I’m a total college girl. I love wearing college sweatshirts, cheering at basketball (so much so that I cheer for the school I transferred from and the one I currently attend) or hockey games, partying at all times, supporting student government, loving the gym and dining halls, repping NU right here on CollegeCandy, playing on intramurals and familiarizing myself with all the fun trivia about my school. Example: Did you know that Northeastern University is really the first place that the Red Sox played? Yep, the Red Sox didn’t always play at Fenway. Back when they were the Pilgrims/Americans, they played at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, which is now part of our campus. The area is immortalized with a bronze statue of Cy Young.

Yes, I love college. Probably more than Asher Roth. The experience of being at a University is incredible, my social life is banging, my sister goes to school right around the corner at BU, and I live in the “big city” version of a college town. The Boston area is home to over twelve major universities and I’m familiar with all of them. Or at least their frat houses. Read More »

College. Sigh. It’s unlike any other time in your life. It has its own set of rules, its own unique circumstances. And it’s not always easy to navigate. Enter…me! Every week I’ll be tackling your questions about college. From classes to keggers, I’ll do my best to respond and be your Pez dispenser of collegiate wisdom.

Got questions? Hit me up in the comments or shoot me an email at melanie@collegecandy.com

Here’s a question: How do I pick my Major? So many options its ridiculous. – Kate
Very true, and I’ve tried them all. Business. English. Human Services. Journalism. True story, I’ve changed my major four times. Trying everything is my recommendation. I personally had a difficult time in the business program because I was unable to explore all the different classes my school had to offer. Switching to Arts and Sciences let me try out sociology, psychology, communications and still pick up some business classes.

You have to do what feels right for you and don’t sweat your career too much along the way. Some of the smartest people I know have the most obscure undergrad degrees. It’s why we have graduate school. Talk to people who have careers that interest you, find out what they majored in and settle into a track that feels best for you. If you do what you love, money and success will follow.

How do I meet cool friends without getting involved in Greek Life?
Yes, some schools are crazy about being Greek (and announcing their affiliation via letters plastered across their boobs and butts).  It’s not for everyone, though. If you’re on a college campus chances are there are tons of activities and outlets to meet people. Love to draw? Join the art club to find others who share your passion for Crayola crayons. Want to meet people and get sweaty? Club and intramural sports. Political science major? Student government. Get involved and you’ll meet people who share your passions. Even if it’s for Rock Paper Scissors. Read More »

"And that, my little freshmen, is why that boy didn't call you back."

College. Sigh. It’s unlike any other time in your life. It has its own set of rules, it’s own unique circumstances. And it’s not always easy to navigate. Enter…me! Every week I’ll be tackling your questions about college. From classes to keggers, I’ll do my best to respond and be your Pez dispenser of collegiate wisdom.

1. How do I avoid that sneaky Freshman 15?
The most obvious answer is don’t drink. Drinking adds those extra calories that you didn’t have in high school, not to mention the drunk munchies. Who hasn’t gone to bed at 4 AM on a Thursday spooning a box of Lucky Charms? Leaving behind sports teams in high school and replacing field hockey practice with marathon drinking is a surefire way to pack on the pounds. Weekday drinking is probably the number one contributor to the Freshie 15, in addition the dining hall, the University equivalent of an all you can eat buffet in Vegas. Think about it. Not ready to give up drinking on Tuesdays or the tater tots at the dining hall? Utilize that gym on campus, join an intramural team and try to stay on a good sleeping schedule.

2. That guy that I hooked up with drunkenly at a party isn’t calling me?! What gives?
Pick and choose your reason(s):
- You were so blacked out you had a penis drawn on your face while you were making out with him. In front of all his friends. First impressions last.
- He has a girlfriend
- It’s a little awksauce calling someone after a sloppy hook up
- He doesn’t remember hooking up with you Read More »

So some of you may be a little bitter this school year. Instead of heading off to your dream school, you are stuck attending your fall-back as your friends suddenly turn all intellectual and boast about the awesome classes at Harvard, Princeton and NYU.

But little do they know, you’re getting the much better deal. While they rack up the student loans, you can enjoy the intellectually stimulating lectures of Ivy League professors without even having to get out of bed.

