Orientation covers the meal plan and where the library is. It does not cover
what happens when your phone is gone on a Friday night and you can't get into
your email because the code goes to the phone that's gone.
Here's the short list I wish someone had handed me. Three things, mostly
free, about twenty minutes total.
1. Print your two-factor backup codes
Start here, because it's the one with the worst failure mode and the fewest
people do it.
If your phone is the only device that receives your login codes, then losing it
locks you out of your email, which is what every other account uses to reset
itself. One lost phone becomes a week of being unable to prove you're you.
Go into your Google or Apple account, generate backup codes, print them, and
put the paper somewhere that isn't your phone or your wallet — taped inside a
desk drawer is fine. Add a second device or a trusted family member as a recovery
option while you're in there.
2. Keep some money that isn't on your phone
If your wallet and your phone disappear together, so does tap-to-pay. Suddenly
you can't buy a coffee, let alone get across town.
Stash some cash somewhere in your room and keep a backup card somewhere that
isn't your wallet. Takes five minutes, and you'll feel unreasonably smug the one
time it matters.
3. Have a way to reach people without your phone
Both of those assume you can still get to something. The codes are in a
drawer back in your room, and the cash is with them.
The instinct here is to memorize a few numbers. Be honest about how that goes.
When I was a freshman I knew exactly one by heart — my mom's, four states away,
phone on silent — and I found out at midnight what that's worth. Almost nobody
gets past one or two, they go stale when people change numbers, and you're asked
to produce them at the exact moment you're rattled and holding someone else's
phone.
This is the gap I built LOST101 for. It's one toll-free number that works from
any phone you can borrow — a friend's, a flip phone, a landline. You verify who
you are, pick from up to twenty people you set up in advance, and it connects the
call. Both sides see "LOST101" on the caller ID, so nobody's number is exposed.
The specifics, so you can judge whether it's for you: it's $36 for a year with
the first connected call free, US networks only, and both you and every contact
have to be 18 or older. Each contact accepts a text invitation before they can be
reached. Calls only go out, never in. It's not an emergency service and does not
replace 911.
The five-minute version
If you only do one thing before move-in, print the two-factor backup codes.
It's free, it takes minutes, and it only matters on a day you won't see
coming.