True but when there is a boil water advisory I wouldn’t want to be drinking the water either.
Eeek, brain eating amoebas is not something I’d heard of.
At one of the pre-orientation parent sessions one of the Deans at Marquette specifically said to bring an alarm clock that plugs in and has battery back-up and strategically place is across the room from the bed. Because on those cold winter mornings you want to force the kid to actually get up out of that warm comfy bed and turn off the alarm, it is too easy to silence the alarm on the cell phone that likely went to bed with the kids and go back to sleep.
Our kids each bought a Roomba electronic vacuum cleaner. It woke them up AND cleaned their floors!
Check your school’s requirements regarding power strips and extension cords. Invariably, there are either not enough outlets and/or they are located far from where you need them. We used the power strips with extra long cords (regular extension cords were prohibited).
Ziplock bags are very handy. If you’re like me and send your kid off with the Costco sized container of detergent pods, they’re not going to want to haul that thing to the laundry. They can throw a few pods in a ziplock with their laundry bag. Also useful, of course, for food storage.
The DustBuster was a bust and was replaced by a small lightweight electric broom. The dorm vacuum always seemed to be missing or broken. I love the Roomba idea!
My kids have allergies and find that the Roomba really helps minimize the dust. They had it scheduled to go off daily. Between the noise and the Roomba hitting the legs of the bed, they’d wake up just fine!
My kid had a small,electric broom also. It got a LOT of use…as did his iron. Lots of folks borrowed it.
The things my son used were a iron, extra set of sheets, a stack of paper plates, small tupperware containers, salt & pepper shakers, broom, alarm clock, head phones, small tool box. Waste of space items were computer printer, TV tray, full size ironing board and dvd player.
S used 2 sets of sheets. D only used one. Neither used a corded, plug-in phone nor knew the phone number that was assigned to their dorm room (all dorms had a landline paid for as part of residence fees, plus high speed internet and cable TV). S finally “lost” the phone and never missed it (nor did D).
Neither had an iron or ironing board, though it may have prevented S from burning his graduation sash (he tried “ironing” it with a hot frying pan–polyester and hot metal do not go well together). Having Ethernet cables was useful so they could use the cable to connect to the high speed internet–it was faster than the wireless connection.
They did use S’s multi-function printer (at least as a printer–not sure if other functions were used). Not sure if S ever used the bag of rice we bought him freshman year, but he definitely used the rice cooker over the years he’s lived away and moved it with him to DC.
@HImom I sent a bag of rice in case D’s phone got wet!
I did the same thing. We have one at home and it’s been needed. 
We didn’t send an iron, ironing board, vacuum, broom, etc. and they weren’t missed. Often there is a vacuum on the hall that students can use when needed. My theory is that “less is more” and if it turns out that something is really needed it can usually be ordered through Amazon and be there in one or two days. Remember that it all needs to be packed up and stored over the summer.
my daughter used a swiffer to clean the floors (they were not carpeted) and then we got her an non-electric brush sweeper when she ended up in a room with a carpet.
Wait, doesn’t everyone just pile dorm mountain behind the living room chair for the summer like we do? 
Well, rice was the thing S needed the most on our 3 week trip to DC. It was expensive getting his rice fix at a sushi place and I thought it best for him to have a bag–didn’t know how often cafe would serve it.