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College Marketplace is the student-only buy and sell app for Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Every account is verified with a @topper.wku.edu email address, so you're only ever trading with other Hilltoppers — not strangers from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.

WKU requires all full-time undergraduates to live on campus for two years, which means the Hill turns over an enormous amount of dorm gear every August and every May. First-year students usually land in pod-style Normal Hall or Regents Hall, or in community-style rooms in McCormack Hall, Minton Hall, Gilbert Hall, Rodes Harlin Hall, and Pearce Ford Tower. Suite-style Meredith Hall and Zacharias Hall host living learning communities, while upperclass and Honors students tend to end up in hotel-style Bates Runner Hall, McLean Hall, Munday Hall, Southwest Hall, or Center Hall. Once you hit 60 earned hours you can apply for WKU Kentucky Street Apartments or WKU Campus Flats Apartments. Between all of those buildings, everything you need is already on campus. WKU students post mini fridges, futons, storage bins, desk lamps, monitors, bikes, and gently used textbooks every semester — usually for a fraction of retail.

Rooms come furnished with beds, chests of drawers, desks, chairs, and closet space, and every campus mattress is extra-long twin (80" x 36"), so XL twin sheets and a mattress topper are the first two things people shop for. Halls are air conditioned, though beds can't be pushed up against the HVAC unit. Beds cannot be bunked and concrete blocks are prohibited, so risers and legal lofting hardware move fast in the resale market. Compact refrigerators are capped at 5 cubic feet and microwaves at 1,000 watts. Anything with an open coil or heating element — hot plates, electric grills, toasters, toaster ovens, crock pots, halogen lamps, space heaters — is banned outright, and other cooking appliances have to be used in the community kitchens rather than your room.

When it's time to hand something off, stick to the busy parts of campus. Downing Student Union is the default, and Cravens Library, the Preston Health and Activities Center, the Guthrie Bell Tower, and the walkways along Centennial Mall all work just as well. Every deal happens between two verified WKU students, in daylight, a short walk from your hall: no shipping labels, no delivery fees, no meeting someone off campus.

Popular categories at Western Kentucky: textbooks and course materials · dorm and apartment furniture · mini fridges and microwaves · bikes and scooters · WKU apparel and game day gear · electronics and monitors · event tickets · lofting kits and bed risers · storage bins and organizers