Students have many different reasons for not wanting to live on campus. Some can save money by living at home, with their parents. Others may want to live on their own, but not right next to campus—maybe they found a good deal on an apartment a little farther away. The reasons vary, but many students find themselves driving (or riding their bikes, or taking the subway or the bus) to school.

Finding the best mode of transportation is key to having a successful year as a commuter student. If you live really close to campus, you can walk. A little farther out, riding your bike is a good idea—not only will you save a bunch of gas money, but it’ll help keep you in shape, too! And if you’re really serious about it, you can ride your bike all year (this is easier if you don’t live in a state that gets a lot of snow, but it’s possible everywhere). If you’re close to mass transit, you can hop a bus or a train to get close to campus—you can often get student passes that can save you a lot of money on this type of transportation. Keep in mind that when you’re taking mass transit, you’re not putting miles on your car, and not only will you not have to pay for gas as often, but you’ll cut down on maintenance as well. But, of course, sometimes driving is the only option. And that’s how it is for a lot of people.

I strongly encourage all commuter students to spend as much time on campus as possible. Get involved with some groups—sports, intramurals, honor societies, language clubs, and study groups are all good ways to meet people. Maintaining social connections with campus can be tough when you don’t live there, but it’s certainly possible, and it’s important to meet people outside of class as well. Go to your school’s sporting games, and theater productions, and social gatherings, like outdoor movie nights and dances. Staying connected is important.

Many schools have organized commuter student centers or groups, as well—see if your college offers special resources for commuter students that you can take advantage of (see NYU’s for a good example). It can be a good way to meet people, and you may find that there are many valuable resources that a commuter center has to offer.

First, and most importantly, have all of your stuff packed! If you’re running around your house the morning before you move in looking for a table fan, a desk lamp, an extra blanket, or your toothbrush, you’re going to start the day stressed. Get a move-in checklist and go through it several times in the weeks before you move in. Make sure you have everything together, packed, and ready to go. “Packed” doesn’t mean “together in a pile”—get all of your things into some bags and boxes so that you can just walk them out to the car in the morning and be done.

It can be really helpful to talk to your roommate about when you plan on showing up to move in. Depending on how large your dorm room is—and how you both like to do things—you may want to coordinate so that you’re not there at the same time. If you’re both trying to move your things into a small room, it can get pretty jammed and difficult to move around (especially if both roommates’ families are there helping out). Try to plan so one roommate gets there in the morning, and another arrives in the afternoon. It’ll be much easier for everyone involved.

It can be very helpful to have a plan on where you’re going to put your things—check out the floor plan for your room a week or so before you move in and start thinking about how you’ll organize it. Find out how the beds and desks are laid out. Will your bed be lofted? If so, you’ll have some more storage room. Does your desk already have a lamp on it? Then you can use yours on your nightstand (if you have one). Knowing things like this will make it even easier when you move in.

After you’ve moved in, start exploring your dorm! Get out and meet your hallmates and neighbors. Introduce yourself, see if you can find someone who’s in one of the same classes that you are, and just get to know as many people as you can. You’re going to be living with these people the rest of the year, so it’s good to start being social as early as possible!

Many dorm rooms have hard floors—if this is the case, you’ll want to sweet it fairly often. You’ll be eating in your room, so you’ll be adding crumbs to the pencil eraser shavings and other byproducts of an academic existence on your floor. After a while, it builds up. So sweep it! If you have carpeting, or put rugs over your hard floor, make sure to vacuum as well. After a while, it becomes pretty easy to tell if carpet has been vacuumed or not.

If you have a kitchen in or near your room, bring dishwashing supplies, because dishes that haven’t been washed in two weeks are gross. Wash your dishes right after you use them, or when they start building up in the sink, and you’ll avoid the telltale nasty smell of moldy dishes. If you’re fortunate enough to have a dishwasher, you won’t have to worry about this—just be sure to use the dishwasher!

Another thing you’ll want to bring for your kitchen (and bathroom, if you have one) is surface cleaner. Something like Scrubbing Bubbles or another high-powered grime remover is perfect. Use it on your counters, sinks, oven, tub, stove, shower, toilet, and any other hard surface. It’ll take anything built up right off—you won’t even have to scrub (unless it’s impressively baked on there). This is also really effective for taking stains off of a hard floor—if you drop some tomato sauce or cheese on your floor and don’t notice it until the next morning, this will take it right off.

