If Jake went from that to this, I should definitely call the weird kid who used to pick his nose and eat it in middle school.

Many of you will be stepping onto campus this upcoming fall, finally free of your parents. It’s your first year of college, and you just can’t wait to be free and come home late….or not at all make your own decisions. What you don’t realize, however, is how much those parental units have done for you while you were living at home. And trust me – this is something you’ll realize fast.

So I’ve compiled a list of eight things every college student should know how to do now that they aren’t living with their parents. Prepare yourselves, people. If you don’t know how to do these things, either learn now or make friends who do and are willing to do it for you to teach you.

1. Laundry – Obviously you are going to have to do this some time or another. No matter how big your closet is, how many pairs of underwear you stock up on, or how many times you spray Febreeze on your jeans, eventually you are going to need to come face to face with the industrial washing machine. And when you do, you better believe you’ll want to be prepared so you don’t end up with teeny, tiny jeans and Jungle-Juice stained halter tops.

2. How to iron – For those job fairs, semi-formals, and when you didn’t feel like putting your clean laundry back in the drawers and left them sitting in your laundry basket for weeks on end.

3. Safe sex – Duh. Put a raincoat on, and pop that pill. Also, get tested. Because like they say in The Hangover, “that sh*t will come back with you.” Read More »

There’s a new plague making its way across college campuses from coast to coast. Take one step into your local incorporated coffee shop, vegan restaurant, Urban Outfitters or American Apparel store and you will be afflicted. (Or blinded by all the neon spandex and overwhelming scent of cigarettes.)

I’m talking, of course, about hipsters.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Don’t worry’ they’ve even got a Wikipedia page.

I don’t truly despise these people. In fact, some are my dear friends. However, the ones that aren’t my friends are becoming an issue – a taking-all-the-tables-at-my-favorite-coffee-shop issue – and here’s my top 10 reasons that they piss me off. Obviously, not all apply. And obviously there are many, many more.

1. OHMYGOD just because I don’t wear weird clothes doesn’t mean I don’t like good music, too.
Hipsters pride themselves on liking the most unique, underground indie music. And if they like something outside that realm? Well, they like it “ironically.” In fact, I’m pretty sure their entire subculture is based on irony. (Editor’s Note: Maybe Alanis Morisette started the hipster movement?!) They automatically assume if someone is in a polo shirt that their music taste only expands as far as Dave Matthews and OAR. WRONG. Not everyone wears their music taste on their American Apparel sleeves. Get. Real. Check my last.fm; I listen to just as much Arcade Fire as you do and my mom was at Pavement concerts when you were in diapers.

2. The corporations you support are just as bad as the ones you hate.
So, you enjoy taking over Urban Outfitters? Well guess what – UO supported Proposition 8, the recently passed proposition that banned same sex marriage. Urban is owned by the most anti-gay bigot ever. Maybe you should think twice before you go heading over there for your next ironic tee and skinny jeans.

Read More »

Jobless and in debt, grads turn to stripping.

Just another reason Gen Y (that’s us!) is screwed.

Caroline Giuliani: Why do rich people shoplift?

Apparently 911 is not a cab service….

Uh, Brett Favre is a dirty old dude.

A sex ed video game – good or bad idea?

After discovering that Justin Timberlake’s restaurant, Southern Hospitality in NYC serves fried pickles, I obviously dragged my roommate, whom I lovingly refer to as JWowww, before last night’s new episode of Jersey Shore. Snooki was right: they totally take pickles to the next level.

And leave me completely nauseous and unable to fistpump for the rest of the night.

Despite the terrible, horrible, pregnant-with-fried-food feeling we had after dinner, we managed to drag ourselves back to the apartment to relish in a brand spanking new episode of Jersey Shore. However, this episode just wasn’t all GTL and beating the beat. This was the “hangover” episode of the premiere, and let me tell you, it was no prettier than puking up jager. The cast tackled some real issues (it was borderline an after-school special) and taught me a lot of important lessons: Read More »

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like free birth control! ) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

From Stanford to Florida State there are certain traditions that hold true in college across the country - homecoming, welcome week craziness, wearing flip flops in the shower, and getting up close and personal with your toilet after way too many shots on Friday night. College drinking has been a hot button issue for a long time, and there’s always been the question of who should step up and be responsible for it. Some recent reports have said that schools aren’t doing enough to curb excessive drinking – but should it be up to the schools?

