To prepare the Class of 2024 for post-high school education, college freshmen, after completing one year of schooling, are offering advice on dorms and the social aspects of their new schools.
As the 2023-2024 school year ends, many seniors are making final decisions about college and post-graduation plans.
For those planning on attending college after high school, a lot of planning goes into the process of physically moving into your dorm room.
According to Cornell freshman Julia Vizza, having a “beautiful” living space is “super important.”
“I think it makes hard days easier when you come home to a beautiful dorm room that reflects your style,” Vizza said.
For Arizona State University freshman Rachel Schewe, dorm rooms played a large role in her social life.
“Especially in the beginning of the year when you don’t really know the cool spots to hang out on campus, everyone leaves their doors open and people kind of just pop by to hang out for a bit,” Schewe said.
According to Schewe, part of decorating college dorms is planning, but for students who move to states far away, there isn’t much you can take to decorate.
To make up for this, University of Colorado Boulder freshman Patrick Rother resorted to collecting things throughout his first year to decorate his dorm room.
“[It was] super disorganized but I love how it turned out in the end,” Rother said.
According to Rother, a necessity for all dorm rooms is more light.
“A must have for the dorm is some kind of softer lighting option than the overheads,” Rother said. “Any kind of LED lights are great, but I really loved having a lamp in the room that provided some softer lighting.”
For Vizza, her must-have item was to help prevent messy rooms and save space.
“My number one dorm must have is a storage for shoes that will keep them from becoming a pile on the floor,” Vizza said.
For Schewe, it was her personalized decorations that made her dorm room a home.
“I would say that my personalized decorations were my favorite part of the room,” Schewe said. “I had photos of my friends and family all over the room. I wanted my space to remind me of home.”