<p>What are people planning on bringing? The American system is new to me, so any help would be appreciated. I used separate 3-ring binders for each class I took in high school, but I have a feeling such a system will not work so well in college. Is a notebook and a laptop enough? What do you do with handouts?</p>
<p>Heh, I'm horribly disorganized, but I'm hoping to turn that around <em>slightly</em> once I only have a small space to live in. (Right now, my entire bedroom floor is my "organizer"!)
Anyway... plan is to bring a laptop (I'm actually ridiculously good about organizing my computer files), 3 binders <em>total</em> (1 for important non-class-related papers, 1 for work in progress/handouts, 1 for old work that's worth saving), a notebook of important equations (for math/physics classes -- this'll be continuous and added onto throughout the year), and then a notebook to take to each class. Plus an organizer. And possibly a "meta-notebook" for studying for finals and such... I'll see what happens when the time comes, but if you have <em>too</em> many notebooks, all that happens is that you get confused and don't use them effectively. (Or that's what happens to me, anyway).</p>
<p>wow, entropicgirl, you sound so much more organized than i will be...</p>
<p>run4fun, stanford does have plenty of school supplies in the bookstore and at stores outside of campus, so if you're worried or unsure you could always wait and just have a notebook or two until classes start and you can see what you'll need.</p>
<p>especially if you are flying in internationally, you probably won't want to get a lot of stuff until you get here...</p>
<p>hmm. I was thinking of bringing sheets of lined paper to my classes for notes. After the lectures I'd go back and copy the notes neatly onto a notebook. That way I'd only need one notebook - all the scrap work/hurried notes would go onto the lined paper. I have stacks of lined paper at home, and they're really cheap too. </p>
<p>Then again, this'll probably fall apart when I get there and start buying stacks of pretty notebooks :D I do have ONE school supply so far though: a pencil case. It is actually a make up bag from the Body Shop, but I couldn't resist, it's gorgeous. and it's big - it'll fit all my stationery, plus calculator. AND it's cheaper than the pencil cases here.</p>
<p>run4fun, if you're an international like me, get your supplies at Stanford. Save some space in your bags.</p>
<p>
[quote]
After the lectures I'd go back and copy the notes neatly onto a notebook
[/quote]
That somehow never works out for me :p</p>
<p>Haha! Me neither... I like my untidy notes, anyway. Sometimes I consolidate them or transfer them when studying for finals, but I could never do that on a day to day basis.</p>
<p>Hmm... yeah, I need pencils. That would be good.</p>
<p>thanks for all the responses.its funny because im not actually an international...i was born and live in washington DC, its just that I've been going to an international school for all my life so the way we do things is somewhat different. although, for all intents and purposes, im so far away from stanford that i might as well be an international...i definitely will have to think about the space in my bags. i think im going to stick with a notebook for each class.</p>
<p>I agree with run4fun. </p>
<p>What I will probably do is get a large notebook for every class with multiple sections in each one, use one section for notes, another for paper rough drafts, another for homework, etc. That means that at any given time, I will only be bringing around a couple of notebooks for my classes that day, and definitely not a heavy binder.</p>
<p>Heyyy, sectioned notebooks is a good idea -- then you can keep your class and book notes separate, for example. I might do that too... [I know, plagiarism is a crime.. I'm sorry, I'm sorry!]</p>
<p>I thought everyone would be using sectioned notebooks. I mean, they just scream "for college students!", I've been buying them for years yet never have managed to fill them up with notes - I have several that are full of stupid doodles and random literary scribblings as opposed to useful biology notes!</p>
<p>Yeah, exactly -- every time I've tried to use them, they've just ended up wasted. So I just hadn't thought that they would make more sense for college...</p>
<p>And they're so practical! Last year I was foolish enough to carry enormous binders for each of my subjects - I had two or three FULL files for all four of my subjects (not to mention textbooks and various notebooks) and by the end of the year I was quite hunchbacked.</p>
<p>oh, if you're going to start a foreign language (or continue one) then a tiny, palm-sized notebook is great for vocabularly. I've had this for years now and I swear by the method - jotting down any words you don't understand into the little thing and spending 15 mins a day learning the words.</p>
<p>For HS I always used a large 3-inch three ring binder (one of the ones with soft covers and little pockets for pencils) and then bought special divider folders, one for each class. I kept blank paper in the front. I could then put handouts in the folders and keep my notes next to them. I liked having everything in one location so that I could work on stuff from other classes when I had free time in class. I'm not sure how much free time I'll have in college classes, but I do like having everything in one handy location.</p>
<p>last year my sectioned notebook actually worked pretty well for school...i got the nice one with plastic pockets in front of every section and fabric over the spiral, school supplies are so much fun, lol...plus i just carried one binder and left old papers i knew i didn't need at home. it was still kind of heavy but much better than having multiple binders.</p>
<p>i haven't even really thought about school supplies or anything...everyone on cc seems so prepared and focused. at school i was always the nerd and overachiever, but you guys make me feel so lazy. lol, i'm certainly going to have to step some stuff up for college--no more stupid teachers whose classes you can sleep through :) gunna have to get used to really taking notes and studying...</p>
<p>With the sectioned notebooks, what would you do when you had outside papers that the teacher passes out? I'm sure you could put them in folders between sections, but it seems like that would be hassle once those small folders fill up...</p>
<p>Eh, I just plan on losing any hand-outs... it <em>always</em> happens (sometimes I manage to keep them until the day <em>before</em> the day they're useful, and then they miraculously disappear), so why fight fate? (Hubris will be severely punished...)</p>
<p>are there really many handouts in college? i assume there's a syllabus, but isn't it mostly note-taking?</p>
<p>i never really pictured getting worksheets or dittos in college, i mean, that's been dropping off since middle school...was this just a wrong assumption or what?</p>
<p>An intro chem class I visited at Harvard had hand-outs that day, big packets of stuff that you picked up at the door. (But we all know the Stanford of the East just isn't quite as good as ours, so who knows).</p>
<p>That's the only college class I've heard of having hand-outs, and it wasn't like they were things you had to turn in, just info that you could probably find someplace else (like, in the textbook) if necessary -- or take notes on yourself. So they're probably infrequent and not vital (but I'm no expert, so if anyone knows better, go ahead and prove me wrong).</p>
<p>Wow, you guise are already thinking about all those things. I use one notebook and write everything in there, and study randomly. I used to study with my textbooks because i had attention disorder, and because classes were taught by bad teachers (thats not going to be the case at Stanford), I guess I'll join study groups with people that are lot more organized than me.</p>
<p>I never gave a second's thought to school supplies until this topic came up, so don't you go thinking that I'm organised :p in high school (past tense!!!) I wouldn't take notes, I'd just read off the text books, highlight important stuff and, very rarely, write down things I needed to memorise in the margins. yeah, not the best way to study... but this must change in university! I vow to take decent notes.... I hope.</p>