If you have a teen heading off to college this year and they are feeling a wee bit overwhelmed at the idea of dorm life, here are a few tips my daughter, The Girl Who Thinks She’s a Bird put together. She lived in the dorms her first year, and survived, and your kid can too. 😉
From The Girl…
Ah college life. Experiencing new things on your own and finally feeling a taste of freedom… except now you have to live in a dorm. Goody. Living in a dorm can be interesting to say the least, especially if you’re sharing the room with a total stranger. That stranger could end up being your best friend or your worst nightmare; the biggest weirdo or the coolest human ever. Regardless, knowing how to navigate dorm life really helps. There are definitely some things that I wish I would have know before heading off to college. So I’m sharing them with you so you’re armed and ready to conquer dorm life! Here they are in no particular order:
Invest in a good pair of headphones:
Trust me, dorms are loud. Even when there are posted “quiet hours” no one really follows them. So if you’re up late doing your homework and there are other students next door partying like it’s 1999, then you are going to want to block them out with a good set of headphones. Earplugs also come in handy if you are a light sleeper or your roommate snores as loud as a freight train.
Have a coffee date with your roommate:
Get to know your roommate. Being friends with the person you’re stuck rooming with {or at least being friendly!} can make or break your semester. At the very least, if you don’t like the person, you can at least be on good terms with them. I think it’s important to get out of your dorm to hang out or talk {or sort out problems}. Sometimes only interacting or trying to get to know someone in your little dorm room isn’t easy. Head out for a cheap coffee or a cheap dinner or a cheap ice cream cone {you see a theme here?}.
Know the best times to wash clothes:
Most dorm buildings have laundry rooms where everyone can wash the weeks clothes. Community laundry rooms are tricky and can leave you wearing dirty socks if you’re not careful! Learn the busy times in your building and avoid those times like the plague! I suggest washing clothes in the early morning. That always worked for me.
Always have snacks:
There are times when the cafeteria is going to be closed, so you need extra snacks around just in case you get hungry. Being hungry while sitting through a lecture or trying to cram for an exam makes me HANGRY! Don’t let that happen to you. Stock up on snacks or beg your parents for a snack-filled care package {ps. care packages are the BEST thing! Always keep ’em coming.}.
Get a shower caddy:
These things are seriously a must-have. Like don’t leave home without one. They make it easy to carry everything you need to the showers without having the possibility of forgetting something and having to walk back to your dorm room in a towel to get it. So embarrassing. Trust me. I’ve had to do that before. A few too many times. Or at least I did before I invested in a shower caddy. Bought one and problem solved.
A pair of shower shoes or flip flops:
Imagine all the dirty, icky feet that walk into the showers. Don’t walk around those germy showers barefoot. Gross. Flip flops are a must! If you have a spare pair of flip flops, put them in your shower caddy so you are never without a spare pair. Also, shower shoes are a great way to protect your feet from collecting a bacteria referred to as MRSA. That’s dangerous stuff. It can gather in places like a communal shower and get into your body via small cuts and scraps. It’s a beast to try to get rid of and can even be deadly. Yikes!
Split the cleaning duties:
Find a way to even out the cleaning between you and your roommate. Make a handy dandy chore chart, alternating who vacuums or who takes out the trash etc… This is not only a great way to keep your room clean, but having a set plan means there will be no fights about messy spaces.
Don’t do all your studying in your room:
I did some of my best thinking and studying in my dorm room and some of my biggest procrastinating, too! It really helped to switch up the scenery from time to time. Explore your campus to find quiet hideaways to do your studying. Every campus has these little nooks and crannies in them, you just have to have a keen eye to find them.
Learn to organize:
This is an important one. Dorm rooms are smaller than you think they are and you’ll have to learn how to make the best out of every inch of space that you have {or don’t have!}. Have drawers that you can easily stack on one another to maximize floor space, as well as store shorter bins under your bed. I’ve even seen people raise beds up with cinder blocks and put full dressers and desks under their beds. Getting creative with small spaces is a must.
Know who the R.A is:
Resident Advisors: you know, the people who are in charge of your floor and who are tasked with making sure no one burns the place to the ground. They’re also there to help you in anyway that they can to make your dorm experience better. Get to know them. If you have a problem with other people on your hall or your roommate, then you can always ask them for the best way to deal with it. They were made RA for a reason, so utilize them if you need to.
Living in the dorms can be a fun experience and can produce some of your best college memories if you know what to expect and you go in with these easy tips.
Did you live in the dorms in college? Do you have any tips I didn’t mention?
