College can be an extremely exciting time for both you and your family. However, don’t let the essentials get forgotten when you are preparing for your tenure in the dorm rooms.
Ensuring that you have all the items that you need for a successful first term is incredibly important and can make your life much easier, especially when the stresses of deadlines start to kick in. Consider the following checklist when preparing for college.
A Student-Friendly Laptop
Every student needs a reliable laptop companion while they are at college. Laptops are vital components that allow students to complete their work, take lecture notes, conduct research, and meet deadlines efficiently. Student laptops need to combine the power to be reliable and run course software with the robustness to handle the chaos of student life.
Whether you are looking for a portable laptop that you can work on from any location, or a simple laptop that will enable you to get the job done, Choosist can help you to find the best laptop match for you. By answering questions on your lifestyle, Choosist will be able to recommend a laptop to you based on your usage and preferences out of their varied selection of professional and student laptops.
Tip: A hybrid laptop which has four modes and the ability to flip into a tablet can allow you to have the best of both worlds. You can watch Netflix in bed or when traveling to and from lectures, but also use it as a laptop when in a lecture.
Storage Units
Dorm rooms are known for being small, and you may find that you cannot display all of the items that you have brought with you. In this case, you should consider increasing your space with a handy storage unit where you can store unnecessary items together. While they cannot make your room larger, they can maximize the space that you have to ensure that your room remains as tidy and spacious as possible.
The best storage and organization methods range from under the bed storage boxes to shelving, and each can help you to have more room to work and play, while still enabling you to bring all of your childhood favorites with you.
Tip: While you will want to bring everything that has sentimental value, you should refrain from bringing everything but the kitchen sink. There will be a limited amount of storage, even after you bring your own, so be vigilant when deciding what is a must and what you can live without.
A Reliable Backpack
Student life can be chaotic, with numerous lectures and events to get to throughout the day. This can mean that you often find yourself short on time to return to your dorm room and collect your possessions. If you find that you are struggling to carry around large amounts of equipment and textbooks (which can often be extremely heavy), you should ensure that you go to college with a reliable backpack. This will ensure that you are able to carry everything you need, and then some, without your bag ripping halfway through the day.
Tip: Remember, you will need to carry your laptop, stationery, and books. This may mean factoring in practicality over fashion.
A Printer
With all those deadlines to print, you should consider investing in a printer. Although colleges tend to have various places to print from in public locations such as the library, it is not always viable to get to these locations under tight deadlines. Therefore, ease the stress of finding a printer by investing in your own desktop version which will be available to you whenever you need it.
Tip: Ask your housemates to chip in and you can all make use of a printer while sharing the costs. When you have graduated, you can sell it to another student and split the profit.
Decorations
College should not always be about necessity, and dorm rooms can often look bleak and uninspired without decoration. You should ensure that you bring decorations to your college from home, as this will help to personalize your dorm room and help to stave off any remnants of homesickness as the term begins.
Tip: Spend time decorating your room; after all, it is your home away from home, and you need to feel comfortable.