College Necessities

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 1:37 am

So, Sal's headed to an institute of higher learning on Friday. He's already got the basics - he just wonders if there's anything you fine folks would recommend that he hasn't yet thought of.

So that I don't get a bunch of suggestions I already have, here's the Big List O' Stuff:

Bedding
Footlocker
Massive amount of toiletries (twenty-four bars of soap, three cans shaving cream, etc)
Miscellanious school supplies
Laptop
Dolby 5.1-compatible receiver & 2 speakers
5-Disc rotary CD Player (and CDs)
X-Box w/DVD Remote, advanced AV pack, and four controllers (and games and DVDs)
Cell phone
Clothes
Books
PC Games
Keyboard (the piano type)
12" TV
$400
Eating utensils
Tool kit
2 powerstrips
Hamper

Stuff the room comes with:
Desks & Chairs
Bed
Microwave
Mini-Fridge

I'm planning on hitting garage sales the weekend after I get there to see if I can find some kind of old, beat up couch or loveseat cheap. I don't have a roommate assignment yet, so I don't know what all he's bringing. Have I forgotten anything that would make my life easier?

Cipher · Post by **Cipher** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 1:43 am

Get a small bucket to carry toiletries to and from the shower / common bathroom. Trust me.

Also, flipflops for same. Don't stand on that shit in your bare feet.

At least 10' of CAT-5 cable for your laptop (presuming it's an ethernet connection). I can guarantee you the wall jack won't be where you want it. Unless your dorm's WiFi, of course.

You'll need to do one of the following to your bed:

Buy some supports to raise it at least a foot higher than it already is. Most colleges sell these; they screw into the bedposts. You get much, much more room to store things under your bed.
Construction materials to loft your bed, if your school allows it. Essentially, you nail your bed to the wall about two feet below the ceiling, giving you six feet of space under the bed - plenty of room for a desk, shelves, etc.
Twelve cinderblocks. Three per bedpost. You figure it out.

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 2:00 am

YOU GET MICROWAVE with the room?!?! MTHERFOAK! Microwaves are banned from dormitories in my college...except for lounges.

Cinderblocks is a good idea here extra storage, orheck, you could shove a minifridge under there....but better be sure what kind of bed you will get. You will have to be creative with dormitories. Also...

Bring bowl. Bowl is all-purpose here. vomit. food. water. Whatever goes

And regarding minifridge...better make some kind of agreement with your roommate soon as possible regarding CLEANING/Defrosting fridge.

400$ is a bit a lot...and this is college...In other words...you should have a safe place to put 400$, and alos you should eye on your wallets or know where it is at all hours. Wallets are the most safe...in your pockets. That or learn the locations of ATM. I rarely carry around more than 100$ at college.

Keep your door locked whenever you are out of the room. Even for a second. Often, people would walk through dorms and find "open" room to steal stuff. a lot of laptops are stolen that way. Also...I'd suggest that you invest in lock-cable for your laptop, making it harder for people to steal laptop.

Van Der Litreb · Post by **Van Der Litreb** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 2:01 am

Earphones.
Earplugs. You never know if yours is gonna be the party hall.

Seeing as how our dormitories are somewhat different from yours, that's really all I can think of.

FlakJacket · Post by **FlakJacket** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 2:29 am

Mini-first aid kit. Just some of the basics like plasters, antiseptic cream, bit cream, paracetamol - or whatever you guys use over there - etc thrown in a little plastic bag. Means you have it on hand and don't have to go searching round if anything happens.

Booze. Just some basics as a starter pack, until you find a source you can buy from there. You Americans and your silly alcohol laws.

Apart from that and what others have mentioned, I'm drawing a blank.

Wildfire · Post by **Wildfire** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 2:31 am

If your dorm room is not carpeted, get remanent carpet. Tile and concrete is damn cold at 8am

Some sort of personal light be it a usb light, a booklight or a small lamp because there will always be a time when your roomate wants to sleep before you can/do

At least one rubbermaid or equivalent container as you always end up with more stuff that fits in what you brought to store it in, and they stack well

Hangers, at least most colleges have closets
Many rolls of quarters for laundry because the change machine is always broken
White board to be glued/taped/whatever to your door for messages to the roomie or from friends to you.
Cordless phone because the room is always bigger than the phone cord reaches

That's all I can think of at the moment

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 2:31 am

(If you must bring booze. Learn the art of hiding things. Hide them in Orange Juice carton. Keep it in fridge. Learn policies of dorm room searches. etc.)

