I Kept Getting Sick Freshman Year — Until I Got This Game-Changing Product

I did so much in my first year of college: met new people, made friends, attended football games, joined clubs, and embraced the freedom of living on campus, away from home. But I was also getting sick … a lot. 

At first, I thought it was just the “freshman flu” — you know, the blanket term for the plethora of illnesses that come with getting used to a new lifestyle, enduring a lack of sleep, and living in close quarters with hundreds of germy peers. However, when weeks passed and I wasn’t getting any better, I suspected there was something else going on. 

I even went to urgent care due to shortness of breath. Concerned for my health, especially knowing respiratory issues run in my family, I decided to do more research. That’s when I found out how dismal the air quality can be in college dorms. According to mold expert Michael Rubino’s website, there is a long list of colleges with mold problems in their dorms (and, yes, my school is on the list). Further, I learned many dorm rooms lack good ventilation, which results in air stagnation and a buildup of allergens. Ugh.

On the bright side, I also learned that having a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) purifier, which is used to remove airborne pollutants and allergens, could help me breathe easier in my room. (Although it’s important to note that, while these purifiers can help keep you from breathing in mold spores, they don’t actually treat the source of the mold — for that, you should absolutely contact your RA or residence director, as this is a serious health and safety risk.)

So, I decided to purchase a Holmes 360 True HEPA Air Purifier. And what a lifesaver it was. 

This air purifier is designed to cover 155 square feet, making it perfect for bedrooms or smaller living spaces like dorm rooms. It’s made up of a “3-stage filtration system,” including a pre-filter layer, a carbon filter, and a true HEPA filter, which all together remove up to 99.97% of airborne pollutants and allergens, according to the product description. 

You also only need to worry about changing the filter once every 8 to 12 months (and a light will come on letting you know when it’s time), so you should only need one for the school year. This air purifier also offers controls like three speed settings, depending on how fast you want it to clean the air and how loud you want the sound to be — some reviews note that it’s “perfect for white noise,” which can be especially useful when you’re sleeping in a shared space with a roommate. It also features an 8-hour timer, so you can set it to run only while you’re sleeping and turn off while you’re out for the day, or vice versa.   

Within a few days of using an air purifier for my dorm room, I felt like I could actually breathe again, and my shortness of breath slowly went away. I also noticed that going to bed was a lot easier, and I wasn’t waking up randomly in the middle of the night to have a coughing fit. 

There was another benefit of the air purifier that I hadn’t expected: the smell. The whole time I’d been living in the dorm, I never thought it smelled particularly offensive. But it turns out, I was subjecting myself to an olfactory smorgasbord of cleaning supplies, beauty products, and food smells (thanks to our air fryer) — I just didn’t realize how present (or pungent) they were until the air purifier helped minimize them.

After half a semester of suffering without an air purifier, the rest of my freshman year in my dorm room was much more pleasant. Since then, I’ve moved out of the dorms and back into my family’s (much better-ventilated) house. But the dorm-cleansing benefits of my air purifier still live on, as I gifted it to my best friend who lives on campus. 

While I can’t give every student an air purifier of their own (nor can I guarantee it will solve every illness or air quality issue in every dorm), I can at least share my experience and advice: If you’re going to live in the dorms, get yourself an air purifier — not just for better air, but for a little peace of mind, too.