I wasn’t in a quad, but for dorming in general, whitespace has good recommendations. I keep a shoebox of ibuprofen, cough drops, hydrocortisone cream, a thermometer, etc.-- the basics-- which is really nice when sick, because nobody wants to haul themselves to CVS or pay a premium at Wollaston’s. Earbuds, power strip also important. For me, investing in a really good pillow made all the difference too.
For what it’s worth, it never hurts to have something like Cards Against Humanity on deck, it’s a good game to break the ice as it’s easy to deal new people in/out and it’s pretty funny. Some of the guys on my freshman year floor had a pretty big TV and XBOX set up which always attracted people to their room. Another girl had made banana bread at home and advertised it on her whiteboard; she’s one of my best friends after meeting her from that. They might be a little gimmick-y, but it’s easier for some people than just introducing yourself. Kind of on that note, if I could give one piece of advice for freshman year, it would probably be to not “group” yourself immediately. I saw a lot of folks who tried to form tight groups and not make other friends, and when those drifted or dissolved for whatever reason a bit into the semester it was much harder for them. Cast a wide net and winnow down later.
@thesebajun, I’m with @whitespace about the fan and about White Hall being a fantastic dorm. My son lived it in it for two weeks in consolidated housing after his freshman year and before his summer 1 dialogue (after a full year in another dorm’s economy quad). You can’t beat the location and the rooms at least compared to what he was in felt palatial. To this day (and he is a rising 3rd year)… I think he’d live in the room he had during those 2 weeks on the basis of location alone. You won the lottery in ways you can’t yet appreciate but maybe you will if you keep an open mind.
About “stuff”. If you arrive at Northeastern with nothing other than a fan for your economy quad and you are the only one who thinks about it… you will already be voted most popular in the quad squad. But this is the sort of thing that you don’t need 4 of and is why you need to suck it up and find your roommates and ask who is bringing what. You don’t need 4 fans for probably only 2 windows and chances are there isn’t the space for 4 fans nor the outlets for 4 fans and 4 refrigerators and even if there is, you won’t need nor use 4 so why pay for a rental you don’t need or buy something that will eventually head to the landfill. The best garbage pickings in the world happen during freshman dorm move out when pp realize this and virtually unused stuff that was bought times X and is cheaper to throw out and buy again vs. store over the summer, gets tossed. Sad but true.