10 Steps to do before going away to college

The time between high school graduation and the day you leave for college may seem like a long period, but it is not! It is so short in fact that no sooner will you have packed away your cap and gown and yearbook, will you be packing your car and heading out for the "last night home." A million things will change in that period, but it is as they say the best and worst summer of your life. 

This 10 step checklist is a bunch of things you will probably forget to do in this short period of time. It ranges from ways to make your home away from home, or that 2 x 4 they call a dorm room, homey to how to save your parents money on phone calls. 

All in all these are valuable tips and tricks of the going away to college trade, so enjoy!

Okay so you may not think this is so important, but it is. Your dorm room is where you will be living- and so it needs to be as home-y as possible. Of course that is often quite hard to do when you have a 2 x 4 living space, but this 10 step article is going to show you exactly how to do that. First you need to learn where to shop and what to shop for. Then you need to be realistic about what your dorm can look like. Then you also need to remember to bring a lot of things that without reading this you would have forgotten, and also a little advice for helping your parents deal with the whole process. 

1. Bed Bath and Beyond

This can be your best resource, or it can be your worst. The checklist is filled with items that seem like something a first time college student would need, and yet many of these items move from your hometown, to your college dorm and back again. For example flannel sheets. Not everyone likes flannel sheets and to be perfectly honest unless you are going to school in Alaska you will most definitely not be cold in your dorm room. The things that should be on this list are:

a) two window fans- these will come in handy after you have moved in, and they will definitely be sold out in the school store in the first five minutes of move-in day. 

b) lofted bed shelf- particularly if you have a lofted bed, as many freshman at Quinnipiac University do, this will come in handy. You can put yet another fan on this and also a drink, glasses, and you know those textbooks you are supposed to be reading. 

2. Pottery Barn

Now according to Pottery Barn, this is how big a dorm room generally is. In any of your college visits did you see a full size bed in a dorm room? I didn't think so. 

 

Regardless, Pottery Barn Teen is a good resource as well. Organization is key in creating a comfortable dorm room and Pottery Barn has a lot of interesting options for organization. 

a) Curtains: These can mean the difference between making lifelong friends and lifelong enemies in the first few months away. College is an adjustment period, which also means you have to adjust to other people's habits. Everyone adjusts at different rates, so one of your roommates may not realize until the middle of the semester that it is rude to keep her desk light on until 3 a.m. These may help with the limited space, at least slightly. Hanging them around a desk area may give you the quiet you need to study and can also signify to your roommates that you are indeed studying and do not want to be bothered, no matter what. 

b) Locker Bins: These are an easy way to organize your books, extra paper, shower accessories and other small items that would otherwise take up too much space in your closet and/or your desk. Your desk should be as clutter free as possible to allow for a good study environment. This may sound ridiculous but you definitely will be happy when you can study in your room instead of braving the 20 degree weather to go to the library during finals in December. 

 

And now while your dorm may never look like the above picture or this:  it can definitely be comfortable for you!

3. Staples

Now Quinnipiac students have it quite easy- they have a staples within 10 minutes of campus. If you do not have one as close, it is important to remember to purchase the necessary supplies before hand. This does not only include notebooks and looseleaf pages, but it also includes pens, staples, a stapler, post-its, and batteries. It is also good to ensure that you have extra quantities of all these "office" supplies as you most likely will not have a car freshman year and ultimately will not be able to get off campus so easily. You also will need a chair or at least a cushion as many college chairs are quite uncomfortable. 

Directions to Staples from Quinnipiac University: 

View Larger Map

4. Communication

Although this is not a store, it is vital to your pre-college prep. How will you communicate with friends and family members while away? In the digital age, most people have cell phones, and facebook is also a great resource for keeping in touch with high school friends. Depending on how far away from home you are and your wireless service provider, these calls can be quite costly. A low-cost option, particularly for that semester you will hopefully spend abroad, is skype. Skype is a VOIP service- which stands for Voice Over Internet Provider- it is similar to vonage in that it carries phone calls through an internet connection for a minimal fee. Skype costs two cents per minute calling to anywhere in the world, but if you call from a computer it is free! The new Dell laptops, required by QU, and all Mac laptops, have a camera installed in the screen. All you need to do is purchase one for a home computer and viola! you can communicate with your family and family pets, for free. Depending on the quality of the webcam it can be quite expensive or inexpensive. You can also purchase one on ebay. This will ultimately score you major points with your parents because not only are you saving them money (which they will be grateful for after the six digit tuition bill they will receive after July 1st) you will also be teaching them something technical that they can brag about to their friends, because you know parents love that stuff!