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 2:32 am

And of course, there's always a chance that there will be a lot less of stuff used than brought...but you will understand when you're coming back for second year

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 3:07 am

Woohoo! Lots of responses! In order:

Cipher wrote:Get a small bucket to carry toiletries to and from the shower / common bathroom. Trust me.

Also, flipflops for same. Don't stand on that shit in your bare feet.

At least 10' of CAT-5 cable for your laptop (presuming it's an ethernet connection). I can guarantee you the wall jack won't be where you want it. Unless your dorm's WiFi, of course.

All good ideas. I already have the CAT-5, although the dorm is WiFi; I've had bad experiences with wireless being glitchy.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to loft, although I want to. I really feel like I should check with my roommate before I make any huge changes to the room; I think there's also a way to bunk the beds, but I'm not sure.

Flameblade wrote:YOU GET MICROWAVE with the room?!?! MTHERFOAK! Microwaves are banned from dormitories in my college...except for lounges.

400$ is a bit a lot...and this is college...In other words...you should have a safe place to put 400$, and alos you should eye on your wallets or know where it is at all hours. Wallets are the most safe...in your pockets. That or learn the locations of ATM. I rarely carry around more than 100$ at college.

That's $400 in the bank. Fifty on me. Plus, the school has a sort of ATM card built into the Student ID that I can use anywhere on campus, which is nice.

Keep your door locked whenever you are out of the room. Even for a second. Often, people would walk through dorms and find "open" room to steal stuff. a lot of laptops are stolen that way. Also...I'd suggest that you invest in lock-cable for your laptop, making it harder for people to steal laptop.

Yeah, I need to grab one of those before I go. Keep meaning to and I haven't yet. Thanks for the reminder.

Veed wrote:Earphones.
Earplugs. You never know if yours is gonna be the party hall.

Honors dorm. Don't think it'll be the party hall.

I'll bring both, though.

Flak wrote:I've already got a couple little kits like that I carry around when I'm camping. Good idea.

Booze I'm not going to bring with me, since my parents are going to be putting my stuff in my room while I'm registering and they wouldn't approve. I figure I'll be able to meet a cool upperclassmen in band and get him to buy me some booze. I don't drink much anyway.

Wildfire: I was planning on bringing all of that, although I hadn't written it down. Thanks.

Flameblade wrote:(If you must bring booze. Learn the art of hiding things. Hide them in Orange Juice carton. Keep it in fridge. Learn policies of dorm room searches. etc.)
Yeah, I'm going to put a false bottom in the footlocker to hide stuff in.

DrunkenMaster · Post by **DrunkenMaster** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:01 am

I'd recommend a small fan. The room you are in is always either too hot or too cold. The microwave is nice, but I prefer a toaster oven. Keep a block of cheese in the fridge. Add a loaf of bread and you shouldn't go hungry.

I splurged on a heavy duty plastic lockbox, the kind that can be bolted into the back of a pickup, one with a heavy duty lock. You'll need to keep up with bank statements, social security cards, transcripts, insurance, etc. Best place to store it. Stuff will get stolen all the time. Because of the lockbox, I never lost anything of value.

Duct tape.

Spackle.

All I can think of for the moment.

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:11 am

Honors dorm. Don't think it'll be the party hall. Happy I'll bring both, though.

Don't assume. Honors dorm can be "used" to throw some people off...but often, it's dedicated people...but...it could be party floor time to time...

Nightsky · Post by **Nightsky** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:22 am

Bring bowl. Bowl is all-purpose here. vomit. food. water. Whatever goes

Yes! A Bowl! Don't forget the bowl! Flame's right, a Bowl is a great thing, make sure you get one of those large ones.

I don't go with false bottoms in footlocker. That's old and has been tried. If you have a drop down ceiling, use ducttape to tape the booze to the back of the ceiling panel.

FlakJacket · Post by **FlakJacket** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:32 am

Nah, go with Flame's idea. Just throw out half of the orange juice stuff from the carton and replace with vodka. Voila, instant screwdrivers for breakfast.

Big Jim · Post by **Big Jim** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:35 am

I already have the CAT-5, although the dorm is WiFi; I've had bad experiences with wireless being glitchy.

If you're planning on gaming at all (and you're at college, so yeah), wireless still isn't all that workable, due to packet loss. If you're going to be playing any kind of FPS or RTS, make sure you have a wired connection.

FlakJacket · Post by **FlakJacket** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:39 am

Plus IIRC, it's unsecure as fuck. Unless I'm thinking of an earlier thing.

|

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:48 am

get a long cable. That way you can easily customize your room

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 5:28 am

I have a box of, like, five hundred feet of Cat-5 sitting in my garage that I'm taking with me so I can undercut the overpriced cable they sell at the bookstore. This is not a problem.

