How we research, verify, and stay honest
Families make real purchases based on what these pages say. Here is exactly how the information gets here, and what to do if we got something wrong.
Official sources only
Every college guide is built from the university's own housing website, residence hall pages, and published move-in information. We do not source dorm rules from forums, social media, or other listicle sites.
Dated verification
Each guide shows the date it was last checked against those official sources, right at the top. If a guide has not been re-verified recently, that date tells you so.
We link out when a rule is uncertain
Housing policies change, and some details vary by hall or by year. When we are not certain a rule still holds, the guide says so and links you to the official housing page instead of guessing.
Independent recommendations
No school, brand, or retailer pays to appear in a DormHQ guide. Product picks are chosen by us. Some links are affiliate links, which cost you nothing extra and are always disclosed on the page.
How a college guide gets made
- Start at the source. We read the university's housing site: hall pages, published bed sizes, what-to-bring and what-not-to-bring lists, and official move-in schedules.
- Write it for a family, not a search engine. The guide organizes what actually matters before shopping: bed size, what the room includes, what to verify with the roommate, and where the official links live.
- Stamp the date. The verification note at the top of each guide records when we last checked it against those sources.
- Re-check and correct. Housing details change every year. When we re-verify a guide or a reader flags an error, we update the page and the date.
Product recommendations
Items we recommend are picked for usefulness in a real dorm, not because anyone paid for placement. Items marked DormHQ-Tested are things our own family bought and used for an actual move-in. Some outbound links are Amazon affiliate links; if you buy through one, DormHQ may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Every page with affiliate links carries a disclosure.
Your data
DormHQ does not sell personal information for money. The details are in the privacy policy, written to be readable by a human.
Corrections
Found something outdated or wrong, in a guide or anywhere else on DormHQ? Email hello@dormheadquarters.com with the page link. We review correction requests, fix what is wrong, and update the guide's verification date.
Who is behind this
DormHQ is built by Ashley Langford, a marketing-operations professional who created it while planning her own daughter's move-in to Georgia Southern. It is independent and family-run, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by any university.
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