10 Things You Might Forget to Bring to College

With only about a month left until college move-in day for many incoming freshmen, the time has come to start getting serious about what we do and don't need during the upcoming year. Many schools send out suggested packing lists, and there are an abundance of them online. Listed below are a few useful items that they may leave out.

1. Speakers

Depending on how much you love listening to music, whether in your room or in public with others, there might be some occasions where the built-in speakers in your phone or laptop just won't cut it. You don't have to buy a very expensive, top of the line set of speakers, but consider a small iHome (which also functions as an alarm clock) for your room.

2. Seat cushions

Your dorm room will contain a desk, and a desk chair. Wooden chairs can be pretty unforgiving, so consider bringing a cushion or even buying a comfortable alternative like an office chair with wheels. Even though you'll likely spend a lot of your work time in the library, don't neglect your room.

3. Tide to Go

When you've stained something and laundry day is nowhere in sight or you want to wear it again, just use Tide to Go. It's an instant stain remover that's sort of like a small marker. Just don't wear something in sunlight right after you use it.

4. Notebooks from high school

There's no need to bring every notebook or study guide from your four years of preparation for college, but if you're placing out of any classes, it couldn't hurt to have that safety net. Professors expect you to be a little rusty at Spanish or Calc, but it can't hurt to look over your old notes or tests (assuming you resisted the temptation to throw out, shred, rip up, or have a bon fire with everything from high school).

5. Fan and space heater

You won't know until you arrive at school whether your dorm room will be too hot or too cold. For the first few months you may need a fan to stay cool and after that you may want a space heater to keep warm. So consider bringing both.

6. Underbed storage units

This may seem like an obvious one to some, as it's pretty hard to fit everything you're bringing into the school-provided furniture within your room. Girls will typically try to fit more into the same space. Even if you initially manage to squeeze in your stuff using space-saving storage systems if you don't have accessible areas to keep your things, your room will quickly end up a mess.

7. Agenda

You may have gotten by in high school without using the school-provided planner as keeping track of assignments wasn't too hard. And you might be able to use the same system day-to-day for classes in college. However, there will be more long-term assignments, and you'll have to keep track of your class schedule and exam dates and remember personal events and appointments. In short, no one will keep track of your schedule but you, so an agenda will help to keep things straight.

8. External hard drive

This is probably a smart idea in general, but it's especially useful in college. Losing everything you've worked on because your computer crashed or your laptop was stolen would be devastating, so back up your computer every once in a while. Also, an external hard drive is an easy way to share large amounts of music, as opposed to several CDs or multiple trips with a flash drive.

9. Starter decorations

It's a given that you'll have some form of decoration in your room, but have some at the beginning of the year. Make your room your own by bringing personal items that reflect your interests and who you are.

10. Mementos and photos

Everyone is excited to go to college, some more so to leave home than to actually arrive there. But whether you've loved your time here or hated it, whether you're sick to death of this town or loving every minute, you'll soon be missing it. Even if you want to remove yourself from the community as a whole, you'll realize that you'll miss your friends, your family, and home cooked meals. Bring photos to remember the good times you have had in Scarsdale.

Contributor Steven Friedman is a graduate of Scarsdale High School and will be attending Washington University in St. Louis as a freshman this fall.