<p>How should i go about packing clothes for college? What are some essentials that I need? How much is too much? Like, would it be ridiculous to show up with two suitcases full of clothes? Should I try to plan outfits ahead so I know what I have? Im really confused as to how much I really need. I know that my school puts on formals like the frosh formal so Im going to bring at least two nice formalish dresses and I think that should be enough. Im also more of a nice top and jeans girl so would it be smart to go and buy some more basic tops etc before college? I wont have to worry about winter gear (yay Cali) thank goodness but I keep on thinking that there are items of clothing that are missing. or being worried I dont have enough! Any advice is appreciated.</p>
<p>Two suitcases for a girl - sheesh. I would have been very happy with four. But my daughter is in Ithaca, NY, so lots of sweaters and big bulky coats. I don’t know how close you are to school (driving or flying). I would show up with two suitcases, see what people wear before you buy anything. My daughter left all of her nice clothes, shoes and bags at home, figuring most college girls would tend to dress down. She was wrong, so we had to make a trip up to swap out some of her clothes. She ended up going to more formals and semis than when she was in high school. She didn’t think she needed any interview clothes, so we had to send up some to her. She waited until after Thanksgiving to bring up her winter gears. </p>
<p>Why don’t you post on the Stanford forum to see what people wear. You’ll probably get better answers there. Each school is different, even within the same school you may get different answers. It depends what kind of friends you have.</p>
<p>Hi oldfort! Thanks for the help.
I’m driving up there so more room for clothes i guess! 
I heard Stanford is pretty laid back so I’m not that worried about not fitting in clothes wise, just that I want to cover all the essentials of what I should bring to college. There was a clothes thread on the Stanford forum but it didn’t get that many replies lol. I liked the anecdote about your daughter --i hope i won’t have to ask my parents to send me extra clothes haha. I guess if I have a good assortment of casual -semiformal -formal clothes i should be good to go?</p>
<p>It really depends on what you pack in the 2 suitcases. DD had to fly with us and as a music major had more formal and dressy clothes to consider, but she found that the T-shirt collection grew tremendously at school because they were always getting t-shirts for this or that event or activity. So she did not have to have many of those. Shorts and some cute tops were essential. She held back on most long sleeve, long pants until later since she was in the south. She switched things out when she came home for Thanksgiving. She did have to get rain gear pretty quickly but on-line shopping is so easy, too. No matter where you go, dress comfortably for you. You can shop and supplement when you get there.</p>
<p>Many people want more everyday clothes at college than they are accustomed to having at home because it’s less convenient to do laundry at college.</p>
<p>Both of my kids have tried to bring enough clothes to make it possible to do laundry only once every two weeks. </p>
<p>For everyday clothes, I think you’ll find it helpful to choose things that can go in both the washing machine and the dryer, whenever possible. Dry cleaning is expensive and inconvenient, and there isn’t much space in your average dorm room for hanging up hand laundry to dry. </p>
<p>Most girls bring a nice dress or two for social occasions, and you may also need an outfit suitable for job interviews if you plan to look for internships in the summer after your freshman year.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help! I think I’ll try to see if I could do the “two weeks” clothes packing too. Less stressed now as I guess I really could buy stuff later if really needed
I’ll be bringing suits etc for interviews so I think I’ll be all set, but I’ll be getting some more tops I guess then as I really don’t have that many.</p>
<p>Stanford Mall.</p>
<p>Actually, it’s called Stanford Shopping Center. It’s not a mall.</p>
<p>People at Stanford are very casual, much more than in the east coast. Yes, you may be able to make 2 suitcases last a term.</p>
<p>I’m the mom of a son, but what he brought is two weeks worth of casual clothes - jeans, khakis and t-shirts, socks and underwear. Then for interviews or formal occasions he had a (ONE) blazer and dress pants, dress shoes and a short and long sleeved dress shirt. As it turns out t-shirts mulitply (department events, computer contests, and freshman week activities) so if anything he might have brought fewer of those. I do think if you get bored with what you have brought you can always make a trade during one of your trips home.</p>
<p>My D’s recommendation: bring enough underwear and socks to last 2 weeks, for everything else there is Febreeze 
