1) Hangers
No one else can lend them to you, and you will want nicely hung clothing.
2) Tape/push-pins
There’s nothing more uninspiring than blank, white walls. I brought tons of scarves and postcards to decorate my walls and bought posters here. They sell posters during orientations and I’ve also seen poster sales on campus in the last few weeks.
3) A Chequebook
I have used it to pay for music lessons, PlaidCash, pay a tip at hair cut place, tons of place. NOTE: implied here is that you have your own monies to draw from with cheques. Don’t write cheques for monies you don’t have!
4) Sticky-notes
I’ve organized my desk drawers, my recipes and my math homework using stickies. They are wonderful.
5) A non-school notebook (for to-do lists, random notes, free writing)
For all of those things you care about remembering (a funny quote in class, the number for the Career Counselor, notes on good singing technique) a non-school notebook is a must-have.
6) A cell phone
Everyone at college seems to have them. Your RAs use them to find you for late night eating; you friends to find you for activities; your college to tell you when there’s been a bomb threat. As email is to mass and semi-official communication, so have cell phones become for informal and instantaneous communication. Also, it is wonderful to put down my number and know I will be the one answering it.
7) A Laptop
CMU has an amazingly well organized cluster (see: computer lab) system with specific server space alloted to each student; a reasonable email interface for storing information; ftp (File Transfer Protocol) commands are taught in the basic computing (C@CM); but none of these will help you a bit if you’re disorganized or simple a non-hierarchical thinker.
On your own computer, you can institute a policy of security by obscurity, use you search function rather than organize files or simply fill you desktop with photos for a project you should have finished months ago.
8) Bowls and cups
Do you want to eat off of a frisbee?
9) Pictures of family and friends
You will miss them. They will miss you. Get some nice pictures to remind yourself of who you and and who they know you to be.
10) Stationary
So for to write home! And those helpful notes to admins don’t stop once you’ve gotten to college.
And a final college Reminder: be nice to secretaries! They are mostly good people who have chosen to work with students. Think about that. They chose to deal with caffeinated, anti-establishment, n00b or snob Freshpersons. Be nice back.
Inspirational Quote:
“When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of a curved branch, it doesn’t notice that the track it has covered is indeed curved. I was lucky enough to notice what the beetle didn’t notice.” (Albert Einstein)
In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra.
– Fran Lebowitz
