<p>MomfromKC, found this link to an ABC World News story.</p>
<p>[Made</a> in America Goes Back to School - ABC News](<a href=“Made in America: Could College Dorm Rooms Hold the Key to Half a Million New U.S. Jobs? - ABC News”>Made in America: Could College Dorm Rooms Hold the Key to Half a Million New U.S. Jobs? - ABC News)</p>
<p>I think perhaps it is the story you viewed.</p>
<p>We ordered and rec’d. the Student Starter Pack from RHL. The six pack of towels we rec’d was about 1/3 the size/thickness of the photograph of the towels that they showed. Sheets felt like sandpaper. Bedside buddy didn’t even resemble the photo online. I agree with one thing, however, it was inexpensive. But, you get what you pay for. Our son wouldn’t sleep on the sheets and the comforter was too thin to provide any warmth on winter nights. I guess it wasn’t that inexpensive after all, since ended up re-buying everything.</p>
<p>Wait until the college stuff comes out in July and go shopping. Target & BBBY will have huge sections of stuff for colleges with occasional specials. (sign up for BBBY alerts and you will get a 20% off coupon. look for additional coupons in Entertainment books, which could pay for itself with one comforter).</p>
<p>Is Twin XL a college dorm bed standard?</p>
<p>Twin XL is common, but I don’t know if you can call it standard. My daughter’s LAC has some Twin XL and some Twin, depending on the dorm. If you can’t find out on the web, I’d call the school’s housing office and ask.</p>
<p>My son was really really glad that my wife bought him a soft mattress pad. He said the university bought new mattresses and they were rock hard.</p>
<p>We had really good luck ordering XL stuff at Overstock. Shipping is dirt cheap and there are tons of reviews to check on items you are interested in. My kiddo really liked the eggcrate mattress topper we got there and we picked up a cover that was supposed to keep out bedbugs. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had the option to just order a new mattress from the school and not have to worry about the pesky critters.</p>
<p>We tried the residence hall linens the first year. It was a mistake. Yes, they guarantee the sheets but one set didn’t fit and another shrank. My son threw them away before I had a chance to try to get a refund. We wound up going to Bed Bath and Beyond and getting really stretchy sheets that work fine. And yes, the eggcrate is helpful.</p>
<p>The item from that residence hall mailer that he DOES use and likes is the square-shaped lightweight clothes hamper. Also the toiletry carrier.</p>
<p>One point of interest: these linen programs are actually fund raisers for the schools. The school gets a % of each sale. Sometimes the $ is used specifically for student activities, sometimes not. The price is significantly marked up to allow for the school’s portion. I think its really about convenience. If you don’t care about the price and don’t want to shop around, it is a good alternative.</p>
<p>We ordered from RHL, got the complete campus collection, I don’t think I could have beat the pricing. The quality is ok, it’s guaranteed to last through college, and you can upgrade to 300 thread count for $20. The big selling points for me were the products are made in the USA and it comes as a collection, the shopping was done in a minute. Another plus was it all shipped together so we only have one box to hide away until it’s time to move my daughter.</p>
<p>We ordered from RHL, got the complete campus collection, I don’t think I could have beat the pricing. The quality is ok, it’s guaranteed to last through college, and you can upgrade to 300 thread count for $20. The big selling points for me were the products are made in the USA and it comes as a collection, the shopping was done in a minute. Another plus was it all shipped together so we only have one box to hide away until it’s time to move my daughter.</p>
<p>I like the focus on American made. These linens are fine if you are only looking at price, but I’ve seen my D’s roommate’s set up and the quality was such that it’s meant to just get you through freshman year. I agree with others on the towels … better to have them wash and dry fast than to be thick and plush in a dorm setting. </p>
<p>My S just got the RHL brochure (it was addressed “to the parents of S.”). He would be fine with the look of what they offer in terms of colors and patterns, but he would not like it if he knew everything he brought to school was made in China. I think for a few dollars more I’ll look for sales and get higher quality but American, as tempting as the prices are.</p>
<p>I got these towels for my son last year. [Calcot</a> Growers: Soft and absorbent quality cotton bath towels](<a href=“http://www.calcottowels.com/]Calcot”>http://www.calcottowels.com/) I was going to just give him some old towels from the linen closet, but for opted for these instead. They are really nice. Not only are they American made but they are sold by the farmers who grow the cotton! They also sell them on Amazon. </p>
<p>My recommendation is to just buy everything, wash it up at home and then put it all in a Space bag and throw it in a box. You really don’t want to use unwashed sheets and towels if you don’t have to.</p>
<p>I am definitely in agreement with making things easier with the whole college transition.The one stop shopping at RHL worked for my son just fine. Being a boy, he didn’t have a lot of demands for anything special concerning towels or sheets and other bedding type stuff. We just picked out a color that he could live with and were done with it. </p>
<p>Guess we got lucky because boys do seem to be less demanding about this sort of stuff. The price was right, the package had all the stuff that we thought he needed(he didn’t care about some stuff, so we just got what we thought would work best). It is one less thing that we had to help him to bring to school too.</p>
<p>So happy I have a practical D who spurned the RHL brochure and announced her intention to shop at BBB for XL sheets, take comforter, pillows, towels etc. from the ample supply of not- nearly-new items in the linen closet at home. I did worry slightly that she might be the only girl in the dorm without all new stuff, so am happy that others on this thread mention the same approach.</p>
<p>In my opinion that bed bath and beyond is expensive. But, i guess if you have kids that don’t mind running around and shopping for themselves/ and finding good deals then they can do that. My route was by far the easiest i think. There was no way that our kid would consent to going away to college with old stained hand me downs while most of the other kids have new stuff.I was not concerned by the price of the rhl package. It was small compared to all the other stuff that i have been spending money on for college.</p>
<p>We got our bedding from TwinXL.com, the quality was very good and the price was lower too!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t buy from RHL. I got stuff from there freshman year and it was very poor quality. BBB, Target, etc. all have good sales this time of year. Might as well go there and buy things that you know will last for a few years.</p>
<p>Purchased the “recommended” college bedding for child number one. Very rough and not attractive. Went to Potterybarn Teen for child number two. Lovely and soft.</p>
<p>Great advice here, thanks! We just got the mailer, I wasn’t sure, and now I am certain we’ll be using local businesses. I think we can get much better quality for cheaper/same prices.</p>