<p>I imagine it depends on there major.</p>
<p>Why would it depend on their major? Setting aside music performance, I don’t know of too many majors which require dressy clothes on any kind of regular basis.</p>
<p>My D is a voice major- now in grad school- so it wasn’t unusual for her or others at the conservatory to iron their performance clothes. Of course, this was the girls, they guys usually looked like unmade beds (I have 2 sons also, so don’t yell at me!).
Even now, there is an ironing board and iron in her apt because woe betide the student at this level who shows up to performance class looking rumpled- so yes, I’d say that it depends upon the major and what is expected of them.</p>
<p>When I was a freshman in the dorms back in the 70’s, I did have an iron but no ironing board, so of course used the bed. One time when I was done ironing and the iron was still hot, I leaned across the bed to unplug it and balanced myself by placing my hand flat on the bed in front of the hot plate. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the iron tipped over on my hand. I was surprised and just stared at it for a moment before pulling my hand out. It burned the back of my hand badly and I still have a scar. A cautionary tale for irons in dorms although this would not happen to my kids as 1) they don’t iron and 2) they are smarter than I was!</p>
<p>My kids really don’t iron. I really don’t iron, either. But since S has time to go surfing, I’m having a tough time believing this is a time issue. lol.</p>
<p>Maybe I come from an iron-ier family than most, but I and all my siblings, including my brother, iron. My oldest sister is practically obsessed. I don’t think she’s ever put an un-ironed article of clothing on her body.
I think that in most cases, people’s day-to-day clothes are not of materials that require ironing. Since ironing is only rarely necessary, most of my friends will do it when the materials calls for it. At the same time, a couple of my male friends have asked me, while I was ironing my own outfit, to iron their pants or shirts for career fairs.</p>
<p>Imagine how much energy we’d save if everybody just accepted that wrinkles aren’t the end of the world.</p>
<p>I’m sure we’d lose quite a bit from that acceptance! 
</p>
<p>The only “ironing” both my daughters did in college involved accidently standing on top of their clothing heap on the floor and something inadvertently getting pressed into a better shape than it started out. </p>
<p>LOL! My son may iron a shirt occasionally if a roommate has an iron. D is big on steaming in the bathroom.</p>
<p>Lol mooop, wouldn’t change my energy expenditure in the least! ;)</p>
<p>Just a little postscript here. I started this thread cuz my kid claimed she’d never go out in unironed clothes at college, despite my assurances that she wouldn’t have time to iron. She’s home after her first term now. I asked if she ironed much at school and she said she never even took her iron out of its box; she admitted I was right about the benefits of taking clothes out of dryer immediately after it stops. Amazingly I was also right when I told her not to buy much clothing the summer before freshman year, that her tastes would probably chge once she got there and saw what others were wearing.</p>
<p>At my mom’s dorm at UT-Austin in the late '50s, weekly laundering and ironing services were included in the cost! And that included those big poodle skirts.</p>
<p>By the time I lived in the same dorm, those services weren’t included, but we did have weekly maid service and sit-down dinners.</p>
<p>Benefit of belonging to a sorority - there was an ironing board and iron in the house if I had to iron something.</p>
<p>Nowadays, they have handheld steamers that are lighter than irons and you can hang up your clothes and use them to remove wrinkles that way.</p>
<p>Where I went to school, there were a lot of rich kids and kids concerned with how they looked, but most of them never did ironing at all at home, so why would they iron at school?</p>
<p>Thus, some students had accounts at the dry cleaner at the Student Union. I didn’t get it early freshman year, but soon enough figured out that certain people brought <em>wardrobes</em> and extra clothes racks to school. And picked up dry cleaning at least once per week.</p>
<p>I suppose if one is not well-heeled but wants to keep up with that crowd, at least having a steamer is a good ide, such as:
<a href=“http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/my-little-steamer-reg-go-mini-hand-steamer/1017180746?categoryId=12223”>http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/my-little-steamer-reg-go-mini-hand-steamer/1017180746?categoryId=12223</a></p>
<p>Buy it before they go to college though, and try it at home, because some people have trouble using it. I rarely iron now, but I use a larger steamer to spruce up dress shirts etc. It does work pretty well, and less danger of burning one’s self.</p>
<p>I sent S to school with the wrinkle free oxfords and khakis for fraternity functions. I also sent an iron and ironing board that were rarely, if ever, used. I got smarter with kid 2 and sent her off to college with a steamer and a drying rack. She uses both. </p>
<p>My D also took the little steamer with her but says the only one who uses it is a suitemate who is a waitress and needs her white shirts to look pressed. I also do not iron- I think the key is folding/hanging immediately from the dryer. With things you don’t dry, putting them in on “air dry” or “fluff” for a few minutes usually takes most of the wrinkles out.
We made the mistake, when shopping for school clothes, of not looking closely enough at washing labels. It’s amazing how many hand wash articles of clothing are out there lurking among the wash and wear! Needless to say, these came home after first semester…beware!</p>
<p>My kid is a musician. He ironed in college and he irons now.</p>
<p>I was just reading the comments early in the thread about ironing jeans and tshirts. Brought me back to my first roomate in the 70s who ironed everything - jeans, tshirts, etc. Even then, people thought she went overboard. Most of us had an iron because our moms gave us one; very few used it.</p>
<p>Back in 1969, I was given a really nice iron to take to college. I used it a lot, until someone stole it! I was quite annoyed. </p>
<p>I still iron…I have a Rowenta iron, and so does my musician son. If you are going to iron…get a good iron.</p>
<p>Neither of my sons ironed during college or any other time that I know of. I sent an iron to college with S1 because he was in NROTC and uniforms were to be ironed. S1 quickly found a dry cleaner close by and used them for all four years of NROTC.</p>