First year tips - what to take and more please?

[Graphista]

Looked through but can't see a thread for this sure there was one before

Dd is starting at new uni in autumn, she was staying with relatives before and now she'll be moving into halls. Don't know if it'll be en suite yet (she might know she hasn't told me I need to check with her)

What does she definitely need and what does she NOT need to take but might think she does?

Also general tips for 1st year away at uni?

It's been a while for me! And I didn't live in so I'm wanting to make sure she has all she needs but also isn't loaded up with stuff she doesn't need.

@Freshapples

Mattress topper 100% unless you are lucky to be an expensive hall with new modern beds

We bought one but arrived to find another, brand new still packaged one waiting on the bed - a "welcome" gift, along with a mug and two facemasks.

Wow. Never heard of that. Which uni was that? Was it a private hall?

DD's Unite hall gave them a nice mattress protector - her year was its first intake, so an actual mattress topper would definitely have been OTT. Much cheaper to.buulk buy reasonable quality mattresses instead (which they seemed to have done).

A washing up bowl. If your DC are in halls where other students don’t bother to wash up, they can fill up their own bowl with hot water and do it separately. Both my older DS’s used them all the time. My middle DS even has to use it in his current shared house

something I never thought I'd write - dishwasher tablets ; as DS3's first choice accommodation comes with a dishwasher in the very well appointed kitchen / lounge; plus a reasonably sized wall mounted TV. Do teens young adults still watch terrestial TV? I think these facilities are likely to be the exception rather than the rule though.

boys3
DS accommodation has a dishwasher and tv too, I think all 3 of the halls he looked at had both. The TV is advertised in the blurb as "for watching Netflix with your new friends"