5 Things Your Child Should Bring to College

An Allen wrench (also known as a hex key.) If your college student and their roommate want any space in their dorm at all, lofting the beds is essentials, otherwise they'll be right on top of each other. An Allen wrench is an essential tool for lofting a bed. Sure the dorm building will have a few onhand, but on move-in day, Allen wrenches become a hot commodity. Bring your own.

Flip flops, a shower caddy and toiletries (for the communal bathroom). Protect your feet, people. As a former resident of Johnstone at Clemson, I have seen shower mold that has developed their own systems of government. The virtues of flip-flops or shower shoes cannot be stated enough. Sacrifice cool for healthy feet.

Flash drives or other storage devices. Back up your homework, kids. Doesn't matter if you put it on a flash drive or store it in a cloud – just save and save often. And not just to the hard drive of your desktop or laptop. Save to an external source. Don't be that guy in the computer labs, jacked up on coffee, trying to recreate a paper or project (or worse, a thesis) because he forgot to save his work or his hard drive went to Data Heaven.

Ear plugs. Roommates snore. Floormates won't have the same exam schedule as you and will be whooping it up as you're crashing from cramming for a midterm. Earplugs are crucial for drowning the world out. But on exam days, set an alarm. Better yet, set two, and make sure you have to get out of bed to turn the second one off.

Patience. Volunteers are on-hand to help during move-in day and they make the day go smoother, no doubt. But there are going to be large crowds, lack of available parking, long lines for the elevator (my friend Bryan once lugged his girlfriend's computer up ten flights of stairs rather than wait for the elevator on her move-in day). It's August. It's going to be blazing hot or it's going to be pouring down rain. Take a deep breath and try to relax.

What would you add to this list? Share your wisdom (and move-in day horror stories) by leaving a comment below.