Buying the Right Things for College
Most of the freshies/transfers/weirdos are probably still having trouble transitioning to life in the dorms and all the people they’ll meet on the wild ride of diversity. You’re also probably finding it hard to believe that your dorms are the most expensive in America, considering the quality you get is something like the picture above. Comfy, eh?
But there are all sorts of online solutions to problems, even the ones that you don’t copy directly for your problem set. Because you never do that sort of deceitful, behind-the-scenes work, do you?
Take Homeslyce for example. A product of three surprisingly competent Stanford minds, Homeslyce allows you and your dormmate to decide on what products are compatible for your roommates, what products you might have forgotten to get, what products you’re too lazy to walk over to the Student Store to scrounge for their lines of inferior knockoffs of products you need.
Here are some additional recommendations and links for you to consider. Start with these and find out what you think is compatible for you.
Mini-fridge. Sometimes you will not feel compelled to eat the fine-dining of Crossroads and Foothill, with their excellent variety of two-day old vanilla pudding, bagged salads and decomposing fruit, and chemically-saturated, dipped in cow feces selections of meat. You can’t cook in the dorms, but at least you can store all sorts of veggie/fruit goodness, store some protein drinks, and learn the art of the salad and sandwich (if you’re desperate for meat, tuna salads also work). Unless you like cold-cuts though, you are doomed for meat though. Maybe this is Berkeley’s insidious strategy to convince everyone to turn vegetarian.
Deluxe/What I use: Sanyo Counter-High Refrigerator Model 
Budget: Danby Deluxe Compact Refrigerator 
Printer. Get one. Don’t be dependent on your dormmates to get that essay you rushed through in the wee hours last night processed and ready. Buy a printer and feel comfortable that you can get everything you need. We don’t recommend you use it for printing out photos though–sign up for Shutterfly or Snapfish and let the pros handle your 2 am debaucheries.
All-in-one: Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Inkjet Printer 
Budget Printer: Lexmark Z611 Inkjet Printer 
What I use: HP Photosmart 8050 
Speakers
Okay, this isn’t a necessity, but if you love watching movies/way to connect with girls or playing games/being alone the rest of your college life, definitely douse down on some quality speakers. Avoid the generic junk, and spot down some dollars on letting that sound flow.
5.1 tops: Logitech Z-5500 Speaker System 
5.1 budget: Logitech X-540 5.1 Speaker System 
2.1 tops/What I use: Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Speaker System 
2.1 budget: Altec Lansing VS2321 
Some more ideas, and probably some more reinforcement of the ideas listed above, come in the following links.
(Edit: The Lobotomist’s Dream has his own photoblog of undoing the mess that is his room. Just like most of his work, it is brilliant.)
Any recommendations you have for the university newbies? Show them the way in the comments.
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