<p>Well, the office supply stores are advertising their cheap sales, and I wanted to see what most people purchased for school supplies. I am assuming pens, mechanical pencils, and highlighters but what is common for notebooks? Do people need folders? Are papers even turned in anymore? Would sheet protectors come in handy? Maybe I should ask this in college life section, but I thought I would try with parents. I take a lot of classes at a community college for fun, but never thought to look around at what others do.</p>
<p>Consider what your child used in HS and the supplies you have in your house. They will want those things they take for granted at home- a scissors, stapler, tape, paper… It doesn’t hurt to take advantage of the dept store school sales either- ultra cheap notebooks et al can be used the next semester or year. What works for one student may not for another- ask your child while they still remember their HS daily life.</p>
<p>That’s the thing, in HS DS was required to have a separate 2" binder for each subject with loose leaf paper and each paper submitted had to have a cover. I doubt his school will have a heart attack if he doesn’t have a binder. With no apparent restrictions, what do most kids use?</p>
<p>Printer paper.</p>
<p>Ink cartridges.</p>
<p>This assumes the student has a printer, which is something many (most?) of them want to have.</p>
<p>Don’t overthink it. Notebooks, folders, paper, a few pens and pencils, eraser, stapler, tape. Chances are the student center has a store that sells these kinds of sundries.</p>
<p>Stapler or paper clips. Some profs get really nasty about papers with that corner fold.</p>
<p>If your student decides to reuse one of those old binders, a portable three-hole punch can come in handy for inserting class handouts.</p>
<p>Sticky notes.</p>
<p>My kids both had printers but S2 started using the free printing available on campus once he ran out of ink for his printer.
I sent all kinds of stuff with them (freshman yr) that came back at the end of the year…a stapler was one of those. It was still in the pkg. I left them to their own devices after that. Duct tape was useful. If they needed anything, they it bought themselves at school. Mine were minimalists though. They just bought a spiral bound notebook for each class at the beginning of the sem. Have pen and paper, will travel.<br>
Ask your student what he thinks he needs before going wild at Staples :)</p>
<p>Post-its. My son likes small ones which he uses to mark passages he’s probably going to quote in the papers he writes. I sent my kids off with binder clips, scissors, a stapler etc. I know my older son used very little of it. My younger son printed his papers at university printers, but when his roommate decided to abandon his printer he took it saying it would be nice not to have to go to the library to have to print papers. My younger son used mostly spiral notebooks, not sure about the older one.</p>
<p>Note that many papers are submitted electronically now–no paper, staples, or sheet protectors required. Less is more. The college bookstore will have everything s/he needs.</p>
<p>flash cards. My oldest used lots of printer paper my S none at all.</p>
<p>Hi all. I’m an incoming freshman. </p>
<p>Do students make posters in college? Are things like construction paper and colored pencils/markers used?</p>
<p>Granted, there is a Staples and two CVSes down the street from my school, but I’m just curious.</p>
<p>Printer paper, batteries for the calculator. They use the “draft” printing setting to save ink. They get cheap spiral notebooks at home- and can’t live without their planner. A few stamps and little note cards for letters to older relatives. They also like that gummy stuff to hang up posters, without tacks.
And post-its- not just to tag pages, but she and her roomie leave each other notes with them. Flash cards- yeah, one of mine loves index cards for studying.</p>
<p>Here’s what we sent:
filler paper, stapler, paper clips, tape, white out, sharpie, glue stick, super glue, 3 hole punch, index cards, sticky notes & sticky flags, pencils, pens, highlighters, colored pencils, markers, binders, dividers, pocket folders, 3 & 5 subject notebook, 3M hooks, printer paper & ink, notecards & stamps, legal envelopes, resume paper & envelopes, batteries, ruler, flash drive, blank CD’s, dry erase markers…I’m sure I’m forgetting something.</p>
<p>It sounds like A LOT, but out of the packaging, in a desk organizer it really isn’t. Most everything got used by my son or his roommate. Nearly everything was bought during the summer on super sales at Staples or Office Depot, sometimes for as little as 25 cents as a loss leader. Watch the ads.</p>
<p>I packed a book of stamps for my son. I think he used one in 4 years. Don’t bother.</p>
<p>The two things my sons really used were a three ring punch (some classes have a lot of hand outs, or sometimes students print out articles that they want to keep for later reference in a class) and index cards…useful in writing papers and in studying for tests.</p>
<p>They usually seemed to prefer a l00 page spiral notebook with pockets for each class, and for some classes also a small three ring binder. </p>
<p>a couple of pens, highlighters, mechanical pencils and a graphing calculator.</p>
<p>one more thought…not school supplies but used a lot…a couple of multi-plug surge protectors with long cords are good to have, both when setting up the room and if friends come over for a study group. And maybe an extra phone charger…one to leave in the room, one to keep in the backpack.</p>
<p>And a couple of extra lightbulbs for any lamps…generally not carried on campus. And extra batteries for calculators, etc.</p>
<p>
This totally depends on your family and how you operate. My kids regularly send birthday cards to their grandparents, cousins, aunts/uncles, etc. With date reminders from me, my son continued to do this from college. It was greatly appreciated by the family to be remembered and he really enjoyed doing it. If things like this aren’t common in your family, then maybe not. However, I don’t see how sending a book of ‘forever’ stamps can hurt.</p>
<p>We hit Staples last week and bought pens, erasers, spirals, post-its, and thin dry erase markers.
At home, we already have loose leaf paper, pencils, graphing calculator, scissors, stapler, and tape/tape dispenser.</p>
<p>In addition, we bought her an external hard drive and a couple of thumb drives.</p>
<p>decent pens
notebooks
post its
a door stop (to prop dorm door open)
a couple of flash/jump drives
calculator
highlighters
decent backpack</p>
<p>don’t over buy…as they like stuff from their college store</p>
<p>I bought stuff during a Staple’ sale while k1 was away–and things like whiteout (expensive thin tape kind ) etc got left home …</p>
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<p>Unless you’re an education major or RA, probably not. </p>
<p>I second the flash drive idea - one to carry around to class for presentations and a spare to keep in the room.</p>