College parties don’t all have to be ragers with keg stands and wet t-shirt contests. While big blowouts are certainly fun, they have their place. But if you and your friends are in the mood to throw a semi-classy party, your dorm can serve as a respectable venue to practice your entertaining skills. If you never took home economics in high school and are worried the only life skills you’ll pick up by the time you graduate involve knowing how much beer you can fit in a cooler or fetching coffee, keep reading for some grown-up entertaining tips.
Before you get to planning the booze, clean your room. Dorms are often designed to hide dirt — blue speckled carpet anyone? — so you may not even know how disgusting your room is. Borrow a vacuum from the RA; scrub your bathroom counters and clean the toilet; clean off your desks (with actual spray cleaner, not just removing clutter); and make you and your roommate’s beds look clean, fresh and presentable. People are probably going to be sitting on them, after all. Use an air freshener, and if you use candles, make sure they’re blown out before your rambunctious guests arrive.
Decide what kind of party you want, and you’ll quickly be able to plan a menu around it. If you have a dorm kitchen, you can bake cookies and whip up some easy appetizers like bruschetta or heated-up frozen snacks. If you don’t have access to a kitchen, then simple options like chips and salsa, olives, cheese and veggies and fruit work, too. Check with your dorm policies for having alcohol in your room, and remember that loud parties should be saved for weekends when RAs are a little more lenient about busting up the soiree.
To keep your party more semi-classy than slightly trashy, buy colorful paper or plastic plates and cups, and a few decorations for your room. Create a playlist on your computer, and have a few game ideas prepared, either a DVD game or board game like Cranium or Apples to Apples. Send out invitations through Facebook, evite.com or even campus mail, and suggest a lenient dress code if you want the party to be a little more special. Dorm rooms are cramped, so don’t be offended if people start filtering in and out, but if you set your party apart from the traditional kegger, you may have to start turning people away.