5. Meal Plan

Again more a concept and thought process. How much food do you eat in a week? Do you want to have extra money on your meal plan for coffee or do you want to eat the two meals a day, six day a week plan that some schools suggest? If you choose to simply do the two meals a day another important thing to consider is how you will supplement your meals. Will you go food shopping or use peapod? One of the best things about peapod is that they deliver food from stop and shop straight to your dorm and your parents can order the food for you from home (which means they can also pay for it!)

6. Spending Money- Otherwise known as a Job

While adjusting to college many students find it quite difficult to keep up with class work and also a side job. An option for this is work study. Be sure to apply for this in APRIL when you submit your FAFSA. (Federal Application for Free Student Aid) Work study allows you to be granted a specific amount of money to be paid to you by the University you attend in exchange for work. So you can work at the Library, Admissions office, Bobcat Den, Polling Institute, and a variety of other places depending where you attend. 

7. Mac or PC- Which is better?

Ah the age old dilemma- which is better? Well according to Justin Long (and the Wall Street Journal) a Mac definitely has the upper hand, but here's a few easy ways to compare. 

If you are attending Quinnipiac in particular it might be easier for you to have a Dell, the school sponsored computer. The STARs will take care of any and all problems that you may have.  The Quinnipiac Dell can be viewed here.

If you do decide to get a Mac, you will be forced to go to West Farms Mall for any and all service problems. The West Farms Mall is about 45 minutes by car. This may be difficult if you are a freshman this will be quite difficult. 

View Larger Map

8. Clothes- Do not over pack!

When you first go away it will be hot, so you will want summer clothes. If you do not plan to go home until Thanksgiving break, then you may need to bring a warmer set of clothes. The important thing is to not bring too many winter clothes as it will be a lot easier to simply switch out your clothes during your breaks. Another important thing to remember is to bring a lot of clothes you like. For example if you plan to be going out a lot (and you will in the first few months) then you will need a few dresses, dress shirts (for boys) and whatever else you like to wear to go out. 

9. Facebook

Setting up a facebook is definitely a vital part of college prep. You need to determine which networks you will be joining (generally your college and your hometown), and it is a great way to communicate with roommates beforehand. This way you can meet them and coordinate who will bring the microwave, fridge and tv. It also helps you to stay in touch with people from your orientation group, which also means you will have a built in group of friends waiting for your arrival!

10. The Last Night

The last night home can be one in which you are quite torn. Your parents will want you to have dinner with them, your friends will want you to have drinks with them and your significant other (should you have one) will definitely want some quality time. How do you balance all this? There is no right or wrong answer, the best answer is simply to see who, when and where, makes you happy. It's YOUR last night, and things will honestly never really be the same again, so embrace it and be ready for the most amazing four years of your life--the four years where you learn what living truly is. 

  

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

With the current economic situation, many students are now wondering if there were things they could have, or should have done differently. Jenna Labisi is a junior from Staten Island, N.Y. and she believes there isn't much she could have done different, and yet Kelly Bruneau, a junior from Cheshire, Conn. believes she needs the extra year or two that grad school will give her.

These two students both attend different schools based on their needs and yet their message is universal- enjoy the time you have here in college, because before you know it, it's over.

The following are interview transcripts with the two college students:



Kelly Bruneau, 21, Cheshire, Conn. attends Quinnipiac University
Major: Economics Minor: Spanish and International Studies

1. What made you come to Quinnipiac?
a. I decided to come to QU because it was the best fit for me, I play lacrosse here and for me QU offered the best combination of academics and athletics. What is the hardest thing about being in college?

