The average packed suitcase weighs 57.86 pounds — approximately 10 pounds less than the combined weight of your excitement and nerves for freshman year at Northwestern, right? We know the pain of running down NU’s recommended packing list while mom stains it with her premature tears and dad tries to figure out how you can buy everything for less than $25 (answer: yes, Dad, I do need both my kidneys.).
To make things a little easier for you, we at North By Northwestern surveyed more than 400 current NU students and found out what you really need for freshman year (and what you really don’t). Respondents from more than 18 freshman dorms weighed in on Northwestern’s recommended packing list and the list of banned items, then gave their opinion on everything from where they shop for dorm stuff to why you should pack a cowboy hat.
An added bonus: check out our editors’ picks, freshman blogger’s picks and Target Insider picks (80 percent of NU students said they shopped at Target when they got to Evanston), and our Q&A with the class of 2012. Just scroll over the images at the top of each page to navigate.
Photos by Tracy Fuad. Flash production by Lisa Gartner. Reporting by Sam Allard, Jenny An, Hallie Busta, Tracy Fuad, Lisa Gartner, Staci Gold, Lara Kattan, Spencer Kornhaber, Vi-An Nguyen, Dagny Salas, Lizzie Schiffman, Kate Sheridan, Karen Werling and Jamie Wiebe.