A lot of articles are posted over the internet on essential back-to-school supplies that you will need for college. However, for every item you bring to college that will no doubt be a great addition to your dorm, there will be an item that you thought you would need, but ended up being completely useless.
1. Tacks
There are various little knick-knacks and other office supply items that I bought years ago and very rarely needed to use. Maybe you will need a paper clip once every few months, but those instances are few. However, the most deceptively useless out of all those items are tacks. This is mostly due to the fact that many college dorm rooms do not allow you to tack things on your walls since they make visible holes. Some colleges have a board for hanging stuff, but I usually have had to find an excuse to use them. At the end of the day, tacks are just little nuisances in my supply drawer that prick me whenever I’m fetching an item that has an actual use.
2. Wide Ruled Paper
I never found this paper to be useful at any point during my education. Not when college ruled paper exists. True, it seems like a moot point since you will likely type up most, if not all, of your term papers on your computer. Still, paper is very useful for writing outlines, and making quick notes to yourself when pulling out a word processor would just be too time-consuming. If you’re going to spend money on paper, spend money on the kind that has a decent number of lines.
3. Television
It is a time-waster, plain and simple. I feel like most of the time, students bring a television to college just because it seems mandatory and they’re not used to not having one around. If you’re new to the college experience, you would be surprised how little TV you watch when you’re in college. There just does not seem to be much of a point when you realize you have only a few years to start your career and you need to get busy. Plus, if there is a show that you desperately need to watch, it most likely can be found legally online anyway. There are very few shows now that I watch during their actual broadcast time. In the rare case you have to watch a non-streamed show for class (happened to me once), just ask a friend if you can watch their TV.
4. Video Games
You do not need this for a lot of the same reasons you do not need a TV. It is time that could be spent doing other things. Again, if you’re a video game junkie (I know I was) you will be surprised how quickly you lose the urge to play when you do not have your gameboy sitting right there on your desk. Some might argue that it could be used for socializing, which is true. Honestly, though, you and your friends would be better off socializing in a way that does not keep you holed-up in your room on a Saturday night.
5. Whiteboard
Not as expensive as a television or video games, but there is certainly a myth that they are an essential college item. You would be hard-pressed to find a freshman dorm door without one. Still, they have little use. In this age where everyone has access to texts, email, and social networking sites, there is no essential message you need to write on a whiteboard that can’t be communicated in some other way.
Some like to have a whiteboard so people can write cute notes on them, but for every cute note I have seen, I have also been treated to crude, obscene images. A whiteboard is not the worse thing you could bring to college, and it’s still fairly harmless, but do not go out of your way to buy a nice, fancy one for your door. It will probably get destroyed by a drunk neighbor anyway.
