. LOL
I actually did well when we dropped him off. I didn't cry or get upset but I was exhausted after helping him move in with all the heat and humidity. Southern Georgia in August is no fun. Luckily the college was passing out free water to everyone to keep us hydrated.

His roommate still hasn't shown up and today was a required meet your professors class that is already going on for all of the freshman students. He said the room feels empty without someone else in it.

When we moved him in, he was worried about his desktop computer because it wouldn't fit in the little strange desk/bureau combo that was in his dorm room. Luckily he discovered one shelf could be removed so he was able to fit his tower in that and his computer monitor just barely fit in the computer area. He built that computer himself and he was determined to bring that one along with his laptop.

He texted me today that he's figured out how his TV and Blu Ray would fit in the room if the mysterious room mate agrees with the room layout so he's thinking of coming home over Labor Day weekend to pick those up if his room mate doesn't bring a TV with him.

He also wants to get his nice office chair but if he gets that, we'll have to go back to help him move out when that time comes because it won't fit in the Honda Accord with everything else he will need to move.

I am getting a kick out of him figuring out how to arrange his dorm room for some reason.

I did forget to take a picture of him in his dorm room and to get the mailing address so the little surprise care package I was going to send him has to wait until I get the address.

I've also got some returns to make for a few things it turned out he didn't need that we had bought based on the college list.

And our cat who hangs out with him alot is still upset he left and is moping around barely leaving his room. I hope she feels better soon - poor kitty.