<p>We found a tiny flashdrive (16gig, I think) that easily attached to the lanyard that my son carried his dorm key and student ID on. It was always with him. It was an hp and I know I didn’t pay over $25 for it. Most wouldn’t need that much space. He had a couple of spares (old ones) in his room & backpack.</p>
<p>We are buying nothing for D2. She will get whatever she needs once she starts school. She could easily get to a supply store to get what she needs. I don’t want to anticipate and then have the stuff go to waste.</p>
<p>We got the standard stuff, stapler, pencil sharpener (didn’t like mechanical pencils), paper clips, white out, binder clips, pencils, pens, note cards, a few notebooks, no folders (never used them in high school). Most of the stuff came in larger packages than they needed but they used the stuff over the course of the years. We still have some left that we use at home. Oddly enough we did not buy colored pencils and our oldest needed some the first week of classes. They sold out quickly at the book store but there was a Walgreens down the street so he walked there to get some. Never needed report covers as most larger reports were turned in electronically.</p>
<p>D prefers composition notebooks, i just bought five</p>
<p>D prefers composition notebooks, i just bought five</p>
<p>The one thing my students use most (and I wish every student had one) is the tiny little stapler they can carry in their backpack. Students have a tendency to print stuff off in labs just before class starts and if the classroom doesn’t have a stapler, papers end up in huge stacks. When someone has a mini stapler to share, it really comes in handy.</p>
<p>I will definitely by a few of these for my S (since he is also prone to losing things).</p>
<p>A couple of Sharpies.</p>
<p>Momom2, that is the greatest idea ever!</p>
<p>Having been in school myself recently, I would definitely agree on the tiny stapler! That was always appreciated when one of my classmates had one when we were turning in homework. Of course my own child would probably not carry it around. (I would say that 75% of assignments were turned in electronically in my program, the rest on paper. ). Someone mentioned flash cards or index cards. Sure, if your kid uses them. There are also nice electronic versions these days. Quizlet.com let’s you make sets, then there are free apps you can get for iPod Touch or smartphone that let you flip through them, or you can review on the computer. Quizlet can set up quizzes and games to help you remember. (I would not buy an external hard drive. DropBox or Google Drive is more easily accessible as backup storage and unlikely to break down.).</p>
<p>I think I will let my son do most of his supply shopping. He has been doing it for high school anyway and knows best what he likes/needs. Same goes for toiletries.</p>
<p>Another thing our kids found helpful was a USB hub so they could plug in all their “stuff” to their computers --cell phones, IPods, etc. I also agree with the multi-plug surge protectors. So far the “best” dorm room for outlets has been 4 outlets, one by the desks, one by the beds-2 outlets each. A lamp and a clock radio took up the bed outlet and the computer and a desk lamp took up the other–then there was the fridge, printer, cell phone charger, etc., etc. They make some surge protectors with 10-15 foot cords if you can find them. Otherwise, get at least one heavy duty extension cord and a couple other regular ones.</p>
<p>Another thing to think about…my sons all send everything they are working on to themselves on gmail. It’s a good way of backing up work in case bad things happen. One son’s laptop was stolen (several apartments in his building broken in to during the day) another had his hard drive crash. That son also once forgot to bring a paper to turn in at the class in which it was due…he was able to print it out in the professor’s office.</p>
<p>Yes, a way to back up is key. I’d suggest an external hard drive.</p>
<p>DS#1 never got much more than pens and spiral notebooks. Would go whole semesters without having to turn in hard copy, so no printer paper (no printer!), no staplers, . . . . DS#2 has been pretty much the same. (Neither kid has used a thumb drive either. All communication seems to be by e-mail or homework web sites.)</p>
<p>I’d recommend going v-e-r-y light on pre-buying much at all. School bookstores will have everything they need–probably a little more expensive than an office supply store, but I hate sending things that won’t be used.</p>
<p>Where you buy things depends on the budget. Prices at college bookstores can be much higher than Walmart et al. There is also the need to do the shopping versus already having many basics and not needing to spend as much time in lines and hauling it back to the dorm. I 3rd/4th the extra surge protectors/extension cords idea. Son brought an extra long ethernet cable and we found out it would have been cheaper by a bit at the hall desk.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter ‘how’ your student backs up, simply that they do it at all. Set them up with a system they will use. For some the cloud method works well. Others, like my son, prefer to have an external hd on their desk that’s programmed to automatically back up at certain intervals. He doesn’t have to do anything but plug it in when he’s in the room, just as he does the power cord. </p>
<p>The habit of using flashdrives can really be dependent on how they were taught in hs. Many hs’s use cloud storage, not wanting thousands of flashdrives potentially transferring viruses into their system. Kids upload work from home and can then access it again at school when needed. Our kids are encouraged to do this, however getting IT kids to give up their flashdrives…not so easy. They trust themselves far more then ‘the cloud’ (with good reason).</p>
<p>Colored pencils! I needed them for science and music.</p>
<p>The cloud has not failed me yet, but I have more than one USB drives misbehave in class when I was supposed to give a presentation. Luckily, I always had another copy that I either emailed myself or put in Google Docs (aka Google Drive). Of course, if the network is down right when it’s time to give the presentation, then it is good to have the USB drive.</p>
<p>When D went off to school, I offered to get her a [Carbonite[/url</a>] subscription. She said she didn’t need it; she keeps all of her documents on thumb drives. Which, apparently, can never get lost. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I also thought that [url=<a href=“http://www.lojack.com/pages/laptop.aspx]LoJack”>http://www.lojack.com/pages/laptop.aspx]LoJack</a> for Laptops](<a href=“http://www.carbonite.com/en/]Carbonite[/url”>http://www.carbonite.com/en/) was a good idea, but she pooh-poohed that as well.</p>