What to Bring to College: SWAT Color Leader Edition

JJ Rosales, Grace Collier, and Jonathan Linder–some of this year’s SWAT Color Leaders–wanted to give advice to incoming students on what to bring to college. Check out what they had to say to new Patriots!

1.What furniture or dorm items should students bring?

Sometimes students bring more than they need, or not enough. The best way to fill up space in the dorm rooms is to be smart with space and decorate.

Jonathan: The dorm room fills up fast, so pack light on furniture. But when shopping or packing, look for small compact furniture that could possibly serve more purposes than just sitting or looking nice. A lap desk is also very helpful for working on your laptop or writing on your bed!

Grace: For your dorm room, I would encourage bringing lights (a lamp or Christmas lights). I don’t know why but it makes the dorm room more comfortable. I would also bring lots of wall decorations. Bare walls make a space look temporary. Try to establish your dorm room by making it decorative.

2. Any advice on how to make a dorm room a home?

After making DBU home, the next step for new Patriots is to make their dorm room home. It’s important for the dorm rooms to feel like a comfortable living space, and there’s no better way to do that than making the room resemble a home.

JJ: Bring carpet. The floor gets cold no matter what time of the year and it gets dirty easier than you think.

Jonathan: A dorm room feels more and more like home the closer you get to your roommates! So, I would say reach out and communicate with them before you get to school. Talk about who is buying the bathmat, the rug, or other essentials for the room that only one of you needs to cover.

3. Looking back at your first year of college, what are essential items students should bring?

Move in Day is a rush of excitement and sometimes this means students forget to bring materials that are important to invest in for college life.

JJ: You will absolutely need cleaning supplies such as Windex, Lysol wipes, a vacuum if you bring carpet, and a broom if you don’t have carpet.

Jonathan: A few small things that were super helpful to me were a small personal lamp for reading or doing at night, some plastic drawers for shirts or extra clothes (there will not be a shortage of shirts you get at DBU) and a small mirror to put in the room because the bathroom can fill up quickly some mornings.

4. DBU has many formal events and work opportunities. What should students bring in preparation for both?

Whether it’s SWAT week, a formal event, or an afternoon at the internship and career fair, students will need to dress appropriately for each occasion.

JJ: You will need a business professional outfit for the second day of SWAT and if you plan on getting a job, you will need many business professional outfits due to dress code.

Grace:  In preparation for work opportunities and formal events, I would bring nice attire that you can mix and match so that you can get the most out of your clothing.

5. What are necessary materials?

It’s important for students to be prepared for not only dorm room matters, but for each one their classes as well. Before moving in, students should equip themselves with study materials that are beneficial for class and for their learning process.

JJ: A great study material would be a Keurig.

Grace: Every definition or study question I learn, I use notecards. Quizlet is also helpful because those notecards have different types of study methods.