By ALLEN MCQUISTON 
Jemez Insurance Agency
Serving Los Alamos since 1963

The hatchback is packed so tight you can’t see out the back window. There’s a mini fridge wedged behind the passenger seat, a laundry basket of shoes riding shotgun, and somewhere underneath it all, a kid who swears they didn’t forget anything. In a few weeks, that car backs out of your driveway and doesn’t come home until Thanksgiving.

You’ve spent the summer thinking about tuition, dorm assignments, and whether the meal plan makes sense. The car mostly just gets loaded up and pointed down the road. That’s how it goes in most households, and it’s understandable. August is a lot.

But a few things quietly change when a car moves out of your driveway and into a campus parking lot, and sorting them out now is far easier than sorting them out later. Here’s :the list:

Step 1: Decide Whether the Car Is Actually Going

• Not every campus makes it easy. Some schools don’t allow freshmen to keep cars, and at others a parking permit costs more than the tires are worth. If the car ends up staying home while your student heads off a few hundred miles away, mention that to whoever handles your insurance. A driver who’s away at school without regular access to the car is a different situation than one who drives it every day, and it’s worth asking how that affects your policy.

Step 2: Tell Your Agent Where the Car Will Sleep

• If the car does go, its address changes, and that matters more than most people realize. Rates are based partly on where a car spends its nights, so Las Cruces, Albuquerque, and a college town two states away all look different to an insurance company. Updating the garaging address is a five-minute conversation, and it’s the kind of detail that’s much better to handle in August than to discover in October.

Step 3: Ask About the Report Card

• Many carriers offer discounts for full-time students who keep their grades up. The specifics vary, but if your kid is carrying a solid GPA, it’s worth a question. It may be the only time in their life that studying directly lowers a bill.

Step 4: Think About the Stuff, Not Just the Car

• A dorm room fills up fast with things worth real money: a laptop, a bike, a guitar, a closet full of clothes. Homeowners policies sometimes extend a portion of coverage to a student’s belongings while they’re away at school, but the limits and rules vary quite a bit, so ask how yours handles it. And if your student is renting an off-campus apartment instead of living in a dorm, that’s a different conversation entirely, and renters insurance should be part of it.

Step 5: Have the Roommate Talk

• Sooner or later, a roommate is going to ask to borrow the car. It seems harmless, and most of the time it is. But lending a car means lending more than the keys, and it raises questions nobody enjoys answering after the fact. The simplest ground rule is also the best one: the car doesn’t get lent out. Say it now, while it’s still hypothetical.

Before the Driveway Empties Out

All of this comes down to one phone call and one conversation with your kid. Ten minutes, maybe fifteen, in a month already full of packing lists and paperwork. It’s an easy thing to put off, and an even easier thing to just finish.

Then all that’s left is the hard part: watching the taillights disappear down the street, and getting used to how big the driveway suddenly looks.

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