No, seriously, some clothes can be worn more than once before you have to launder them (jeans, for example). Wrinkle-free and washer/dryer friendly clothes is the way to go. Make sure that you do not have any clothes that bleed color in the washer; otherwise, you’ll either ruin your clothes or will have to do too many loads. Do not bring suits, bring a suit and a couple of shirts. You might need a light jacket because it is not always sunny and 90 degrees in Palo Alto.</p>
<p>Stanford kids looked pretty laid back to me: shorts, hoodies, tees, jeans, simple dresses, flipflops and sneakers.</p>
<p>I realize you are attending school in California-but-it does rain-and gets cold-so-do plan to bring your raincoat, and a winter coat.</p>
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<p>BB - would you please come over here and tell my children this? Ten years of nagging, and it still hasn’t sunk in!</p>
<p>To the OP, I think you’ll want a couple sundresses as an addition to your casual clothes, but only if you wear them now. Flip flops, shorts, pants, tops, hoodies, and a more formal outfit or two. A raincoat will be needed eventually, I agree. A suit - probably not until spring, and it sounds like you’ll be going home before then and can pick up more stuff.</p>
<p>I’m FOR SURE bringing my sundresses to Stanford so I can gloat to my friends who are freezing in Boston haha. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the great advice! Any ideas as to how “heavy duty” rain gear should I bring?</p>
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<p>This is why it’s easier to be male. The same outfit that you wear for dressy social occasions also works for business-type occasions. A woman needs two entirely different types of clothing for those two purposes – and even different shoes!</p>
<p>The two weeks’ worth of socks and underwear is a good one, although my son is going south, and it’s very hot there in August. He figures that he will change clothing once or twice a day, so we went with more socks, underwear and casual things such as t-shirts and shorts. He also had me order a raincoat – they told us that on move-in day, it’s hot or raining or both.</p>
<p>Two suitcases of cloths is plenty for Stanford - you will not have enough space for much more in the dorm…
Be sure to bring some rain gear. You will most probably have to bike in the rain, so some sort of poncho that will keep you and your backpack dry will be helpful.
You will be back home in November for Thanksgiving break, so it will be easy to adjust your wardrobe to your needs.</p>
<p>We are in Sydney now because D1 is studying at the Uni(love the way they say it) for a semester. There is a 2 suitcase limit for international flight, and they have to be under 50 lbs, I was worried. </p>
<p>We just moved her in today. She had 14 pair of shoes, 15 nice tops, 6 pair of jeans, 2 work pants, a suit, 10 dresses, 3 coats, not sure how many T-shirts and sweat shirts. Oh, three large makeup cases and a lot of swim suits (they didn’t take up that much space because they were so tiny). Needless to say I was a bit shocked as I helped her unpack (bit like how many passengers could you really squeeze into a Beetle?)</p>
<p>We then went shopping at the local K-mart and Target (yes, they have them in Australia) for her room. She got lamps, curtains, pillows, blanket for her room. She wanted to get decorative bowls for her shelves, that’s where I drew the line.</p>
<p>It’s going to be interesting to see how she’s going to get everything home later. She told me she would like to get some Australian made clothes to bring home. I told her only if she could leave some of her clothes behind.</p>
<p>If you have not worn it in a year, assume you won’t wear it in college. My D packed WAY too much and was practically squeezed out of her room by clothes. She ended up being the dorm/friend closet and most of the pics I see include someone wearing something of hers. Pack like you’re going away for about three-four weeks and make sure you include hoodies. There’s always mail order for new things! If you have a car, you have extra room - but your dorm room size may not be as accomodating!</p>
<p>I live in the Stanford area and get around by bike. It does get rainy, cold and windy here in the winter. You’ll want a rain jacket or cyclist’s rain poncho if you’ll be riding your bike around campus. Wool socks are good too. </p>
<p>How long is the Stanford Thanksgiving break? Often, kids who would have to fly cross-country don’t end up going home for Thanksgiving because the break is too short.</p>
<p>Sons are different! So are schools. Think of 2 weeks worth of underwear no matter where you are (and then, when a son comes home for the summer he gets them from his to-be-washed pile in the laundry room before he gets around to doing laundry). Apparently, according to H as well as son, clothes can become clean again by just sitting there. I did notice that once he was doing his own laundry, especially away at school, those jeans got worn more than one day at a time. Son has 50-100 t-shirts, mostly from running races, he had to edit for his plane trip away summer.</p>