The only (really) annoying thing is that they've blocked the port that Kazaa uses, so I'll either need a way to redirect the data to another port or a substitute program. Any ideas?

Nightsky: No drop ceilings; it's the oldest dorm on campus, though they just refurbished it. I'll figure something out.

Wildfire · Post by **Wildfire** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 6:08 am

Blocked ports are hard if they're on the school's firewall end. Some of the kazaa knockoffs may let you accept and send on a different port but dunno. If you have a loft, hiding booze is easy, 2x6 sides and plywood on the bottom and the top

Marius · Post by **Marius** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 7:02 am

I always just hid the booze by closing the curtain on the bar. Unless I forgot, and left the bottles out. Then I hid it inside myself, my friends and my RA. They never look there.

ratlaw · Post by **ratlaw** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 8:53 am

You people actually got searched? Jeez. All we had to worry about was open containers in the halls, lit joints in the halls and maybe the RA giving you a nasty look if she didn't like you.

Wildfire · Post by **Wildfire** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 4:10 pm

Me personally, no, it was usually just don't flaunt it and you're fine, and only ever an issue freshman year. After that, no one really cared, but if you made a total ass of yourself and bragged about your stash freshman year, the RAs would resort to search and confiscate, but most people where intellegent enough to simply enjoy it in their own rooms.

JohnnyRico · Post by **JohnnyRico** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 5:52 pm

Sal, I lived in the Substance Free Wing of my dorm for a year. We renamed it the Substances Free Wing, since if you wanted it, you could get it. Not only that, but our neighbors held the majority of the Thirsty Thursday parties there. It's always nice to wake up and find the good shower's floor covered in vomit.

sinsual · Post by **sinsual** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 7:31 pm

What no case of REDBULL! for those late night cram sessions?

Daki · Post by **Daki** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 7:40 pm

Or the Red Bull wanna be... Blue Ox!

Marius · Post by **Marius** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 7:41 pm

Oh, which reminds me. Cheap condoms are usually free somewhere on campus, but it never hurts to have a stash of classier rubbers for when you want to impress.

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 7:44 pm

of course! you know, that's what I used to do. if there wasn't a name brand on those condoms, you weren't getting anywhere near me with it. and none of those imposter brands either!!!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 9:53 pm

While I can certainly understand wanting to be protected from college slime with the finest quality of sheathing, if that's the deciding factor, I have to wonder at how slim the evaluation procedure was in general . . ;-)

Gunny · Post by **Gunny** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 10:00 pm

it wrecked havoc, truth be told. if it wasn't a name brand purple condom, I went home.

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 11:10 pm

Oh yeah...be prepared to buy 6 pack of Mountain dew. Or rather, buy 2-liter bottle and drink from the bottle.

I still remember my all-nighter...I did this only once. By the way...It's a pretty bad idea to pull an all-nighter...it can fuck your internal clock over. Really fuck you over academic wise.

Daki · Post by **Daki** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 11:45 pm

Oh, if there is a Sam's Club in the area, get a membership. You'll be able to buy mass quantities of snacks, food and drinks for lower prices.

FlameBlade · Post by **FlameBlade** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 11:47 pm

Yep...on-campus food stuff are always a ripoffs. Higher price than it should be. Even snack shop. Higher price than it should be. Big ripoffs.

And by the way...since you are going to get card from college...I'd suggest getting meal plan that allows you eat anywhere...of your own choosing.

Reika · Post by **Reika** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:45 am

I know you have a microwave (lucky bastard) and a mini fridge, but one of the best things I ever had was a hot pot. It's good if you want to boil water for things like tea/instant coffee/ramen noodles. Also you may want to bring a small desk lamp. The first dorm I was in only had an overhead light which sucked because my roomy was a morning person and I was a night owl.

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:47 am

Reika wrote:I know you have a microwave (lucky bastard) and a mini fridge, but one of the best things I ever had was a hot pot.

Not allowed. I thought of that too.

Reika · Post by **Reika** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 1:00 am

Salvation122 wrote:Not allowed. I thought of that too.

...You're shitting me. They're allowing a microwave, but not a hot pot? Damn. Every college I'd checked out had the opposite.