On one side, colleges do have a responsibility toward their students’ health and that should at least include doing their best to distribute information and make policies that help keep students from chugging down the booze until it’s stomach-pump time. Also since many colleges are a major epicenter for the towns they’re in, often the school’s policies spill over into the surrounding communities, which in turn helps to curb the bingeing overall. And whether it’s fair or not, colleges are the only ones who really have jurisdiction in these kind of situations since it’s not a legal issue, so it has to be up to the schools to try and keep students (at least reasonably, sorta) sober. Read More »

Welcome to the supreme court, girlfriend.

10 things you shouldn’t do in college (even if you think you should)

Short guys totally worth crouching for.

Wanna win some Flirt cosmetics?

Enrique. Naked. On water skis.

Can’t stop watching: Cute kitten can’t jump.

Move over Anderson Cooper – this here is what real reporting looks like.

Courtesy of Next Media, based in Hong Kong, this video was created to lay out the deets of Lilo’s recent incarceration. And besides the fact that Linds is driving Herbie when she crashed/the jail scene was ripped from Lady Gaga’s Telephone video, I’d say it does a good job presenting the facts. Even if I have no idea what the eff the reporter is saying.

What’s the one thing you should have in your closet before moving to school?  It’s definitely not a pair of sweats or an oversized tee. But, if you do it right, this very special wardrobe essential can feel just as good.

I’m talking about the cotton dress. The kind of dress you can put on no matter how many pints of Ben & Jerry’s you ate last night and still look like a million bucks, without sacrificing comfort.  This dress is ESSENTIAL for college life.  It can be dressed up with your hottest pair of heels, or dressed down with a pair of flip flops or flats.  Really, it should be called the Endless Opportunities Dress.

If I haven’t sold it enough already, think about this:  Maybe you start to put on some frosh 15 and the band of your kind-of-tight-pre-college skinny jeans are cutting into your flesh.  While you could look like a schlump in a pair of sweatpants with your school team stamped across your tush, you could INSTEAD slip on this dress, a pair of leggings and some cute boots, and look and feel super hot.  Yes, this dress is that amazing.  And the absolute best part? The cotton or jersey material making up these frocks makes them super comfy AND easy to wash.  Which, once you’re doing your own laundry, is a definite MUST.

Read More »

It might be 2010, but here at CollegeCandy we’re still stuck in the ’90s. All you have to do is say Chumbawhumba and we’re off and running on a ’90s nostalgia debate that lasts the entire day. We know we’re not the only people out there that still rock out to N’Sync and still remember the desperation you felt when you lost your favorite Pogs slammer. So instead of constantly arguing amongst the CollegeCandy team, we decided to throw the question out to our readers and choose, once and for all, what is the best thing to come from the ’90s (besides our many devoted readers, of course).

So, in the fashion of every guy’s wet dream, March Madness, we’ve created an “I Love the ’90s” bracket. Monday we left it up to you to vote on the best entertainment and trends from our favorite decade. In a move that shocked no one, ‘Salute Your Shorts’ creamed ‘Hey Dude!’ and the majority of you favored Mary-Kate and Ashley to Tia and Tamara. But we were surprised to see Fruit by the Foot breeze past Dunkaroos. What’s so special about 3 feet of chewy fruit? Dunkaroos are cookies…dipped in FROSTING.

But them’s the breaks (sorry ‘roos!) and it’s time to exercise your right to vote once again. In today’s polls we’re looking at the biggest events and favorite forms of recreation from the’90s. Will Mall Madness beat out Dream Phone? Is OJ Simpson bigger than Monica Lewinsky?

Cast your vote then come back Monday and Thursday this month so you can keep letting us know what is the best thing to ever come from the 1990 and beyond. Read More »