Got some college questions? Unsure of a decision? Thinking about dabbling in Adderall? (Don’t!) Just wanna chat it up with some really awesome chics? We’ve got the girls for you. Hit them up in the comments or shoot them an email with the subject “College Q&A”! They’ve got all the answers you need, no matter who you are.

Question:
I don’t know what to do. So, I’m finishing my junior year and all of my friends have dream internships this summer in New York and L.A. and Chicago…and I’ve got nothing. I know internships are important but I havent gotten any of the ones I applied for. Is it too late to apply for more? Does it look bad applying this late? What about following my friends to one of those cities and just looking for something when I get there? Is that really dumb?

Party Girl:
Been there. Survived. It was May and I needed an internship to graduate. I had been applying since February, but I was still looking at a summer of unemployment. However, I just kept sending out applications until I got a bite. Fortunately, it ended up being exactly what I had dreamed of and I had a great summer! Just keep applying – anything will do. You don’t need a dream internship for the first one (if you get one, that’s awesome, but you’ll be lucky). The second or third internship usually ends up being the experience of which everyone dreams. My plan if I hadn’t gotten lucky was to do exactly as you said – move on out to New York, stay with a friend, and just show up everywhere with samples of my work and a handful of resumes. I’m not sure how well that would have worked out for me, but I’m sure I would have had a great summer either way. Get yourself out there and keep sending out applications. Something will turn up and if it doesn’t…it’ll be much more fun to drink away your misery in N.Y. or L.A.!

Busy Bee:
No, it is NOT too late to apply for an internship! I would like to say that I’m very experienced in the field of applying for internships. What I’ve learned is that you need to be really persistent to your employers when applying. Let them know that they are not just another company that you are trying to target. Instead, follow up with a phone call or an e-mail personally thanking them, just so you can be on their mind. Also, try looking into smaller market internships. Remember, a big name is always great on a resume, but the experience you gain is even more important. So, try researching internships in your field, but do not mark off ones that you initially did not apply for.

If you are having a difficult time finding an internship, think of your favorite companies and look into their programs. If they do no have anything to offer, then call the HR rep or the manager and see if you can strike up a deal with them. Sometimes, when opportunities aren’t there, you have to create your own. Lastly, if none of these follow through, then look into a job that is related to your interests. You mentioned you were a junior, so make sure you get your foot in the door – somewhere!

I do not advise following your friends into a city and trying to look for something. It’s better if you can secure something before you travel that far. As cliche as this sounds, remember that whatever happens, it was meant to happen. Whatever you end up doing this summer, just know that you ended up on that path because you were destined to meet someone who would help you in your career path! Don’t feel bad – be proud that you were proactive enough to keep trying. Good luck!

GPA Girl:
Hmmm. You might feel unlucky, but I’m pretty sure you’ve made out like a bandit here and your friends are actually the ones who will be miserable all summer. Even though it might seem as if NOW is your only opportunity to get an internship, that’s completely untrue. Is your college in a large or even a medium-sized city? If so, why not find an internship to do during the senior year? If that’s not an option, try to land one after you graduate, after which you can go straight into a kick-ass job (fingers crossed). Plus, people are more likely to actually pay you once you’ve graduated. I’m betting most of your friends aren’t getting paid a dime this summer, and if they are, they’ll be working so much that it won’t even be worth it, not to mention that the cost of living in L.A. or NYC is absolutely ridic. Seriously.

Do NOT move with your friends to their internship cities, but go ahead and send out a few more applications. What’s the harm? You might get something, and if you don’t, try finding an actual job for the summer, even if it’s just waitressing. Work experience can be just as valuable as internship experience, and you’ll be stashing away extra cash when all your friends come back exhausted and in debt.

Whoa. That's TUBA TIM?!

For most of us the semester has come to an end and finals are right around the corner. After a week of sleeping two hours a night and living on Red Bulls and delivery food, we will all be sprinting home to nurse our under eye circles with homemade food and a queen-size bed.

Of course you will speed to your best friend’s doorstep the minute you’re in town and maul her with hugs and gossip. But you’ll need to catch up on your sleep (which may take the entire first week) before you’ll be ready to venture out into the town you once called home and reconnect with old high school buddies.

You might see them at a party, maybe at the mall, hopefully in the car next to you at the stoplight so you can make a quick getaway, but be prepared. Here are seven people from high school you will undoubtedly be running into over break.

1. The Girl Who Peaked in High School
She was hot sh*t and she knew it. She had all the football players drooling over her every move and all the girls wanted to be her. She owned the hallway with her posse trailing behind, and when she started wearing Ugg boots, every other girl in the school was wearing them come Monday. And then everyone else left town to go to college and she….didn’t. Now she’s living with the parentals and serving you dinner when you head out to your favorite restaurant with the family. Her hair isn’t quite as shiny, her face doesn’t look quite as beautiful and you awkwardly pretend not to know her as you chow down on that burger.

