Starbucks was an integral part of my college experience.

Whether it was grabbing a latte before my 8 am class at the building next door, or catching up with a friend I hadn’t seen in awhile due to crazy schedules, I have so many memories that include Starbucks and college, it’s hard to count.

Over my four years, I started to become more aware of what I was drinking and just how many calories and grams of fat I was ingesting (one venti white chocolate mocha can cost you 580 calories…not to mention almost 5 bucks).

I eventually became used to ordering drinks with skim milk and sugar-free syrups. I downsized from Ventis to Grandes, and — gasp! — even Talls. Recently, I have also become very fond of their tea selection.

And much to everyone’s surprise, there are actually ways to order low fat/low cal drinks at Starbucks…you just have to know what to ask for.

Fortunately, a great health and dieting blog called, Back in Skinny Jeans, gives us “7 ways to cut down calories and fat in Starbucks drinks” : Read More »

Energy drinks.

Most of us have tried them, and some of us have tried them all. Every week another choice seems to pop up, promising everything from a little “oomph” enhancement to a metabolism increase to an “illegal” amount of taste.We swallow them down because we want the boost, not because they taste anything near good, many of us foregoing coffee for a chemical concoction because of it’s supposed higher caffeine content.

Not to disappoint you, but the amount of stimulant in that sugar-and-piss liquid may be lower than its advertisers would have you believe. Read More »

Girls, hang on to your purses, it looks like we’ve finally surpassed the men when it comes to salary—at least in a few big cities.

The New York Times recently reported that in New York City, full time working women aged 21 to 30 made 117 percent of men’s wages. They made even more than that in Dallas, at 120 percent.

Once the survey branched nationwide, however, full time female wages fell back down to 89 percent

Regardless, this new trend is still a good sign, especially to women of older generations who have been fighting the wage battle as long as females were invited into the workforce. Many companies seem to be getting the message that boobs and lipstick don’t equal less skill.

While it’s not entirely clear why women are making more cash in cities like New York and Boston, some experts speculate it could be because women are graduating from college at higher numbers than men, and many of those graduating girls are “gravitating toward major urban areas”. Read More »

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: summer ain’t over until the school bell rings.

Before you dive headfirst into college orientation, that sophomore year daze-fest, junior year 300-level-class hell, and senior year craziness, do yourself a favor and recharge, reenergize, and take some time for yourself.

A perfect way to spend some lovely “me” time is to venture out to the beach by your lonesome. Read More »

Disclosure: I used to go to a liberal arts school– and when I say liberal arts school, I mean liberal arts school. This place was tiny (1500 students) and in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

I lived in an ecologically – friendly dorm, ate veggie burgers, created art out of garbage and was generally bored out of my mind. So naturally, the only thing to do was move to Texas. But that’s besides the point.

Liberal arts kids are a unique breed. Instead of being encouraged to use college as a vessel for job placement and perpetual financial security, they are left to their own devices with indirect help from people like Kant and Foucault.

Consequently, post – college, most L.A. kids drift to boring jobs with meager wages in liberal cities, subsisting only with help from their more traditionally successful benefactors (parents). But all this is, of course, just speculation. Read More »

If you’re an obese teenage girl, you’re half as likely to go to college as a “normal” teenage girl.

Researchers at the University of Texas-Austin confirmed this hypothesis in a recent study of 11,000 young adults, proving what we’ve all known for years: obesity isn’t just detrimental to one’s physical health.

But why are girls getting the brunt end of this stick?

Even girls of average weight have image problems; obese girls are dangerously subject to a negative self – image. And a negative self – image lessens the desire to be social, to go to college, and to generally succeed in anything either than being overweight, creating a vicious cycle spurred by the obesity epidemic.

Researchers say that obese girls can improve their self – worth by joining clubs or creating close relationships with parents and teachers. God. If I hear “join a club!” as the solution to a pervasive social issue one more time… I just don’t know.

The fact of the matter is, once an epidemic keeps people from attending college, one of the best and most accepting receptacles for everyone from weirdos to clowns to jocks that one will see in a lifetime, the solution cannot be to “join a club.” Read More »

We are all aware that there are a lot of people criticizing college students today. Whether we are called lazy and or entitled, it’s always something, it seems. Well, fortunately, the NY Times is giving college students all over the country the chance to respond.

The New York Times Magazine College Essay Contest website says that, “In the turbulent late ’60s and early ’70s, college campuses played a major role in the culture and politics of the era. Today, according to author and historian Rick Perlstein, colleges have lost their central place in the broader society and in the lives of undergraduates.” Read More »

These girls say hooking-up is the new dating.

Do you agree?

I don’t. I think hooking-up is the new way to stop feeling lonely on a Saturday night. The new way for collegiate / twenty-something aged girls to feel powerful and anti-emotional (since we’re constantly being told we overreact about everything). A new symptom of a sexually driven media culture, perhaps. But I don’t think it’s the new dating.

How little faith do we have in relationships these days if we think hooking-up is the only way to meet people? It’s one of the only ways to have an awkward sexual experience, but it’s certainly not the only way to meet a fantastic guy.

In fact, I think it’s a horrible way to meet a fantastic guy. The more I like someone, the less inclined I am to take a running leap into bed. It sounds a little backwards, but the more I want to be with someone, the longer I’ll hold out, because by then it’s about a connection, an experience, and not just gratification. Read More »

Being in a sorority I have my reservations about ABC Family’s new show, “GrΣΣk”, since whenever a portrayal of us is attempted it’s almost always negative. Not to mention that it always drives me crazy when people spell “Greek” with sigmas in place of “E”. Every Greek knows that while “sigma” might LOOK like ‘E’, it has nothing to do with the letter; “epsilon” does. Of course epsilon is just represented by a plain ‘E’, so it’s not nearly as swΣΣt looking.

Anyway, another concern I have is that this is the kind of show I would have expected from The CW, not ABC Family. Aren’t they supposed to be strictly PG? They even have an odd advertisement gimmick where you can “rush” the frats and sorors of the show on the website. I can admit that sororities and fraternities have done a lot over the years to warrant a negative image, but it’s still a very present and ever thriving community on most college campuses, and its members are really sick of the constant fire we’re put under, personally and publicly.

I often feel like our campus does everything in their power to downplay our Greek societies, including our very own Greek office which disbanded a sorority this past spring. I think that often times our administration forgets that this is college, and these are sororities, not the Stepford Wives. As a result all of this Greek life is only about 3% of our school body, at a school which constantly complains about the lack of community on our campus. The hypocrisy is endless. Read More »

Since I seem to have shared everything else with the readers of College Candy lately I thought it was only appropriate to update you on one more aspect of my personal life. Remember that boy I blue balled? Well, after two months of dating things have come to an end.

I don’t know if you know this, but I am a pretty funny girl. Don’t believe me? Maybe you should re-read some of my greatest articles (here’s one). I told you so.

Anyways, this boy never laughed at my jokes. But maybe that’s because he was never listening to a word I was saying and was simply waiting for the opportunity to tell his own stories. Which, I must add, were never funny. Despite that huge drawback, though, he was good to me; he bought me flowers and brought me coffee in the morning when he knew I was sleepy. He was a nice guy and it was just so hard to end things with such a nice guy.

Until he started being a not-so-nice guy. Read More »