Shipping to school made simple.

How much does it cost to ship to college?

With LugLess it’s small boxes from $15, bags from $25, and you get a $10 credit toward your first shipment when you sign up with a .edu email. Your exact price depends on size, weight and distance, so run your boxes through the calculator for a real number.

Most students weigh two ways of getting their stuff to campus: checking extra bags on the flight, or booking through LugLess, which compares FedEx and UPS rates for you. Here’s how they stack up.

Airline fee ranges from our airline baggage fees guide. Box tiers from the size and weight guide.

When checking a bag is the cheaper option

Sometimes the airline wins, and we’d rather tell you than pretend otherwise. If your fare includes a free checked bag, use it. Nothing beats free. And if you’re flying with one suitcase, a $35 to $50 first-bag fee can cost less than shipping a full-size suitcase across the country.

Shipping starts to pay off past the first bag. A second checked bag runs $45 to $60, a third $150 to $200 or more, and anything over 50 lbs adds $100 to $150 or more on top. That’s where a couple of boxes, sent ahead and waiting at the package room, usually come out ahead. It also means you’re not wrestling three bags onto a campus shuttle.

Get your exact price

The LugLess calculator compares FedEx and UPS rates for your boxes and your route in a few seconds. Enter each box’s dimensions and weight and where it’s going, and you’ll see the price before you book.

How do I ship things to my dorm?

Ship to your campus package room, not your dorm room. FedEx and UPS don’t deliver to individual dorm rooms, so your boxes land at the campus mail or package center and you collect them there.

The carrier drops the box at a central spot, campus staff sort it, and you get it from there. Nobody carries it up four flights to your room, sadly.

Dorm vs. off-campus apartment delivery

Off-campus works the same way, just one level closer. Apartment deliveries go to the building’s mailroom, leasing office or package area, not your unit.

How to ship packages to college

1. Find your school’s mailing format. Most housing offices publish exactly how a package should be addressed. Use it word for word.
2. Put your full name on the label. Add your hall and room number if your school asks for them, so the package room can match the box to you.
3. Pick a delivery date on or right after move-in day. Shipments are scheduled to arrive on or before the date you pick, so they can land early. Check when your package room starts accepting deliveries, and use a carrier hold location if that’s after your boxes could arrive.
4. Drop off and track. Take your boxes to any FedEx or UPS location and follow them until they land.

Every campus has its quirks. Shipping to colleges in Boston means planning around the September 1 lease turnover, and UT Austin splits between dorms and West Campus apartments. Check the campus guides below if your school has one.

Holding a shipment for pickup

If you hold a shipment for pickup instead of having it delivered, bring a photo ID that matches the name on the label. Held shipments are kept for up to 5 business days, so plan to collect yours inside that window.

When should I ship my stuff to college?

Book at least 10 days before move-in. Shipments are scheduled to arrive on or before the delivery date you pick at booking, so choose a date on or right after move-in day. Essential and Extra plans add an on-time guarantee, a LugLess credit if a delivery runs late; Minimal and Basic don’t.

Why not earlier? Package rooms fill up fast in August, and some won’t hold boxes for students who haven’t moved in yet. Aiming for move-in day, or just after, keeps your boxes out of that crunch. Deliveries can still land before the date you pick, so check your package room’s first accepted date and use a carrier hold location if your boxes could beat it.

Move-in shipping timeline

Move-out shipping timeline

Move-out runs in reverse, with one catch: campus pickups happen from a central mailroom, need 24 hours’ notice and run Monday through Friday only. Moving out on a Saturday? Schedule the pickup for Friday at the latest.

What should I ship vs. pack in my suitcase?

Ship the bulky, heavy, easy-to-replace stuff: bedding, winter clothes, books and storage bins. Keep anything valuable, battery-powered or medical with you, because a lot of it can’t ship at all.

The “can’t ship” list is longer than most people expect. Batteries, including the ones inside phones and laptops, aerosols like dry shampoo and sunscreen, anything with alcohol in it (perfume and hand sanitizer count), medications, vitamins and food are all off limits. Check what you can ship with LugLess before you tape anything shut.

