The average American moves about 11 times during his or her lifetime. In many cases, the first and most momentous of these moves is leaving for college. For a lot of young adults, the day they move into their college dorm or apartment is the first time they have lived anywhere other than their parents’ home. It’s a big day for countless reasons, and one of the most important steps a young person can take toward becoming an independent adult.
Along with all of the obvious items college students need when setting out on their own — remembering to pack more than one bath towel, for example — there are many other details that are just as important but not as obvious. One of the most commonly forgotten tasks students should do when moving to college is changing their permanent address. For some students, the fact that they will continue to have mail delivered to their parents’ home isn’t that big of a deal, but it can be much more convenient for them to change their address. This is especially true when going to a college far from home or out-of-state.
Going through the process of making an address change official is important for college students, but there may be some confusion about how exactly this is accomplished. In addition to alerting the U.S. Postal Service, there are numerous other parties that need to be made aware of the address change. For example, failing to notify the Internal Revenue Service can result in delays when receiving important tax documents or a refund check. If students have credit cards, failing to notify their providers of an address change might mean they won’t receive their statements in time to pay their balances, which can severely affect their credit scores.
To help students successfully navigate the process of changing their permanent address, the following guide from University Moving and Storage illustrates all of the necessary tasks they need to complete. Moving to college is one of the biggest steps a young person can take on his or her way to becoming a responsible adult, and that includes handling even the smallest details of the move.
Image by University Moving and Storage
This article was contributed by University Moving and Storage.