A non-cleaning product that will really help the clean-seemingness of your apartment is an air freshener. Get one that plugs into the wall, a gel diffuser, or any other kind (hanging the evergreen tree car air fresheners isn’t very stylish, but they definitely work!), and put them up in your room. You can find discrete places to put them if you’d like, or make it really obvious—it doesn’t really matter. Just use something to keep your dorm room smelling alright.

While you may not enjoy cleaning—I know I certainly don’t—it’ll pay off. Especially when it comes to cleaning your room out at the end of the year. Not only will your dorm look and smell better than a lot of the ones you’ll see, but you’ll already be a step ahead when it comes to doing the major clean when you move out. I know it sucks to clean . . . just do it, and you’ll be happy you did!

Sell Plasma

Blood plasma is the liquid portion of your blood. It’s the part that everything else—your red cells, white cells, platelets, and so on—is floating in. And there are companies who will pay you decently well if you’d like to sell it. All you have to do is find one of those companies, schedule an appointment, and go for it! The more often you give, the more money you’ll make (you’re limited to the frequency of your appointments for health reasons, though). It’s a pretty easy, fairly painless process that doesn’t take a whole lot of time.

Gamble

Don’t hit the slot machines, or use online betting services. But if you’re good at beating your friends in poker, start putting some money on the table. It doesn’t have to be much—five bucks here and there can add up over time. Play with quarters or half-dollars. Organize a tournament on your dorm floor (beware of anti-gambling rules, though). Or if you have a really high alcohol tolerance, challenge some people to a beer pong match and bet some cash on it. Any sort of game like this can serve as a moneymaker if you’re good at it and people are willing to take you on.

Tutor

You don’t have to be a graduate or a professor to tutor—most schools have centers that you can get a job tutoring at. All you have to do is prove that you know your stuff in a particular area. Many schools have tutoring centers for several areas, including math, English, biology, and history. (You can also establish your own tutoring business.) Figure out what you’re best at and see if you can help people out. This is a great strategy, because you can help people out and feel good about yourself when you’re done raking in the cash.

If none of these ideas suit your strengths, don’t despair—you aren’t assured a life of poverty. Just start thinking about the skills you have that other people may not, and how you can monetize those skills. Maybe you’re very gifted with grammar. So edit papers for a fee. Or you’re a great public speaker. Help people out preparing for their public speaking classes. Everyone has skills . . . if you can identify yours and find others who are willing to pay for them, you’re set!

One option that seems to be a consistently popular one is to do something that will scare you out of your mind. Maybe it’s sky diving. Or bungee jumping. Or even horizontal bungee jumping. Whatever it is, it’ll probably scare the crap out of you. And it’ll be awesome.

A lot of people combine doing something dangerous with the second crazy idea—going really far away. Take a road trip, or jump a plane to another country. Wherever you go, get to somewhere you’ve never been before. Hang out on a beach in Mexico, or head to the Swiss Alps. Maybe you can find a way to make it to Japan. If doing this seems really difficult, and slightly unrealistic, you’re just not trying hard enough! If there’s a will, there’s a way. (Oh, and don’t watch any of those movies that start out with recent high school or college grads going on a road trip that turns into a fight for their lives before you go. Not a good idea.)

Another good way to commemorate your last summer is with some sort of body modification. Get a new piercing or a tattoo! Piercings are fairly temporary, so I won’t offer much caution on those. But tattoos are permanent. So if you get one, get something cool that you won’t regret in six months. Don’t get a pot leaf, don’t get your boyfriend’s name, don’t get your high school mascot (yeah, it’s been done). A lot of people over-think their tattoos and don’t ever end up getting one. Give it some thought, but if you really want one, go for it! Under no circumstances should you get a piece of flash tattooed. Have your own design done.

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking. There are thousands of crazy things that you could do to make this summer a great one. It doesn’t have to be something outrageous, either. Many people come up with great ideas that they don’t even have to leave their neighborhood for. Just keep thinking, and you’ll come up with a great idea to commemorate your summer.

