A backpack is a staple of your school wardrobe—it will accompany you to class, the gym, late-night library marathons, and early-morning coffee runs. So it’s important to find one that will carry all of the supplies you need for a long day, as well as be comfortable, affordable, and stylish. Since our first round of testing, in 2015, we’ve tested dozens of backpacks in a variety of styles. These five bags are some of the best we found for any high school or college student.
We’ve reviewed backpacks at Wirecutter for six years, researching hundreds of them online and testing dozens in person across a range of styles and situations. In this guide, we’ve pulled together our findings to create a list of the best choices for high school and college students. Some of them we looked at specifically for the purpose of writing this guide. Others were selected from separate Wirecutter bag guides. And all of them have been thoroughly vetted by our staff.
If you’re a high school or college student, you need a bag to carry your day-to-day school supplies, as well as whatever you might need for the gym, rehearsal, or a late-night library session. A good “school” backpack should survive the wear and tear of at least four years of education, as well as weekend getaways and trips back home (so your parents can do your laundry).
We looked for options that cost $140 or less. That price range keeps student budgets in mind while also acknowledging that students use their backpacks all the time, in and out of school. The bags we considered vary in style from more ergonomic, spacious bags to smaller bags that sacrifice some utility for aesthetics or ease of use. We discuss some of these bags in greater length in our guide to laptop backpacks, which also includes more-expensive options.
The backpack you choose also needs to be appropriate for what your schoolwork requires. Some high schools still want students to lug six giant textbooks and their lunch from room to room all day. If you’re in college, you might need just a laptop and a paper notebook because most everything is online. So choose a backpack based on what you’ll need, and keep in mind that your bag and its contents should never weigh more than 10% to 20% of your body weight.
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