Here are, in my humble opinion, some of the most useful things you could have at college. Enjoy!

1. Calendar

A calendar can be your best friend. My freshman year, I bought a dry-erase calendar to hang over my desk and it was super convenient. You can erase when your schedule changes and re-use it month after month. If you’re REALLY organized you can buy different markers to color code your entire life.

2. Brita Filter

This is definitely one of the best purchases you could make for college. You might be surprised how much water you go through on a regular basis. Bottled water gets expensive and tap water (at least the water here at BC) tastes pretty darn bad. Brita pitchers can be refilled and take little space in those dorm room mini-fridges. Go get one!

3. Hole-Punch/Stapler

Many professors distribute handouts that are not hole punched. If you’re like me and use mostly 3-ring binders, it’s super annoying when the pockets in the front and back get too full with loose papers.

Staplers are just as important. A lot of professors hate when students turn in papers that are not stapled. Some go so far as to not accept an unstapled paper. It's a cheap gadget that you’ll use often. A mini stapler to keep in your book bag isn’t a bad idea, either.

4. Tape

Pretty much anything around a dorm or apartment can be fixed with tape. Keeping a nice variety of tapes (duct tape, masking tape, clear packaging tape, scotch tape, double stick tape, etc) is good, but I’m sure you could get by with duct tape alone. It serves as hole-fixer, poster-hanger, and just general sticker-together-er. You can never have enough tape.

Sometimes it really is the little things that make life that much easier.