2. What’s the hardest thing about being in college?
a. I think the hardest thing about being in college is balancing everything - especially for me, being a student-athlete, I don't have a lot of time, so its really hard to do everything that I want to do and still do all of the things that I have to do.

3. What would you do differently if you could?
a. I'm honestly not sure what I'd do differently... I don't regret most of the decisions that I've made, academically at least...I just wish I knew what I wanted to do after college, because at this point I'm still very much undecided..

4. What worries you most about graduating next year?
a. I think what worries me most about graduating next year is that I have no clue what I want to do... and of course the fact that the economy is terrible right now, and the job market doesn't look so promising.




Jenna Labisi, 20, Staten Island, N.Y. attends SUNY New Paltz
Major: Communication Disorders Minor: Art History

1. What made you go to New Paltz?
a. I wanted to go to New Paltz because they had a variety of subjects and I wouldn’t have to do something I really didn’t like.

2. What’s the hardest thing about being in college?
a. Studying all the time and knowing that its constant studying is hard

3. Do you wish you had waited a year to go college and/or had taken a year off?
a. I’m glad I didn’t wait that I went straight to school because I would have worked and I wouldn’t have wanted to go to school and I probably wouldn’t have gone away to school I would have stayed home

4. What would you do differently if you could?
a. I wouldn’t do much differently

5. What worries you most about graduating next year?
a. I’m worried about not being able to get a good job that can support myself, and possibly a family, when that comes. I have to go to grad school to become certified so at least I have a little extra time before I have to become an adult.

My First Love Affair...

is still continuing and it's with a city- Manhattan.

I've been to 9 different countries and a bunch of different cities and yet one city still remains my favorite. It is a City that is known to me as The City. So many shows, movies etc. are based here and it's where, at least in my opinion, dreams come true. It's the only place in the world where you can be in Italy and China at the same time (thanks of course to the proximity of Little Italy and Chinatown), there's great museums and restaurants and nightlife and SHOPPING, oh the shopping. I love shopping almost as much as I love food and chocolate, so for me living in New York has always been a luxury.

Of course the other cities are nice too, they just aren't My City.

Midtown Lunch

Working in Rockefeller center allows me to eat really well for really cheap (well NYC cheap) two days a week-- its amazing! 

A blog- Midtown Lunch-  has made the process of determining my Wednesday and Friday lunch selection much easier--they go to different places in the midtown area and then review them on their blog. This site is sooo cool!! One week, in October they reviewed all the Halal/Kebob places in Midtown and compared all the chicken and rice dishes you could get. It's cool, fun to read and just interesting. 

Of course most days I'm swamped with work (and always afraid I'll run into Magnolia or Crumbs for a cupcake) so I just end up eating Chipotle, which is delicious in it's own way, although not as adventurous. 

"Umm Mom I..."

This quote is always followed by some sort of phrase that your parents definitely do not want to hear.

I must have said this phrase to my mom at least 50 times in my college career, and the words following ranged from the outrageous (got a tattoo in Italy) to the mundane (went to work) to the slightly less outrageous (got a dog). And yet each and every time I am always stressed out for days before (because generally by the time I am telling my mother I have done or decided to do what I am telling her) telling her for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON!!

So fellow college students, this post is going to be dedicated to How to Tell Your Parents the Important Stuff Without Sweating The Small Stuff (I like the caps, I feel they lend more importance to my statement) okay so here it goes.

Let's say you want to get a dog- because this is exactly what I just did- you need to explain to your parents (or parent or the person who is paying your bills) that you are ready for the responsibility and have carefully thought this out and blah blah blah...

Now while I do agree that asking parents for money often requires a lot of groveling, pleading and begging, there are a lot of other things that will make them give you the green for with a lot less anxiety. 

First show your parents you are responsible--do your homework, make the deans list, show them that your apartment can actually look like somewhere that is inhabitable instead of the next HAZMAT site.  

After you have done this show them how you will be able to afford a puppy or that new stereo. Will you get a new job? Do you have the time to take care of the pet and if not have you made arrangements for someone else to do so? Etc. 

Hopefully your parents will fall so in love with your new puppy (as my mom did) that they really won't ask any questions at all. 

Dee Dee was rescued!