So I was wondering how many clothes I should bring to college. I am trying to narrow my wardrobe before college this fall. I tend to wear nice tank tops with a cool jacket, dark wash jeans, and a nice lipstick. I overall just like to look put together. I really don’t know what I should bring so my wardrobe is varied but my room is not overflowing with clothes. Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Do not bring any high school logoed clothing! Unlike high school what you wear is not important.
Take a look at pics of the dorm and look at how much space you have. Pack accordingly.
Agreed, look to see how much space you’ll have. I have a small closet and two drawers and was able to bring clothing for all seasons. I have some friends who went home and switched out their summer clothes with fall/winter, but I live 12 hours away so I had to bring everything at once and it was no problem. Underbed storage is your friend! I store my off-season clothes and shoes under my bed which gives me more room for other clothes.
You just have to pack moderately; don’t pack 25 t-shirts, but you should have room for a decent amount of clothes.
My kid wore out her HS logo hoodie in college. Comfiest item she owned, and she wasn’t going it up. So HS gear isn’t a complete no-no if you have something you really love. I do think HS letter jackets aren’t a thing on most college campuses.
Will you be home at Thanksgiving? You can pick up or swap out stuff then. Take all the underwear you own, that is usually the “laundry trigger” in college, and you don’t want to have to take time during midterms or finals to do laundry.
My kid wished she had a few more mid-dressy items (skirts & casual dresses) than she originally packed. She did my need a ton, but a few more than the 2 she took to start with. 
Thanks everyone! @TomSrOfBoston I don’t actually have any high school stuff so that’s not a problem lol. @lostaccount @CE527M @intparent I’m not exactly sure how much space I’ll get, but I will almost definitely have a single, so I won’t have to worry about sharing space so that’s nice. I’ll only be an hour from my house, so I’ll be home for Thanksgiving and all. @intparent I didn’t think about mid dressy clothes, like skirts and dresses, thanks! I mostly wear clothes that can go from day to night, so that’s good, but it’s still mostly jeans.
Yup, my kid needed something the FIRST day of orientation – at her school they have a ceremony where the kids sign the honor code with a big feather quill pen (called up one at a time by name, it is a small LAC), and they kind of dress up. They do this while the parents are still on campus before they peel us off and send us home. Obviously that is school specific, but one example.
High school stuff is fine, don’t listen to the first post. If you are driving to college, overpack rather than underpack because you can just send anything you don’t need back with your parents
@intparent The honor code is very big where I’m going, so they may have something like that too. I’ll make sure I bring clothes that somewhat dressy, but not too much. Thanks again!
@iubaccounting That’s a good point. I am driving there, and I could always ask my parents to come up and bring some stuff home.
It also depends on the climate you’re going to! My D is looking at schools from south Florida to northern New England. We can’t even address this until she makes her decision.
True and you can also just send them back when they are driving home after they drop you off on the first day. Like if you bring 50 shirts and you realize you can only store 30 shirts, you just send the other 20 back immediately. That’s much better than only bringing 20 shirts because you didn’t think there was enough room
Keep in mind you will probably buy some new stuff as the year goes on, so do leave some room.
Thanks everyone! I’m going to school in the Northeast but its the same climate where I live now so I luckily don’t have to make a wardrobe from scratch.
I would start with less than you think…you want to be able to put all your stuff away. At thanksgiving, bring your winter stuff. My daughter has found that college kids are much less status conscious about clothes than HS kids. If you wore sweatpants in HS you would be looked at, but nobody blinks an eye in college (NE college).
I’m a guy, so take this with a grain of salt.
High school stuff is ok, except letter jackets, I didn’t see anybody with those. For the most part people don’t care what you wear. On the weekends/going out most people dress up a little unless you’re just walking down the hall to another room. For class early in the morning people will be all over the place–pajamas and button-down shirts in the same room. I thought people dressed the same or a little better than in high school, especially upperclassmen. So it depends on your high school and college. If you really want to, just bring a small amount and go shopping when you figure out what other people wear.
Personally I did laundry about every two weeks when I ran out of something. Some people (both sexes) only did it once a month since they had a lot of clothes.
Some threads. There are a lot more if you search around.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18745272#Comment_18745272
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18738513#Comment_18738513
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18682030#Comment_18682030
You can use Fall or Thanksgiving Break to swap out summer clothing for winter clothing, so u don’t need to bring it all and store it all in one go. Use Spring Break as another occasion to swap clothes.