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6 Tips for Preparing Your New College Freshman

Sending a son or daughter off to college for the first time poses a new difficulty for parents. Maybe in the past you’ve had to prepare them for summer camp or a week away, but this is a challenge on another level: ensuring that they’re prepared for an entire semester on their own. Here are some key tips to making sure your college freshman—or student of any age, really—is prepared for dorm life when they head to school.

Make sure your child gets in touch with his or her roommate beforehand. This way, they can communicate about what each can contribute to the room. Since there’s no need to double-up on things like TVs and refrigerators, collaborating on these items will save both families money and time. Also, this is often the first step toward the two roommates forming a rapport and learning how to communicate with each other, which will be an essential skill once the year begins.

Find out what’s provided by the school. Some dorms will provide carpets and air conditioning, and some won’t. While there’s no need to have a carpet, necessarily, carpeting can make the room feel more homey and comfortable. And rooms without air conditioning, especially in the South, mean that you should bring plenty of fans.

Bring along a toolbox. A screwdriver and pliers can come in handy around the dorm, and they’re the kind of thing everyone always assumes they can borrow from their next-door neighbor—which means that few people will actually bring their own. And when a shelf or desk needs to be built, the toolbox will be essential.

Ship items directly from the store. If your son or daughter is going to college a ways from home, many chains—Bed, Bath & Beyond is one example—will allow you to shop for items locally and pick them up at a branch near the school or can sometimes ship them directly to the dorm. The sheer amount of stuff you need to send along with your child can be surprising, so it’s useful to avoid transporting things yourself when you can.

Check the school’s specifications. Oftentimes, colleges will have certain requirements regarding fridge size and whether or not students can bring their own cooling units beyond fans. Also, it’s important to find out what size sheets are needed: many colleges will have twin XL beds, which regular bedding won’t fit. Laundry is another issue to consider: schools frequently have high-efficiency washers now, and that can require different detergents than the machine you have at home.

Don’t forget these key items: flip-flops for the showers, which students usually share with a number of people as freshmen; power strips, to compensate for the low number of outlets in most dorm rooms; wall hangers from which you can hang towels, coats, etc.; closet hangers for shirts and pants; and vitamins, since colds often run rampant in the close quarters of dorms.

Whether college turns out to be the best four years of your son or daughter’s life or not, it’s almost certain to be a learning experience. The more prepared they are going into it, the better, so be sure to set your student up well: you’ll be making their lives a whole lot easier. 

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