What do dorms come with?

What is already in the room

Two of those rows deserve a note. Mattresses are vinyl-covered and have been slept on by several previous students, which is why an encasement and a topper are the first two things to put on the bed. And “loftable” matters more than it sounds: if the frame raises, the space under the bed becomes the room’s biggest storage area, which changes what storage bins you should buy.

What you definitely have to bring

Grouped by how badly you will feel their absence on night one:

1. Bedding, in Twin XL. A mattress encasement, a topper, two sheet sets and a comforter. Regular Twin sheets will not fit — the mattress is 80 inches long. Our Twin XL sheet picks cover sizing and deep pockets.
2. A desk lamp. One overhead fixture is not enough light to read by, and it is also the light your roommate has to have on when you want it off. A clip lamp is the dorm-correct version.
3. A surge protector. Two wall outlets, nine things to plug in.
4. A fan. If the building has no air conditioning, this is a first-week-of-September necessity rather than a comfort item.
5. Towels, a shower caddy and flip-flops. Communal bathrooms are the norm, and all three assume you are walking down a corridor.
6. A trash can and bags, and a laundry hamper. Both forgettable, both needed within 24 hours.
7. Storage bins, sized to the bed. Measure the clearance under the frame before you buy.

The four items people forget every year

• A trash can. Almost nobody puts it on the list and every room needs one on day one.
• A mattress encasement. Not a topper — the zippered cover that goes on first. It is the hygiene item on a shared vinyl mattress.
• A small first-aid kit and basic medicine. The campus pharmacy is shut at 2am when you have a headache.
• Command strips and a tension rod. You cannot drill in a residence hall. Everything that goes on a wall goes up with adhesive, and how to hang things without damaging walls covers the weight limits.

And what not to bother bringing

A dorm room is about twelve by nineteen feet and you share it, so the cost of a wrong item is floor space you do not have. Leave the printer (campus printing is cheaper than cartridges), the full-size iron and board (buy a travel steamer), the toaster or hot plate (banned in most halls), the halogen lamp (banned), candles (banned), and your entire wardrobe (you will go home at Thanksgiving).

We keep a longer version of this list in what not to bring to a dorm, including the items that get confiscated at room inspections.

Three things to check before you buy anything

Your school’s housing page answers all three, and getting them wrong is how students end up with a car boot full of returns.

1. The mattress size, in writing. Nearly every hall is Twin XL, but a handful of older buildings are standard Twin and at least one or two use a longer size. The page will say. Buy sheets after you have read it.
2. The appliance rules. Microwave wattage and capacity caps, whether a mini fridge is allowed and at what size, whether a combined micro-fridge unit is required, and which electrical items are banned outright. These vary by building, not just by school.
3. Whether the bed lofts, and whether you are allowed to loft it yourself. This decides your entire storage plan, because a lofted bed turns the space underneath into the biggest storage area in the room. In many halls the facilities team does the adjustment and you have to request it.

One more worth doing: message your roommate before move-in and split the shared items. A room needs one trash can, one fan, one fridge, one microwave and one rug — not two of each, in a space of roughly twelve by nineteen feet.