Oh, yeah—don’t do any of this stuff behind your parents’ back or without their consent. That’s just stupid.

The first thing you think about when choosing your clothes is the weight of material. A cotton shirt and heavy khaki pants are not going to last very long before you sweat all over them. It’s important to choose materials that are light and breathable—things like linen and polyester are good (polyester is best used for performance tees and polos . . . probably not recommendable for other articles of clothing). Really light khaki pants and shorts are good, and you can also find linen pants that are pretty stylish. Make sure that whatever you choose to wear, it’s very breathable. If it’s not, you’ll find that you’re uncomfortably hot very soon after stepping outside (which, of course, will keep you from looking cool).

Once you’ve found an assortment of light, airy, clothes, you can actually choose the type of clothing that you’ll be wearing. Unless you’re attending something very formal (like a wedding, funeral, job interview, or really fancy party), stay away from long sleeves—they’ll only make you hot more quickly. Short-sleeve shirts like polos are great. You can choose between shorts and pants, depending on your situation. If you’re going somewhere at night, or it’s a little more formal, pants might be a good idea. If it’s something pretty casual, or during the day, when the temperature gets really high, go with shorts. Skip the basketball shorts, though, and go with something a little more classy—khaki cargos or just plain khaki shorts are usually a pretty safe bet for looking cool. If you’re just going to be hanging around your house, or you’re going to the beach, wear whatever you want!

It’s also important to think about the colors of the clothes that you wear when it’s hot outside. Light colors like white, light grey, blue, and green are safe bets. They’ll keep you from overheating right away and keep you looking stylish. Avoid dark colors—black, navy, maroon, purple—unless you’re going out at night (or need to look exceptionally professional).

Most of looking cool throughout the summer is common sense. Dress light, with short sleeves (and shorts if possible), and choose light colors. The more comfortable you are, the cooler you’ll look. So just make sure that the clothes you choose feel good, and you’ll be set!

First, if your college allows it, you can buy a window air conditioner. This is usually not an option, but if you’re able to, go for it! It’s much more effective than the other methods. There’s a large range of prices, but you can usually pick one up for around a hundred bucks. Most of the cost of a window unit comes from the electricity that it uses . . . but if your college is willing to pick up the bill, this is definitely the best way to go.

If you can’t use a window air conditioner (and it’s fairly likely that you won’t be able to), the next best option is a box fan (like this one). Propping this in your window—and another one in your door, if possible—will really help the circulation in your room and keep it from getting really hot and stuffy. A stand fan (see here) will also work, but because of the smaller size, probably won’t be quite as effective. Smaller fans, like desk or clip fans, are also important—put one next to your computer and clip one to your headboard, and you’ll stay much cooler, no matter where you are in your room.

In addition to using an air conditioner or fan to keep your dorm room cool, there are a couple other things you can do to keep the temperature down (or at least make it seem more cool). During the day, keep your windows open, but your blinds closed. This will allow air to circulate, but it will keep the sun from warming up your room too much. At night—or on cloudy days—you can open up the blinds to make your room seem like a dungeon. Unless you’re into the dungeon look. Then keep them closed. Another thing that you can do, if you have the option of bunking your beds, is to take the bottom bunk (or to not loft your bed, even though it’ll save you a significant amount of space). When the temperature starts to rise, it will be noticeably warmer near the ceiling.

Most colleges will provide you with the email address or phone number of your future roommate so that you can speak before the year starts. Use this contact information to call or email them at least a couple times so that you have some idea of what living with them is going to be like. This is a good time to talk about things like sleep schedule, homework habits, significant others, and various other issues related to your day-to-day life (you can find a guide that offers some good advice on this here).

Another useful thing to do is to take an inventory of what each of you plans on bringing to the dorm. It doesn’t make sense to have two TV’s, two stereos, or multiple video game systems. Make a list of the items that you’ll be bringing, and ask your roommate to do the same. (this site provides good advice on what to and what not to bring to your dorm room). Don’t skip out on this step—it’ll save you a trip or two back home to bring back some things you don’t need two of.