Two new websites, academicearth.org and openculture.com, are offering videos of lectures from top universities and – prepare yourself – they are totally free! Both websites are organized by topic and by school, offering courses from Berkeley, Harvard and Yale, among others. Want to see how a Princeton professor teaches Bio? Go for it! Want a motivating lecture on poly-sci? They have that too!

Ah, don’t you love living in the era of technology?

Finally all of us “average” people (i.e. those of us who couldn’t score a 2400 on our SATS or find the time to volunteer at eight different organizations during high school) can bask in the glory of partying it up at our party schools while we cyber “sit in on” the smarty-pants classes. If only we could print out that Harvard diploma, too.

Why waste four years of an awesome social scene biting your fingernails over academic probation?  In between juggling friends, lecture notes, beer, exams, and boys, watch out for these GPA pitfalls:

1) The Internet: Essential to keeping up with friends from home (and that kid you haven’t seen since  pre-kindergarden), essential to keeping up with world news (gawker.com, anyone?), and very, very excellent at wasting your time (during class, during your chem final cramming session, at four am in the morning when you just have to broadcast your insomnia on Twitter…).  Leave your laptop in your dorm room when you attend lectures if you want to save your grades. If you must bring it to take notes, turn off the wireless.  And if you really don’t trust yourself, install a self-control application to help set a daily time limit on time-wasting websites.

2) Ass-crack of dawn classes. Try as you might to schedule classes around your personal body rhythms (the preferred way to avoid this), there comes a time in every girl’s college career when she realizes that the only available section of a mandatory course meets early in the morning.  Combat the potential damage to your batting average by buying a new alarm clock, an extra cup of coffee, rewarding yourself for waking up with five minutes on your favorite blog before you dash off to class, or finding a classmate on your hallway to share in your pain….and notes, if one of you ever oversleeps.

3) Ovulation. For all intents and purposes: that time of the month when you really need to get some.  Do not go out to a bar and accept drinks from a cute stranger/stick your tongue down his throat if it’s Tuesday night you know you should be working on the key slides for your history power-point presentation.  Save your grades, buy a vibrator. You’ll also cut out the make-up application time, the cab fare, the hangover, and the heartbreak. Read More »

The royal GPA f*ck up.

We’ve all done it. Whether it was “I’m too hungover to go to class” semester, or the easy freshman mistake of loving the lack of attendance policy way too much, at one time our GPA has clicked down point-by-point faster than the funds in our checking account after drunkenly opening a tab at the bar.

I may be only a freshman, but I’ve pretty much already declared my major in GPA Sabotage, with a concentration on Accidental Stupidity. Having been such an idiot my first semester of college, I speak from partial experience on the five unfailing ways to destroy your GPA like a Category 5 earthquake.

1. Racking up a big streak of absences for your class. It’s pretty obvi, almost to the point where it seems ridiculous to bring up, but it’s the most effective method for watching your GPA drop like an axe. Keeping up the good fight in your classes is all about resisting the incredibly tempting ability to skip class. Even if there is no attendance policy, chances are extremely good that you don’t want to miss what’s going on. Plus, catching up after a missed class is a massive headache for anyone with a decent course load.

2. Not participating in class. This is kind of a gray area, but for the most part it can be really destructive to your grade in a class if you just waste your time there. Classes are only worth the money they cost if you’re retaining the information presented, and the professor is there to make sure you do just that. Communicating with your professor and participating in class is definitely the way to get the most out of it, and it can make even a 9 AM lecture more enjoyable. Plus, if you make a big mistake in your class, your professor will likely be extremely helpful in getting you back on track knowing that you are invested in the course.

3. Sleeping through class sessions. This is a biggie. It can be actually painful to try and stay awake in class, especially when it’s one of the soulless 8 AM courses. It risks being mind-numbingly dull to stay awake, but if you sleep through class, you’re wasting your time even being there at all. I have definitely used classtime to catch up on some Zs and learned pretty quickly that it’s one mistake you absolutely don’t want to to make.

