Students Advised To Bring The Basics When Packing For College
BOSTON (CBS) - It's about time to pack for that road trip to college. What do you bring, and more important, what do you leave behind?
Parents and students will soon be making that trip to college, only to find dorm rooms so small.
A recent college graduate herself, HerCampus.com Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Kaplan knows how overwhelming it can be to pack for college for the first time.
But, having gone through the process for years, her advice is to bring just the basics.
"Definitely bring a couple sets of sheets," said Kaplan. "What you don't need in terms of bedding are a ton of decorative pillows, blankets, things you might put on your bed, because in college, you might end up doing your reading on your bed because you have such limited space."
Kaplan advises new students to bring fewer t-shirts and lots of underwear.
"Once you get to college, you're going to be getting so many new t-shirts. Practically every event you go to, everything you sign up for will give you a t-shirt, but what you want a million of are socks and underwear because you don't want to do laundry," said Kaplan.
For those students bringing a laptop, Kaplan recommends they also bring a back-up hard drive or portable flash drive in case that laptop gets lost, stolen or damaged.
And when it comes to buying a small fridge or microwave, she says students should wait until they arrive at college.
"Some schools require that you rent or purchase one directly through the school, some schools don't. Some schools have rules against them, so that's the kind of thing where you should wait until you get on campus, and that will save you space in the car," said Kaplan.