2. Band Nerd Turned Holy-Sh*t-Look-At-His-Abs
You wouldn’t be able to remember his name if you tried. The only times you ever really saw him in high school was behind a giant tuba and a music stand. He was quiet, nerdy and – you’re not going to lie – a little creepy. But, damn, look at him now. You didn’t recognize him at first without the band varsity jacket, but it suddenly clicks and – wowza – college has done band-boy good. Those abs. Those arms. The way his hair is all messy from that adorable winter hat. A winter break hookup, perhaps?

3. The Too-Cool-For-This-Small-Town City Girl
They went to NYU or Columbia or some other school in some other big city.  After spending months being “city girls,” sipping martinis at the hottest clubs, they are now way too cool for this small town where everything closes at 10. And nothing but Domino’s delivers. They’ll tell stories about how they hang out at café’s listening to jazz music and talking poetry into the wee hours of the morning, and drinking wine while discussing impressionism at art galleries. You’ll be able to see them coming from a mile away: their street-purchased pashminas, their perfectly distressed boots pulled up over their midnight black leggings, their noses in the air as they lecture on what’s “trendy” (independent coffee shops) and what’s “so small town” (Starbucks. Gross.).

4. The Activist
Most people go to college in hopes of finding something they are passionate about, and boy did these people succeed. They left town, saw the world, and realized all the injustice that needs to be fought for. Now they don’t wear shoes and only eat tofu, spreading their granola-crunching passion all over your town. They refuse to indulge in the “blatant capitalism” that is the holiday spirit and make it known to anyone within earshot how they feel about this new “cruel leather jacket trend,” and the evil empire that is Wal-mart.

5. The Stranger-Turned-BFFAEAEAE
You never spoke more than two words to each other in high school, but when you see her at a party she hugs you like you’re long lost best friends, gives you a double cheek-kiss and tells you how great you look. Then she corners you, asks about your life, your boys, your major, and then swears you two totes need to catch up over coffee. And talk about what, exactly? The one time you were in the same group and made a Power Point together?

6. The Super Sorostitute
Her sorority is her life and you’d be an idiot not to know it since she has her Greek letters plastered all over everything in her possession (her jacket, her keychain, her cell phone, her butt…). All she’ll talk about is her sorority house, her semi-formals and her amazing fraternity boyfriend.  She won’t be looking at you, of course, because she’ll be too busy BBMing her sisters, LOLing about their parents and telling each other how much they can’t wait to get back to the house. Then she’ll throw her sparkly Blackberry back into her giant $500 (knock-off) bag and hightail it to the mall.

7. The Reformed Druggie
You never saw him in high school. Ok, you did, but never actually in the actual school. He was usually out in his car surrounded by Cheetos bags, a skateboard and empty Visine bottles. And now? Wow, what happened to the long hair? The baggy pants? Are those….khakis? Boat shoes? Wait…you’re applying to law school?

While living with my grandparents has its perks (unlimited prune juice), it also has its downside (the only available beverage is prune juice). And even though I’m in the biggest city in the world, I’ve never felt more alone. There’s nothing more depressing than coming home from work and seeing people your age having crazy amounts of fun together, and knowing the only thing that awaits you is hearing the latest CNN updates from your grandfather.

So when my friend said she was having a graduation party in Boston, I jumped at the chance to go. Too bad I didn’t jump fast enough and all the tickets on the good bus were sold out. I wasn’t going to miss a weekend with my friends, though, so despite reading reviews of late, overbooked, and nonexistent buses, I booked a seat on the discount line. Not only did the bus show up on time but it was also double decker! Which was good, because the thought of arriving to Boston unemployed and in a single decker bus was just beyond embarrassing.

My friends picked me up at the bus and we went straight out to the bars. I don’t know how I went from being able to drink for ten hours straight just a month ago to not being able to stay awake past midnight now, but it wasn’t pretty. I feel like I’m aging in dog years; every month out of college is seven months of adulthood. By the end of the summer I won’t be able to go to happy hour without putting in my dentures first.

But even though I was falling asleep at the bar and ordering alka-seltzer shots, I still felt better seeing my friends again. It reminded me that at one point I did used to have the ability to have fun. And fun we had. The beauty of no one having jobs is that no one had a reason not to come to the Boston reunion weekend. It almost felt like we were back at school, except for the part where the drinks were more than $2 and we had to tiptoe into a real house and close the door to go to the bathroom because real live adults lived there.

And the grad party itself was a blast. Well, to my stomach, at least. There was enough food there to keep me fed and nourished for the rest of my life and, seeing as everything in my grandparents’ kitchen is pureed, I thought I’d load up. Not that it was different from any other BBQ situation I’ve ever been in – I don’t know why but I feel the need to treat every BBQ as if it were my last supper.

