How blessed I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard but ODU sure did make move-in day super efficient.
We arrived around 7:45am and my kiddo's move-in time was scheduled for 8:00-9:00am. She jumped out the car, checked in at the registration desk, was provided her key and then they gave us directions to proceed to her dorm room. The staff directed us in our cars to park right outside her dorm room to unload. We drove on the large sidewalk and parked in the grass 10 ft from her dorm. Pure awesomeness!! I had my good walking shoes on (AKA, my Timberland slippers) because I was prepared to take multiple trips from the car from some garage but NOPE, not needed. They took our information and phone numbers and wrote it on a hang tag for our cars (yep, we drove two SUVs for all my daughter's stuff!). We were told to quickly unload and then move our cars to the garage nearby so the next group could come through. They gave us these large cardboard boxes on wheels. We used 4 of them and everything in the car was emptied. It literally took us 10 mins to unload. The longest wait was for the elevator, since my daughter's room is on the 4th floor.
All in all, I commend the ODU staff for having move-in day so well orchestrated and organized. I'm sure they have perfected this over the years, but as a new parent to the school, I was elated with the efficiency. The staff and kids who rushed to help us were helpful, super kind and great to work with. They even gave us "Proud Parents" shirts in which we wore proudly. If move-in day is any indication of what's to come, I know she will have a terrific year at ODU. read more