College can be a hard time. Especially with final exams around the corner, you or your loved ones might be cornering towards a stressful time. Sending your favorite college student a custom-made exam care package can help during this tiring time can with stress relief and make it easier for them.
A college student’s care package doesn’t only need to be for your favorite student, you can also curate a care package for yourself to make it easier to go through study sessions during finals. It should include essential items that help with:
- Food cravings
- Stress relief
- Study sessions
- Last minute prep
- and of course, getting good grades.
Whether it is the first semester or last semester, care packages for college can help all students regardless of their field of study.
Here, I will take you through a full list of items that will help you make a custom DIY ultimate college finals survival kit that can provide a great source of relief for college kids.
You also get a FREE printable checklist for all the items by subscribing to my email list. You will also get a whole lot of other goodies like free templates to make your college life easier.
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What should be included in the ultimate care package?
A great way to create an ultimate college care package is to include all items that help during the exam time of the year. A care package is to provide comfort to students and help them cope with stress. Something that can remind them of home and that they are not alone can really have an impact at improving grades and making studying fun.
Here is a list of categories and all items that you can use for your care package. You can go to each link by clicking on the items below:
Study Supplies for the student survival kit
The first item you should start off with is some study supplies for the student survival kit. Study supplies are essential to making a college student’s life more organized and improving grades.
They can help a student get creative in their study sessions, making helpful notes that they can retain for the long term can also provide structure to their academic lives.
Here are some great ideas for study supplies that you can include in your college finals kit:
- Sticky notes
- Diary
- Flash drive
- Notebook
- iPad stickers from Etsy
- Sticker letters
- Glue stick
- Basic stationery
- Pencils
- Eraser
- Highlighters of different colors
- Colored pens
- Ballpoint pens
- Gel pens
- Index cards (this is what I used throughout college)
Stress relief items for the college finals survival kit
Practising mindfulness can be extremely helpful in stress relief and can reduce exam week anxiety. While college students should schedule time in their exam planner, stress relievers can uplift mood, reduce anxiety and improve self-esteem.
Items like essential oils have been shown to have stress-reducing effects that can improve mood and make one calm. Salt lamps can improve the ambience with their subtle light which can also help with the mood. Using sketchbooks or coloring books can also be great stress relievers by making the mind focus on mundane tasks and giving you a break.
- Dorm room enhancers
- Essential oils
- Salt lamp
- Aromatherapy diffusers
- Mindfulness journal
- Sketchbook
- Coloring book
- Stress ball
- Slimes
- Cloud slime
- Water slime
- Jelly slime
- Clay slime
Getting sleep and staying cosy for stress reduction
Sleep is also a big factor in helping students cope with exam stress. Not getting enough sleep can do more harm than good. It can reduce concentration and hinder your abilities when you writing exams (been there, done that). That’s why it is one of the most essential items on the list.
Here is a list of items that can help become more comfortable during exam season
- Sleep mask
- Fuzzy socks
- Camomile tea
- Sleepy time tea
Self-Care Items for College Survival Kit
Self-care is a crucial part of getting into adulthood. It can help calm one down, avoid burnout, especially during finals week and improve wellbeing. Practicing self-care can help move towards the path of success and achieve better grades.
Include these self-care items in your ultimate care package
- Face masks
- Bath salts
- Cooling shampoo
- Skin care items
- Cooling eye mask
- Face rollers
- Nail polish
- Hair ties
- Lip balm
- List of inspirational quotes
- Bath bombs
- Books (Could be young adult books like Twilight, no judgement 😉 )
Coffee Breaks for your Care Package
Coffee breaks (or any other drink that you like) are a part and parcel of any college student’s life. Whether it is the end of the semester or mid-terms, breaks can really help speed up the study process. That is why the Pomodoro technique is so widely used. It uses a system of breaks between work that helps with studying or concentrating on items.
Exam season is full of late nights, so any items that can help during that journey are perfect when creating your care package plan. Sending a gift card is also a great gift idea when you can’t send them the items themselves.
Here are some items to include in the student survival kit to help students with coffee packages
- Gift cards
- Gift cards for Starbucks
- Gift card to a local coffee shop
- Gift cards to tea shops
- Instant coffee
- Mini coffee maker
Snack Pack for the finals week care package
Different types of snacks (and yes junk food at times) are helpful during exam season. When curating a final weeks care package salty and sweet snacks are at the heart of them. This can help students not run out of supplies during tiring times or the late night study sessions.
Here is a list of items that you can include in the college care package:
- Chex mix
- Their favorite chips
- Trail mix
- Other salty snacks
- Sweet treats
- Twisters
- Skittles
- Fudge
- Candy
- Hot chocolate
- Chewing hum (has helped me stay awake)
- Gift card for UberEats
- Gift card for Doordash
- Gift card for Skip the Dishes
Brain Foods for the crunch time
While junk food is okay once in a while (yes, I have also had the munchies during exam season) healthy snacks are also crucial. Brain food makes one less lethargic while being yummy and easy to munch on.
There are a variety of items that healthy snacks can include in the exam care package:
- Protein bars
- Granola bars
- Water bottle
- Almonds
- Cashews
- Peanuts
- Dark chocolate
- Walnuts
- Ready made recepies
- Microwave popcorn
- Salty crackers
Care package ideas
One of the last things is to wrap up all these amazing items in your care package. For that, you would need some nice wrappings or box flaps. I usually like to build boxes from scratch which you can great ones from a local craft store or you can get a few boxes from Amazon.
I have also used a small bag pack to put in the items as well. You can use this college care package idea when you don’t want to use a box.
When curating the college package one of the best ways to wrap it up is to put in some cute sayings which are also thoughtful. This is also a great opportunity to create some cute DIY greeting cards. Use these ideas from the DIY cards post.
How to send the college care package?
Now, to send this DIY final exam college care package you would need to go to your local post office and send out these items. Don’t forget to take the tracking id when you do so.
If you want to create an online care package just select the digital items from the list to make your very own digital care package 🙂
You can also have these items delivered directly from Amazon and get some gift cards together to send it directly at their doorstep.
When to send an exam care package?
Care packages need not just be for final exams. You can also send a college care package for
- Finals week
- Any type of exam
- Any time you miss them 🙂
- Sick days
- Mental health days
Now that you have a list of items from each category use the printable list to check all the items you want to include in your ultimate college care package.
While making your college care package plan don’t forget to add a note to tell your loved ones that they are not alone and you support them in their tough days! You can use cute tags to the care package with some messages. These can be the perfect gifts to include in your care package.
Let me know in the comments if you think of some extra items that would be a great addition to the list. Don’t forget to subscribe to the email list to get freebies right at your mailbox not only for the list but also free planners and templates for college
