Pick a color scheme for your dorm room. Get together with your roommate to pick a patterned item, like a pillow or bedspread that you like and use the colors from that item.
Decide if you want to use school colors as your color scheme. While you're excited about the college experience now, you may get tired of the school colors after a football season or two. Consider ways to incorporate school spirit into a larger and more varied color palate that doesn't narrow your room down to two or three distinct, flashy colors.
Choose some patterned items and some solids. You and your roommate may both have items, like bedding or other furniture, that are patterns. If the patterns don't exactly match, look for colors that are shared between the two items and get some solid colored items to bring out those shared colors.
Use fabric in a complementary solid color to cover areas of the wall behind shelving, under your loft or in other areas where you don't want a large space of wall to be exposed. You can hang pictures or bulletin boards on top of the fabric.
Get small, inexpensive items like pillows and lamps to add color accents to your room. These decorating items are cheap and easy to find, but also do a lot to bring a room together.