Shopping and packing for college is stressful, and despite these noble ambitions, I still skipped a few things. But I feel that this year, returning as an accomplished and well-acclimatized sophomore, I am now equipped to offer some additions to this list that will hopefully be useful to those who have, in their desperation, turned to even campus newspapers as a source of guidance. There’s still time to buy them!
A Brita filter: Yes, the water in New Jersey is purified and completely, 100 percent safe to drink. But it tastes astonishingly foul. I have found that I am a genuinely happier, more cheerful person if I use the filter.
Clothing sizes: Bring clothes that are either a couple of sizes too big for you, or too small for you. You will either fit the “freshman 15” stereotype and gorge yourself senseless on the soda, burgers, pasta, grease, pizza and ice cream, or be too busy to eat a decent amount of food every day and frequently skip meals. Either way, your weight will not stay constant.
Clothing: A wide assortment of light jackets, heavy jackets, T-shirts and tanktops. The weather is going to be irrational and moody. One frequently requires the entire range in just one week.
Blankets: Thin and thick. Please refer to above for an explanation.
Laundry bag: This should be huge. Like, humongous. Like able to contain every single clothing article from every single drawer in your room, because that is the point at which you will finally feel compelled and/or forced to do your laundry, and you don’t want to have to recruit people to help you carry your dirty clothes.
Extra detergent and Bounce dryer sheets: This is not, as mentioned above, because you will do your laundry very frequently. This is because a wide variety of people will want to “share” your laundry supplies.
Earplugs: These are crucial for a few reasons. You may pick which are applicable depending on where you live. There will always be a construction site in Wilson, usually involving the renovation and re-renovation of Wilcox. Always. And the people on the site will always be working earlier than you wish to wake up with the noisiest equipment that they possess and making enough of a racket to wake the dead. Always. There are also a number of highly motivated and efficient people who like to mow the lawn before 10 a.m., and the lawn mower makes enough sound to flatten the Savanna. If you escape all this, you will hear dumpster lids being slammed down furiously before 8 a.m. Finally, the walls in some of the halls, such as 1939 Hall, are notoriously thin. And there are some things you just don’t want to hear.
People also frequently over-pack, and bring and/or keep things that they don’t necessarily require for campus life. Here are a few of those.
Social planner/calendar: You will never use this after the first two weeks. But every time you look at it, it will make you feel guilty, unproductive, disorganized and messy. So just keep it away from you for the sake of your self-esteem and embrace the la-la land we all inhabit in which we are woefully unable to plan what we’re doing in just even the next two minutes.
Books not related to school: You’ve got a hope in hell of getting through one a year.
Stain remover: You will never remember to use this. But if you don’t have it, then your mother cannot shout at you for not using it.
Mirror: You’re not going to want to look at yourself, especially during midterm week, Reading Period and finals. It’s like looking at the photographs we took during our Outdoor Action trips. You will have raccoon-like dark circles, stress pimples, clothes that you slept in and little or no make-up. Save yourself the trauma.
Have a good semester.
Camille Framroze is a sophomore from Bombay, India. She can be reached at framroze@princeton.edu.
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