So just like with the very first column I wrote for Surviving Senior Year, it’s taken me a while to figure out what exactly I want to write for this one. My very last one.  Actually I should say it’s “taking me a while” because I really have no idea where this one is going. So bear with me one last time.

When I started this column back in September I was just starting senior year.  I was both excited and terrified at the prospect of having just two semesters left of college, and now, two months away from the end of college, I’m just as excited and just as terrified. That much hasn’t changed. But a lot has changed.

I started this year with more responsibility and less time than I’ve ever had. And lots and lots of things that I wanted to accomplish, things I felt I needed to accomplish. Take the GRE. Write a senior thesis. Keep up my GPA. Remain involved in all of my extracurriculars. And on top of that I really wanted to make sure that I didn’t lose sight of my social life. I was determined to keep all aspects of my life in perfect balance. I was determined to figure it all out. I was determined to find answers, to figure out what I wanted to do and where I wanted to do it. But even though I accomplished pretty much all of my goals, I’m still no closer to knowing what’s going to come next.

I don’t know where I’ll be a year from now. I don’t know what path my career will take. I don’t know if and when I’ll go to grad school. I don’t know if I’ll become a writer or a wizard. I don’t know if I’ll ever find the perfect guy or the perfect pair of pumps. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to go to Greece…or if the closet I’ll get to that ancient city is watching Mamma Mia. Because senior year hasn’t given me the answers to my future. I don’t know any more about that than I did when I started. But I do know a few other things.

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. Sometimes with mean words. 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 prepubescent fashion!) 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 basically the time I was in kindergarten, I was ingrained with the understanding that this is how the system works: you go to school, you get good grades, you go to college, you get good grades, and then one day you get a job… so your kids can do it all over again. Aside from the incredible level of depressing involved in that, it was always my inherent understanding that this was the way things would work. Then I got into college and realized that job part wasn’t exactly a guarantee with a degree. Even more disconcertingly, it turns out that sometimes, for some lucky people, it works the other way around – getting offered a job before they’ve even finished college. The question is, is it a good idea to skip ahead a step.

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 the plus size movement! ) 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!]

The last few months a bunch of people (mostly employed people who don’t actually have a stake in the matter, I must note. *Suck it, employed people!*) have made a big deal out of internships - Are they fair? Are they worth it? Are they even legal? Since summer is basically the official season of internships and since we’re really the ones who have a stake in the matter, I think it’s about time we had our say in the matter.

Now, internships vary from profession to profession but there are a few things that have pretty much become standard – you work (usually the bitch grunt work no one else wants to do) and in return you learn skills and get experience in your field to beef up your resume. Like the mythical unicorn, paid internships do exist (so I’ve heard, anyway) but by and large, nowadays you work an internship for free and just accept that it’s an investment in your future. These are the two big aspects that people seem to have a problem with since it ultimately means that you’re doing a crap job and not getting paid for it. Read More »

There’s no question about it: finding somebody to pay you is hard. In some cases, it’s even hard to find somebody to not pay you but instead give you something that’s supposed to be equivalent: college credit, for instance, or a big-ticket line on your resume.

Yeah, I’m talking about the Real World.

I’m far from a career counselor, but I have picked up a lot of helpful tips along the way. Since it’s sometimes hard to know where to start when looking for a job or internship, let me offer a few things that I know to be helpful:

• Work those connections. Connections, connections, connections. Have I made my point clear yet? CONNECTIONS! If you know somebody whose friend knows somebody whose brother knows somebody… well, what are you waiting for?! There’s only two degrees of separation between you and that person, and nobody else is going to do the legwork for you. It’s an unfortunate fact of life that a ton of industries are based on connections, and at some places it can be impossible to get your foot in the door unless you physically plant it there. Talk to people, ask questions, and be proactive. Networking is far more important than you think. Read More »

Although some girls may argue that finding love and being in a relationship rank number one on every “normal” girl’s priority list, a recent trend shows a lot of young women are starting to wake up and avoid making career mistakes like that of Lauren Conrad from the Hills. For those who don’t remember, or the 2% of college girls out there that don’t watch the show, she chose to move in with a boy (which didn’t work out, surprise surprise!) over advancing her career and taking a job opportunity in Paris.

According to a recent study, men were more willing than women to sacrifice achievement for a romantic relationship, CNN reports.

Read More »