You hear that?

It’s the sounds of millions of college girls everywhere clamoring to get their transfer papers in. Because James Franco is going to be teaching a course at Columbia College in the fall. And that’s not the best part. The best part is the course he’ll be teaching…

“Master Class: Editing James Franco… with James Franco.”

According to the PopEater Columbia College Hollywood will give 12 of its best editing students the chance to create a 30 minute documentary from footage of Franco’s career. Franco won’t actually be there every day, the course will be run by Franco’s collaborator and editor, Tyler Danna, but he will speak to the class weekly, via Skype.

Let’s just take a moment to digest that.

The man is teaching a college class. About himself. On Skype.

Sure you could say that no one else will know the material quite as well as Franco, but really man? Who actually says, I want to teach a class….about me? This is taking celebrity egos to an entirely different level. This is ridiculous. This is ludicrous. This is unacceptable. This is…fabulous. Read More »

A new study presented by Fox News (watch the vid, peeps) says that going to college will make someone’s political opinions lean left and suggests that democratic faculty push their liberal agendas on students.  What’s troubling about the study’s conclusion is that the college grads become more liberal but NOT more knowledgeable; more than 35% of us can’t even name the three branches of the U.S. government!

Now, I can only speak for my school, one public university out of many, but I can definitely back the validity of these findings based on my experiences during the 2008 Presidential Election when everyone had Obama fever. I was kind of surprised when my professors brazenly bashed Republican ideals and tooted Obama’s horn during a lecture that was supposed to be about graphing the value of x. Read More »

With my midterm exams finally over, I’m taking this opportunity to do a little midterm reviewing of my own. Now seems to be the perfect time to reflect on the first quarter of my freshman year and to start looking forward to the rest of the semester, the next semester, and, well, just the future in general. As scary as that sounds.

When I first started counting down to college, I was doing so with a level of excitement you’d expect from a kid who has just eaten four bowls of sugary cereal. I couldn’t wait to get out of high school and show my stuff at an institution of higher learning, although admittedly, the idea of college itself was fairly daunting (living among 22 year-olds/life without Mommy and Daddy/doing my own laundry/etc.). Towards the end of the summer, the dream started to become a frightening reality. Was I ready? Could I handle college life? Would I get a roommate from hell?!

Then, college. Ahh, college. Orientation was definitely awkward at first, but a few weeks into school, I was absolutely loving it (and, of course, I still am, in spite of all the reading I have to do for class tomorrow). I got extremely lucky and quickly became friends with my hallmates, and as classes started, I began developing friendships with people who share my passions, understand my sense of humor, and appreciate my personal brand of insanity. Weekend movie marathons and game nights became my weekly rituals. Read More »

Studying on the beach? HELL NO.

WOAH. Stop right there. Hooooold up. Wait a minute. Don’t go there cuz I ain’t wit’ it.

I can’t believe my ears.

I just heard the worst idea in the history of idea-making and I swear I am not overreacting.

A US Senator, Lamar Alexander (yes, please send him nasty letters and kick him on the street), stated in a recent Newsweek Article that “an educational schedule of 3 months of summer is not relevant in today’s world and [college] students should take more credit hours and graduate in 3 years, saving 25% in tuition costs.”

I have so many problems with this one sentence I don’t even know where to begin.

I guess I should start with deep breathing into a brown paper bag. And eating a brownie.

Ok, now that I’m somewhat composed let’s start with Mr. Alexander’s cost argument. It’s an obvious fact that our parents, our own bank accounts, and out future selves for the next 15 years, are being raped of any and all money we make or will make to pay for college. But in the grand scheme of things, how much less of a burden is it to pay $120,000 versus $160,000?

Either way, the financial aspect of college has all of us students spurting premature wrinkles, and I’d rather spend one more year of my life tailgating, eating diner food at 4 am, and partying the night away before I have to face the fat, red negative number in my bank account. Read More »

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 »

[We all get bogged down with the required reading lists handed to us by our over-zealous professors. When we aren't laying in bed with a textbook and 3 highlighters, we are resting our eyes (and brains) with a little TV. No one wants to read any more than they have to.

