Battery operated light strings. My dd has ones that have clips for photos but there are all kinds of cute ones out there, and batteries.
Emphasis on battery powered. My daughter received a "dorm ticket" for her plug-in lights, but her roommate was fine with her battery-powered lights.
Foam mattress topper - dorm mattresses are thin and not very comfortable. My daughter has a 3 inch thick one and loves it. Says it makes her bed so cozy and comfortable. We found hers on clearance at Kohl's.
We got ours (new) from eBay ... it cost $15 and is now on its third (family) owner. It's kind of old and cracked now, but since it's UNDER the sheets, who cares? Dorm beds are extra-long twins, but it's not essential that mattress pads have that extra 6".
Good advice. If you dig around on the school website you should find a list of dos and don'ts. My son can have a coffee maker and microwave but no open heating elements, so no toaster or toaster oven. Last year the school supplied a small fridge but this year they do not. Students can rent a fridge/microwave combo, but they can also bring their own. We had already bought a fridge last year so I'm glad he can still use it, otherwise it would have been wasted money.
If you have the option to rent a refrigerator, consider it -- even if it's a break-even cost situation. 1) It seems most students live in the dorms only a single year. 2) Unless you get the little cube (and no one wants those bitty refrigerators), they're hard to fit into a standard car, and moving them in /out is a pain.
i'll echo this one-for dd i got a funny metal lunchbox and put a variety of meds into it
A lunchbox is an adorable idea! My oldest and I got 5-6 plastic shoe boxes for organizing small things, and one of them was medicines.
I took one of them and made a "for when you're really sick" box ... it contained two cans of soup, crackers, some hard candy, and a note saying, "If you need us, just call. The drive is 2 1/4 hours ... one of us will be on your doorstep in 2 1/2 hours." In the event, my oldest became miserable sick and desperate at 3 am the night before her most-feared exam. She called, crying, saying, "My roommate and everyone else has already finished exams and gone home. I just threw up all over the bathroom, and I'm scared about my exam!" We talked her down, and we told her missing the exam
just wasn't an option -- she knew that. We told her to go back to sleep, and to go to the exam ... but to sit on the front row and pick out her trash can (just in case). We promised that after the exam was done, her daddy would be there to take care of her. After hearing our voices, she
did go back to sleep. After the exam -- as promised -- she exited the building to see her daddy sitting on the steps of her classroom building. With a sleeve of Saltines and a ginger ale. He stripped her bed, returned her books to the bookstore while she waited in the car, and drove her home -- where she was perfectly well again. College students may legally be adults, but they aren't practiced at it yet.
After that exam week, I was proactive: I went up to see her the weekend before exams, and I brought her (and her roommate) half a dozen mason jars full of vegetable soup ... and cut-up fruit and cheese cubes in ziplock baggies, which they could carry with them to class. That little bit of extra nutritious food seemed to help them ... during a week that is usually filled with fast food.
that might be the case at some schools but none of the university health centers around here sell otc meds (in fact the u's here contract all but on campus emergency mental/sexual health services out to group practice/urgent care clinics within walking distance of the campuses and none sell anything). the student stores sell some otc's but they close early and overprice so most of the kids stock up at the dollar store.
My oldest worked for three years as a CNA at her college health center, and I was surprised at just how much they can do -- anything an Urgent Care can do, they can do. Most of their work is seeing people with Strep Throat, Bronchitis, etc. and birth control, but they can also do allergy shots, x-rays, diagnose big problems before going to the emergency room. She's an RN now, but she saw her first case of MERCA and learned to pack wounds at the college health center.
If my own children and my friends' children are any indication, about half of all new college students seem to get some sort of illness within their first two months of school -- nothing big: ear infection level stuff. They need to understand that a part of their tuition is paying for the health center, and they SHOULD use it.
Uber/lyft on her phone - with your credit card, for the parties and such... so she knows she can get home safely, no drinking and driving, and no judgment from mom and dad, or if she is out somewhere, and doesn't like the vibe or even on a date she can leave and get home.
This is a great resource for college students. While they're living on campus and are in their first years, most students really don't need a car -- and the parking sticker alone is a huge expense.
Go over safety rules before the student leaves. For example, when you call for a ride, your phone'll tell you that Kevin will be your driver. So when he pulls up, you say, "Are you Dave?" If he says, "No, I'm Kevin, are you Mary?" you know he's legit. Make him say your name first. I don't think there's a lot of danger with an Uber, but basic safety is always a smart idea.
Something I did a couple times that thrilled my kids: I'd call them on a cold, snowy afternoon/early evening and ask if they were in their dorm rooms. Then, as we talked, I'd hit the "send" on the pizza I'd already have set up to order on the computer -- and I'd watch its progress. At the appropriate point, I'd say, "Well, you have to go now. The pizza man just pulled up to your dorm. It's already paid, including the tip." They never failed to be THRILLED. When my oldest was in her last week of Senior Nursing Clinicals, I sent her food from her favorite restaurants through something similar to GrubHub (but unique to her college town). She knew about that ahead of time, and she was THRILLED. It made a difference to her in that last stressful week.