The Bare Essential School Supplies Guide for College Freshman

It’s that time of year that every parent loves and every kid dreads. I’m talking back to school season, people. Now by the time you’re a high school senior you pretty much have figured out what school supplies you actually need and which ones are just a waste of money. But what happens when you start college? You’ve never been here before and with all of your high school teachers always telling you “high school is nothing like college” you’re not sure what to do. Plus you don’t want to be that kid walking into Freshman 101 with a huge stack of binders and a rolling back pack, do you? So we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 things you will actually need and use during your first year as a college student.

 

Notebooks- They are way less bulky than binders and many of them come with attached folders for you to stuff all of your syllabuses in. If you want, you can get a small one subject notebook for each class and just take the ones you need on the day of that class. We recommend one big 5 subject notebook with attached folders. This way you will have all of your notes in one place for a last minute study session. USB- This little guy comes in handy when you are working on papers and projects. This way you don’t have to keep emailing yourself drafts of your paper. They are relatively cheap and many of them come as a keychain for easy storage. Planner- This is where you will write down all of your upcoming exam and assignment due dates. It makes it easier when all of your assignment dates are in one place, so you don’t have to keep looking through your syllabus for a due date. It will help you stay on top of assignments and never miss a deadline. Highlighter- Highlighters come in handy when you want to remember something important that your professor just said will be on the next exam. Highlighting key information in your notes will help you find it sooner. Pens- Pens are great because most exams are on scantron’s that require blue or black pen. Also you don’t want to be writing mid sentence and your pencil brakes and the sharpener is at the front of the lecture hall of filled with 300 students. Water Bottle- Let’s face it, they don’t say living like a poor college kid for nothing. So there may be times where you just don’t have enough money left on your card to buy a drink from the vending machine. Fill up your water bottle from the drinking fountain for free. Plus it will help save the planet by reducing the number of plastic bottles you drink. Chargers- Bring your cell phone charger with you. Most classes have outlets for you to plug your charger in, and unlike high school most professors don’t care about cell phones. Who knows if your group project will run late and your battery is completely dead. This is also true for laptop chargers. You can’t take notes on a dead computer. Small Wallet-This is for you ladies, instead of lugging a huge purse around, carry a small wallet. Store your money & student ID in here. Carry only the essentials when going to class. The lighter the wallet the better. Calculator- Depending on your classes, you might need a calculator and most professors don’t allow students to use cell phone calculators during exams. Most likely you will need a graphing calculator depending on the level of math you are taking. Bag- Last but not least, a bag to put all of this stuff in. Don’t go for a huge book bag that will take up a bunch of room when you place it on the floor of the lecture center. Instead, think minimal. The smaller the better. The key to surviving college is travel as light as possible. Most campuses are pretty big and nobody wants to lug big heavy back packs all over. So don’t worry about college. With the right supplies, you’ll do great.