With Election Day a mere 2 weeks away, the fight for control of the House or Senate has transformed from a casual brawl into an animated Ultimate Fighting match. Considering even the professionals are unsure what the future of this election holds, the candidates have resorted to duking it out in hopes of resolving this uncertainty themselves. But, instead of throwing on their boxing gloves and heading to the ring, they are taking a route that keeps their hospital bills from skyrocketing: the media.

Political ads around election time are famous for their often-nasty messages, intending to take down the opposition. Interest groups act as a sidekick, informally backing certain candidates by criticizing their opponent. With all the smack-talk, it can be really difficult to decipher fact from fiction.

Amid this chaotic media mess, there are several sources that are not only reliable but also non-partisan. They provide voters with the facts, avoiding the echoes of emotion and party allegiance.

Here are a few must-read sites for any college student planning to vote this election– hopefully, that’s all of you!

Project Vote Smart
Votesmart.org provides candidates’ voting records, their political stance on all issues, and their approval ratings by interest groups. Seriously, there is no better site to inform you about your state’s candidates, leaving out the mess of opinion and sticking to the cold hard facts.

FactCheck.org
This site sifts through the truths and lies of campaign ads. It allows readers to be informed of false advertising and not fall for the tricks of media campaigning. Read More »

How to have sex without regrets.

I can’t find one boyfriend, but he marries his 4th wife.

7 easy ways to get healthier.

College girls finally close the marriage gap.

Justin Bieber’s laser tag scandal.

Looks that should be left behind in college.

OMG. Michael Lohan. You’re the worst!

Just ANOTHER perk of having famous parents

Hangover cameos are the new rehab.

This past weekend, the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at Yale University led pledges across campus, blindfolding them and forcing them to chant “No means yes, yes means anal.” The boys were led across Yale’s Old Campus, which is where the majority of freshman females live. The pledges also shouted about necrophilia — you know, that charming habit of having sex with corpses.

Not suprisingly, this “hilarious” initiation has caused quite a ruckus on campus. The president of the fraternity, Jordan Forney, apologized about the incident, claiming it was a “lapse of judgment.”

To me, it seems more like a “lapse of maturity, intelligence or respect for themselves or women.”

As a recent Lemondrop article mentions, it’s highly unlikely that this incident was a game-time decision. The older fraternity brothers knew exactly what they were doing and where they wanted to do it.

The extraordinarily degrading and misogynistic chants are irksome and naturally arouse disgust amongst females nationwide, but particularly to those on Yale’s campus. The Yale Women’s Center is calling for disciplinary action to be taken against the fraternity. My fingers are crossed that their pleas will be heard.

Read More »

We’re well into another new school year and to honor that, we at CollegeCandy are bringing back the fan-favorite series, “We’ve All Been There.”  (We tried to get another national holiday/long weekend for you guys but it’s way harder than we thought so this will have to do.) Every week, Lauren – University of Michigan will comment on the common experiences all college women share – like blue book exams or, everyone’s favorite activity, procrastinating. Read, relate, cringe and enjoy.

Somehow you ended up with four 9am classes this semester. WTF? You can barely get up for your kickboxing class at noon on Fridays, and someone expects you to make it to class (ready to learn!?) by 8:50am the rest of the week?

Oh hell no.

You hope your professor doesn’t expect you to look presentable. Hell, he should just be happy you left yourself enough time to brush your teeth. Your morning routine is always the same: you roll out of bed at 8:30, grab the first pair of sweats you can find on the floor, throw your hair into a ponytail and run out of the house. You pop into the campus coffee shop en route to lecture and grab a coffee (“Giant, please!”) and something to munch on (“Give me the butteriest bagel you’ve got back there”).

What? It’s early and you need comfort.

You slide into your seat just as the Power Point appears on the wall in front of you. If it weren’t for the food, you’d probably fall right back to sleep – you’re just so comfortable. When class is over, you go to your next class, or to the library, or home for a nap. Whichever you choose, you sport the sweats for the rest of the day: through the classes, the breaks, the meals…

You spend so much time in your sweatpants during the week, in fact, that when the weekend comes and it is time to wear something that doesn’t say “Pink” across the ass you have trouble getting into them. No, not motivating yourself to get dressed; actually getting into them. After the first few weeks of classes your clothes feel a bit snug but you can still make em work (“I must have shrunk these a bit in the dryer….”). As the semester wears on, however, putting on your going-out-jeans has become a sweaty workout. Read More »

In a college world where (shocker!) people drink and hook-up on a regular basis, it’s always a lovely gift in disguise to have a wingwoman by your side who supports you, sets you up for success, and is your personal cheerleader.

In high school, your wingwoman would accompany you to the bathroom during lunch, share the other half of cheesy bread with you, and wait by your locker when your boyfriend left early for the skate park.

In Hollywood, a wing woman is there to support her celebrity counterparts after a whirlwind of relationship blunders and public break ups.  (Look at Team Cox-Aniston for example.  I can see their wingwoman relationship sprouting from the rich dirt of Hollywood and making headlines already.  Thanks to the fresh divorce of Cox and Arquette. Friends fans rejoice!)

