Just before you get her a car have her take Defensive Driving so she can have the discount at the start of the policy. I can't remember if Texas offers a Good Student discount.
I'm sure you already know this - be very, very careful about getting a car anywhere around Houston. There are a tremendous number of "flood cars" on the market and you need a good mechanic to figure out what you're getting.
When does she graduate?
Defensive driving course-- good point. We don't have that in Hawaii but I bet she can find it in Houston.
I'm not sure that she qualifies for a good student discount! Eh, but she'll probably be back in the zone after summer school.
I've explained CarFax, salvage titles, and having a mechanic go over the car.
She graduates and gets commissioned in May 2014. She's finishing sophomore year next month. Hard to believe.
Nords, regarding the car, make sure she can get reasonable parking on campus.
In other words a car may not necessarily get her particularly close to her classes if she has to park a half mile away.
Parking on Rice campus in the football stadium lot is trivial. Some folks chain a bike up out there so they can ride the bike to class from the lot. If you PM me the apartment address, I can make some other comments as I lived in the area for years and have visited friends as recently as last week.
Parking's pretty good, and she has space near the NROTC/Rice Police building.
LOL, HTown Harry, check your PMs-- thanks!
Maybe get her a copy of "Dave Barry's Guide to Guys" from a used bookstore, too.
She thinks of Dave Barry as some geezer writer that her father's always laughing about. You know, like in those history books of the 1980s & 1990s.
Among her dorm, NROTC, and the other civil engineers: she has not been very impressed with the male gender of the species. Not that I've learned this directly, but spouse has shared redacted FOUO FOIA documentation as deemed appropriate.
Hey, three of those guys ended up being my off-campus roommates after I got bumped out of the dorm!
I agree with W2R, though, it's all going to work out fine. With my DD, I'm now three years past where you are. I'd worry more about a son...
I'll PM with some Houston specifics. Short version:
- Rent the housing
- Go for the car, even with the start-up hassles and carrying costs. Texas plates.
- Houston is a big city, but danger isn't lurking on every corner
- Surprise her with an IKEA and Target gift certificate. She'll have the place furnished and ready to go in 24 hours. (A son, on the other hand, would come home with three cases of "cheap and delicious" Swedish meatballs - then throw a party when he remembers that he only has a 1-case freezer.)
She & spouse have cut a pretty wide swath through IKEA & Target the last couple years, so I think they'll be furnishing the place with "early dumpster discards" found on OwlList.
When she graduates and the Navy ships her load of furniture from her home of record to her first duty station, we're going to let her pick anything out of our house. She'll pack out her high-school bedroom set, of course, and selected other couches & chairs. It'll be interesting to see what she picks.
We learned this trick from a retiring Air Force officer. When he and his spouse retired to their new "forever dream house" and their daughter married a servicemember, they let the happy newlyweds clean about 5000 pounds out of Mom & Dad's house. Then Mom & Dad went shopping for new retirement furniture to redecorate their new retirement house.
Spouse and I will probably do it from Craigslist, but that depends on what our daughter takes from us.
