Welcome! You've come to a good forum! If you haven't already found them, there are lots of excellent articles for both beginners and those wanting to lighten their packs and on gear selection listed in the left-hand column of http://www.backpacking.net/, the home page of this site. IMHO, that's the best place to start!

Another good site for gear selection is Mark Verber's website. Lots of ideas for gear, from the latest technology to ultra-low-budget alternatives. Also tons of links to reviews and other sites. It's definitely more than you'd want to take in at one time; more like a place you go to look things up or to read one section at a time.

Here's another good article for starting out. Unlike most of the articles on the BackpackingLight site, this one is free: Lightweight Backpacking 101.

Since I assume that as a college student you don't have an unlimited budget, note that all three of these sources have sections on low-budget gear!