We’ve all been there. It’s a little past 2am and you’re 3 paragraphs into a paper due in a few hours, on a subject you only vaguely understand, for a class you go to only when it’s on the way to happy hour.You’ve typed every word that relates to your paper topic into Google, and you’ve come up with nary a Wikipedia entry.

So what’s the problem? Well, besides your knack for procrastination and admirable laziness, it could be your research skills.

Before you give up and accept defeat (and an F), pour yourself a hot cup of coffee and check out these research sites that have saved me more than once:

Spark Notes: You may not have used this site since high school, but I assure you, it’s even more useful now. From novel summaries that you’ve been using since 7th grade English class to summary-style subject reviews, you can find help for almost anything here, from Shakespeare to physics. I’ve gotten A’s on papers on books I didn’t read because of this site, and it saved my butt when I was cramming for a psychology final and couldn’t for the life of me, understand a specific topic. Their review for specific subject are great at explaining something simply and thoroughly. Read More »

With the money I spent on textbooks in college, I could now own a plethora of designer purses. Not that I need any more bags, but I didn’t really need any more books either. The textbook dilemma is never one easily solved.

For the most part, you don’t know which books you’ll be using first before the first day of class and the requisite first day of class syllabus. I remember my freshman year I spent over $500 easily on books for my first semester.

That much money pains me now, much more than it did then. Back then I had the good ole M&D to rely on.

Now? Now I just have ramen. And rent due tomorrow.

So, you can’t buy your books before classes begin because there is the possibility you will never use them or just use them for one f*cking assignment. It’s so annoying.

Textbooks are essential to college and also one of the biggest college pains in my ass.

Here, I have outlined my no fail way to succeed at your first real college assignment: Buying Your Textbooks.

Textbook Tip #1

Don’t buy your books before the first day of class. There is just no need! I mean, really, you’re going to be drinking copious amounts of beer during your first few days anyways and having too much fun to even think about classes starting. Class, however, is an inevitable evil. Read More »

I think we’ve had this conversation before. But it’s worth having again, especially since Freshmen year is so crucial to the development of this addiction.

This messy, painful, powerful addiction.

The addiction to wearing pajamas to class.

Some of you had to get up as early as 5:30 AM to get to high school, and while wearing pj’s may have been a slight temptation, you never actually went and did it.

No, you pulled on some jeans, found a shirt somewhere, made sure your face wasn’t frightening, and then hopped into the car while the sun was still coming up.

But then college happens, and for some reason, everything changes. Almost no one has class earlier than 8:30 (a whole hour later than 12th grade), school is usually no more than a 10-15 minute walk from your bed, and breakfast is already made for you. It should be easier to resist the urge to wear those dancing dog pj’s your grandma got you to class…right?

Nope.

Just doing it once, just one taste of the sweet, sweet laziness that is literally throwing a jacket over pajamas is enough to turn some people in pajajay junkies for life (or at least the duration of the college career). Read More »

What happens when you combine mediocre fiction with a lame film script and a girl who has a hard time being believable in anything?

You get The Nanny Diaries.

Apparently, Scarlett Johansson’s new movie is not just bad, but super bad (and not in that funny, quirky movie of the same title way). Critics everywhere are devouring it and spitting it back out, leaving only the incorporable Laura Linney unscathed. They say she does a good job being a rich bitch.

Everyone else? Horrible.

ScarJo included. Critics picked apart everything from her “leaden screen presence” to her “flustered mannerisms that smack of one too many Woody Allen projects” (seriously, the guy loves her. It’s weird).

As someone who hasn’t been able to believe Ms. Johansson in almost anything she’s done since Lost in Translation, I can’t say I’m surprised.

She’s hot, I’ll give her that, but I’m not sure a family comedy is her forte. I’m not even sure comedy is her forte. She smolders, sure. But she doesn’t pop. Or make me laugh. Ever.

Plus, even though the book was a bestseller, it certainly wasn’t literary gold. You can’t just cut up a beach read and put it on the screen, especially when you’re dealing with issues like class, money, and absentee parenting. Read More »

Starting college is arguably the best thing ever. So many new people, new classes, new ideas—it’s like an ocean of new things that you can’t wait to experience. It’s awesome.

But with all these new, exciting things, you are bound to get caught up in the fervor of college before you realize—FUCK, maybe I shouldn’t have done that. Fuck, I’ve screwed up. Fuck, I am sooo stupid.

Which is why, my dears, I am going to tell you all the things that made me drop the f-bomb time after time in hopes that perhaps you can learn from my many, many mistakes:

Don’t drink the punch. Read More »

I used to wear my iPod everywhere.

Walking to school, iPod. Sitting on the subway, iPod. Waiting for class to start, iPod. Grocery shopping, iPod. I never went anywhere without music.

There’s lots of reasons I chose music over realty, strange men telling me I should be their girlfriend at 8:30 AM certainly being one of them, but the easiest answer is that I didn’t really think there was much the world could offer me while I was alone. Walking by yourself can be a semi-lonely activity, especially if you’ve got a long way to go and don’t see many friendly faces on your way there.

So, I was plugged in. Walking quickly and keeping my face blank (looking too friendly in the city is sometimes an open invitation for crazy people to ask you to pet their plastic snake), I spent my days forging ahead and allowing The Police to soundtrack my life.

Until I overheard a conversation that changed everything. Read More »