Watch Out! Daughter Heading Off to College…A Historical Perspective
When our daughter was getting ready to leave home and begin her freshman year at Penn State, we created this list of resources and used it as our shopping list. This shopping expedition was so much fun! It was also pretty pricey. Lol. You’ll notice on Facebook or other Social Media that parents will begin taking and sharing photos over the summer of “that corner of the dining room” where all the college-stuff is piling up. It’s an EPIC day when that inventory gets loaded into the car…and you all drive away (from home) to begin the next chapter (for all of you).
Since then, each May, together with the roommates, we rented a small storage space near campus…just so we didn’t have to transport everything back and forth. TBH, we couldn’t fit it in the car if we tried…it was worth the cost of summer storage since the large SUV was already packed to the hilt! Jules took home the necessities, the valuables, and everything that needed to be cleaned and pressed to begin the next school year…three months in the future.
We became experts in this…what I’d call “white-glove” moving service…provided by me and my husband. Lol. Jules lived in four different “apartments” during her time at Penn State. Her freshman dorm, an apartment where she shared a bedroom (double), and two different “bougie” apartments with granite waterfall countertops where she had her own bedroom (single). The apartments housed 4-5 girls with a common kitchen, living area, and two bathrooms with showers. They were nicer than me and my husband’s first apartment as a married couple.
However, I am grateful that these apartments came furnished with beds, nightstands, dressers, desks & chairs, couches, coffee tables, stools, and appliances, as well electric and Internet/wi-fi as part of the monthly rent. Her last apartment came with a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall! Score!
Now, not every college campus or surrounding town offers the array of housing choices that State College, PA does. With 40,000 students at University Park‘s Main Campus, there are many students who are looking for various levels of budget through luxury apartments. In comparison, some of the smaller college towns may offer furnished, barely furnished, or unfurnished houses for rent to students.
By the end of four years, we needed to rent a 10-foot U-Haul truck to get everything home 🙂 It took her a few weeks to settle back in, sift through her belongings, and re-acclimate to the household.
Case Study: Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
To learn more about the living experience at your child’s college, navigate to the school’s official website to search for “Packing List” or “Residence Halls Information”. Here is the link to the webpage we found for Penn State University.
Navigate to your college’s official website and look for a similar link. It should reveal what is included in the typical dorm room.
What Penn State provided in their Freshmen Residence Halls/Dorm Rooms:
- Twin Bed with mattress (we recommend purchasing extra-long sheets [80″ x 36″] to fit any size mattress on campus)
- Bookshelf
- Bulletin Boards (available in traditional residence hall rooms only)
- Chest of drawers
- Closet or wardrobe
- Desk with chair (Note: not all desks are equipped with a task light)
- Mirror
- Window treatment
- Microfridge [refrigerator/freezer/microwave unit] (one per room)
- Trash can (one per room)