Dropping off the kids at college horror story

I thought we had a rough time- the plan was get the kid into her dorm room, get her settled, point her to the bookstore to buy her books and then wave bye-bye. There were a few bugs in the plan.

First, we get there early and get in line with the car. A few cars at a time pull up to the dorm, unload, then go park elsewhere. So far, so good. The kid goes into the dorm to get the key to her room, and we're left standing there with all her stuff for 45 minutes watching the approaching rain clouds. Finally she emerges, so we haul her stuff up to the third floor up the narrow staircase blocked by all the kids in line for their room keys. (Distribution point was 2nd floor lounge)

We get in the room, and it looks OK. Then we figure out that with the extra long beds, you can't close the door unless one bed is in the middle of the room. So, bunk beds it is. Except the pins needed to secure the beds are no where to be found. So, the dorm manager called for the pins and told us they'd be there later.

The dorms are about 2 miles from the main campus. We spent the rest of the day running from one orientation meeting to another, visiting the bookstore to find out they didn't have any of her text books (turned out they were at another bookstore the people at the main bookstore knew nothing about) registering for orientation, and checking back in the dorm to find out that the reaction there was "Pins? What pins?" My husband finally went out to an auto parts store to come up with some pins.

Next day, kid was tied up in meetings until 2PM. Then she spent the rest of the afternoon trying to change her schedule, but she needed an advisor's signature, but she hadn't been assigned an adviser, so we had to find someone to tell us who could sign the slip. Then she had to stand in line for an hour to sign up for work study. Then it was off to the right bookstore and a mad dash back to the dorm for the floor meeting. As I left, she mentioned that she couldn't get her computer on-line.

Fortunately- by the next day she had everything straightened out and now she's having a good time.

Now my friend at church - when they dropped off their kid, they got to the double room and found 1 bed, 1 dresser with missing drawers and no desks. They had to spend their day hunting for furniture. I guess someone forgot to tell the dorm people that students would be returning!

:hug: :rofl:


When we went the beds were pretty much ok, but the hauling stuff up 5 flights of stairs (my experience) and the running all over campus, etc. sounds just about right.


Don't feel too bad, a good friend of mine's frosh is back home quarantined for a week because of swine flu. :hide:

are making all kinds of plans for handling swine flu, but I've yet to see one to assist students forced to miss class.

Some of the plans are rather ludicrous. When a student gets ill, the roommate who has slept in the same tiny room the last few days will be moved to another room. Wouldn't you think the roommate is already exposed by the time someone is obviously ill? I think this policy will only spread the disease.

The plans also include student volunteers bringing food to students sick in bed. I guess if you get sick in a non-plague year, you're SOL.

I'm not a doc or nurse, but some of the plans seem totally impractical and panicky.

have a bunch of people living in close quarters, eating poorly, sleeping poorly and under a lot sf stress. Plus, this is the population that is most likely to get complications from H1N1. The military has the same problem, but military personnel can be ordered to get vaccinated.

I would be happier if the colleges had times and places planned for vaccinations rather than a vague assurance that vaccines will be available.

however, it's still early in the school year, I suspect they aren't under too much stress quite yet.


Are the vaccinations really necessary? What I had read was that a lot of folks probably wouldn't react to this flu much differently than any other flu, and that the risk from it really wasn't that different from other flus, either, same populations, etc. Also my friend the nurse said that she thought the vacs wouldn't be available until later in the month, anyway.


I'm not anti-vaccine on principle, it just seems that every time we turn around another drug company is pushing everyone to take yet another expensive vaccine... I had some misgivings about the Meningitis vaccine for teens (required in our county), but had it done anyway for the offspring after I had read more about it.

1. It is a new virus, so most people exposed will be infected.

2. Older people have some resistance, young people do not, so young people are more likely to contract the disease.

3. Normally flu causes problems up to and including death or the elderly and infirm. This flu causes problems for the young and healthy.

4. Since more people will catch this flu, even if the rte of complications is the same as with older flu viruses, more people will have problems.

So the goal of the vaccination drive are to protect the people most likely to be hurt the worst and to slow down the progress through the general population so hospitals aren't overwhelmed. What do you do when you have 20 ventilators and 40 patients?

:hi:

seems like the first week, especially at frosh level courses, is people making sure they are in the right class and the teacher making sure who is actually on their roster. And if they are nice, cluing you in on which books you might not actually be using.

mid sized private university. What really threw us off was the heavy programing starting 3 hours after the dorms opened. Before kid ever unpacked, she was running to this meeting and that meeting. The other kids all went to state universities and had to pay to attend two day orientations the summer before freshman year. Once they hit campus, nothing was scheduled for the three days between arrival and the beginning of class.

and left. It was run around for me - movies, floor meetings, book store, what have you, for the next 3 days, including standing in lines for registration computer punch cards - yes that was a long time ago! :D


And it was a small campus. When I transferred to the large city uni the next year, I moved into a group vegetarian house- much easier, but a long walk to campus.

to do. I had to laugh because a lot of the activities seemed to be designed to separate clinging parents from students.

parents to stick around. Kind of a mixed signal, I agree.



Like I said up above, my parents pretty much just said good-bye and left! :rofl:

It's not easy; it's confusing; people don't know what they're doing; you have to figure it out as you go along. :)

You would think by now things would be a little more streamlined.... :shrug:

You think they would put on a better face for the parents. After all they will be starting soon enough to ask them for donations.

Students are required to live on campus for 4 semesters, and pay $5370 a year for the privilege of a shared 12 x 19 room with a toilet and shower down the hall. So the school is making $10,740 a year per room for about 9 months. I wonder how those rates compare with Manhattan?

2 daughters, one graduated, one senior; one expensive Catholic school, one large State university, at neither did we run unto such mismanagement/confusion!

At both schools, orientation took place in the summer long before move-in day. Books, schedules, student IDs, meal plans, etc. were all taken care of at orientation. When we showed up at my daughter's campus on move in day, she was in the dorm and organizing her stuff about 2 hours after we arrived on campus. We had time for dinner and a movie before heading back home.

The worst thing that happened with my son was that he was on the 4th floor of a brand new building. Early in the move in process, the building's only elevator broke, leaving us having to haul everything up the stairs. Other than that, it went really well.

Sorry to hear you had such a difficult day! What a way to start the semester. Hopefully the rest of her experience there will only get better.

Good luck to you and your daughter. It's an adventure for the student and the parents!

What would college be without atleast a Fridge initially full of Beer. :evilgrin:

We had to lug furniture up 3 flights. And there were many leering young males watching.
The room was incredibly small but somehow 2 girls squeezed in there. Dorm was built in the '50s.
The really funny part came at the end of the year. We saw many a young man squeeze what he could in his car. What didn't fit was left behind. It was comical.