Influencer Noelle Kate Shares Her Extremely Relatable Dorm Essential (Perfect for Cozy Season!)

For lifestyle influencer Noelle Kate, a freshman at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, moving onto campus meant more than just making sure she had all of her dorm room essentials. It meant a change of scenery for the creator’s highly-viewed day-in-my-life vlogs that she posts for more than 624,000 TikTok followers. Before she left for Knoxville to move into her actual dorm, I got to catch up with Kate in July on the set of a video shoot for TilePix, and see the funky, contemporary-coastal dorm set that Kelly Marcelo designed for her.

In this edition of Campus Questions — a series where Dorm Therapy sits down with influential people to learn all about their life at college and beyond — I chatted with Kate about her love of throw blankets and iced coffee, and what she was most looking forward to about going to college. 

Noelle Kate shares the secret to a great homemade coffee and her one cozy dorm room necessity. 

How would you describe your style in just three words? Beachy, trendy, and fun.

What is your dorm room essential or nonnegotiable? A fun blanket. I just love any type of fluffy blanket.

What’s the one thing you’re packing for college to make your space feel like home? A bunch of pictures of me and my friends.

If you could teach a college class on any subject that you’re an expert in, what would it be? I think I would teach a class on coffee making.

What would be on the syllabus? Well, I think picking the right espresso pod would be a big thing. And also picking the right creamer. I love a good flavored creamer specifically. The Chobani ones are really good, but any type of rich, flavored creamer.

Iced coffee [or hot]? Iced coffee all the way. Any time of the year.

What is your go-to late night snack or study snack? My go-to late-night study snack would probably be fresh fruit. My favorite’s watermelon, but you only eat that in the summer. So I’d say the rest of the year is a crunchy green grape.

If you were about to take a gap year right now, how would you spend it? I think I would spend it traveling. I really want to go abroad in college, so I think I would definitely spend a gap year traveling just all around everywhere.

What are you most looking forward to about going to college? Wow, it’s hard. I’m actually looking forward to everything, but honestly, probably just getting to meet new people and have fun, and have new experiences away from home. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for me.

Noelle Kate likes her room clean and her projects solo.

Morning person or night person? Morning person.

Text message or voice message? Voice message.

Make your own coffee or buy it at a cafe? Make your own coffee.

Podcast or playlist? Playlist.

Study at the library or study at a coffee shop? Study at a coffee shop.

Group project or solo project? Solo project.

Super clean room or organized chaos? Super clean room.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.