As survivors of Girl Scouts and summer camp, college-age girls know that BFFs aren’t always forever. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make consciously distancing yourself from a friend any less awkward. When you decide an actor in the movie of your life should be downgraded to a minor role, it can be difficult for everyone involved.

A new year, a new semester, a new slate. Sounds pretty great, right? There’s no reason why you shouldn’t seize the day and prepare to have the best semester of your college life! Plus, you know what they say — it’s easier to start off on the right foot than it is to change course later on. In the spirit of good habits and even better grades, we’ve pulled together a list of the academic resolutions we should all be making this January.

This year I am taking a stand. Since I only have one year left of college, I’m determined to not let winter be the worst part of it. I am not going to order Indian delivery and hide under my covers all day. I have combined three years of actual winter experience with some online research to compile a winter blues action plan to get us through it.

As an overworked college student, it can be hard to pay attention to the off-campus world. You are struggling to keep up with your courseload and you’re expected to keep up with international developments too? It is tempting to retreat to the library, glue your nose to a textbook and forget about world issues.

When I blew all my babysitting money on an iPad this summer, I knew that I would use it for entertainment. I planned on cuddling up in bed watching Hulu and Netflix, finishing the Millenium series and checking up on my friends on Facebook and Twitter. I mistakenly thought of it mainly as entertainment device. I just had no idea an iPad would be so useful in college!

You are slumped over your desk, your eyes hurt from hours of reading, and you feel trapped in the library. You want to stop studying more than you’ve ever wanted anything, but you are only halfway through the material and your midterm is in a week! Rescue yourself before you have a Youtube-worthy breakdown with some tried and true study hacks.

If I have learned one thing as an Economics major, it is that life is all about maximization. Maximize money, maximize efficiency, maximize time slept in. These lessons are applicable to college life outside the classroom, particularly when you are deciding between getting your beauty sleep and not looking like a hot mess for that 9 am class. I am pretty much the master of looking presentable in a jiffy.

Living in a dorm means that your mom and dad aren’t the only ones who’ll see you in your flannel onesie. The days of absolute privacy are likely behind you. Even when you’re planning a hermit study day, someone will usually stop by your room. Or there will be a fire drill. Or you might have to make a quick run to the basement for laundry. Or to the computer lounge to print something. Or to the grocery store.

If you are anything like me you are spending the summer at home and your hoarders-obsessed mom is demanding that you clean out your childhood closet. Not only is this a total pain, there are memories attached to all the things you grew up with. You can’t get rid of them without feeling like you’re betraying a part of yourself. This dilemma can go one of two ways

The problem with Sarah Palin is that though she markets herself as the ideal modern woman, she advocates policies that limit our rights. She is the perfect example of a why a woman candidate is not necessarily a woman’s candidate. Feminism advocates the right for women to be treated as men’s intellectual and professional equals. Based on this criteria, Sarah Palin is a major league anti-feminist.