Dorm Mom Review
This is the first installment of the 5 Part Going Back to College Series. A new site will be reviewed daily. For the complete series, check out the Back to College Series post. Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Site Description
For kids and parents alike, leaving home for college is an adjustment. There is plenty of growing up and maturing to do on the child’s part and some letting go has to happen on the parents’ end. It can be difficult. But thanks to DormMom.com parents can rest easy knowing that the essentials are taken care of for their child.
Dorm Mom is a website that provides services like grocery delivery, laundry, apartment cleaning and shipping and storage to busy college students. With a professional design and clear, concise copy, it’s simple to obtain all the information you need to decide which services you’re interested in. And just in case you still have questions a thorough FAQ is available.
Users can purchase services by registering an account on the site and picking the appropriate package. If you happen to have an issue a customer service phone number is available.
About Dorm Mom
Dorm Mom was founded in June 2006 in Buffalo, NY by a former Resident Assistant (RA) who had first-hand experience with some of the obstacles busy college students are face with. It has since grown into a business that services over 1,800 colleges nationwide.
What I Liked
I think the concept of offering such services to college students is brilliant for a couple reasons. First, many kids would rather not do these things and their parents know this. They also understand they need to be done and rather than be hundreds of miles away and worry, they’re willing to hire someone. Second, with the cost of college on the rise, the prices Dorm Mom charges is really a drop in the hat.
Which brings me to my next point. Weekly laundry costs around $300 per semester at the time of this writing, depending on which plan you’re on. What’s an extra couple grand tacked on to your already overwhelming student loans anyway? I look at it this way: Use the time you save to study, get better grades, land a high paying job, and pay the service off in no time.
The prices are easy to find on Dorm Mom, which you might think is no big deal. But for anyone that’s ever tried to budget for something like web design or another similar service, you know that not having a cost in front of you can be pretty frustrating. Having them right there saves you time looking around and helps you quickly get past the decision of whether something they offer is at a price you can afford.
As I mentioned above, things are very easy to find on this site, and each service has its own description and FAQ, so it’s unlikely you’ll have any questions after reading through the content.
Some other cool aspects that may go unnoticed are the little things like free shipping on grocery orders over $25 (if they qualify for Amazon Super Saver), and the ability to select your preferred detergent for the laundry services. Also, the “cancel anytime” feature is huge for those that buy the semester-long plan and have a change of heart midway through. The remaining portion of the fee is even refunded in the event of a cancellation. How’s that for customer service?
What I Didn’t Like
Despite the ease of site navigation and the excellent availability of key information, Dorm Mom still kind of leaves something to be desired from a design standpoint. For instance, the logo is a bit cheesy, like some kind of cleaning product on an infomercial. I’d also like to see them clean up the links on the ‘About Us’ page. Many of them are broken or don’t have existing pages with that information. Either way it’s confusing and frustrating when they don’t work.
From a moral standpoint, I have some reservations about the nature of the business. I think it’s an excellent concept and I’m not surprised people are willing to pay for the services. But as someone hoping that humans continue to evolve and grow, I have a certain reservation about the idea of letting college students off the hook. This is the time in their life when they are supposed to learn responsibility and hiring Dorm Mom is the exact opposite. Rather than figuring out real-life things like time management and taking care of themselves, Dorm Mom’s services bail them out.
With that said, I still think Dorm Mom is an excellent service, with a brilliant concept, which in simple terms is to take advantage of the desire parents have to forever take care of their babies. Even if the baby is twenty years old.
The Final Word
I really like the idea of filling a need like helping college students. I think it’s easy for a person to get overwhelmed when so much of their life changes at once, so I’m not opposed to Dorm Mom. If you can enjoy Dorm Mom in moderation, without taking it for granted, then by all means, sign up today. However, I think that you haven’t really experienced college until you’ve studied in a laundry mat until 3:30 in the morning for a test the next day. That’s where the true learning and growing comes from, not physics lab.