Not so fast, girls. I am here to show you some books that are totes worth reading when the 347 pages of History/English/Psych reading are finished. Books that will make you laugh, cry, and change the way you think. Good books (which I know is hard to believe when you think of the stuff assigned for class). Stick with me and you will spend a lot less time watching Real World reruns, and a lot more time enjoying books again.]

Chelsea Handler is quite a character. She’s a TV host, stand-up comidienne and author. And if you’ve never heard of her it’s about time that you had.

“Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea.” is considered a memoir. More accurately, it’s a collection of some of the most hilarious stories from Chelsea’s life, almost like a sneak peek into her diary. But let me warn you, these are not your average diary entries.

A far cry from “Dear Diary, today I met the most wonderful boy,” or “We had tuna casserole for dinner,” each one of Chelsea’s stories is utterly and completely hilarious. I mean, this is a book you do not want to read in public, because you will find yourself laughing out loud and that always gets looks. Not to mention the fact that people will ask what you are laughing at and you’ll have to explain a sitution involving Chelsea breaking out of prison. Read More »

What do you mean it’s too late to drop a class? I forgot I was even enrolled!

If that’s part of the conversation you’re having with the registrar this far into the semester, you might be in trouble. But never fear. It’s not over until the fat lady sings…or the TA enters the grades. If you’ve over-slacked it this semester, there still might be a way to save your grade.

1. Talk to Your Teacher.

This is by far the most important rule of grade-saving. Talk to your professor. Apologize profusely. Throw yourself at his or her feet and explain why you suck at whatever subject they teach. As a former TA, I can attest that I was far more willing to help kids who actually came to office hours to ask for help than the ones who fell off the face of the earth, only to reappear during finals (or, in one case, after I’d left for the semester) and expect another chance. Read More »

There is much to be said for Emily Post. She wrote the book (literally) on manners and standardized etiquette customs for the general public. I adore her books full of old fashioned advice, and while some of it is still relevant, much of it is dated. I constantly wonder what kind of place our society would be if Emily were still around to impose properness upon us all.

Unfortunately, she is not–as evidenced by many of my college classmates.

We’ve all seen those people in class: the ones who act like they’re too important to be there, don’t care what the professor has to say, rudely answer their phones and are generally a disturbance to those of us trying to learn. If you are an incoming freshman you probably haven’t witnessed such obvious rudeness, and you most certainly do not want to become one of said rude people. So, read on, my pretties, and enter the world of higher education with grace, manners and –ahem–class (haha…)

Don’t Be Cell-fish.

Gone are the days when your cell phone was contraband (absurd, I know). Instead of focusing on your under-desk texting (ala your dinosaur of an AP Chem teacher), your professor will most likely be concentrating on imparting you with knowledge during your class sessions. So this means you can feel free to text, Blackberry message, IM away with your cell held at –gasp–eye level, right?! Wrong! Your professor has assumed (rightfully, I hope) that you are a respectful and mature person who is attending (and paying for) their class to learn something useful from him or her. Do not prove them wrong by blatantly expressing that you have better things to do. Read More »

With classes starting up again, many of us will be forced to take some kind of bullshit science course which will never be of any use to us. I remember at the start of my freshman year, we all had to take, if nothing else, “Baby Bio” – the liberal arts version of biology. We learned a lot of really long plant names; that’s about all I know.

Baby Bio was the last time science was a part of my life, with the exception of a few experimental liquor drinks I’ve concocted along the way.

For those of you who are like me, and haven’t had much science in your life, prepare to be freaked the f*ck out by this list of the most bizarre and crazy-ass experiments in history. These weird scientists went waaaaay beyond memorizing their plant names, and most of the time, they just jumped right into these odd experiments out of pure curiosity.

Check out the list. Learn some things. Freak out your friends. Warning: some of these are pretty disgusting.

Some of the most whacked experiments asked the questions:

What would happen if you give 297 milligrams of LSD (3000 times the level of a typical human dose) to an elephant? Wow, I ask myself that every day. Scientists still don’t know for sure, cause the experiment didn’t go as planned, but I’d say…ummmmm…it’d have one hell of a trip.

What if you put a female prostitute in a room with a gay man after he’s given “heterosexual hormones”? He’ll have sex with her, obvi! He is, after all, still a man. But, in the end, he was still gay. Dammit, science! Read More »