~ The Girl Who Thinks She’s a Bird
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Kbonikowsky says
Great tips! It makes me miss my college days.
Brianna says
Know your roommates schedules! I shared a dorm suite with 5 of us and it was important to know everybody’s schedule so we knew who was coming and going. All 4 of my roommates disappeared for the entire weekend most weekends and I had the entire place to myself!
Vanessa says
Great tips! I’ll be sure to share with my son, whom we just dropped off for his first year @ Boise State.
And thanks for the reminder about care packages – assembling one now!
Kirsten says
Great info and writing. I think The Girl should have a regular guest spot ( kinda like Mrs HB)
🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
I’ve been thinking about it. 😉
KC says
These are great tips!
Three more:
1. If you can, find out what amount and type of storage/personal space you’ll have, and pack to fit that. When I moved into the dorm, there were three of us sharing a room designed for two, so we each got exactly half a wardrobe (and then the fourth half-wardrobe we used for all our coats and for shared supplies of various kinds), and that was decidedly snug. It’s a lot easier to keep things tidy and to find things if the stuff fits the space you have, and if you bring too much, things simply won’t fit at all. But some places have under-bed space that you can use, or other storage opportunities – just don’t bank on that.
2. Related to that hangry thing, I got a ton of mileage out of my electric kettle (cup o’ noodles! cup o’ soup of various kinds! tea! hot cocoa for all! and the learning experience that one should not make packaged seasoned couscous in a plastic electric kettle). It’s really, really nice to be able to have something warm on winter nights while studying after the cafeteria has closed, and something to offer visiting friends, and our dorm kitchens were “out of service” for probably 80% of the year. Microwaves are great and even more multi-purpose, but weren’t allowed for us. Check what’s allowed for your specific dorm situation (and, preferably, coordinate with roommates!) before bringing any small appliances; lists vary. And, generally, due to space restrictions, make sure that kitchen-y things can fill multiple roles. (mugs: soup, tea, water, juice, cereal-and-milk, etc. – I personally didn’t need bowls, which was good, because we didn’t have space for them)
3. Have pyjamas you don’t mind complete strangers, potential crushes, and awkward semi-acquaintances seeing you in. You have very little control over who you will run into between your room and the bathroom (an all-girls school may be different? I don’t know – but do expect a slightly wider audience than rules technically allow, in general.), and potentially who comes into your room (I was once sat on after I’d gone to bed by a drunk guest of my also-rather-tipsy roommate), so go for something minimally revealing and minimally embarrassing.
And one last tip, more about getting out of the dorms: be on the lookout near the end of the year for people you know (whose living habits and morning crankiness levels you’ve observed) and who you’d like to share apartments or rooms with the next year, and be proactive about inquiring. If you’ve got the right roommates, your own apartment is vastly better than dorm life (but… no RAs to help solve conflicts or enforce rules, so pick those roommates wisely and make solid agreements beforehand).
Lynne says
I went to college a REALLY REALLY long time ago, and I was surprised how much about the day-to-day of my college experience I’d actually forgotten as I read The Girl’s tips. But your reference to an electric kettle caught my eye – that was an essential survival tool for my dorm room, even way back then. In the years before offices routinely featured a small kitchen area with a coffee maker, I even kept one at work.
Carrie says
I lived in a co-ed dorm my freshman year (all female floors alternated with male floors) and a co-ed hall my sophomore year where males and females were on the same floor. A bathrobe was essential. I don’t mind my roommates and other girls seeing my pj’s but I liked to cover up when heading to the bathroom. We were lucky and had a sink in the room so we could at least brush teeth and wash our faces.
Gina says
Small cans of tuna and crackers were a staple in my dorm room. Used a small electric coffee pot to boil water for oatmeal, ramen noodles, hot chocolate, etc.
Don’t lend your car out to anyone. First, your insurance may not cover it. Second, your roommate may park your car illegally and you end up paying a huge fine. Lesson learned.
If you go to school in a temprate climate, you may want to switch out summer wardrobe to winter when home for Thanksgiving.
Funny how back in the day we left messages for each other on dry erase boards. Now you could just text!
Carrie says
My hallmates and I use to leave dry erase messages for each other all the time. Even though texting was around 12 years ago when I was a freshman it was still nice to get a written message.
Brenda says
Read and re-read the rules about what you can bring with you. My son’s dorms didn’t allow regular coffee pots, but you could have a kerug. You can bring a led desk lamp, but not the tall “spider” lamps with exposed bulbs. Most of these types of rules are for safety (don’t want any fires) so they are pretty strict about them.
Tracy says
Where did your daughter’s nickname come from?