At the end of each semester (more so at the end of spring and summer semester), students will begin trying to sell all sorts of items. These can range from textbooks, to desks, to computers. Some will be quite used and battered, others will be brand new. All of the items will be sold below market value. This is the perfect opportunity to pick up some items to furnish your next apartment or replace old/outdated items you might currently have. Obviously, do your research on any items you are considering buying, but this can be a great bargain opportunity. Even just by driving down the street near some of the apartments, you can find some great items that the owner is simply trying to get rid of. The best way to learn about these deals is probably through Facebook groups like Free & For Sale.

Company Swag and Food

Companies also love to give stuff away. They bring free food when they come to give talks. This food ranges from your regular cheap pizza to nice deep dish Papa Del Del’s pizza to Mexican to BBQ. In addition to this, the companies all bring freebies (swag) that advertise the company name. Most companies will have shirts. However, they will also have flash drives, koozies, bottle openers, bouncy balls, water bottles, and many more items. These are all given out for free, and are pretty useful. The fun part is that companies have even started to unofficially compete with one another to have the best swag. So they are always updating their collection of items to give away.

In short, don’t ever go out and buy any of these items again. You will end up with more swag than you know what to do with (I’ve filled a laundry bag with swag and a box per year with shirts). This is also why most CS students are always wearing shirts from different tech companies. Like really, don’t bother bringing extra t-shirts, assuming you are going to career fairs and networking events (which you should be!), you’ll get plenty of those.