Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Are You Campus Ready?

-- This post was sponsored by Sears. All the opinions are mine. --

I just browsed through the Sears CampusReady site, and I can definitely say that we are not Campus Ready. Not at all. Remember when you had your first baby, and you could hardly believe how much stuff one little person could need? Clothes, a crib, a stroller, a car seat, a high chair, and the list went on and on. Well, I'm starting to wonder the same thing about sending a kid to college. Who knew he'd need so much stuff? Stuff for sleeping, eating, getting ready, cleaning, organizing, studying, shared living, and this list seems to go on and on, too.

Luckily we have this last year of high school to get it figured out, right? The CampusReady section of Sears.com looks like it's going to be really helpful. I especially like the interactive shopping list. You can choose all those categories, like sleeping, eating, or cleaning, and select the items in each category that your student will need. You can either shop right online at Sears.com or print out the checklist for shopping in store. How handy is that?

There are some dorm room design ideas to choose from, so if one of those designs fits your student's personality, Sears has made it easy to find the items needed for that particular room design. There are some girly ones, one for an athlete, and it looks like one for a gamer. I don't see anything that I think fits Cory, but he can design his own by using the CampusReady on Facebook dorm room designer. There's also a roommate matchup and a gift getter app, which looks like a way for students to list all the things they'll need for college and then hopefully get friends and family to pay for some of them. I'm all for that, because even at the best prices possible, all this stuff is going to add up, and fast!

Speaking of costs, we all know that the cost of sending a kid to college is not getting any cheaper. Besides giving financial tips for the students, Sears is also offering parents a chance to win money toward their child’s college tuition from Sears and Upromise! A total of $25,000 will be awarded, a $10,000 grand prize and 3 $5,000 first prizes. Upromise members are automatically entered with a sears.com purchase through Upromise.com, or you can enter for free at sears.com/campusready. I am definitely entering this one! You can enter twice per day from now until 8/31/09.

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