24 unexpected things we wish someone had told us to bring to college
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When I finally headed to college, it was after a summer spent organizing and reorganizing a long list of things I thought I would need, plus a link to which item I had deemed best in each category. In much of my free time, I compared the deeply personal, embattled reviews of those defending various middle-priced sheets and dorm room fans.
I wish I’d just spent the summer in a pool. Or, at the very most, learning how to make as many meals as possible using only one pan or the microwave, which would have been either very relaxing if the former and very, very helpful if the latter. I know that no matter what I would have spent those months how I did, but now that Insider Picks does the nitty gritty comparisons for you with well-researched, definitive Buying Guides, you can do 1/20th of the work and still get the best. I wish I'd had them, to say the least.
But after getting to college — and now, having recently graduated — I know what basically everyone figures out pretty quickly at school: You can anticipate a lot of your needs, but the most useful things you’ll buy will likely be the unexpected ones you get to fill a need that crops up on you.
Pretty much everyone will come with sheets, a shower caddy, shower flip flops, and snacks that will help them make friends with the strangers they’re now being left with by their parents. But for me, and most of my friends, most of our best buys weren't strictly the basics.
These were the things I wished someone older had told me to pack.
Things like collapsible water bottles to take to concerts, travel steamers (college is an insidious den of wrinkles), sweatshirts we could lose at the bar without concern, and actually printed photographs of our hometowns and high school friends. Those were the life hacks we slowly figured out on our own, and I had already "lost" a couple coats before the sweatshirts caught on.
In the interest of all the students heading to college this fall, I asked my colleagues at Business Insider to share the best things they bought for themselves in college that they might never have thought to pack.
These are the things we remember as MVPs of our college experience. Check them out below:
A sweatshirt you don't mind losing
I would have loved to know to bring "fratkets" as in random sweatshirts to wear out when going to bars or frat parties so you don't ruin your nice ones. People always lose their jackets, especially in the winter, either by misplacing them or other people taking them, so it's nice to bring something out you don't necessarily care about losing. — Rayna Hollander
G-Style USA Basic Solid Crewneck Sweatshirt, $12.95 - $19.95
Noise-cancelling headphones
I bought myself a pair of Bose noise-cancelling headphones before my freshman year of college. They were expensive, but they were the best thing I bought throughout my four years of college. I could study in my dorm despite whatever loud ruckus was occurring.
These are obviously not the same pair because it’s been a long time since then, but they're basically the same. — Corey Protin
A foldable drying rack
Definitely a foldable drying rack. You don't realize how many of your nicer, going-out clothes are flat-dry only...plus sometimes you can't find a free dryer and it's easier to dry a quick load in your room. — Joanna Fantozzi
AmazonBasics Foldable Drying Rack, $23.22
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