As well as calling and emailing, it’s good to meet up with you roommate once or twice before you move in (if you’re not from different parts of the state or country, that is). Suggest meeting up at a local restaurant or some other place that you’ll be able to talk. This is a good time to just get to know each other. Talk about what you plan on studying, what you like to do, what kind of music you like, and other things like that. You’re going to be seeing (and probably spending a significant amount of time with) your roommate every day, so it’s good to start establishing a friendship early.

Although you won’t really get a complete picture of what your roommate is like until you’ve spent a lot of time with them, it’s good to meet up with them before the semester starts to coordinate and to get to know each other. While it can be slightly awkward at first, it usually ends up being a lot of fun and will help your relationship get off on the right foot.

College campuses, like most places, are almost completely safe during the day. While classes are going on, people are all over the place, walking to class, heading to the cafeteria, throwing a Frisbee, studying outside, and doing any other number of things in public. After dark, there are usually a few less people about. It’s almost impossible to be completely alone outside, even if it is dark (especially if your campus has night classes, or it’s a weekend). During the day, however, safety is one of the last things you’ll need to think about.

One of the foremost safety rules on campuses, as with anywhere else, is to always travel with a friend. Whether you’re walking home from a really late class, heading to your car to make it to a party, or just getting out to stretch your legs before a long study session, don’t go alone. Invite someone to go with you, or meet someone and go together. It’s just a good practice to get into. In a similar vein, make sure that when you go to a party, both you and a friend are accountable for each other. Make a deal before you get to the party—if one leaves, so does the other. Stay together and watch out for each other (especially if one or the other gets especially intoxicated).

In addition to practicing good safety habits, it’s important to know your college’s campus safety practices. Does your public safety department offer off-campus escorts? This may be really useful if you’re a long way from home and you need a ride—just call public safety, and they’ll often come pick you up. The same goes for leaving campus; if you parked a few blocks away, you can usually get a ride out to your car. Many campuses also have emergency stations in some form or another—they often look like light poles with large blue lights on top of them. In case of an emergency, you can set off an alarm and call for help from one of these stations.

Safety on college campuses is rarely a major concern, but it’s important to keep it in mind. Bad things can happen anywhere, and it’s a good practice to start picking up good habits early. You shouldn’t be afraid of travelling in the dark, or nervous that you might be a victim of a crime if you leave a party, but you should be aware of your surroundings and what’s going on around you.

Be safe!

1) TV/DVD player—this is one of those things that not every dorm needs, but most would benefit from. Dven if you don’t watch TV regularly, it’s really nice to be able to throw in a DVD and relax for a couple hours before going back to homework for the rest of the night.

2) Fan—whether you get a big box fan, a table fan, or a stand fan, you’re definitely going to want some sort of oscillating, air-moving device. If you don’t have air conditioning (an it’s fairly likely that you won’t for at least your first year), this will be a lifesaver. In fact, if you won’t have A/C, you might want to bring two fans. Trust me—it’s worth it. Even if you do have the luxury of air conditioning, a fan can be really nice to get the air moving around your dorm and get rid of that “stuffy” feeling. One of the most crucial dorm necessities.

3) Blankets—conversely, you’ll want extra layers to pile on your bed during the winter. All dorms are heated during the colder months, but you may find that it’s not quite enough. Especially if your windows aren’t very well insulated.

4) Sofa/chairs/bean bags—you’re going to need something to sit on when you’re not studying. Something comfortable that will fit a couple people (but isn’t so big that it’s a huge pain to get in and out of the room) is perfect. A futon can be really convenient if someone wants to stay over (siblings visiting from out of town, friends from across campus, etc.). Dish chairs are very comfortable and, if they’re big enough, can be slept in. The same goes for —1970’s style, timeless cool. They’re a ton of fun, and work really well for sitting on to get some reading done, watch TV, or to sleep on. It’s important to note that you should okay with getting all of these things dirty . . . they’ll get written on, spilled on, fallen on; there are a lot of things that could happen to them. Just be aware.

5) Desk lamp—just about every dorm comes equipped with a desk and chair for each person living there. A lot of them also have under-shelf lights, but these aren’t terribly effective, especially if your roommate is sleeping and the rest of the room is dark. Bring a small desk lamp to illuminate your work.

6) Flip-flops—dorm shower + bare feet = well . . . disgusting. Don’t do it. Bring flip-flops and prevent yourself from getting some exotic foot disease.