Dorm Life 101
The Washington Post's Home & Garden section is running a story on the "Prerequisites for College Life" based on the fact that DC is about to get flooded with bright eyed freshmen who have no idea what to bring with them to survive DC dorm life.
The suggestions in the article are useful and ones that I should have at least thought about before I packed so much crap in my dad's car that there was no room for my mom to drive down to DC with us. Yeah, I still feel pretty bad about that one...but that's what you get when you start throwing things into boxes the night before you're supposed to arrive.
My move in experience was a little different than most. Being the youngest of eight kids, my dad had been through this before and knew exactly how to handle the situation. He pulled up in front of my dorm, opened the trunk for me, then leaned against the car and lit a cigar while I hauled boxes down a flight of stairs to my new "terrace" room (a.k.a. basement dungeon). The other dads who were running around carrying boxes for their daughters saw this, and although they continued hauling crap - you could tell they were impressed by my dads control of the situtation.
After all the boxes were unloaded, my dad came down to peek his head into my new dungeon. He actually shook his head and laughed at the sight of three beds (one set of bunk beds and one loft) crammed into a room that was clearly only meant for two people (as evidenced by the fact that there were only two dressers and two closets) - Welcome to college.
We went and got a cheeseburger at McDonald's (my last supper of parental control) and with these words, he left me on my own: "I'll see you at graduation."
If you're like I was, and basically left to your own devices once mommy and daddy drive away then you need to be smarter about the choices you make. I didn't have the money to spend on a nice comforter for my bed or the tapestries to hang from my ceiling. I needed the little money I had saved up from earlier that summer to pay for text books.
Surviving that first year on a limited budget can be tough, but it's pretty easy to pick up little tricks along the way. For one thing, I was blessed with a roomate whose mom lived in the area and would stop by with all sorts of stuff for us. She sort of took us under her wing, and anything we were really lacking would magically appear the next time she came to visit - little crap like forks for our raman noodles, etc. If you're heading to college, pray that you have similar luck in the roomate department, but don't bet on it.
First semester, you're usually required to have a meal plan which may or may not be appealing to you. The great thing is that it means you probably won't starve; the bad thing is that you actually have to haul your butt over to the dining hall in the rain, sleet, snow...terrorist threats. You also can't be sure that once you get to the dining hall they're actually going to have something that you want to eat. So here's what you do - whenever you go to the dining hall, bring a couple of ziplock bags with you. Load them up with things that you know you like to eat for those times when you don't want to leave your room or the dining hall is closed.
Don't feel guilty - are you aware of how much they're charging you for those meal plans? And making it mandatory is ridiculous because they usually require you to buy into one of the more expensive options. Take things as much as you can from the dining hall, trust me. I ended up with over 50 extra meals on my dining card at the end of the semester...I almost rounded up the homeless outside of Union Station to treat them to a meal.
If you're dorm room actually has room for a couch or loveseat - don't run out to Ikea and waste your money. "Borrow" one from the lounge and then return it at the end of the semester. Make sure you return it or else they'll try to charge everyone on the floor for "damages" and make sure that your R.A. doesn't come in and spot it. I found that a blanket covered it up nicely.
This next tip is the mother of all tips - if you skipped everything in this post DON'T SKIP THIS! School shopping doesn't end once the semester is in full swing, oh no! The best time to "shop" is at the end of the school year when everyone is leaving to go back home for the summer. I stayed in DC after my freshman year (remember my dad said he'd see me at graduation? Yeah, he meant it). This will only work if your school has a large population of foreign students. In my case, there was not only a large international student population, but there was a specific dorm that almost all of them lived in.
What you need to do is get yourself a shopping cart (college students are notorious for "borrowing" shopping carts...i'm sure you'll find one nearby) and take it to the dorm with the highest population of foreign kids. Make sure that you do this the day that everyone is moving out for the summer. The premise is that the international students end up purchasing nice items (TV's, fridges, stereos, etc.) that they can't take back home on the plane with them and that they don't care enough to ship home. So they end up just leaving it in their abandoned rooms, or putting it out in the hallway. This is when you wheel you cart up and claim your loot. If they're still in the room when you're collecting your goods, you can ask them if they're going to toss it, but if it looks like the coast is clear, it's all yours!