It must have been all the food that made me forget that I can’t play beer pong. Four years of college and I’m still lobbing the ball ten feet from the closest cup. I can write that down on my list of reasons not to miss school. Not so much the losing, but the feelings of rejection when people choose to play with the family dog instead of me.

Anyways, before I knew it the weekend was over and I was on my way back to New York. There’s definitely a spring back in my step now. I know there is hope in the world. I know that I’m not alone. I know that even though I spend my nights explaining to my grandparents that law school will not help a writing career, somewhere out there, a double decker bus ride away, I actually do have friends.

Learning the ropes of an internship is one thing, but becoming accustomed to a big city for the first time while starting an internship can make those first few days all the more nerve wracking.

After scoring two internships in New York City last summer, I couldn’t have been more excited – and then the realization of living alone in a city I didn’t know anything about terrified me. From the moment my plane landed at La Guardia, I was a nervous wreck until I made it through my first few days.

By the end of my time as a summer intern, though, I had the interning and city gag down pat. In fact, I couldn’t get enough, so I decided to come back to New York in January to intern again. With three different internships under my belt in one of the biggest cities in the world, here are some tips that helped me become a big city intern faster than I thought was possible.

Timing is everything: Since most big cities rely on public transportation, you will need to leave earlier than you normally would anywhere else. For example, if it takes you ten minutes to walk from your residence to your company’s building, you should leave twenty minutes early – at least for the first few days – to make sure you get there on time. Also, who knows what can happen on any given day. Traffic could hold you up one day, a morning rain shower could crowd the subways, or a longer than anticipated line at Starbucks might hold you back while waiting for your morning Venti Mocha. Always give yourself some leeway because this way, you won’t be late and you will save yourself the stress of worrying about getting to the job on time.

Transportation shortcuts exist: Most transportation systems, such as the subway and buses in major cities from New York to San Francisco, have websites that you can find all the information you will ever need at. However, most helpful is the popular HopStop, a website that will tell you what subway trains to take, what bus to transfer to, and how many blocks you need to walk to make it to your destination and how long all of that moving and shaking will take you. It not only informs you about maintenance hold-ups, but it will give you different routes for you to pick from. And to top it all off, you can use HopStop on your cell phone. You won’t get lost with this website in your life, I promise.

Make friends with the doormen: Whether your company’s office has a doorman or you are running errands for an author out of her apartment, get to know the people working the front desk or building doors. Not only will you have a smiling face to greet you in the morning, but you will have someone that knows the city well to direct you in a time of need. This past January, the doormen at the apartment building I constantly ran errands out of were some of the nicest people I met my entire internship. Constantly helpful, they always made me laugh no matter how cold it was in New York or how many boxes I had to carry blocks away. They will brighten your day, and by talking to them, you will brighten their day.

Band-Aids make good friends, too: I can’t begin to count the amount of band-aids I went through during all my internships. It didn’t matter how old and broken in my shoes were, they gave me big, ugly blisters. Why? Well, because the amount of walking I did while interning was far beyond the normal amount of any day around a college campus. I learned quickly to keep a box of Band-aids in my over-sized bag and everyone should do the same. Trust me, you don’t want to be the girl limping with a bloody shoe. Also, since interns usually deal with a lot of paper, nasty paper cuts are guaranteed and you won’t want to have bloody fingers when handing faxes into your boss.

Keep a detailed notebook: Purchase a small spiral notebook and keep it in your bag the entire internship experience. While you write tasks or errands you need to run throughout the day in it, you can also keep addresses of locations you visit, phone numbers and other contact information, and any thoughts you feel need to be recorded all in the same place. If the notebook has pockets, slide in all the business cards you get. Notebooks also come in handy because you can write directions down in it, which saves you time and embarrassment from opening a huge subway map in the middle of a metro station to see where you need to go. At the end of your internship, you will have pages filled of duties you completed (which will make you feel good about yourself) along with a lot of other information that could one day come in handy (for example, a lot of the locations I visited during my summer internships were places I wanted to go again – and I was able to reference them from my notes during my winter internship). This is a good way to keep all your stuff organized so you aren’t leaving things all over the place.

Keep up the pace: Internships in big cities tend to go at a very fast pace. Make sure you keep up. Some days it will honestly suck and you will probably hate it – but you are there to learn. Soak everything in – the good, the bad, the bloody socks from your new shoes, the compliments from your new boss – everything. You were picked to be an intern for a reason, and as long as you remember that, you shouldn’t stop working hard to show that you really do belong there.

Make the most of it: A major perk of interning in a big city is actually being in a big city! You will have a ton of culture and excitement at your finger tips, so live it up! Although working may wear you out, make sure you spend time seeing what the city has to offer. Not only will you gain immense amounts of work experience, but you will do so in a cultural environment – there really isn’t much more you can ask for during an internship!