Our top 3D prints for college back to school season 2016! These 3D printables are fun, creative, and useful for any college student preparing for the upcoming fall semester – especially those students that will be living in the dorms this year. You can download these prints as is by following the link, or let them inspire you to create your own 3D prints for college.
3D Prints for College Back to School 2016 – Top WTFFF?! Picks
Aaah, don’t you remember your first college dorm and how incredibly boring it was when you first moved in? The most high tech thing in there was the laptop you brought with you and you’d be lucky if your dorm came with wifi, but not these days where the incoming freshman class is used to seeing, “Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for “phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” that have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens.” To keep up with the incoming freshman class’ lifelong exposure to technology, I think having a 3D printer in your dorm room is the perfect fit for the class of 2020. A dorm room 3D printer is great idea to have around to make one less trip up the stairs on move in day and just be able to 3D print out anything you might have forgotten to pack or might find out you need once the school year starts.
Some of my favorite 3D prints for college back to school are for dorm decor to spruce up those white walls (concrete cinder blocks if you were like me). There are endless downloadable possibilities to be found on file sites like Thingiverse, Shapeways, and 3DShook in terms of what you can put up on your dorm walls. If you don’t see something you like, your imagination is the limit, so long as you can design it in CAD. If you haven’t signed up for a CAD class yet, add it to your list of classes to sign up for during next semesters enrollment. And as long as filament color options continue to improve, there’s no reason you can’t print something to hang up that matches your new XL twin dorm comforter set.

Love décor on Shapeways by Smartdesign112 – Design also available on Polyvore

Wall Decoration “Dawg” on Shapeways by Dominik Raskin
The average dorm tries hard to provide storage solutions, but there’s never really enough and you always have to get creative. Luckily, there are some creative folks who have already designed a few great 3D prints for college storage solutions, and luckily for those on a college student budget many of these files are free or are far less than what you would pay at regular retail stores. Again, a few less things to haul up from the quad where your car is parked.

Headphone Hook by Greystone on Cults3D

Towel Hook by Greystone on Cults3D

Surface Cube Pen Pencil Holder by OkoDesigns on Etsy

Wire Orgnaizer by Boesfx3DPrinting on Etsy

Portable, Functional, and Convenient by Matt Parish on Thingiverse
Now that the dorm is decorated and organized, it’s time for a little fun. Prop open that door with this hilarious (too soon?) Game of Thrones inspired door holder, play some tunes and invite your dorm neighbors over to check out all the 3D prints for college you’ve got in your room. Show off what your 3D printer can do by creating a few Pokemon Go phone aimers once you’ve figured out how to set up your room as a PokeStop. If you do decide to leave your [awesome] dorm room to catch ’em all, don’t forget your ID card to get back in!

Hodor Door Stop by Embedded Junkie on Etsy

Tubi Smartphone Amplifier on 3DShook

ID Card Holder by Adiehm7 on Pinshape

Pokemon Go Aimer by John Cleaver on MyMiniFactory

Pocket Fooseball by CMark0 on Cults3D

Printable Connect Four Game by Dyroy on Thingiverse
There are many 3D prints for college that know how to show off your school spirit in all the right ways. My favorite has to be the college hand sign ring holder collection called Ring ‘Em. The class ring holders are available on Etsy and made by Locksley Workshop, founded by Ashley Ricketson. She is a recent college grad herself who first got into the 3D CAD design of things at Texas A&M (like Tyler Wooten who 3D printed a map for the blind) but it wasn’t until later that she started to use a 3D printer in grad school at Tulane University. The Small Letter M Pendant on Shapeways is so cute, and if the designer, Michael Mueller, doesn’t expand his collection to include other schools, it’s a great inspiration idea to create your own school letters (or your initials). If you or your roommate went Greek, there’s also a great template collection of 3D prints for college Greek letters for your desk, key chain, or anything you can think of on Moxie3D. Hopefully your school, fraternity, or sorority’s colors match the filament color options available out there!

College Hand Sign Ring Holders by Locksley Workshop on Etsy

Small Letter M Pendant by Michael Mueller on Shapeways

College Logo by zMath on Thingiverse

Sigma Delta Keychain by CudaEngineering on Thingiverse

Pi Kappa Alpha desktop sign by MCdesigns on Thingiverse

Greek Letters on Moxie3D
While college is fun and all, it’s time to be serious and head to class or to the library to hit the books and study. There are many great 3D prints for college that will help get and keep that 4.0. A healthy brain is a hydrated and well fed brain, and if your school has a huge campus, you’ll probably be biking to class – 3D print a water bottle holder for your bike and don’t forget your pizza lunch box! I love the classic look to some of the 3D printed lampshades out there, and these from ToolMoon are really nice looking for a dorm or library.

Simplicity Style Lamp 2 by Tool Moon on Cults 3D

Bank Lamp by Tool Moon on Cults 3D
These customizable flash drives are great for college students or anyone trying to get digitally organized. Keep all the notes, essays, and projects for your particular major on a flash drive labeled “Business” or “Engineering,” you could stay organized by semester and label it “Fall 2016,” or just make sure it gets back to you by putting your name on it. Endless ideas here and an awesome idea by the designers at FormURLife. You can find many bookmark CAD design 3D prints for college reading, but I like the little “rock on” reminder to power through a textbook (if you don’t download e-books!) from the “Read on” bookmark on 3DShook.

Custom USB Flash Drive by FromURLife on Etsy

Door Hanger 2 – Do Not Disturb by Da-eun Jun on MyMiniFactory

Sine and Cosine Waves Stencil by PeriniM on Thingiverse
I know I could not have made it through college without coffee, and while there are lots of coffee related designs online to download, not many designers have shown their designs off after they had actually been 3D printed. While you can’t quite print this ceramic coffee cup in your dorm, you can certainly design one of your own. Make sure the to use food safe PLA for the coffee stirrers!

1st Floor Mug by Adam Furman on iMateralise

Coffee Stirrer by Mateasse on iMateralise
And finally, don’t forget to use your brain!

Brain Beer Twist Opener by Sinkpoint on Shapeways
Be sure and tag @hazzdesign in your 3D prints for college and back to school anywhere on social media!
- 3DStartpoint.com
- 3D Startpoint Facebook
- 3D Startpoint LinkedIn
- Hazz Design Twitter
- 3D Startpoint YouTube