Essential Supplies Needed for College Students Upon Returning Back to School

Seven years ago, I graduated college. It was a tough battle with many health setbacks but I did it. Although it has been several years ago since my graduation, I remember very well the supplies I needed the most. Here is a partial list.

Before beginning the list of most needed college supplies, it is critical to keep some funds saved for specific requests your professors will have for their classes. I remember needing composition books in some classes, Ziploc bags in others, and items one would not necessarily think about as being needed for college courses. Some supplies needed were the same each year and the following is my list.

1) Invest in nice, five subject notebooks for each class especially if you are a big note taker. The one and three subject notebooks are fine but if you are a big note taker it can be a hassle to have to transfer your notes over to a larger notebook later in the semester.

2) A backpack is an absolute necessity-especially if you take all your courses on Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday. If you are known to have health problems, it might be best to invest in a backpack with wheels. These backpacks may not be as neat looking but during my junior year of college I had thyroid surgery and mine was a life saver.

3) Highlighters are very important-a lot of highlighters. Whether you take many notes or not, highlighters help show what is important in a text and make it easier to review when test time approaches.

4) Number two lead pencils are very important. Many tests are multiple choices and ran on machines that only accept this type of pencil.

5) While a laptop computer may not seem like a necessity, it was for me. If you plan to live on campus, it is much easier to carry a laptop up stairs to a dorm room than a desktop computer. Also, invest in a quality printer. I almost missed many assignments because of printer hassles.

6) Stock up on blue books. The reason for this is most professors (at least at my college) required them for essay tests. When test time approaches, these books tend to disappear. Buy these when they are available.

7) Index cards were very helpful for me. If you are taking a foreign language, they are invaluable. Use one side for the English word and the other for the Spanish/French/German/etc word meaning.

8) One item that helped me tremendously in college was a simple refrigerator. Sometimes I would be so absorbed in my studies that I would miss lunch and the refrigerator helped when that happened.

9) Invest in a lot of pens. Some of these items can be bought very inexpensively at Wal-Mart before school begins. The best time to invest in school supplies you know will be needed is now.

10) Most people have cellular phones now, unlike when I was in college. I missed learning about September 11^th until late in the day because our college had dial-up Internet and my dad could not reach me. I don't believe dial up exists in colleges any more but cell phones are still much needed for the trips back and forth between visiting family and returning to school.