For parents of college freshmen, first test is on economics of travel

Costs put the squeeze on traditional send-off

Still struggling to recover from tuition sticker shock, parents of college freshmen are now confronting a new economic hurdle: the rising costs of moving their children to campus.

With gas, airfare, and shipping prices soaring, many families are resorting to creative twists on the age-old tradition of the college send-off.

Some are vacuum-packing clothing and bedding to conserve precious luggage space - and avoid airline fees. Others are imposing strict limits on how much - and what items - their children can pack. Others have redeemed frequent flyer miles or driven long distances to airports served by discount carriers.

And some families are opting to leave either mom or dad home to save money.

"It hurts financially, but I couldn't send him here without me seeing where he's going to be," said Tracey Hunt, who brought her eldest son, Phillip, to freshmen and parent orientation at MIT on Monday, without her husband. "I got voted to be the one to come because I ask all the right questions."

Hunt and her husband had planned to drive the 19 hours from their Georgia home until they added up the cost of gas for their Jeep Cherokee - more than $450 round trip.

Hunt decided she and Phillip would fly.

She vacuum-packed his clothes, towels, two sets of extra-long sheets, two pillows, and a comforter into two suitcases; she had connected the hose of her vacuum cleaner to special plastic bags and sucked the air out. Her clothes for the trip were stuffed into Phillip's backpack.

Hunt also ordered a bicycle and mini-refrigerator online, to be delivered directly to his dormitory.

Their cost-saving efforts were tested at the airport, though. One of the suitcases weighed 51 pounds, one pound over the limit. Hunt had to pay a $29 fee.

Because of financial concerns, Hunt said, she probably will skip parents weekend in October. And Phillip will not be coming home for Thanksgiving.

"Everybody's cranky about fees right now as kids start to go back to school, especially if parents are taking them for the first time," said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, a consumer airfare research website. "A lot of people are choosing to drive even though it's cross country and gas prices are up."

Gas prices have risen by more than a third compared with a year ago. Airfare to Boston is up more than 20 percent, plus new fees to check luggage and for overweight bags. Shipping costs, too, have increased, with fuel surcharges doubling in that period.

Maggie Kullman, a Tufts University freshman from Delaware, took the train to Boston for a weeklong pre-orientation canoeing trip to save on airfare. Despite the gas prices, her parents drove up for move-in day Wednesday in an SUV that was packed so full they could not fit their own suitcases.

"We didn't want to ship anything, so we stuffed as much in the car as we possibly could," said Kullman's mother, Ellen, while entering a dorm surrounded by rows of mini-vans.

An MIT father from Long Island instructed his daughter to downsize her possessions so he could drive the family Civic instead of the Honda Odyssey minivan.

Aleta Pierce, a Tufts freshman from California, pared down her wardrobe and brought just two duffle bags.

Her mother figured she would just buy anything she was missing.

"It's not like you're going to Bangladesh," said Diana Madison, Aleta's mother. "There's lots of shopping here."

Colleges are also adjusting to the new economic reality. Tonight, Tufts will bus freshmen to Target for an after-hours shopping field trip, according to the orientation schedule.

Tomorrow, the university will hold its annual swap meet when students can pick up furniture and other donated goods on the cheap.

On the third floor of a brownstone at Boston University on Thursday, Lisa Roy and her husband helped their daughter, Kerri Nelson, unpack the five cardboard boxes they spent $400 shipping from Colorado.

"She wanted to bring a lot more shoes," Roy said. "We tried to help her be practical."

They saved money by booking a $500 flight that included a layover in New York, but that extended their trip into a 15-hour ordeal that got them into Boston at 1 a.m. They were also charged an extra $50 at the airport for an overweight suitcase.

Kerri, a freshman, confessed that she'd snuck in a few extra pairs of shoes.

Try as they might, some parents have just resigned themselves to the higher costs of moving these days.

Joan Van Schaik, whose son is a freshman at MIT, said she spent days searching for the best airfare from South Carolina to Boston, redoing the itinerary several times. She drove 1 1/2 hours to an out-of-the way airport for a $109 fare each way on AirTran so she could attend parent orientation.

But her husband decided to drive up separately in their Suburban to move all of their son's belongings, even though gas for the round trip would be $425.

"You're not tickled about it, but it's what you do," Van Schaik said. "The send-off is not where you'd want to skimp."

Sandeep Rawal, who drove his daughter in the family van from New Jersey to MIT last week, agreed.

"There are other factors that come into play that are more important than gas costs," he said. "This is our first child."

But he said the family would probably buy a smaller car soon, "so we can keep coming up."

Rawal's daughter, Sandhya, put the moving costs into perspective: "The tuition bill was more of a concern."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.