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What Students Say to Parents About...
MOVING OUT
One of the most useful gifts my parents got me when I moved into my dorm was
a collapsible metal cart. Dollies were sparse on my school's campus, so every year when I had to move my stuff into storage for the summer, it saved me (and my friends) a lot of time and effort.
--Recent Grad
Help us pack up and move out, but respect our choices about what to take
or not to take. Something that seems extraneous and completely useless to
you might have great sentimental value that we would love to have with us at
college.
This may seem odd, but do not buy us every little thing we think we'll need for college. Encourage us to wait until we get there and figure out what we need exactly and withold funds if necessary. You don't want to waste the money and we don't want to have to spend money sending things home
that don't fit in our room. It really helps if you pack us a first aid kit with peptobismal, band aids, antibiotic ointment, vitamins, robotussin, sudafed, q-tips, and things like this. These are the things that we would rather suffer that spend money on. A kit like this is incredibly useful and will definitely be appreciated (at least during cold season, if not immediately). Freshman are constantly sick, so sending us off with things to safeguard against this is incredibly useful.
Even though it's hard to understand, expect your kid to be grumpy and generally in a bad mood towards you about two weeks before college starts freshman year. I can't explain it, but I went through it and so did all my friends. I suppose it's some weird phenomenon of us expressing our nervousness and apprehensions in a pretty bad way. But try not to take it personally and know that we want you there by our side up until the moment when you pull the car away from our new homes.
--Sophomore
My parents didn't really help me at all with college, it was sort of my responsibility, which did a lot to help me grow up. Having said that, my parents were experts on the "moving out" phase of college. I had no idea what it was like to have to start a life on my own with my own stuff, I was used to having all the comforts of home. My parents started early by going to rummage sales to get cheaper stuff for me, stuff that could easily be disposed of, and stuff that wouldn't cost a fortune if my roommates stole it all. They had thought of everything, from sandals to wear in the public showers to sheets for my bed and a lamp for my desk. I would suggest that starting early in the student's senior year the parents make a list of things the student will need. This can be distributed to all the famiy members so throughout the year for birthdays, Christmas and graduation, the family knows what to buy. It's a great help.
--Senior
I think this part is really difficult for parents to handle well because they're going through their own emotional issues with seeing their kids off to college. For me, leaving home was horrible, and I was a teary mess as we drove to the airport. I do not deal with uncertainty well, so I was filled to the brim with "What if" questions pertaining to my roommate, courses, living on my own - everything! I felt like crawling back home, but I knew that I had to transition into college; what I really needed was some reassurance from my parents that they trusted me, and that everything was going to be okay. Because I was the first kid to go off to college, my parents didn't really understand that this reassurance was what I needed, so I told them, and things worked out well from there on out.
--Senior
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