Get it out of your system now, ladies.

If there’s one thing we all know (but often try to deny), it’s that college is basically it’s own little universe. It’s that beer-drinking, bar-hopping, Cliff Notes-reading, coffee-chugging “safe haven” between the comfort of your parents’ home and that place everybody calls “the real world.” And unfortunately, we all know that “real world” is much less exciting than MTV moguls would like us to believe.

As a senior, I’ve finally realized one very important thing: College is awesome. And there’s quite a lot of sh*t you can get away with here that just isn’t gonna fly once you graduate. For example:

1. Mid-day naps. Unless you decide to hightail your pretty bum down to Mexico or start your own company or something, mid-day siestas are generally not in the typical workin’ girl schedule. Oh, how I love the five hour breaks in between my classes.

2. Threesomes. Unless you want to end up like Charlotte in SATC, watching your dude getting’ frisky and feelin’ up some rando-girl while you stand awkwardly on the sidelines, I think threesomes are definitely better explored pre-graduation. I think almost everybody has at least one wild hookup story (that may or may not involve multiple partners) by the time they leave college. And that’s where those kind of explorations should probably stay. In college. Read More »

It's the moment of truth, little lady.

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 from the University of Michigan will comment on the common experiences all college women share – like class registration, the dreaded muffin top or, everyone’s favorite activity, procrastinating. Read, relate, cringe and enjoy.

Your boxes are unpacked, your bed is made, and your parents have left the building. You are officially a college student.

Woohoo! No more living under their rules. You are a free adult livin’ the dorm life. It takes a few days of getting used to, but you’re finally feeling settled. You’ve even sorta mastered the cafeteria slop. This whole college thing isn’t so hard after all.

That is, until you need to do a little #2 in the public bathroom down the hall. The one every other girl on the hall also frequents to shower, wash up, dry her hair, and do her business. Girls you don’t know. Girls you want to befriend. Feeling the stage fright, you’ve been unable to go for days and, between the cafeteria salad bar (roughage!) and the frat party jungle juice, it’s been rather difficult. Read More »

This post provided by college nutritionist, author, and all around excellent source of healthful info, Melanie Jatsek.

Campus dining halls are amazing places.  Besides a Las Vegas buffet, where else can you find Chinese food, Mexican food, and a pasta, deli, salad and dessert bar all in one room?  They are amazing, but amazing doesn’t always equal good for you.  Sometimes it can be down right challenging to navigate through the lines and find something that isn’t fried or covered in some sort of sauce.  To make it easy for you, here are the top 5 dining hall food traps to watch out for. Some may surprise you!

Wraps or Burritos:

You’re probably wondering why.  Most tortillas used to make wraps and burritos contain trans fats (trans fatty acids), which are even worse for you than saturated fats!  The scary thing about them is, they make their way into your brain and disrupt communication between your brain cells.  It’s sort of like when you use your cell phone to call your friend’s cell phone and the two of you keep dropping the call – you can’t seem to make a connection!  The only way to tell for sure if a tortilla contains trans fats is by looking at the nutrition facts label on the package for the words “partially hydrogenated oils.”  Obviously you can’t do this in your dining hall, so you may want to ask the food service staff to take a peak for you. Read More »

My first year of college is ending and it’s happening much. too. fast. in my opinion.  It feels like I just got here, just took my first public bathroom shower, just attended my first lecture, my first frat party. But at the same time, with the amount I’ve learned, seen and done in the past 8 months, I feel like I’ve been here forever.

My freshman year of college was a complete transition from life at home and as it’s drawing to a close, I realize that the girl taking her last final exam is very different than that girl who called her parents nightly when she first moved in. I’m an older, wiser, drunker more content version of myself, and I have my first year of college to thank for that.

Since I’ll be heading back to the parentals’ pad in a few short weeks, I thought I’d look back on everything I’ve learned during my freshman year. Turns out: I’ve learned a lot.

1. Colleges Aren’t That Giant After All
When you first arrive, your campus seems huge, filled with thousands of strangers that you don’t know, and navigating around it seems to require a GPS device.  After about a month, though, you’ll be zipping around like you’ve been there for years, and everywhere you go, you’ll see people you know.  Sometimes this is not the greatest thing, but I digress.