4. Blowing off studying for exams, or just the exams in general. The best saying I’ve heard about exams is the Murphy’s Law of College Exams: they are always based on the one class session you didn’t attend, and the chapter in the textbook you didn’t read. There is nothing like a screwed college exam to sink you about two letter grades, if not more. Studying is all-important, as is keeping track of your exam schedule so you don’t accidentally miss one. These two things can mean the difference between doing well in a class and scraping to pass.

5. Cheating/ Plagiarizing. It may be incredibly tempting, but as is largely well-known, either of those offenses are automatic one-way streets to being blacklisted from every college, and having your future resume incredibly tainted. Not only will your test or paper be an automatic zero if you’re caught, but your entire college career will be seriously affected by a brief lack of judgment. No test grade is worth the colossal slap on the hand resulting from cheating, and a paper that’s written with someone else’s words isn’t worth the ink you print it with. If you’re tempted to make either of these serious mistakes, resist them. Academic Dishonesty is one phrase you never, ever want associated with your transcripts.

For the first couple of months after my college acceptance, it was all about celebration. Buying up sweatshirts and car decals on the bookstore website, networking with my future classmates on Facebook, making pro/con lists for next year’s housing choices. But recently, my future hit me as being much more real when my school’s course catalog for the 2009-2010 school year was put online for current students (as well as curious prefrosh) to use in selecting their courses. And, being the geek that I am, I perused nearly every humanities department’s section and salivated at the descriptions of the classes I’d love to take.

But my passion for intellectual pursuits poses a problem for me. While my school does not have any core requirements, there is no possible way I could take every course that interests me in four years. I plan to be an English major, but there are courses in the history, government, philosophy, religion, and film departments that sound like incredible classes. I love to learn anything and everything and I will take every opportunity to do so; yet time constraints and forces beyond my control will make it impossible for me to take certain courses. Read More »

College brings a whole lot of new experiences, new lessons and new people. But it seems that no matter what school you go to there are same characters on every campus. The frat house groupie, the sensitive all American, the cool girl, and the Unhinged Coed.

Once upon a time, at college orientation, you met someone who spent her weekend running around meeting everyone. Even the orientation leaders, academic advisors…and cafeteria workers. This person was friendly, funny, flirty. Then classes began, parties were under way and, whoa mama, it was…girl gone wild (annoying)!

Allow me to introduce you to the Unhinged Coed.

The Unhinged Coed is an attention hog (minus the “g”) to the umpteenth power. She will do just about anything for someone to take a quick look or give her a quick dose of attention.

While she comes off friendly and fun at first, the Unhinged is quickly reduced to nothing more than the nuisance you turn to when you need something. Eager to please (and for people to know she’s helpful), she is always there with a book someone needs to borrow, notes when someone misses class, and a pair of lips when someone is drunk and looking for booty.

In her quest to be everyone’s friend, she ends up with a small group – usually like-minded attention seeking-wannabes themselves – who stick around her to gain “access” to the people she claims to be close with. Only she isn’t, because her quest to be known by all leaves her annoyed by most. Read More »

A recent article (seriously, you are gonna want to read this one) in the New York Times studied college students and their inflated and questionably reasonable expectations when it comes to grades.

“Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.”

We decided to see where college students stood on this issue, so we asked two of the CollegeCandy writers for their perspectives. What do you think? Read More »

I have no idea what I want to do with the rest of my life. And yes, I know there are others in the same boat. I know I don’t have to declare a major for another year, and I know there’s time. I’ve heard it all. But it doesn’t leave me any less nervous.

In some ways, I like the unclear path. I am taking classes because they sound interesting, not because they will help me complete a major. I am learning just because I want to, and my grades are just because I want to try my best, not because I know I am looking for a certain grad school or want to impress future employees. For all I know, I could be studying subjects which will be completely irrelevant to my future. So I have no pressure.

Except, I still have pressure. In some ways, it’s even more than I had in high school. Sure, it’s not like I know I have to get a certain GPA and do certain activities to get into college. But now that I’m here, I can’t believe there’s no more plan. I am the kind of person who plans out her entire future—not minute-by-minute or a 10-year-plan, more like a general idea of what’s to come– but now I have no concept of past college. All my life, I knew I was going to go to graduate high school and go to college. Now I’m here, and I can check that off the list. Read More »