I have been receiving a flood of emails asking me to purchase dorm bundles with blankets, sheets, shower stuff, etc. Are these really cheaper or just a way for companies to make money? My university also sent a package option and claimed no other outside sheets would fit as good as their’s. What do you suggest?
Thanks
Pranitha
When my older brother was going into his freshman year my parents bought one of those packages from his schools and everything ended up being really poor quality. I don’t think it was much cheaper than just going to a department store and buying everything separately. Obviously this is only one experience at one school though, but I figured it might help.
@scienceolympian we opted to buy everything separately last year when sending our daughter off to university. The dorm bundles we decided had items in them that she would not use, limited her choice of colour/design and in the end the bundles cost more than if we were to buy items separately.
My daughter attends university 1200 miles from home. We ordered the items online from a nationwide store and had the items sent to the local store near the university to pick up. She got what she wanted and we didn’t have to worry about transporting anything long distance.
We bought everything from Bed Bath & Beyond with a special 20% off your entire order (not just a single item) coupon that we received for Back To School promo (or start hanging on to all the 20% coupons you get in the mail). The quality was much better than my son’s roommate who bought the dorm package. I don’t think we saved money, but it was worth it to get all cotton rather than cotton/poly blend and my son prefers sleeping with a duvet and doesn’t like a top sheet.
As far as the claim that only the university package sheets will fit, just make sure you buy Twin XL (extra long), regular Twin will not fit.
@scienceolympian I bought my last sheet set (TXL) from Amazon and comforter from BB&B and they fit just fine. The quality is probably also better.
And yes, a regular twin fitted sheet won’t fit. A twin size comforter/blanket may work, but is also a bit short.
Just about every school tells you “our beds are special and no one else’s sheets will fit”. This is generally untrue. Twin xl sized sheets should fit your dorm bed fine - and you can get them from target or bed, bath, and beyond for a much better price than the school’s package.
Wow, this thread is so timely! I was literally about to push the button to order a dorm package when I read these posts. We will now order from Amazon and/or BB&B!
I literally(like 5 mins ago) was looking at the dorm package mail my school sent me and was starting to think “hmm…maybe I should just buy my dorm stuff from here.” So this was definitely perfect timing. 
Target and Walmart have plenty of XL Twin options in the summer. Both of my older kids picked things from Target. Not expensive and lasted through college. Get a foam topper - $20- 30 for a 2-3 inch thick one at Target works fine. It gives the bed some extra cushioning under the mattress pad so the dorm mattress is more comfortable. (Get a mattress pad, too.) My kids took an extra set of sheets but rarely used them. They did use the extra pillowcases more.
Yeah, I think the stores would figure out that there are a few thousand schools with long beds, ha!