Tips for Making the Most of Your College Experience

Going to college is exciting. I am going to share some of my tips with you that made by college experience a little more enjoyable. Please note I was 1000 miles from home and lived in the dorm so my perspective is from that point of view.

Food is a good place to start. Please note that different colleges have different types of meal plans. The college I attended included three meals a day, seven days a week in the room and board cost. So many times before eating out I would have to think do I want to pay twice for one meal, meaning if I ate fast food then that means I was paying for my fast food as well as the meal not being ate by me at the school. So sometimes my friends and I would eat at the school before or after our outing. Then sometimes it just made more sense to eat off campus because of time flexibility and variety of food choices.

Know what kind of cooking equipment will be available for you, if living on campus. I know some dorms have full kitchens in them. While other dorms only have microwaves. As a college student I became familiar with the hot pot. Also find out if your allowed to have a room refrigerator and the guidelines. We would make our own refrigerators by getting a Styrofoam cooler and putting ice in it - it did the job for a minimal amount of time.

Packing for college. I took my clothes to college in trash bags. That way I could "throw" my "luggage" away upon arrival. In additional, the bags were more comfortable for packing the vehicle. Many items are going to best to buy upon arrival, especially if there is the option of sharing with your roommates by taking care of some of the necessities that can be purchased at a wholesale club (ie toliet paper). We actually had a chart that documented how many rolls of toliet paper each person bought and then there was the semester where it was "bring your own toliet paper" because someone was using more than their share.