Bring a TV and VCR… Having a movie party in your room the first week is a great way to meet people…
Remember all those fashionable clothes you wore in high school? Remember how long it took you to primp you hair and look perfect? Forget those. After a few days, you’ll realize everyone dresses as comfortable as possible (Jeans & T-shirt) and no one bothers to “pretty-up.”
Jason R Remy
“No amount of legislation can solve America’s problems.”
– Jimmy Carter (1980)
The most important thing I took to college was a Vespa scooter. What a chick magnet that was! In my first two weeks at school I must have taken half a dozen co-eds for “a ride”. Granted, this was 1982. Are Vespas still cool?
Several boxes of tissues. You will get sick in October; everyone does. If you live on an isolated campus, as I did at my first college, tissues will be worth more than gold.
Remember, I’m pulling for you; we’re all in this together.
—Red Green
Bring an address book with the addresses of all your friends and acquaintances. Getting letters from old friends, even if it’s just “hi”, is a nice thing, and you’ve got to write them to get them. Of course, when I went to school we didn’t have email. But even if you email them, send them a letter every once in a while. And if they’re leaving for college, too, make sure you get their new addresses.
Drugs, and lots of 'em
Whenever you’re feeling down, pop a pill, or have some amphetamines and you’ll be fine
Incense and Visine. No one will know (Yeah right)
Incense and Visine. No one will know (Yeah right) 
Milk crates. You can pack stuff in them, and in the dorm room they can become storage containers, shelves, or just about any piece of furniture.
You can buy them at most department-type stores, but they’re not as good as the ones you can steal from the milk company (which is illegal, by the way, and I officially do not recommend).
Dr. J, grizzled dorm veteran
Tipiwoo, leave the condoms behind. If your college is like my son’s they give them out free in the student lounge!
Oh, Drain Bead, this is such good advice. Granted, if someone had given me this advice it probably wouldn’t have stuck, anyway. But I was thousands of dollars in debt when I graduated. It was just too easy to charge things I couldn’t afford.
Doctor J, my husband and I graduated from college in 1988. We * just this year * got rid of the last of our college milk cartons. :o
I sense a definate generation gap. Microwave?
Take that if they let you and a melita coffee filter/funnel. gotta have coffee.
Ah, ramen, my wife and I were responsible for bringing that to our campus. I had relatives in Guam, they were always bringing that stuff back.She had transferred from Sophia university in Tokyo. We each had a supply,every one thought it was the greatest thing ever. We talked the small town grocer into finding a wholesaler.
“Something inciteful that some one else once said”- Suhm Wonn (1397-1334)
I went to a small college, and walked everywhere. If this is the situation you are going into, get some comfortable shoes with durable souls.
Also:
-coffee maker
-backpack
And finally, if it’s your first year, some unusual item of clothing that you will be willing to wear regularly. People tend to recognize other people by unusual features, so it may help you establish an identity early on. I owned a wool olive army overcoat with a removable lining, and wore it everywhere as long as it wasn’t hot out. That would be kind of passe’ now, but in my day I believe I had the only one on campus (outside of the ROTC students).
Carpe hoc!
I thought this was a thread about stealing … I recommend you take acid.
Leslie,
Thanks for agreeing with me. All of my friends ask me if I wished I had some sort of credit . . . but I rent, and pay my phone bill, and that should be plenty for now.
What really freaked me out, though, is that your name is the same as that girl I mentioned who had to file for bankruptcy. Until I read the rest of your response, I thought for a split second that you might be her.
Nope, I’m not the one. I have perfect credit, and always have had. But I had to do an awful lot of juggling and tap dancing, along with a lot of hard work and sacrifice, to keep it that way.
Not worth it.
Is this really how it is for most people? I mean, when I went to college, I was sure as hell working! Didn’t always make enough money to keep the electricity or the gas on and didn’t have a phone most of the time, but I paid rent and ate, at least. Also, at 19 I got married, so there were two of us working (but both in school). From my perspective, the people I knew, etc… “parent funded dorm life” seemed like a pretty small thing… but I don’t really have an accurate gauge… I mean I supposed if I’d lived in a dorm, it would seem like most people were in dorms, with their parent’s money… so really, how many of you had your way paid through college?
>^,^<
“Cluemobile? You’ve got a pickup…”
OpalCat’s site: http://fathom.org/opalcat
The Teeming Millions Homepage: fathom.org/teemingmillions
Opalcat, I think you’re right. I had a scholarship to pay for tuition but worked on the farm all 4 years of college. All of my semesters except one I was able to stuff my classes into 4 days and worked the rest of the time. My first 2 years I commuted (45 min.) the last 2 I was able to afford a basement apartment so that I was able to enjoy at least 3 nights a week in the city where I went to College (Oneonta,NY). Walked away with a degree and no debt, of course that has changed in the past 8 years.
An electric hot plate, a toaster oven, and some Goodwill pots & pans (no aluminum, it scorches & supposedly laces your vittles with aluminum). If you can afford it, the smallest fridge you can find.
Most state colleges have meal plans for monday thru friday, or all seven days. Trust me, by friday you’ll be ready to fry up your tennis shoes rather than face another slab of mystery meat loaf with strained vegetables and synthetic mashed potatoes.
OK, sorry Cookie, it usually wasn’t all that bad, but the other motivation if you are on a budget is that you can save a bundle by cooking for yourself on weekends. Some schools even have an option for just breakfast & dinner, that saves even more.
Safety sermon; most places have rules against this sort of thing, they get pretty shirty if you torch the building. Causing an electrical fire is very unlikely in a modern building, but if the lights dim when you fire up the hot plate, find another outlet or turn off everything else including the lights and the fridge (romantic candle lit dinner op). Don’t run both the hot plate and the toaster oven at the same time off one outlet. Look on the labels, you can usually find how many amps they pull. Most outlets are only good for 15 amps, 20 if you are lucky. DO NOT leave stuff like this on when you aren’t in the room. The most common way fires happen is to get too close to something flammable. Use your fingers; if something near your toaster oven feels hot, rearrange. Keep flammable liquids such as whiskey put away while you are cooking. You have 300 other people in the building, think how bad you would feel if you accidentally barbecued the cutie down the hall. Be paranoid about it and you’ll be OK.
Courtesy; use that fan that you cleverly brought to blow the smell out the window. You probably can’t feed all 300 of your neighbors, and it’s just downright mean to tease them with delectable smells unless you are going to come across. Besides, the Hindu next door might not be as crazy about pan fried steak as you are. If the wind won’t cooperate, you can minimize it by keeping your door closed. See the exception outlined below.
Tips; this is kinda kinky, but try baking a potato and a pot pie in the toaster oven. Split the potato, butter & salt to taste, and dump the pot pie over the whole mess. Boil up some frozen veggies on the side, and delve in.
Another angle; most cafeterias close around 7 PM. So by 10 PM you could probably get volunteers to write your master’s thesis for some of those frozen dough chocolate chip cookies out of the toaster oven. It’s a fantastic ice breaker and you’ll probably make some good friends, possibly even of the opposite sex. Oh, and you get to snack on hot cookies at midnight, with friends.