Are you a new student? Or an upperclassman who wants to up your note-taking game? Not sure what kind of stationery to buy? Senior staff writer Olivia Mitchell gives her and other Bwogger’s recommendations on what to use for your college career.

Pens

• Pilot G2 Pens (come in .7, .5, and .38)
  • Everything you want in a pen
  • Debate kids across the country swear by them, but for good reason
  • Sold everywhere
• Pilot Gel Pens (come in .5 and .38)
• Muji Gel-Ink Ballpoint Pens (come in .7, .5, and .38)
  • Beautiful and clean pens
  • Difficult to find and a bit more expensive

Pencils

• Bic Mechanical .5 Lead Pencils
  • The classic mechanical pencil you’ve been using for 12 years straight
• Pentel Graph Gear 500 lead pencil
  • Fancier, architectural pencil

Highlighters

• Zebra Mildliner highlighters
  • Wide variety of colors; typically mild shades
  • Can either buy them individually or in packs of five or fifteen
• Staedler Textsurfer Classic 364 Highlighters
  • Wide variety of colors; both bright and mild shades
  • Sold individually or in packs
• Sharpie Clear View Highlighters
  • Less fancy
  • Bright, vibrant colors
  • Have a clear little thing that allows you to see what you’re highlighting as you highlight

Misc. Writing Utensils

• Pentel Hi Polymer Erasers
• Zebra Mildliner Brush Pens
  • Mildliner highlighters but with a brush pen for calligraphy instead of the typical chisel point
• Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner Pens
  • Nice German marker pens in classic, bright colors

Notebooks

• Decomposition Notebooks (come in line, graph, dot grid, and blank sheets)
  • Made of recycled paper!
  • Have really cool and pretty designs

• Whitelines Notebooks (come in line, graph, and blank sheets)
  • A light gray paper with white lines
  • Are easily and cleanly scanned with the Whitelines App

• In general, any kind of college-ruled notebook, not wide-lined

Journals

• Leuchtturm1917 (come in line, dotted, and plain)
  • German brand of bound journals and notebooks
  • Nice, thick paper
• Moleskine (come in line, dotted, and plain)
  • Bound journals and notebooks found in most stationery shops and small bookstores
  • Thinner paper, but still great

Planners

• Leuchtturm1917 Planners (come in weekly and monthly)
• Moleskine Planners (come in weekly)
• Erin Condren Planners
  • Pricey and pretty
  • Ideal for those who would love to bullet journal yet don’t have the attention span for it
  • Come with stickers!
• Ban.do Planners
  • Expensive, but very sturdy with cute designs
  • Come with stickers!

Pencil Cases

• Lihit Lab Cases
  • HUGE
  • Plenty of space for pens, pencils, and highlighters
  • Has smaller pockets for erasers, flash drives, etc. 

featured image via dreamstime

notebook pics via Olivia