College Preparation #6: Save Your $$$...and the trees

One of my biggest expenses in college my freshman year was books. I spent close to $1200 on them that first year. You DO NOT need to do that! Just do what I do now, buy international, or not at all.

There are international editions of books available that are much cheaper, and lighter than the American counterpart. They are in high quality color prints, and are softback. They say they cannot be sold in the US, which is not true. I buy mine on e-Bay usually, but they are all over the internet. However, MAKE SURE you get the high quality ones, you can get super cheap copies from China and India, but these are basically xerox copied black and white pages, and suck. The best part about buying these books, is you can usually re-sell them to other students for about the same price you paid for them (sometimes more) so you have nearly a 100% average recovery.

Another thing to look for is to make sure they say EVERYTHING in the book is the same, not just the passages, etc. because some books do not have the same example problems, and if you don't have the correct problems to work, in some classes, you will not do the correct homework. Be careful about it.

If you can't find an international edition, are afraid to buy them, or your book does not come in an international edition, try buying from other students. There is an entire website here at Michigan State dedicated to putting students in contact with other students for ads, books, and professor ratings (as well as other stuff) and I love it. There are other sites that let you get in touch with other students as well. If you must buy your books from the book store, do it, and then at the end of the semester, sell them to other students and get more than the book store will give you. They'll do it because they will pay less than the book store will charge them.

Be careful of professors who try to make money off their students. I had a professor ******* ******* who taught my Managerial Marketing class. He was an interesting guy, who was so ridiculously full of himself. Anyway, this isn't a critique of him as a professor; he owns a publishing company in Chicago (I checked it out, it is listed as one of his residences) and he "writes" a "new" book each semester, then requires it, and charges students $125. So he's making like 300 x $125 = $37,500 each semester (is my math correct?) Which makes me TERRIBLY mad. I wish I had known beforehand so I could save some money. My chapter ten also ended on a random word. It ends

"The nation's nonprofit sector generates amazing revenues every year and controls a"

Note: The name of this particular professor was blocked out to avoid any legal issues.

College Preparation #3 : Don't over pack, but bring enough storage

Ok, so here's a few quick tips (it's late, so I can't type long) Do not over pack for school. I see so many people (myself included) get there for their Freshman year and they have WAY too much stuff, mostly clothes. Here's a hint: you can do laundry every week. On the other hand, you can never have enough storage, mainly, vertical storage.

Dorm rooms are notoriously small, but they have some height. In a 12x14x12 room, there is 2016 cubic feet of storage. If you use storage only 3 feet tall (which is a rare height, usually it's closer to 1 to 2 feet) you are utilizing 504 cubic feet, that's only 25% of your storage. I suggest getting some tall shelving units, and where you can (wherever you do not have walking/living area) put SOMETHING tall. I suggest taking care of small things, they add up. One thing that took up lots of space in my room was photo frames, so I began making these:

I can hang them on the wall, and then I simply place the photos in there, and voila, instant vertical storage, that takes up MUCH less horizontal space (100% less actually) You can buy these pre-made at my webstore: dorm-gear.com I think they are really nice to use.

As for packing, pack everything you KNOW you need, then get rid of half of it. This rule is very true for those who are going to school within driving distance of school. If it is a hassle to get stuff to school, it is easier to bring to school then take away. I took too much stuff, so I brought some home when I went home for Christmas. Just remember, if you bring it to school, you have to do something with it in the summer, and no one (besides family) stores stuff for free. If you live near home, take very little, and if you need more, tell your parents, they will be happy to have a reason to come visit you (make sure they buy you some fresh groceries while they are there) It is much easier to add if you are within driving distance. Just remember, very very few people will bring just enough stuff. You will have more flexibility if you have enough storage space.

College Preparation #1: Complete a Dorm Roommate Contract

Well, for those of you who are reading this who are not in college yet, but whom are preparing for school, I am going to put some tips on here that I think you could use.

Preparing for college is one of the most exciting things I have ever done, and the most "exciting" aspect of it is of course the roommate gamble; I HIGHLY recommend taking a random roommate. If you have a friend you think you would like to room with, I recommend rooming in the same building...NOT the same dorm. There is no better way to ruin a friendship than by rooming with someone. If you have known someone as something besided a roommate, it can ruin a friendship; however, if you meet someone new and become friends with them while they are your roommate, you will be able to deal with it, and you will be good friends/roommates.

My roommate and I are friends now, and are rooming together again next year. My roommate and I from my freshman year did not get along so well. We weren't hostile to each other, but we definitely didn't click. If I had roomed with my best friend from before school, I promise you I would not be friends with him today.



If you are taking the plunge and taking a roommate blindly (which, as stated before, I highly recommend this) I also will tell you: you WANT a roommate contract. If you don't want to tell your roommate you want to do a roommate contract, talk to your floor RA and ask them to require a roommate contract. It might sound dorky, but trust me, I promise you won't need to bring it up, it is helpful because it forces you to bring up issues before they become issues (ex: I wake up at 6 and go to sleep at 9 every night, or...I take naps during the day from 2-4, or I will not allow partying in the room while I am trying to study/sleep) You can also get over the issues like whether or not members of the opposite sex will be allowed in the room at certain times. I am trying to find a copy of the contract we had.

Another nice aspect was we ranked the following by which gets priority use of the room: Socializing, sleep, studying. We had sleep first, then socializing, then studying (you can go to a study lounge to study, you can't do the same to socialize)

Anyway, I will continue trying to find a good roommate contract you can use, and post a link here. If possible, I will find the one that we used, because it worked well.

Note: If you and your roommate are comfortable talking about this without filling out a contract, still use one, it brings up issues like "can I eat your food? And under what circumstances may I?"
As well as many other issues