2. Papers will be the death of you.
Papers in high school were about the same length as papers in college for me, but for some reason, in college they are far more torturous.  For one thing, they are worth so much more of your grade and an afternoon spent in the library trying desperately to pound out the damn thing is more painful than the first time riding a spin bike.  Especially when you have distractions like Facebook, anything happening outside, and the fact that you are SO BORED YOU WANT TO FAKE A HEART ATTACK TO GET OUT OF HANDING IN THAT EFFING PAPER. Read More »

This makes me feel better about myself.

The hottest mamas in Hollywood.

Everyone needs a pair of espadrilles.

5 reasons to love The Gap.

College cafs want their stuff back, thankyouverymuch.

Nice moves, Kevin Jonas.

Library to yourself? Score.

Endless exams and papers, constant guy drama, grad school applications, a dwindling bank account…the day-to-day worries of our college years often weigh us down.  But too often, we stress about the big issues and totally forget about the little things that make our daily routines bearable…or even great!

1. A Cancelled Class
Your alarm goes off bright and early at 8 a.m. and you can barely open your eyes.  You angrily hit the snooze button, roll over in bed and start thinking about what to wear.  Then your mind runs through all the things you have to do today: 3 classes, gym, library, chapter meeting…ugh. You’d rather stay in bed. Then – BUZZ! – your phone vibrates and you wonder who the hell needs to talk to you this early. Lo and behold, it’s your study buddy letting you know that (gasp) CLASS IS CANCELLED! Your professor is sick/at a family function/whatever, and you can barely read the whole text before you reset your alarm, pull the covers back over your head and sleep for a few more (glorious!) hours.

2. Free Stuff!
Let’s face it, in this economy getting anything for free in college is right up there with Christmas and 21st birthdays. Free short stack day at IHOP, free condoms at Student Health, those Victoria’s Secret coupons for free panties that come in the mail, and (a personal favorite at my campus) free iced coffee day at Dunkin Donuts.  And then there’s all those campus club meetings and fundraisers where they give out free food, and sometimes on hot days, free water bottles! It may not seem like much, but it doesn’t get much better than a free, ice cold water bottle. Read More »

There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Zappos, 43 Things…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there. And more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.

Dining options in college are pretty slim: either you can eat yet another salad, sandwich, or boring hot entrée at the dining hall, which can become a snoozefest, or you can get takeout/go out to eat, which can get expensive. And then there’s the whole “cook for yourself” idea, if your dorm has a kitchen or you live off-campus. And you know how to boil water….

Did you just laugh at the thought?
Do the contents of your fridge include a jar of pickles, some cans of beer and a package of cheese…and that’s it?
Think cooking for yourself is damn near impossible because you don’t have anything to make?

Think again. Read More »

"Wait... that's CHICKEN?"

You’ve finished your three classes for the day, you spent an hour catching up on reading in the library and you sweat through 45 minutes on the elliptical. Now its 6:00 and you’re starving.  You know you should shower, but with only 30 minutes until the cafeteria closes, you throw on some dry sweats, grab some hall mates and run down to dinner.

You swipe your meal card, grab a tray and make your way down the line of dinner options. Your stomach growls as the smell of hot food wafts towards you. You’re so hungry you’ll eat anything. Or so you think.

As you make your way down the first row of food you grow nauseous. The platters are full of something brown and sloppy.

“Is that beef?” You think to yourself as you lean in to get a closer look. You read the card taped to the glass above it.

“BBQ chicken” it says.

There is no way in hell you’re going to eat anything that unrecognizable so you move on. Next there are soggy vegetables soaked in oil, something yellow and runny that the hair-net-wearing burly man (or maybe woman?) tells you are mashed potatoes and a vegetarian option that you swear you saw in the toilet after you drank too much on Sunday… Read More »

I just registered for my spring classes, and come 2010, it looks like I’m not going to have any lectures or seminars on Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays.

Kick. Ass.

This awesome occurrence—and the general mood of November—got me thinking about how many things about college I have to be thankful for. I don’t want to sound too clichéd or sappy, but the past three and a half years have definitely been the best of my life; I can’t believe it’s all going to be over in May. College, that is, not my life.

So, in the spirit of nostalgia and Turkey Day, here’s my top ten list of things I have to be thankful for—the college edition. In the midst of papers, presentations and premature post-grad panic, it’s nice to remember that there’s a ton of things I love about being in school. Such as:

10. The fact that I haven’t had to take math since 2006. I barely remember how to do long division, but I think I’m happier all the same.

9. Living in a suite, but one with a bathroom that’s cleaned for us.

8. Free access to a fancy gym, even if I don’t exactly take advantage of it as often as I should. Read More »