On the cheap for a college student

My first thought is that if he hasn't done a lot of backpacking yet, he's not likely to be navigating off trails for a while, so you could go downscale quite a bit on the compass.

Depending on whether "opportunities" is just backpacking & personal preference, could cut the knife budget in half by going with a SAK classic.

Personally I'd probably grab a branch before spending money on Walmart trekking poles. But that depends on branches being available.

Just some quick thoughts, no particular order.

Oven liner foil instead of cooking foil for $2 windscreen. A roll of durable flashing is $6.

Coughlans makes an ultralight 9" groundhog knockoff. Package of 4 for $3.

eLight replacement batteries might be costly for a college budget? BD Gizmo maybe?

Sawyer mini vs AM dependent on regional water conditions.

Food bag? Opsak, Ursak, hang kit, etc?

Socks? Probably a personal thing I guess.

Ditto on the compass downgrade, unless he's good using it.

Another ditto for a SAK type tool for a knife.

Maybe a package of tinderquicks, wetfire, esbit or PJCB for emer fire kit?

Compass: Good point, and I agree. That just happened to be the cheapest one I saw on REI's site for purposes of putting some numbers in the spreadsheet.

Knife: He already owns this. It's a little titanium fixed blade that my buddy makes. I just put it in there so he sees everything he is spending.

Trekking Poles: Well, they are required to set up the tent I have in this list, and there is a good likelihood of him finding himself in the high sierras if he does much hiking with me.

Foil: Thanks for reminding me. I even have some flashing. I'll have to play with some designs to see what works best.

Stakes: Awesome! Thanks for the tip, they will probably be much better than the gutter stakes.

Water treatment: What do you mean? If he hikes with me it will be mountain streams, but I don't know what he may run into if he finds himself on trips near where he is going to college in Missouri. Supposedly the AquaMira takes care of everything? I figure he can just use his bandana as a prefilter if the water is too gunky. I've never used AquaMira personally and the one time I used my Sawyer, I couldn't get any water through it, so I wanted to minimize his potential for gear failure.

Food bag: Oh yeah, good point. I normally carry a bear can, but didn't want to put that on his list unless he was planning to hit the Sierras. Otherwise I figured he could just bear hang a stuff sack to keep it away from 'coons n rats. But I should add the cordage, sack, etc. to the list at least.

Fire: Yes, thank you for reminding me. That will definitely be added. Probably a small firesteel and PJCB straws.

In Missouri (where I'm guessing it rains a lot and is hot in summer) that tent might not be as good as a plastic tarp. I have a similar Wenzel one and while it's nice and warm in the drafty but dry mountains it's not seam sealed and it can get a lot of condensation in the lowlands.

Agree that a headlight that takes regular batteries should be cheaper in the long run. You can also use rechargeables. I have a $20 BD that takes 2 AAA batteries.

Thanks for the tent input. I'm figuring it's cheap enough that he can figure out what he likes and doesn't like through experience. Worst case he upgrades and then has a loaner for friends.

Oh, I forgot to touch on the headlamp. Agreed that the batteries are expensive, but I have yet to have to replace the batteries in my e+lite. It's used so little, he will probably be making 7 figures a year by the time he needs to replace the batteries. And if he can't spare $5, I'll mail him a spare battery.

If it's not too late on the sleeping bag, I'm selling one of that same model here on Gear Swap. That could save him some money.

Oh, dang, Mitchell! I think he just ordered it like two days ago already. bummer! I'll double check with him though. I totally saw your post a couple days ago and wrote it off since it looked like someone already had dibs on it.

Thanks again everyone! Here is an updated list with a jacket, a couple of emergency items and a bear bag system. I also added an estimate of his consumables weight, and fully loaded he should be easily under 25 lbs. I'm pretty excited about that weight for less than $500!