Check-Out Tips
By- Drew Satter, M.Ed., MBA
Assistant Director
Housing and Residence Life
Congratulations! Your Zag made it through the school year. Now it’s time for your Zag to move out properly, please refer to The 12 Things [students] Need to Know to Prepare for the End of the Academic Year check here in order to know the essential things for moving out. My goal here is to provide a few veteran tips for you to know to help your Zag when move out comes around.
Start packing earlier than what is expected. We recommend that the majority of our students should schedule their move out appointment for 1-2 hours after their projected time to leave. Students typically don’t realize how much they’ve accumulated through the year, how long cleaning takes, and also the time it takes to say their goodbyes to their friends and floor-mates before they leave.
Express Check-Out is an option. If your student would rather check-out on their own time and is confident that is the right option for them, express check-out might be the right way to go. Remember, if the student does an express check-out, then they waive their right to appeal any charges they may receive. It’s a great solution for some, but does have tradeoffs.
Communicate with the RA. Your Zag should keep their RA updated on their move out plans. It will make things go as smooth as possible and the RA will be grateful!
Plan time for finals. While one can begin packing up prior to being done with finals, each student is unique in their needs. It might make sense to use packing as a break from studying, yet some students don’t do well with clutter, so ask your student what their plan is. However, their first priority should be doing well academically.
Plan time to say goodbye to friends. Our students may not see their friends, RA(s), or floor-mates over the summer. Your student most likely has many individuals they should thank or say goodbye to. This is an important time to bring some closure to what we hope was a memorable year.
Many of these things seem like they may be common sense, yet many students forget about this in the busyness that finals and heading out for the summer brings. We hope your Zag had an amazing year!