5 Dorm Decorations That Will Make People Think You’re Fun and Cool

NSO passes as a flurry of meeting people, telling them where you’re from, and then moving along to go tell more people where you’re from. If you’re not an international student or from New York, it can be hard to make an impactful first impression. That’s why it’s crucial that your dorm decorations do the speaking for you, and UTB has assembled a list of decorations that say, “don’t focus on my subpar people skills; just look at my cool walls.

1. Pictures of you with friends and family: Nothing will help you make friends like showing that there are other people who already like you. It’s important to note that, in the majority of cases, no one is going to know where you’re from, so the people in the pictures don’t actually have to be your friends. They just need to be people. For example, take pictures with the models from a nearby Abercrombie store and show people how attractive all your friends are. In a pinch, there’s always Photoshop.

2. Posters of musicians and movies: You want to find people who share common interests with whatever you want to pretend your interests are. Do you want to live the fratty lifestyle? Find posters of classic movies like Wayne’s World or Weekend at Bernie’s. Do you want friends who sit around and smoke a lot of weed? Get anything with the Dark Side of the Moon logo on it.

3. Cool lights: Nothing says, “I’m at college, and I’m ready to party” like neon lights on your ceiling. For a chiller vibe, consider paper lanterns. For the chillest vibe, light your room with nothing but lava lamps. Cover the overhead light to let people know that you’re ready to commit fully to the lava lamp lifestyle.

4. A shelf of books: If you want people to take you seriously as an intellectual, you better show them that you used to read books in high school. Try classics like the The Great Gatsby or The Sun Also Rises to let people know that you really, really enjoyed AP English Lit. If you’ve already gotten rid of all of your required reading books, just put up the Parson’s AP Lit guidebook. It proves the same point.

5. A fully stocked bar: If you really want people to hang out in your room, you better be able to offer them something to drink. Of course, liquor will be hard to restock without a good fake ID, so keep the empty bottles so that people know that you did, at one time, have a fully stocked bar in your room.