Category Archives: college housing

college housing, college planning, dorm life, Guest Posts

Ship2School makes move in day bearable

I’m always looking for services that parents and students will find helpful throughout the college admissions process. When my daughter moved from south Texas to Boston for college, it was a nightmare as you can imagine. I wish I had known about these type of services. It would have made our move half way across the country bearable!

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Arriving at college on move-in day is an experience that is filled with strong emotions. Incoming freshman and their families want the college experience to be great, and can also appreciate that it is going to be the start to a new phase of their life – one full of challenges, discoveries, and wonderful achievements. At Ship2School, we want to get everyone off to a great start to this new path in life by making the actual process of moving in as easy and hassle-free as possible. We do this by simplifying the way your college-bound freshman gets their stuff from their room at home to their room at school. With our service, you will receive a box-kit that come in packs of 6 or 12 sturdy boxes, packing tape, and box labels to print out. How much you want to bring is entirely up to you! After all the boxes are packed, we will come by and pick them up and then have them sent straight to the dorm – from nearly anywhere to just about everywhere!

We start the process of simplifying your lives before the acceptance letters even start rolling in. As soon as you and your child start to discuss college preparation, we are ready to help you take one huge thing off your mind – getting all of your college-bound freshman’s things to their school, even before you know where they’re headed to in fall! You can go to the Ship2School website, fill out an order, and then let us know when the final decision has been made!

After the order has been placed, the college or university has been decided upon, and you’ve received your box-kit from us, you can tackle what’s next for you and your college-bound young adult – packing! The best advice we have for the sometimes overwhelming process of college packing is to make lists for 1) essentials, 2) maybes, 3) don’t needs, and 4) we’ll get laters. On our blog, we’ve written a lot about the process of packing for college, and you and your daughter or son can also do some searching and asking around for extra tips. For more information on packing, including our suggestions check here!

Once packing is finished and you’ve arranged for pick up and drop off with Ship2School, the real payoff comes on move-in day. There’s no loading the car or sitting in a cramped car for sometimes many hours while you try not to think about much stuff there is! You can enjoy all the free time and space you would otherwise be missing and have a more pleasant ride to campus. Once you’ve arrived, there’s no unloading of the car, so you and your family can just stroll into your freshman’s dorm relaxed and comfortable knowing that they will have more time to get themselves settled into their new situation.

Our Ship2School service delivers right to their dorm building and is very affordable, with highly competitive rates by locale and destination. For an extra $199 you can even upgrade and get the white-glove treatment and we’ll put their stuff right in their dorm room! Right now you can get $25 off any order. As well, we’re having a contest where one lucky student can ride like rockstar and show up move-in day with their friends in a limo!

Our best wishes to all those heading off to college and their families!

Check out us on Ship2School.com, follow us on Twitter, and Like us on Facebook!

college housing, college planning

Off-Campus Housing 101

I recently did a guest post for WilliamPaid.com, a website dedicated to helping renters establish credit, pay off their student loans early, and manage their debt. The post was titled, “Your college student wants to move off campus–now what?” Take some time and head over to WilliamPaid’s site and read it. You might not need it now, but there will come a day that you will use the tips.

That post has spurred some additional thoughts that I felt would be helpful to parents of college-bound teens. Here are some things you might need to consider and/or know about off-campus housing.

Most colleges encourage freshmen to live on campus. It helps your teen bond with other students and get involved in campus life. Living off campus during freshman year can cause the student to feel out of touch with the goings on on campus and contribute to instability during an already emotion packed change.

Some colleges (due to size and location) can’t house all the students. If this is the case, get your housing form in ASAP. It’s first come, first serve and if you don’t act quickly, your child could lose a spot in the dorms. If you’re too late, try and connect with other incoming freshmen and find an apartment or house off  campus to share. Check with the campus housing office for information regarding off-campus housing and contact information. Being around other students from the same college will help with adjustment issues.

If you have more than one child headed to the same college, consider buying a house as an investment and let them live there (with other students). This happens often at Texas A&M and University of Texas. Once they have graduated, you can sell the house or keep it and make a hefty profit on rent each year. These rentals are in demand by college students and their families. (Here’s a new site I discovered that will help your search CampusHomesOnline.com)

If your child chooses to live at home during college, encourage them to get involved in campus activities. My daughter had a close friend that lived with family during her first semester at the University of Texas. She was a smart girl that worked hard to get accepted. But living off campus with family caused her to struggle in such a huge campus environment. She never felt involved or accepted among the students. She ended up dropping out after just one semester.

Upperclassmen are often encouraged to move off campus to make room for incoming freshmen. Know the policies and campus housing guidelines of the colleges your teen applies to. If this situation is not acceptable to them, don’t apply to a college that can’t provide housing all four years. Don’t get caught by surprise and have to scramble for senior housing (along with thousands of other college students).

Part of being a parent college coach is being prepared for all scenarios, including off-campus housing. If you’re prepared, you won’t have to panic when/if the day arrives that your college student approaches you with the “best plan ever” for living off campus.

If you liked this, you might also like:

Smart ways to live cheaper on campus

Sleeping with strangers