Imagine being paid to do well in college. Better than an allowance, better than a job, better then birthday cash… I’m talking getting paid to write papers. Sounds good when it rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Well, there’s a website that (kind of) makes that possible! ULTRINSIC was created after two friends made a bet while lazing around one Sunday afternoon, not studying for upcoming exams. The terms of the bet were as follows: if the “Mike” got an A on his exam, “Ted” would give him $100 but if “Mike” didn’t get an A then he owed “Ted” $20. More motivation to do well? I think so.

ULTRINSIC is a website totally devoted to students in school (undergraduate or grad level). Their aim is to provide students an exciting incentive to do well in their classes: a cash money reward.

After doing some research on the site, their program works like this: choose to invest in one course, multiple courses or invest for the entire semester, pay a portion of the cost ($5, $10, or $20) and if your GPA is at, or above, what you predicted it would be then consider yourself a winner! If you invested $5, you’ll earn up to $500; $10 and earn up to $1,000; if you invested $20, make room in your wallet for close to $2,000. Read More »

The Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Recession, Depression, Stimulus, Democrats, Republicans, Congress — sometimes the big issues in today’s world can make your head spin. There’s so much going on and it’s tough to keep up with all the details, but even though it’s hectic, the big issues can have a big impact on your life, your career, and your future. Lucky for you, I’ve taken the  top headlines and condensed them into easy-to-read tidbits with all the info you need to know. And trust me, this is the stuff you need to know.

Are you a fan or a critic of Obama? Were you counting on a new stimulus package this year? How do you feel about Congress’ decision over whether or not to keep troops in Iraq? What issues matter most to YOU?

When most people (read: adults) think of the ideal commencement speaker, they think of someone inspiring, successful, notorious. When I think of that person, all I can think is: BORING. Come on, college graduation day is already the most bittersweet in every college student’s life; it’s the end of an era, the end of irresponsibility, the end of guilting your parents into buying you things because you’re “so stressed out from exams.” The last thing college seniors want is a 90-minute speech from some politician talking about how the world is their oyster.

Which explains why students at GW have taken it upon themselves to bring in someone a bit more exciting for this year’s commencement. (Read all about the campaign here.) And let’s be honest, who’s more exciting than Charlie Sheen? The guy is from another world, has tiger blood coursing through his veins, and un-addicted himself to drugs just by flipping a switch in his brain. He’s totally WINNING.

Who wouldn’t want that guy bidding them adieu as they enter the real world?

Oh right, the university. It seems the head honchos at GW find Sheen to be a bit too extreme of a speaker. Apparently he’s a terrible example and really has nothing to offer to class of 2011. Which would be a good argument if there weren’t plenty of terrible commencement speakers who have…uh…spoken before him.

I mean, really, it can be a whole lot worse than Charlie Sheen. And it has been. Read More »

With the list of Razzie’s nominations coming out and celebrating the worst of the worst in Hollywood, we thought we’d award our own set of Razzies to some oh-so-deserving college students who have not been demonstrating the best college behavior this year. And by “not demonstrating the best” we we’re not talking about students who skipped a few classes or drunkenly fell off a few lofts. We’re talking bad. Really bad. The kind of stuff that keeps your mom up all night worrying that you might be this dumb and that maybe college isn’t for you and you should be home-schooled like that weird kid who picked his nose and wiped it on the swing set in your neighborhood growing up.

Yeah, that bad.

And the award goes to:

The award for disgusting behavior goes to the pledges and brothers of  the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at Yale University. The pledges were led to the freshman girls’ dorms while blindfolded and shouting “No means yes, yes means anal.” But it didn’t stop there. The pledges then began to shout about necrophilia, which is, as you know, having sex with corpses. Classy, Yale! Not only is this just disgusting and offensive, but don’t these guys have brains?! I understand that it was a pledge activity and yada, yada, yada, but did no one stop and think about how degrading or downright stupid that activity might have been? 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.

You arrive at the library and finally find a table to unload all your books and set up your laptop. You unwrap your head scarf, peel off your winter coat and plunk down your fresh cup of java. Today’s the day you’re actually going to write that fifteen page paper on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You are totes in work mode, browsing through your research and making notations and highlights here and there.

Look at how well you’re doing!

Then you open up Microsoft Word, and start tapping away at the keyboard. Jeez, you’ve already got a sentence! This is so much easier than you thought! You’ll be done in no time, and before you know it, you’ll be at the rugby house on Friday for the kegger. Wait, what time is the party again? A quick check on Facebook couldn’t hurt…

And then it’s over. You’ve been sucked into the very alluring tubes of the internet, procrastinating once again. It’s finals week, which means it’s work block season: that feeling where you just can’t concentrate. But according to CollegeNews.com, it turns out that those moments of procrastination are actually helpful. If you’re doing work for a long period of time, you’re bound to get stressed, and too much stress is never good for productivity. So it’s okay to take a break every now and then to ease your mind, and do something unrelated to your project. It will ease your stress and rejuvenate your brain activity so you can get back to work. Knowing that, why not try these sites to ease your studying woes? Read More »