Your dorm room will look like jail when you show up.

It's just a fact, with bare walls, bare floors and harsh flourescent lighting, you'll think you're doing 15 to life the moment you walk in the door. The Detroit News however, has kindly written a guide to help you freshman brighten up your room! Let's take a look:

"A colorful area rug, live plants, curtains and stylish table and floor lamps can personalize and brighten a small room immediately without breaking the bank."

Let's be clear, your colorful rug will quickly get turned black by food and drink stains, not to mention pounds of accumulated hair if there's two girls sharing a room, your plants will be dead in a month, your curtains will get torn down and peed on by the end of welcome week and there is no room for tables on which to put table lamps. Now we explore what not to bring:

"Do bring a fan, extra power strips and a printer, but don't bring a TV because all the student lounges have TVs and you won't watch that much TV anyways."

I can't speak for other schools, but at U of M student lounges are practically empty rooms with a few broken down tables and chairs that exist for the sole purpose of playing poker or hooking up when your roomate won't leave your room. There are no TVs there so BRING A TV. You will have more free time in college than you ever thought possible and the suggestion that you'll never have time to watch TV is probably one of the biggest myths about college. Lastly, we have this:

"Cosentini recommends choosing a color palatte with your roomate, (blue and brown is the current rage, but brights are always a hit with students)."

If you're my roomate, and I get an e-mail from you over the summer asking what color palatte our room should have, you should be prepared to show up wearing some blue jeans so my brown shoe will coordinate with them when it kicks your ass.

More (actually usable) dorm tips to come as it gets closer to move in time.