--- title: 4 Must-Have Items for New Semester in College description: Start your semester right with these semester essentials canonical: https://time.com/4040813/college-semester-essentials/ author: Varsity Tutors article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-18T19:57:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:45:12.509Z og:title: 4 Must-Have Items for College Students og:description: Start your semester right with these essentials og:url: https://time.com/4040813/college-semester-essentials/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5276e3de94783d1/698864468e060115c846266c/student-sitting-laptop-backpack.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2122 og:image:height: 1194 og:image:alt: student-sitting-laptop-backpack og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 4 Must-Have Items for College Students twitter:description: Start your semester right with these essentials twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb5276e3de94783d1/698864468e060115c846266c/student-sitting-laptop-backpack.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 4 Must-Have Items for College Students > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Worth Your Time: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Worth Your Time is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more. Worth Your Time is a curated guide to the culture worth knowing, from the biggest conversations of the moment to the books, shows, ideas and discoveries worth your attention. Culture editor Eliza Berman taps TIME's collective taste and perspective to surface what is worth watching, reading, talking about and sharing, and why. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: What College Students Need to Know About Networking [Watch (HLS stream): What College Students Need to Know About Networking](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/A16NS8El.m3u8) (1:24)  _Published 2015-09-13. Susan Brennan, executive director of career services at Bentley University, offers students tips to get better at networking with classmates and future colleagues._ by [Brian Witte / Varsity Tutors](https://time.com/author/varsity-tutors/) ## Brian Witte / Varsity Tutors Sep 18, 2015 7:57 PM UTC  College student using laptop on floor College student using laptop on floor Getty Images by [Brian Witte / Varsity Tutors](https://time.com/author/varsity-tutors/) ## Brian Witte / Varsity Tutors Sep 18, 2015 7:57 PM UTC As you may already realize, there is an endless list of items that you can conceivably bring to college. Few of these items are strictly necessary – in fact, just these four objects can help you start the semester right: **Backpack** College is a very mobile experience. During your four years on campus, you will need to transport a laptop or tablet, its charging cable, one or more notebooks, pens and pencils, and other items like hand sanitizer, drinks, and snacks. For many students, a backpack becomes an extension of their body. It is with them at all times, and it carries the essence of their academic and extracurricular life. For this reason, consider investing in a well made, water-resistant backpack that fits you well. Purchase your backpack in person so you can test its fit and comfort, and choose a retailer who accepts returns long after purchase. If your backpack falls apart after a month, or if it is more uncomfortable than you first thought, do not hesitate to exchange it for another model. The ideal backpack has wide, padded straps attached to a semi-rigid back in order to support the weight of your textbooks. A cross-body messenger bag can also be a great choice. However, carrying any amount of weight over a single shoulder can cause chronic back pain, so avoid any backpack or bag that forces you to do so. The ideal backpack will also have a padded inner compartment for your laptop or tablet – remember that the protection and transportation of this item is a critical function of your bag. Check each zipper to make sure that it is durable and moves freely without catching stray threads. Ideally, small flaps of fabric will cover the zippers when closed, to prevent rain from seeping inside your backpack. **Planner** Your smartphone and your preferred calendar app can serve as a respectable day planner. You can arrange to receive email reminders of deadlines and due dates a day or a week in advance, but what this calendar lacks is long-term perspective. It is simply too difficult to view weeks or months of time on a smartphone or laptop screen. However, many college classes assign semester-long projects, and receiving a reminder that your 6,000-word essay is due tomorrow will be too little, too late. A wall-mounted semester planner can help you solve this problem. Yes, it is expensive. But it is well worth the investment if you use it. Seeing the whole semester on one page enables you to gauge your time in a way that typical calendars prevent. As soon as you receive the syllabi for your classes, write in the due dates for major projects and tests. Then note any extracurricular or personal obligations, and devise a strategy to manage your responsibilities. **Electric kettle** Whether you are living in the dorms or in an off-campus apartment, there are few appliances more useful than the electric kettle. If you can heat water, you can make coffee, instant noodles, and tea. You may argue that a microwave can do the same, but a microwave is also bulkier, more expensive, and louder. Worse still, it heats food and drinks unevenly. Although there is no one best brand of kettle, there are several features to keep in mind. The most important feature is an automatic shutoff that turns the heating element off once the water has boiled. This can _literally_ be the difference between life and death. Another great feature is a stainless steel body and heating element. Hot water can leach chemicals from plastic, and glass can shatter if you drop it. Finally, a model that fully separates from its base can remove the problems associated with dragging an electric cable behind your kettle. **Data backup** This last item is more a service more than a physical object. Far too many students – and professors – have lost weeks or months of work when their laptops were stolen. A portable hard drive that never leaves your apartment or dorm room is one possible, imperfect solution. Student neighborhoods can be targets for thieves, however, and if your apartment or dorm is burglarized, your backup drive could disappear along with your computer. A better solution is arranging backup in the cloud. Two possible storage providers are Google Drive and Dropbox. Both offer free storage for a small amount of data (2 GB for Dropbox and 15 GB for Google), as well as 1 TB of storage for about $10.00 a month. Whichever service you choose, be sure that your directories (or the locations where your work and photographs are stored) are continuously and automatically backed up. As an added bonus, your cloud storage is available from any Internet-connected computer, and you can share selected files with classmates and friends. In other words, you no longer need a flash drive just to print a paper at the computer center. _Brian Witte is a professional tutor and contributing writer with_ [_Varsity Tutors_](http://www.varsitytutors.com/ap-tutors)_, the leading curated marketplace for the top private tutors in the U.S. He earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Washington and holds a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University_ _More from Varsity Tutors:_ * [4 Back-to-School Tips for High School Seniors](http://time.com/4027023/high-school-senior-year-tips/) * [Here’s the Best Time to Visit College Campuses](http://time.com/3936398/best-time-college-campus-visit/) * [3 Questions to Ask Before Applying to a Graduate School](http://time.com/3912687/graduate-school-preparation-questions/) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] I think students need to think about defining that working differently and really focus on building relationships. I rather see students focus on Quality over quantity and being able to really get to know influencers who can be helpful in shaping their careers. So think about whether you can reach out to people for advice and information and then stay in touch with those folks because those are going to be your professional network for life. Be interesting. Show that you add value. Ask great questions. Stay in touch. Follow up. Don't be accumulating contacts. Really think about building meaningful relationships. I think it's the responsibility of schools to build opportunities for students to connect with alumni. It's something that Bentley that we take very seriously. So starting freshman year students are Connecting with professionals. Actually it's a great way for you to start is just to build connections with upper classmen, building peer connections. And then starting to talk to recent graduates before you really build a more or expanded professional network, so I think schools need to commit to building those opportunities, and students need to get out of the dorm, off the computer and the mobile phone, and actually go out and talk to people. 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