<p>Any thoughts on the best type of fan to buy? I’ve seen some small one’s that seem pretty high-powered. My son is used to sleeping with “white noise”. Hope his roommate can tolerate that.</p>
<p>Had to giggle at Ispf72, in the olden days, no one had TV’s in rooms. I was on the top floor of a 12 story building in college. Everyone came to my room to watch TV as the reception was best on the top floor. (old rabbit ear antenea) The room was packed, watching Luke and Laura get hitched.</p>
<p>Daughter won a TV at the after prom party so that’s set. Her scholarship included a lap top, so set there. Bedding will be the only real purchase until she moves in. Fortunately we are close enough to visit and go on shopping expeditions.</p>
<p>bethievt-</p>
<p>A couple of options and observations after supplying my 2 undergrads: </p>
<p>Honeywell has a small enclosed fairly high velocity fan that’s good for a desk area. Cost is about $20-25.</p>
<p>Vornado has a couple of floor standing (low, not tower type) cage type fans that move a good amount of air. Cost between 50-100.</p>
<p>Holmes (used to be sold under the Patton name) has a few sizes of wire type floor sitters that can have the cage positioned to direct the air flow. The larger units are fantastic and move quite a bit of air. Cost-$75-$130.</p>
<p>Look for multispeed (three is best) models. I’d stay away from the floor standers including the oscillators, especially the cheapies. Too easy to knock over, they’re noisy, they don’t move the air that well. A good floor stander/oscillator is expensive, fairly heavy, and is probably more than you want to spend.</p>
<p>The motors on the low end bargain fans are usually of Chinese origin, are underpowered, develop bearing noises and problems fairly quickly, and may not last a season. </p>
<p>Unless it’s a room that has more than one window and cross ventilation, the window mounted fans are basically useless.</p>
<p>If child is entering as a freshman, consider spending a bit more and getting one of the higher quality ones mentioned. They’ll last the full four years easily, and well beyond. </p>
<p>You can go the cheap route, but realize that if the sucker burns out and there’s been a heatwave, any fan may be hard to get at any price locally… Most stores don’t restock beyond a certain date… by the time they do, it’s too late.</p>
<p>If you/spouse/progeny are at all handy and feel qualified, consider rewiring the fan cord with the approriate guage wire to the tune of 12’-20’. This eliminates the need for an extension cord, and allows you to leave the unit plugged in anywhere and still reposition it throughout the room. Materials add between $5-10 to fan costs, and well worth it.</p>
<p>Most of the fans listed are available over the Internet through the online appliance discounters often at better prices than you’ll find locally.</p>
<p>Thanks violadad–I’ll start looking. My son’s college town has very few shopping options, so the few important things I want to make sure he has. I consider a fan important.</p>
<p>Some type of desk lamp is a must. Typically, the only lighting in a dorm room is the ceiling light, which in many dorms (depending on the type of fixture), casts an either painfully dreary light or a blinding florescent one.</p>
<p>Here’s a great desk lamp by Ott Lite - you can find it at Office Depot, sometimes on sale. It’s compact (folds flat for packing) and gives off the greatest natural light, perfect for a small desk.
<a href=“http://www.ottlite.com/productdetail.asp?product_id=49[/url]”>http://www.ottlite.com/productdetail.asp?product_id=49</a></p>
<p>We bought a desk lamp at BBB for 12.99 - we liked it because it has an extra outlet and dataport on it…
<a href=“Bed Bath & Beyond | The Best Deals Online: Furniture, Bedding, Rugs, Kitchen Essentials & Moree”>Bed Bath & Beyond | The Best Deals Online: Furniture, Bedding, Rugs, Kitchen Essentials & Moree;
<p>The father of my daughter’s roomate is a lighting guy, so he changed all the florescent bulbs (the bathroom, each girl’s desk light, and the overhead) to a natural light bulb. I thought he was crazy at first, but when I saw the difference in the lights he changed and the original light I was sold. We ended up doing it again the next year for my daughter. The bulbs can be bought at Home Depot or Lowes and really made a difference, especially at the desk.</p>
<p>Dorms use flourescent bulbs to same energy. Many schools are “going green”. Best to buy a desk lamp and floor lamp to use when needed and if going to school in the NE, get the bulbs (can’t recall what they are called) that give a better light for those dreary grey winters.</p>
<p>Bought a tool kit for D when we arrived at school. She used it a little, but she was the go-to girl when anyone needed a tool. Great way to meet guys…</p>
<p>I bought a tool kit for my son too–my first college-related purchase. I wish we’d hear about his roommate–I always seem to have something to be impatiently awaiting.</p>
<p>I found overnight service from U.S. mail very handy. Even though we do live in striking distance of school, it was so much cheaper to mail things, even overnight, than pay for gas. Items we forget: S.S. csrd, a must for work-study or any job and dance shoes when last minute dance class was added. There were many others. Postal clerks laughed when they saw me walking in. I included a pretty post with each mailing with some affectionate message. These were kept and used for room decoration. An entire wall was devoted to post cards so I began to get creative about whre there came from.</p>
<p>I second bare minimum. I wouldn’t include office supplies. I’m sure my daughter would end up seeing things she liked better, and my son would probably totally forget what we had purchased!</p>
<p>Issue of TV. My daughter had one, but it didn’t always work. If no cable is available they will be watching favorite shows together in lounges and only DVD’s in room. I second above idea of watching on computer – they also download favorite shows from various sites.</p>
<p>DUCT TAPE! Don’t wait to buy that!</p>
<p>I bought 2 rolls–in my son’s school colors!!</p>
<p>Re: TOOLS:</p>
<p>I had this intuition that owning a scissors would make my D popular on move-in day. It worked, although a few of them walked away that week and were never returned. She kept replacing them, and loaning them out… until finally she put her room number on them with a permanent marker.</p>
<p>Live and learn.</p>
<p>Don’t forget a hole punch.</p>
<p>What do you use the duct tape for?</p>
<p>That, Woody, would be a thread all of its own :)</p>
<p>Bethievt:
</p>
<p>And you claim Vermont doesn’t have fashion!!! :D</p>
<p>What are the school colors? My son’s H.S. has purple & white, & college has, you guessed it, purple and white. </p>
<p>His girlfriend couldn’t stand him in purple (I love it). Now that they are not dating he does wear his school T’s.</p>