<p>I’ve been in many dorm rooms that don’t even have an overhead light - standing lamps are helpful too.</p>
<p>My school has free nothing, except cable and internet access and I’m pretty sure they have a deal with comcast as the Terps play in the Comcast center.</p>
<p>Bottom line, check what is provided and what is allowed by your school (likely on their residence life page). Don’t bring the things you are already provided, or things that you are not allowed to have.</p>
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<p>If you bring a TV try to make it so you can also set it up as a second computer monitor. That will limit the size to maybe 24in, but it works out very well for entertainment and practicality.</p>
<p>Oh, thanks FLVADAD, that brings up a good point…Please, if you bring a TV, don’t bring a GIGANTIC one!!! We’ve had people bring 30-some inch tvs and there’s just not enough room for that and yourself and your roommates in your dorm room; it’s your room, not the tv’s.</p>
<p>30inch TV too big? Your rooms must be the size of a walk in closet.</p>
<p>The worst dorms on campus still are about 220sqft and 32-37inch LCDs fit on the second shelf of the computer desks perfectly(a few people had 42inch sets slightly tilted working fine). The 32inch set we have is too small to do things like play video games from the further reaches of the room where one of the beds sit.</p>
<p>Our better dorms with living rooms can easily fit 46inch TV on the provided table in each 4 person suite(the bedrooms are smaller but I still knew of 2 CompSci majors with 2 32" sets in their bedroom).</p>
<p>Also I don’t know about a TV being unused in a dorm, maybe if its a little 20" tube TV circa 1998 but majority of the people on my floor had sets ranging from 26-42" and every single person with one used it daily to watched TV/Movies/Game. Ours personally is used to watch a lot of HD movies with my PC hooked up via HDMI, a lot of Xbox Live, and a lot of Super Smash Brothers. Ironically the TV was never used to watch cable except for maybe the Super Bowl and a couple football games(only because we can get them in HD through campus cable, everything else is SD and looks TERRIBLE. If we watched TV shows we waited for them to air so we could grab quality captures online).</p>
<p>I have a 3.6GPA and majoring in CompSci if anyone is concerned about my distractions.</p>
<p>Phanatic: I totally second that facepalm. A $500 purse for a college student? That’s probably the net worth of all the clothes I’ll be bringing (and I’m bringing a pretty good deal of clothes).</p>
<p>I’m leaving my saddle behind, despite the fact that I’ll be on the equestrian team at school. I don’t trust my roommates around something that they could sit on and play “horsie” while drunk. My friend brought hers last year and it now has mysterious stains all over it.</p>
<p>We don’t have many suites with living rooms…I’m not sure how other people have it, but we had a dresser or a narrow set of shelves built into the wall. Those were pretty much the two places you had the option of putting a tv.</p>
<p>“Oh, thanks FLVADAD, that brings up a good point…Please, if you bring a TV, don’t bring a GIGANTIC one!!! We’ve had people bring 30-some inch tvs and there’s just not enough room for that and yourself and your roommates in your dorm room; it’s your room, not the tv’s.”</p>
<p>I had a 42" last year, will be bringing it again this year. Plenty of room…and we had the smallest dorms on campus. Yeah, if you bring a tube TV of that size, there might not be enough room…but if it’s a flat panel, it fits nicely.</p>
<p>On the subject of desk and floor lamps–some schools do not allow halogens.</p>
<p>Well, I guess our rooms are just small. Like I said, we only had about two options of where a TV would fit. Personally, I liked having a bit of dresser-top space for cosmetics, but then again, I’m a girl, and I suppose that’s not typically an issue for guys.</p>
<p>What about fans? Are larger fans an issue for anyone?</p>
<p>Also, my dad read an article called “what not to bring to college” and it said that bringing a credit card was a bad idea because of debt. So he won’t let me get one; however, I really don’t like carrying cash around with me. Thoughts?</p>
<p>I have Discover card and I have it set up to automatically take $200 from my checking account every month. It helps me spend only what I have. A credit card is good if you spend wisely. Use it to buy small items like shampoo and food. Chances are, you won’t go over your credit limit with those types of items.</p>
<p>I don’t like carrying cash. I feel like I’ll lose it, though I’m pretty careful lol. With a debit or credit card, you can see exactly what you’re spending and where.</p>
<p>I have found that a small fan is usually sufficient.</p>
<p>Also, I almost solely used my debit card the first couple years of college. A debit/check card might be a good compromise with your dad? There is no spending what you don’t have with those.</p>
<p>Reesezpiecez103:</p>
<p>Try getting a checkings card. It works just like a credit card except it takes money from your checkings account instead of borrowing money from a company. I have one and its much better than carrying around cash!</p>
<p>If you do the debit card, beware of overdraft protection. It sounds like a grand idea, but if you do overdraw, the bank charges you about $30–for each one. Most banks give you the option of getting a notification if you drop below a certain amount. Or you can opt out of the overdraft protection and your card is rejected if you don’t have money in the account.</p>
<p>On fans: especially for Southern schools that don’t have air conditioned dorms, a small fan WILL NOT suffice.</p>
<p>In Maryland my roommate had four fans from August to October. When spring came around and it got hot again, we bought a double window fan from Target. It kept our room ten degrees cooler than it had ever been and eliminated the need for other fans. Plus it takes up room where you can’t put other things anyway.</p>
<p>What about a swimsuit?? My mom thinks I should pack one, but I don’t see the point. I’m from CA but my school is in Boston. I’m not an athlete or anything…</p>
<p>I’m bringing a swimsuit even though I know I probably won’t need it, and didn’t need it the first year I brought it. I prefer to overpack because I’ll get extremely anxious if I know I didn’t bring something I want. I guess that’s why I have two big suitcases that still don’t hold all of my clothes.</p>
<p>Bring a swimsuit. You never know.</p>