There's over a week I dropped off my son. My daughter was first, four years ago now. The biggest worries initially were roommates and security on campus. Two different colleges, two slightly different realities. My daughter went to a private university, so she had a good room, only one roommate, air conditioning. But later we found that the neighborhood was very bad, and she ended up having friends that lived there and bars all over, so she was returning at night walking with friends frequently. Nothing ever happened, especially because police was always around, but unfortunately a girl was killed in one of the friends' house due to a robbery--I believe it was the only case in years. We had our share of scary callings, when we would talk with her until she got to her dorm. Other than that, everything went as smooth as possible, she graduated and has a great job. But she says that "you will see everything and all sorts of people, you just have to be smart and follow the right paths, there are plenty of them."
My son is still getting used to being away from home for the first time, and he's cramped in a room with two other roommates, no air conditioning. Not that bad, as there's plenty of places to go, it's a huge and beautiful campus. He moved in before others, as he registered for the marching band, but as he already played in a band for the whole HS time, he withdraw from the course when was asked to practice for a whole day in the scorching August sun--he already had registered for more courses than the advised, so I think that ended up being a good thing. He identified immediately with the first roommate he met, also in band and same major, but the second not so much. Let's see how that goes. He liked his classes so far, the only comment was that Math was too "mathy", not sure what else it could be...
As for the financial side, we never had the chance to save for college, we're immigrants and although I always had IT jobs and currently have a good job, my wife is an elementary school teacher and we've been living on our pay checks since I came to study computer science as an international student 20 years ago, when I was 35 and had a Civil Engineering BS degree, so already in the middle of the game... Therefore we had to fill the FAFSA and get loans for both. Despite all the scholarships, we'll be in deep debt when our side of my daughters' loan hits us in November, the first payment starting then, on top of paying a mortgage for the next 25 years. That's the scariest thing. It's an all-too-common story, and as I have mine, other people have their own struggles. Crossing my fingers that college costs and debt will get reduced somehow, because it doesn't make sense as things are, the burden on students and parents is too high.