This is how I survived my freshman year of college - without ever setting foot in Ikea or Bed, Bath and Beyond. Hope it helps kiddies - and good luck!
The suggestions in the article are useful and ones that I should have at least thought about before I packed so much crap in my dad's car that there was no room for my mom to drive down to DC with us. Yeah, I still feel pretty bad about that one...but that's what you get when you start throwing things into boxes the night before you're supposed to arrive.
My move in experience was a little different than most. Being the youngest of eight kids, my dad had been through this before and knew exactly how to handle the situation. He pulled up in front of my dorm, opened the trunk for me, then leaned against the car and lit a cigar while I hauled boxes down a flight of stairs to my new "terrace" room (a.k.a. basement dungeon). The other dads who were running around carrying boxes for their daughters saw this, and although they continued hauling crap - you could tell they were impressed by my dads control of the situtation.
After all the boxes were unloaded, my dad came down to peek his head into my new dungeon. He actually shook his head and laughed at the sight of three beds (one set of bunk beds and one loft) crammed into a room that was clearly only meant for two people (as evidenced by the fact that there were only two dressers and two closets) - Welcome to college.
We went and got a cheeseburger at McDonald's (my last supper of parental control) and with these words, he left me on my own: "I'll see you at graduation."
If you're like I was, and basically left to your own devices once mommy and daddy drive away then you need to be smarter about the choices you make. I didn't have the money to spend on a nice comforter for my bed or the tapestries to hang from my ceiling. I needed the little money I had saved up from earlier that summer to pay for text books.
Surviving that first year on a limited budget can be tough, but it's pretty easy to pick up little tricks along the way. For one thing, I was blessed with a roomate whose mom lived in the area and would stop by with all sorts of stuff for us. She sort of took us under her wing, and anything we were really lacking would magically appear the next time she came to visit - little crap like forks for our raman noodles, etc. If you're heading to college, pray that you have similar luck in the roomate department, but don't bet on it.
First semester, you're usually required to have a meal plan which may or may not be appealing to you. The great thing is that it means you probably won't starve; the bad thing is that you actually have to haul your butt over to the dining hall in the rain, sleet, snow...terrorist threats. You also can't be sure that once you get to the dining hall they're actually going to have something that you want to eat. So here's what you do - whenever you go to the dining hall, bring a couple of ziplock bags with you. Load them up with things that you know you like to eat for those times when you don't want to leave your room or the dining hall is closed.
Don't feel guilty - are you aware of how much they're charging you for those meal plans? And making it mandatory is ridiculous because they usually require you to buy into one of the more expensive options. Take things as much as you can from the dining hall, trust me. I ended up with over 50 extra meals on my dining card at the end of the semester...I almost rounded up the homeless outside of Union Station to treat them to a meal.
If you're dorm room actually has room for a couch or loveseat - don't run out to Ikea and waste your money. "Borrow" one from the lounge and then return it at the end of the semester. Make sure you return it or else they'll try to charge everyone on the floor for "damages" and make sure that your R.A. doesn't come in and spot it. I found that a blanket covered it up nicely.
This next tip is the mother of all tips - if you skipped everything in this post DON'T SKIP THIS! School shopping doesn't end once the semester is in full swing, oh no! The best time to "shop" is at the end of the school year when everyone is leaving to go back home for the summer. I stayed in DC after my freshman year (remember my dad said he'd see me at graduation? Yeah, he meant it). This will only work if your school has a large population of foreign students. In my case, there was not only a large international student population, but there was a specific dorm that almost all of them lived in.
What you need to do is get yourself a shopping cart (college students are notorious for "borrowing" shopping carts...i'm sure you'll find one nearby) and take it to the dorm with the highest population of foreign kids. Make sure that you do this the day that everyone is moving out for the summer. The premise is that the international students end up purchasing nice items (TV's, fridges, stereos, etc.) that they can't take back home on the plane with them and that they don't care enough to ship home. So they end up just leaving it in their abandoned rooms, or putting it out in the hallway. This is when you wheel you cart up and claim your loot. If they're still in the room when you're collecting your goods, you can ask them if they're going to toss it, but if it looks like the coast is clear, it's all yours!
This is how I survived my freshman year of college - without ever setting foot in Ikea or Bed, Bath and Beyond. Hope it helps kiddies - and good luck!
posted by Chrissy at
9:31 AM
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