Don’t forget this! What school supplies to bring and why

Most of your packing time will probably be occupied in corralling missing socks and purchasing cheap microwaves. However, you are coming to Colorado School of Mines first and foremost to attend school. With that in mind, it’s important to have a sufficient stockpile of school supplies.

The Essentials:

Mechanical pencils: You neither want your writing to be perfect, nor do you want to have to find a pencil sharpener all the time.

Extra lead: Be sure it actually fits your pencils before you buy it.

A pen: While you will probably use the pencil more, don’t forget you will sometimes have to sign official documents.

A large eraser: You will make mistakes. This will clean them up.

A calculator: If you have a graphing calculator, feel free to bring it, but a scientific calculator will be the standard for your freshman classes.

Paper: You will certainly want some sort of paper. For freshman classes at least, its exact nature is fungible. Many students use engineering paper or graph paper, though others use primarily computer paper.

Notebooks: Be sure to bring some paper place to write down class notes. Using your computer to take notes will rarely be both allowed and practical your freshman year.

A stapler: It seems really random now, but if you bring your own stapler, complete with extra staples, you will save yourself a lot of time and hassle. Plus, you’ll meet a lot of people who didn’t bring a stapler.

Textbooks: This may seem obvious, but in the internet age many students never buy books. It is useful to make sure you have at absolute minimum guaranteed, long-term access to your books.

The Options:

Three-ring binders: Many professors post complete lecture notes online. If you print hard copies of these notes, binders are the best way to store these.

Three-hole punch: If you plan to use binders, it only makes sense to bring your own punch.

Two-pocket folders: While they may seem a little juvenile, folders are an effective way to store paperwork from your classes, such as old homework and quizzes. You’ll appreciate the organization at finals time.

Flash-drive: More often than you might think, it is convenient to transfer files between school computers and your personal computer. E-mail and Dropbox work too, but sometimes a physical memory device is helpful.



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