School Supplies You Absolutely Need in College!
After being in my third year of college, I can wholeheartedly say that there are certain school supplies that you can’t live without!
Ever since middle school, I have been a huge fanatic of school supplies and stationery! That passion of mine is exactly why I am doing this post today!
In this post, I will be sharing all the essential school supplies that are must-haves for your college years! Feel free to use this if you are a high school student or any other type of student!
Without further or do let’s begin!
Backpack
This one is an absolute must-have for school!
Even if you are enrolled in an online school, it is important to have a bag that contains your essentials! I say this because if you decide to try studying in different areas, it’ll be so much easier to take everything with you if you already have a designated school bag.
Personally, I have a few bags that I trade off depending on the workload of the day or what classes I have for college on specific days.
Moreover, I think it’s more motivating if you have a stylish and cute backpack that you absolutely adore!
If you are looking for a recommendation on where to get one, I recommend going to brands such as North Face, Nike, Under Armour, Columbia, Adidas, etc. Sports brand backpacks tend to be super sturdy and spacious! Not to mention, their durability is amazing, especially for school/college!
Laptop
Having a laptop is another essential item for college.
A lot of times professors will have you complete assignments online, or the college will have their student portal online obviously. Therefore having a laptop is essential for classwork.
Additionally, I know a lot of students who love taking notes on their laptop
Having a laptop is also useful for personal entertainment such as watching TV shows and movies!
Now, I know laptops can be pretty pricey so you don’t need a super expensive one to get your work done if you can’t afford it. Keep in mind that a lot of tech places like Best Buy and online tech websites will have sales at certain times of the year specifically for students. Furthermore, a lot of universities offer discounted laptops at their tech store for students!
I personally have the Microsoft Surface Book 2, and it’s amazing! It’s well worth the investment to get this particular laptop! The feature I love the most is its touchscreen, it detaches from the keyboard and turns into a tablet. Basically, the best of both worlds!
Notebooks
This is my lifeline for a lot of my classes in college!
I use tons and tons of notebooks for my class notes because it helps me retain the information better and this way I can look back at my notes if I need to know any of this information down the line for other classes or for future reference!
One of my favorite notebooks is the Five Star Advance Spiral Notebooks! Five Star in general is a school supplies brand I highly recommend! All of their products are of high quality and will last you a long time.
These notebooks in particular are wire-bound, so they have a cloth over the spirals of the notebook which help keep the notebook intact a lot longer!
Another one of my all-time favorite notebooks is the Mintra Office Durable Premium Spiral Notebook! This one is also wire-bound! This notebook comes with a small monthly planner and sticky note tabs which I use quite often!
Both notebooks come in different sizes so you can pick according to what works best for you! They also come in a variety of different colors, and I often love choosing different colors for different classes.
Folder/Binder
This is not as common in college from what I have experienced.
However, this is one of those school supplies that students use just a lot less of. Unlike in middle or high school where students have a folder or binder for each class, they have one that they organize for all of their classes.
One option that you can do is to have a small binder and divide the classes into different tabs.
The other option is to have an expandable filing folder! One of my recommendations is the Five Star 7 Pocket Expanding File Folder! It has a zipper as well which will keep your papers secure.
Pens
I use pens every single day from taking notes to planning out my everyday schedule!
For the most part, I use colored pens because using cute colors for my notes is a big motivation factor.
One of my go-to pens is the Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens. I tend to go for the 24-pack since they last me a long time and I don’t have to worry about stocking up any time soon! They don’t tend to bleed and write super smoothly!
One of my other go-to pens is the Pentel Gel Ink Pen, EnerGel RTX Retractable. These also don’t bleed as well. These are pens that make my handwriting amazing, and I tend to buy the 12-pack!
Pencils
Pencils are not things I tend to use often but they come in handy when I am taking quizzes and exams in college!
The pencils that I go for are always mechanical because I simply don’t like writing with wooden pencils.
The two brands I always buy my pencils from are Paper Mate and Pentel. I just find the pencils to last longer and be more durable.
The mechanical pencils from Pentel are the Pentel Mechanical Pencils. They are sleek and stylish but make sure to get the erasers and the lead type that you need. I usually go for the pencils that require 0.7, but they have a thinner lead or thicker lead depending on the weight of lead you wish to write with.
The same lead type is applicable to the Paper Mate Pencils. The ones from Paper Mate that I use are the Paper Mate Clearpoint Mechanical Pencils. These are ones are also amazing and write perfectly well.
Flashcards
This is something that I feel like every college student needs to have!
Flashcards are one of the best study tools for memorization and learning retention of materials. For exams and quizzes, they are the perfect tool to have. Not only can you use them to learn the material and quiz yourself, but you can use this as a group study tool as well.
Post It Notes
I love having these when I need to make notes throughout my planner and my notebooks!
I feel like these are really underrated, but you can use them for a variety of different things. You can use it throughout your desk or office space for reminders, temporary labels, to-lists, bookmarks, etc..
I like using them to remind me of assignment deadlines and when upcoming quizzes and exams are coming to my desk.
I highly recommend just getting a few to have around for your everyday small tasks!
Planner
Last but not least, this school supplies essential is having a planner to organize your everyday college life and plan out your classwork!
I prefer having a hard copy version, but others prefer having a more electronic version. Notion is a good online planner, and it is free for personal use!
Hopefully, this was helpful to all my fellow college students out there and students in general! Having numerous years of experience in school and a few recent years of experience in college, this is overall your go-to items for your school supply list! If there is any must-have school supply on top of your list, feel free to share!