The Her Campus National Editors write about products we love and think you’ll love too. Her Campus has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase. All products are in stock and all prices are accurate as of publication.
As a college student who spends most of my day working or doing school work, I always try to keep a select few items in my bag that I consider essential to my college life. These are some of my top items for staying well organized and prepared for literally anything on campus that make my life so much easier.
Planner
As someone who struggles with remembering tasks to do during the day, a planner really helps me organize my thoughts better and reminds me of important events, tasks, and assignments. I prefer to use a larger, more colorful planner compared to a smaller one because it stands out among the other books in my bag. I also like using weekly/monthly planners since I can plan out a month’s worth of stuff ahead of time and can break down each month by the week into more specific details
Pens, Pencils, & Study Utensils
One thing about me is that I love a good pen/pencil. So I keep pens and pencils of three different tip sizes. The tip sizes I use are 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, and 0.9 mm. This is so that when I’m studying or writing notes I can use the thickness of the pen tip to better organize my notes. For example, I use 0.9 mm tips for subtitles or vocab words whereas the 0.5 and 0.7 mm tips are used for writing general info and definitions or drawing diagrams. I also like to keep pens in different colors so that I can understand my notes better, and also use them to mark any problems that I need to work on. In addition to pens and pencils, I also like using mildliners and highlighters to help focus on topics that I’m either studying or having trouble with, as well as White-Out to help me correct mistakes with pens.
These are what I use for all my writing and study utensils:
Uni-Ball Alpha Gel Shaker Mechanical Pencil
Paper Mate Clearpoint Mechanical Pencil
Health & Wellness
I like to keep my vitamins or any necessary medicines in smaller, travel-sized bottles just in case of emergencies. I keep those in a separate, smaller bag and I usually carry stuff like Emergen-C, Ibuprofen, Midol, and my prescription medications.
In another smaller bag, I keep my period products since you never know when you might need them. I also like to carry a mask, hand sanitizer, and cough drops, especially around cold and flu season.
Snacks
When you’re always on the go, sometimes you can forget to eat. So I like to carry a couple of snacks that I portion throughout the day that will keep me full and help me focus on the tasks at hand without worrying if I’m going to pass out or not. You can find these travel snacks in multipacks at your local grocery store, as well as get some zip-lock baggies to portion out certain snacks that might not be available in pre-portioned.
Water Bottle
Now, this is probably the one thing I can’t leave my dorm room without. If I’m not carrying my emotional support water bottle across campus, then I 100% will not be able to function in normal society let alone in the classroom. But for me, I recently have been getting into bigger-sized water bottles, and currently own a lovely gallon-sized water bottle from the brand Apana. It’s been my favorite for on-the-go hydration, but if you want a smaller water bottle that keeps your drinks nice and cold or piping hot without paying a gigantic price for a Hydro Flask, then I would suggest the brand HydraPeak. It’s very affordable, gets the job done, and is usually sold really cheap at Marshalls and TJMaxx.