<p>So the other forum thread about a laptop got me thinking, "What was your best investments for college?" The investments can be anything you purchased that helped you survive your college career, from an umbrella to a memory foam cover.</p>
<p>My best investment?
A laser printer. I shared my printer with my roommate, and we printed a massive amount of pages. I only had to buy toner once around the middle of the spring semester.</p>
<p>I’ll second the laser printer. Only because I haven’t yet had to replace the toner (I got the “out of toner” light once, but a couple pieces of tape over the sensors and it’s still going strong almost 1000 pages later). After I got the out of toner message though I did buy a backup just in case it did run out. It costs me about a penny a page to print, compared to like 8 cents a page for inkjet printers. </p>
<p>Between the printer (a Brother HL-2140), and even the 2nd toner (just a generic TN-360), I haven’t spent $50 on it yet, if you don’t count the paper. The Brother HL lines always go on sale at Staples during back to school sales for $50 or less, and there are always $20 off $50 coupons floating around. </p>
<p>I also think Netflix was a great investment for me.</p>
<p>Aside from those two, it’s just the general:
-laptop
-TV
-game system</p>
<p>And honestly, at a few points in the year I was thinking investing in an off-campus PO Box was starting to sound like a good idea. UPS kept trying to give me other people’s mail.</p>
<p>For your dorm room, bring a bunch of electrical extension cords and multi-plug wall outlet connectors. There aren’t that many wall outlets in the rooms and they’re always in the least convenient spots to access behind the heaviest pieces of furniture. Bring a 25 or 50 ft. ethernet cord too in case you have to run cord around wall base perimeter of whole room so you won’t be tripping over it.</p>
<p>Haha, what a subject. I’ll go with the less obvious things:</p>
<ul>
<li>Mechanical pencils where the advance button is on the side instead of on the top. It just makes erasing less annoying.</li>
<li>Said erasers. Lots of them. I know you can get a pack of 6 of those block ones at the dollar store, but I always tend to mess them up and stuff. </li>
<li>The whitest, nicest college ruled paper I can find. CVS had a spectacular paper on clearance a few months ago and I bought all I could find ^_^</li>
<li>A wacom tablet to work stuff out on (occasionally, but not the best investment ever) </li>
<li>My scientific calculator. Always comes in handy and never outruled. </li>
<li>A good backpack. Your back will thank you. Unfortunately, I haven’t bothered and still use a messenger bag (stupid stupid!)</li>
<li>Ample amounts of hand cleaner. </li>
<li>Good pens. Pilot Easytouch fine points <3 Pentel RSVPs are prettier but have a much stiffer ballpoint, and gel pens are totally messy.</li>
</ul>
<p>BTW: My favorite mechanical pencils are Pentel Techniclicks. You can usually find them at the 99 cent store! The little metal thing on them keeps the lead from breaking all the time ;)</p>
<p>I <3 my computers, I have many, but I didn’t feel like mentioning them because 1. they’re a given, and 2. so far I’ve taken nothing but math classes, and the occasional class where I had to use a computer for homework but it was a horrible idea to use during lecture.
That said, for a computer I’d say get a really nice desktop with everything you want, if you want power, and then get a nice lightweight laptop for everything else. The only 2 places where having a nice large screen is ideal really are graphic design and comsci, mostly because comsci programs are always free and you can get a fat discount on graphic design apps. </p>
<p>For other upper-div computer stuff you might end up needing to use more expensive programs where you can just use the lab computers anyway.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, the hand sanitizer. That’s a great investment. Considering that your roommate might be the nastiest person hygienically speaking, you’re likely going to want a nice, large bottle of Purel or Germ-X handy. </p>
<p>I’ll also second the multi-plug outlets above. The rooms are horribly designed in that regard, where you pretty much have to uproot all the furniture and play Tetris to get it organized near outlets. I suggest a 6 or 8 plus minimum with a 6 foot cable if possible. Not to say that ones with a shorter cable aren’t going to work, it’s just that I had one with about a 4 foot cable and it was just barely good enough this year, and I’m looking to replace that one with something with a longer cable.</p>
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