Back-to-School Shopping: What to Buy

By Amanda Cohen on August 23, 2018

It’s about that time again… back-to-school time! For those of you heading back to another year of undergrad, lucky you, and for those of you starting a second-degree opportunity, good luck. Regardless of what year you are heading into of college, you will still have to do some back-to-school shopping.

There are a few different categories of back-to-school shopping: (1) school supplies/textbooks, (2) dorm room/apartment items, and (3) clothing. Purchasing items from each of these categories is imperative for success and comfort when entering this upcoming school year. However, since school starts for most people very soon, you probably have your dorm room/furniture and clothing items.

Because of this, we are going to focus on school supplies and textbooks. If you are a freshman and are unsure about what you need, read on. If you are a sophomore, junior, or senior and just want a small refresher, read on!

Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/education-back-to-school-1545578/

I personally love school supply and textbook shopping. I know that not everyone shares the same sentiment, but hopefully after reading about exactly what you need you will get excited too! Every good school year starts out with a fun planner to make sure that you have everything in one location—i.e. assignments, appointments, important dates, etc. I still use a paper planner because I love finding cute planners that are pretty and organized, but a lot of people opt for the calendar app on their phones. If you’re like me and are looking for an organized, cute, and user-friendly planner, look at Lilly Pulitzer planners. If you don’t like the way the Lilly Pulitzer planners are organized or look, go on Amazon and search for a planner… they literally have thousands of options. Here are the links to some of my favorite planners:

Now that you have your planner, you will need to buy pens, pencils, highlighters and sticky notes to fill the planner with (and to use during your classes). Even though all of these items may sound tedious (and even a little silly), they are very important. For example, there is nothing better than writing a bunch of upcoming assignment in your planner and then crossing them off with a pencil or highlighter. I like to use different highlighters for different things… it helps me keep organized and it makes doing work a little more colorful and fun. Since I use all colors of the rainbow in highlighters, I always stick to black pen: it’s easiest to read and it’s not super harsh in the way a red pen is. Here are my favorite highlighters, pens, and pencils:

These are all items that you should buy before you start classes. However, the school supply shopping definitely does not stop there. Depending on your professors, some will let you type your notes while others will require you to hand-write your notes. If you are required to hand-write your notes, or you just prefer to do it this way, I suggest buying one notebook per class as opposed to sharing a large notebook with multiple classes. I find that having one notebook per class keeps me more organized. You should also buy a small folder for each class (regardless if you type your notes or not) so that you can bring your hard-copy assignments in to your professor looking well-maintained. Another tip is to color-coordinate binders, notebooks, and folders to match certain classes. By doing this, you will avoid grabbing the wrong folder for a certain class. Here are some of my favorite notebooks, folders, and binders:

Last, but not least (okay, kind of the least) is textbook shopping. Never buy textbooks before you start classes because you may find out you will never use a textbook and it will be a total waste of money. Textbooks are very pricey. If you are looking to save money on textbooks, be sure to check out my article entitled “Buying Textbooks Without Breaking the Bank.”

Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/background-business-clips-color-2091/

Back-to-school shopping can be fun and easy if you use the tips I listed above! Here are a few last tips before I sign off: (1) Amazon is your best friend, (2) Amazon Prime offers a student discount, and (3) Make your school supplies fun by experimenting with different colors and patterns! I wish all new and returning students the best of luck as you head back to college. It’s okay to be nervous, but don’t let lack of preparedness effect your nerves!

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

College Textbooks Listings

Persuasion in Society

Authors: Herbert W. Simons, Jean Jones

ISBN: 0415965144

ISBN13: 9780415965149

Burro Genius

Authors: Victor Villasenor, Victor Villaseñor

ISBN: 0060526130

ISBN13: 9780060526139

American Government and Politics Today 2015-2016

Authors: Lynne E. Ford, Lynne Ford, Barbara A. Bardes,...

ISBN: 1285860438

ISBN13: 9781285860435

See all College Textbooks Listings

Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format