Because I work on a college campus, I have observed how successful students prepare for the first week of classes. Here are my 8 Classroom Tips for College Freshman and 10 Tips on Surviving the First Week of College. As I discuss in those posts, simply setting up a dorm room, eating at the cafeteria, and finding a classroom can be overwhelming for a student.
As a students sets up his or her dorm, here are the schools supplies I’d recommend for college students:
Besides your textbooks, here are a few books that I recommend which are generally helpful in terms of how to do close reading as well as tips for clear college writing. I find both of these texts invaluable for students as to how to approach reading and writing in college. Many professors assume that college students know how to read and comprehend large amounts of materials as well as write proper essays.
Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Hackett Student Handbooks)
1. Getting Around
The Longchamp is a popular bag for many college females because of it’s size and ability to be easily cleaned. Here’s a more affordable version from Amazon that may be more friendly to pen marks, spilled sodas, and scratches.
2. Tools
Pens, pencils, highlighters – keep them all in your bag as you will probably need to take notes in many courses. This is one of my favorite versions because they don’t bleed through paper. Additionally, when taking notes, it’s useful to have them in a variety of colors for future studying and importance of material.
3. Post Its
Generally, I don’t study or take notes without a sticky note. These divider, lined notes are extra useful when taking notes because they give the student room to organize notes by section and topic.
4. Agenda
Students have to manage course loads which often means staying organized for exams, assignments, projects, meetings, and classes. As an instructor, I emphasize writing down due dates for students to have a visual of how his or her week or month will be planned. This year long agenda is not only chic, but it really has many calendars, sections, and spreads to keep a student organized.
5. Digital Tools – Tablet
While students certainly don’t need a table in the classroom, I recommend it as additional study reinforcement. I’d recommend the Kindle Fire for the price (much more affordable than many others), app availability, and, most importantly, for digital textbooks. With the Kindle Fire, a student can easily keep several textbooks (as their digital availability allows) in one place. This moves away the student’s need to carry heavy textbooks and digital textbooks tend to be much less expensive than their hardback counterparts.