In college, your wingwoman plays a much more integral role. She’s an important element to your development as a young woman so you can get all of that partying and sexing out of your system.

Here’s how a perfect wingwoman is built in college world: Read More »

[When moving into either a dorm or an off-campus apartment, your wardrobe will face two major challenges: 1. A major lack of funding (to add more to it), and 2. A major lack of storage space. For these two reasons, maximizing what you already own becomes essential. That's why you need to learn to Shop Your Closet. Each week, I’ll show you how to wear 1 item 3 ways – with the stuff you most likely already own! – to get the most out of your purchases.]

One of the most versatile items you can have in your wardrobe is a blazer. When you’re operating with limited closet space or a limited budget, you want to make sure you have items (especially outerwear) that go with pretty much anything, and a cropped blazer is one of the go-to pieces you should own. First off, this item goes with pretty much everything! Jeans, skirts, dresses, leggings, shorts…. all of them can be paired with a cropped blazer. By adding a tailored piece over your wardrobe staples, you’re streamlining your look, instantly making everything look more pulled together and tres chic.

This blazer (or any blazer you’ve got hanging in your closet) can go with you pretty much anywhere: over a dress to cover your arms on a brisk autumn night, over a flirty tank when you’re out on the town with the girls, or over a blouse for a more professional look. Simply throw it on over anything you already own and you’ve got a totally fresh, new look. Read More »

I ran out of post it notes.

Now to you this may not seem like a moment worth mentioning, but to me this is a monumental deal. You see, back when I was a freshman, fresh faced and eager, I did things like shopping for school supplies. I bought pens, and paper, highlighters and binders, and, most importantly, I bought post it notes. (I’m an organization freak. For my kind, it’s the little things like multi-colored sticky paper that make life worth living, okay?) But these weren’t just any notes. These were the super stack, a 12 pad pack of multicolored 4X4 sticky notes. I was sure they would last me all four years of college.

That was before I started working on my senior thesis.

Thesis projects require note taking. They require page marking. They require a lot of post its. I printed journal article after journal article, photocopied book after book, stuck notes in chapter after chapter. This summer I finished the blue pad. In the past month alone I went through the purple, and this past week I finished the hot pink pad. My post it notes are no more. Seven months before the end of my college career. (I’m a little heartbroken. Don’t judge.)

That alone would be enough to make me reconsider my commitment to this whole “senior thesis” thing, but I assure you I have plenty more reasons. I started this thing back in May. I picked a topic, and wrote out a proposal. Over the summer I started doing some light research, reread the novels I was working with, and marked the important passages.  It didn’t seem all that bad, but this past summer I didn’t have four other courses to worry about. Now I do. Needless to say, things have gotten a bit more complicated. Read More »

I’ve never been overly patriotic. There are no American flags hanging in my room and even if I had snagged the athletic gene in my family, I still wouldn’t wake up at 5 am twice a week for ROTC. I don’t believe like some that the U.S. is “the best country in the world,” yet I’ve always felt that as an American, I am offered more freedoms and opportunities than almost any other country’s citizens.

So, I was surprised by the news this week that America ranks nineteenth in gender equality. In other words, based on factors including salary equality, education, political representation and life expectancy, the Global Gender Gap Report determined that women in eighteen countries come out ahead of us American females.

I was disappointed, but maybe I should have been happy- nineteen is a big improvement from 31^st last year, and 27^th the year before.

Nineteenth out of 134 countries really isn’t terrible…but it isn’t exactly wonderful either. In a high school graduating class, the land of the free and the home of the brave wouldn’t have even received Honors. Iceland would be the valedictorian of woman’s equality, but I don’t suggest a mass exodus of down-stuffed-parka-wearing women to the Nordic country. (I spent one shivering winter in Chicago and that was enough for me.) Even there, women don’t have it as great as men. Read More »

Welcome to the College Dating Makeover Challenge, From Ice to Nice: 5 Days to Be More Approachable. We are beyond excited that you are joining us!

Over the next five days the experts from The College Crush are going to share with you daily videos with simple challenges to help you go from shy to getting noticed.  In a good way. (Not, in this sorta way.)

Today’s Challenge: Show off your pearly whites, with Kira Sabin – The Dating Makeover Coach.

Everyone assumes the most attractive people get approached, but really it is the most confident and happy. Nothing is more powerful or attractive than a smile. Passersby (and that hottie in your Stats lecture) will wonder why you are so happy and want to find out.   Who doesn’t want to hang out with the people who are having the most fun? Read More »

With Halloween looming close, it seems that most of the costumes available to us require some (or total) revealing of the leg. To achieve that toned look, try out these killer moves for some sleek quads, hammies and glutes. And there’s no excuse not to – you don’t even need to go to the gym to get your leg toning on.

These exercises are guaranteed to cause some (hard to sit down or stand up…or drop it like it’s hot) soreness, but when that Johnny Depp look-a-alike makes a move on you during that costume party, you’ll forget all about the pain.

Read More »