For the full room-by-room list, from shower shoes to the extension cord you’ll definitely forget, use our college shipping checklist.

How should I pack boxes to keep shipping costs down?

Pack to your price tier, not to the brim. LugLess prices boxes in Little, Big and Oversize tiers at 25, 50 and 75 lbs billable, so know which tier you’re aiming for before you seal the box.

Weight: heavy stuff goes in small boxes

Books, shoes and anything dense go in smaller boxes so one box doesn’t blow past its tier. Spread the heavy items out instead of building one 70 lb monster that nobody wants to carry from the package room. Each box’s billable weight has to fit the tier you book (25, 50 or 75 lbs), or you’ll pay overage fees. No single item can weigh more than 90 lbs.

Size: watch dimensional weight

Carriers charge the higher of the box’s actual weight or its dimensional weight, which is length times width times height, divided by 139. A giant box of pillows can bill like a heavy one. Squeeze the air out of bedding with vacuum bags or stuff it into the gaps around heavier items, and pick the smallest box your stuff actually fits in.

Packing tips that save headaches

• Use sturdy corrugated boxes. Boxes are for non-fragile items, so breakables travel in your suitcase.
• Fill every gap with towels or clothes so nothing shifts.
• Put a card with your name and phone number inside each box, in case the label gets damaged.
• Number your boxes and keep a list on your phone, so you know which one has the sheets on move-in night.
• Weigh and measure each box at home, then enter those numbers in the calculator.

The size and weight guide has every tier and limit, and what you can ship covers the restricted items list.

How do I move into college without a car?

Fly or take the train with one suitcase and a carry-on, and ship everything else so it’s waiting at the package room. You skip the rental car, the parking lot shuffle and the airport cart full of bins.

Plenty of students don’t have a car, or a family member with a free weekend and an SUV. Shipping turns move-in into a normal trip:

1. Sort and pack at home. Bedding, clothes for the season, books and storage go in boxes. Your laptop, documents and a few days of clothes go in your carry-on.
2. Book at least 10 days out and pick a delivery date on or right after move-in day.
3. Drop the boxes off at any FedEx or UPS location near home.
4. Travel light. Take the shuttle, train or rideshare from the airport with one bag.
5. Collect your boxes from the package room once you have your keys.

It matters most at schools that are hard to reach. Purdue has no nearby commercial airport, so every extra bag is one more thing to drag onto a shuttle bus. Parents flying in to help can ship their own bags too and skip the checked-bag line on the way home.

How do I ship my stuff home at the end of the year?

Book your shipment, schedule a campus pickup at least 24 hours ahead, and bring your boxes to the central mailroom. Campus pickups run Monday through Friday only, so plan around a weekend move-out. Pickup is included with the Extra plan, or $7 per package on any other plan.

Move-out week is finals week, so get it on the calendar early. Declutter first: the cheapest box to ship is the one you donate. Then pack, weigh, book and schedule the pickup before your last exam, not after. Our move-out guide for shipping your stuff home from college walks through the full timeline.

Should I ship it home or put it in storage?

Ship it home if you’ll use it over the summer, you’re transferring or graduating, or your summer plans take you somewhere new. Look at storage near campus if you’re coming back in the fall to the same city and your stuff is mostly furniture-sized.

For boxes and bags, run the numbers both ways. Get a LugLess quote for the trip home and back, then compare it with a few months of a storage unit plus getting your stuff there and out again. You can also ship boxes to a storage facility’s address if that’s the better deal. Either way, the calculator gives you the shipping half of the math in a minute.

Can international students use LugLess?

Yes, for the domestic leg. LugLess books shipments between US addresses, so once you’ve landed you can send bags and boxes to your campus package room, home with a friend for the summer, or on to your next school.

Getting your things into the country is a separate step. Most international students fly in with their checked allowance and arrange anything extra with an international shipper. After that, LugLess covers moves inside the US: arrival city to campus, dorm to summer sublet, or campus to a relative’s place over winter break.

The same rules apply as for every student. Delivery goes to the package room, you book at least 10 days ahead, and batteries, medications and food can’t ship.