Wildfire · Post by **Wildfire** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 1:20 am

They wouldn't allow hot pots in our college either, fire hazard and all. Not that we weregiven a microwave or anything, we had to bring our own

Some college allow coffee makers, though, and the one cup kind are pretty cheap if you think you'll have a need for a lot of hot water

Anguirel · Post by **Anguirel** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 1:42 am

Deck of Playing Cards -- invaluable for when the network inevitably goes out.
Candles, if allowed, for when the power goes out. Or battery-powered light sources, if preferred or required.
Pyrex dishes (for use in microwave) if not covered by "eating utensils".
No-fee unsecured personal (as opposed to parental) small-cap credit card*.
At least one set of clothing for all possible situations (weather is never what it's supposed to be) -- don't assume you'll be able to go home before the season turns.
Milk-crates or rubbermaid containers that can double as shelves.
Beanbag or similar lounging slacker chair.

As you're bringing a hamper, I'd recomend a soft-sided / foldable one that doubles as a laundry bag if you haven't purchased it yet.

* - This is, ultimately, a decision for you and your parents to make, but I recommend it. You pay precisely zero dollars on such a card as long as you pay off your balance on time every month. Never use it for a cash advance, just regular purchases. This also means you don't need to carry a lot of cash on you (which is a big advantage). If your bank account includes a debit card which has a credit line overdraft or can be used directly as a credit card (for no additional fee) that would an acceptable alternative. This allows you several nice advantages: you can track your spending habits easily on the monthly bill; you begin to form a good credit record; you can flexibly purchase things you find when you inevitably find regular transportation to the mall (impulse buying is bad, but those EB clearance boxes of $5 games are irresistable.

).

FlakJacket · Post by **FlakJacket** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 1:55 am

If no hotplate, then I'd suggest a little electric kettle depending on whether or not your a hot drinks/instant noodles type of person.

Nightsky · Post by **Nightsky** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 9:18 am

Simple Fact: You can go to class in your pajamas. That saves you in clothes you must bring, and laundry if you do your own.

I never understood why people dress up for class at college. My last semester there, I had a 101 class as one of those little electives to get out of the way. 90% of the class were freshmen. They all dressed nicely and were neatly groomed. I drug myself to class in a 'clarinex' tshirt, those pants that zip up and down the sides, a cap, a cigarette, and a cup of coffee. In all my other classes I blended it quite well to the local wildlife.

Jestyr · Post by **Jestyr** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 10:24 am

* A sewing kit, for emergency mending. You don't need anything fancy; a few grades of needles, some pins and safety pins, half a dozen shades of thread, spare buttons.

* A small fan heater if you're allowed one, since if it's not too hot it'll be too cold.

* A good warm blanket, if you're not allowed a fan heater.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:21 pm

Good lord. I don't own all this stuff /now./ You guys must have been the over-prepared dorks in college.

Don't take anything you won't need every single week. If you need something less often than once a week, you can borrow it from someone down the hall [one of the over-prepared dorks; every hall has one]. All that matters is what you need every loop of your living cycle: one week. If you can stick to it, you can live your whole life that way, and eventually get so that you can happily live with only what you can carry with you and what you can find in your environment. College is a time for creative problem solving, not shopping until you've filled your whole room with canned goods.

But definately get as many meals on your meal card as you can; your loans, parents, or scholarships are paying for them, and they're easy when you're blown out from studying or "studying." You basically want two a day; anything more and you'll just end up fat. But modern dorms have buffets like god's never seen, and it's worth the deferred expense.

And don't forget to bring a towel! Towlie says, if you're soaking wet because you ran through the rain to sneak in your window at 4 in the morning because you reek of spilled beer and really sexy perfume, you need a towel so you don't catch a cold and miss class in the morning. Again.

DV8 · Post by **DV8** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 12:24 pm

3278 wrote:Don't take anything you won't need every single week. If you need something less often than once a week, you can borrow it from someone down the hall [one of the over-prepared dorks; every hall has one]. All that matters is what you need every loop of your living cycle: one week.

Amen.

Kai · Post by **Kai** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 10:34 pm

3278 wrote:Good lord. I don't own all this stuff /now./ You guys must have been the over-prepared dorks in college.

Heh, I was horribly underprepared actually, just trying to save someone else the 6 billion trips to Wal-mart in the first week and a half to pick up this hour's Thing You Must Have and Have Forgotten

Cash · Post by **Cash** » Tue Aug 19, 2003 11:20 am

*reads the thread late*

Follow 32's suggestion and wait til you actually get there. Then print out this thread and get what you need.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to loft, although I want to. I really feel like I should check with my roommate before I make any huge changes to the room; I think there's also a way to bunk the beds, but I'm not sure.

Trust me...lofting is the way to go. Not bunking.