Everything You Should Consider Packing for Your First Year of College
Before going to college, my best friend raided Goodwill and Salvation Army for sweats. No joke, she probably bought 10 pairs before she left. Meanwhile, I was buying cute jeans and skirts, telling her there was no way she needed so many sweatpants. Two months into college, and there I was—sitting in my dorm room with my closet stuffed to the brim, wishing I had her 10 pairs of sweats. In the years that followed, I adjusted my packing strategy, balancing my need for comfort with my need for cute. But at the time, I realized I’d packed for school completely wrong, and I wish I’d known ahead of time what I’d actually wear in college.
Packing for college is hard—both because you don't know what to expect, and because you have next to no space to store your clothing. You'll move into a 10-by-10 dorm room. And in the most dire of circumstances, you might even share a closet with your roommate. So you can't just accept that you don't know what to pack and bring your entire closet with you—you have to narrow it down to what you can reasonably fit in your space. The uncertainty is a challenge—but the space constraint makes that challenge more challenging. You can't pack everything. You have to actually make decisions.
In a nutshell, college is all about comfort. Between managing your classes, workload, social life, and extracurricular activities getting all dolled up will be the last thing on your mind. While realistically packing for college you have to make some tough choices and choose your favorites.
To make that easier, we polled 49 Elon students to find out what they wish they'd packed freshman year. The list includes all the unassumed necessities (like a business casual look) and some fun extras AKA the essentials for curating the perfect costume bin.
Sweatpants, Sweatshirts, and T-shirts
You can deny it all you want (like I did), but the ugly truth of college is that 7 days a week, you will be rocking sweats and sweatshirts. And the sooner you accept it, the sooner you will love it. 90% of students polled agreed that they wore loungewear often/always at school.
But this doesn’t mean you have to look like a hobo. There’s plenty of cute loungewear out there that’s both comfortable and stylish. The Elon students we polled love to buy loungewear at Nasty Gal (for cute lounge sets), Walmart (for cheap sweats and sweatshirts), Aerie (for some trendy but pricier sweatshirts and graphic T-shirts), and Urban Outfitters (again, for trendy but pricier sweatshirts and graphic T-shirts).
Pro tip: Don’t underestimate your local thrift stores when it comes to looking for loungewear. You might have to sift through piles of clothes (and wash your finds a couple of times) but all that hard work definitely pays off!
Workout Clothes
For the days when you decide to actually hit the gym. They might be rare, but you want to make sure you look cute while running on that treadmill. 57% of students polled said that they wear workout clothes often around campus.
Tiny Tops & Going-Out Jeans
Let’s face it—we like to have fun, and we want to look cute doing it. While every school’s nightlife looks a little different, you can never go wrong with black jeans and a bodysuit or a crop top.
We suggest packing your favorite black skinny jeans that hug you in all the right places and a number of tiny tops to pair with. For shoes you can never go wrong with a comfy white sneaker or black booties. (Make sure these are shoes you don't mind getting a little dirty because after one night they will be.) The students poll recommend checking out Princess Polly, Lulus, Zara, and Amazon to buy going-out clothes.
One Business Casual Outfit
This is the outfit you’ll throw on if your professor claims they will be taking off points for wearing sweatpants and or even jeans. We can’t tell you how many times a teacher has assigned this, and we are left stumped, feeling like we actually don’t have anything to wear. 70% of students polled said this was definitely a must.
To play it safe we suggest a pair of slacks and a chunky sweater and a classy slide. And don’t worry about re-wearing this look for all of your presentations—everyone does it. We suggest hitting up Zara or Uniqlo to pick up some cute but cheap business casual looks.
Darty clothes
For those who don’t know, a “darty” is a day party. They typically occur every Saturday, rain or shine! This is your chance to let your stylish side shine. We live for days where the sun is shining and you can pop off in your cutest set.
For these, we suggest staying true to your own personal style, maybe some cute jeans with an off the shoulder top. On warmer days, we love wearing sun-dresses and matching sets. And in the winter, we pop off in our edgiest jackets and most unique jeans. Students say their favorite place to buy darty clothes is Verge Girl—and ofc, our roomie’s closet!
Costumes
Amazon prime and your local Walmart will become your best friend for theme parties in college. If you don’t mind running around the day of (or even waiting to see the leftovers that no one wears the hour before the party begins), you can totally do that. But if you are a little more of a planner and like to have options on hand, we suggest creating a costume bin. Trust us—you (and your hallmates) will be glad you did.
Here are some common themes that you can expect and essential items to go with it.
1. Paint Party: Anything white! We suggest a big white T-shirt or white nurse scrub pants paired with white tank top, which you can pick up for cheap at Walmart. The more you can cover, the less you have to scrub later!
2. Alien: Anything metallic, our favorite is a metallic skater skirt (which can be bought on Amazon), an alien headband, and lots of glitter!
3. Cowboy & Alien: A fan favorite this past year. Bandanas and the pink cowboy hat are musts, along with anything metallic and a lot of glitter.
4. Gatsby: Anything with fringe and pearls.
5. What’s in Your Closet: Anything flies with this theme. Typically people pull together their wackiest ensembles.
6. Heaven and Hell: A halo or devil ears.
7. High School Stereotype: A perfect excuse to wear your old school skirt again, or throw on a comfy jersey.
Formal dress and ONE pair of heels.
For the rare occasion that the dress code is formal, we suggest bringing one formal dress that could be worn for a variety of events. In addition, we suggest bringing ONE (literally just one) pair of heels. Trust us—even for the formal event, people usually throw sneakers on after pictures. Our favorite places to get formal dresses are from Revolve, Hello Molly, and Princess Polly.
