What’s more fun than getting creative with your boo and dressing up for Halloween together? Instead of going as a slutty bumblebee while your man dons something obscure (that he thinks is so funny), try making up a couples costume. And I don’t mean the old plug and socket costume. Think outside the box. One year my guy and I dressed up as Buckbeak and Sirius Black from Harry Potter and got the best costume award from my big sis at her party.

It seems that celebrity couples are the only ones with great costumes, but this isn’t true! I’ve collected a bunch of ideas, even some that weren’t necessarily for couples but easily can be… Read More »

Halloween do’s and don’ts

How to write a perfect essay in 5 minutes

Should you study abroad?

Make caramel apples

Ways to beat the mid-semester fashion slump

How to make money in college

Utilize your class time

Too much planning is a bad thing

Most haunted college campuses

10 reasons not to drink Four Loko

Prep your grad school resume

The longer in college, the more….

Could you survive a week without a computer?

Halloween in college is a big deal.  Major, really.  You may have thought you hit your trick-or-treating peak in the 3^rd grade when you wrapped yourself in tinfoil and went out as leftovers, but think again.  Unlike Christmas, the 4^th of July, and Thanksgiving, everyone’s on campus for this most hallowed of evenings and the booze will absolutely be flowing (perhaps in cauldrons).

From fog machines to technicolor jello shots, there’s a lot of stimuli to process and as a freshman it’s easy to get overwhelmed.  But novice or otherwise, you’ve got to keep your head, wigged or otherwise, in the game.  Here’s what you can expect as your favorite bars and frat houses become unrecognizable with silly string…

A General Lack of Pants
From dozens of Risky Business-era Tom Cruises to sexy cats/bees/fairies/mice, there will be maximum leggage come October 31^st.  I’m not sure what it is about “everyone dress up crazy” that translates to things being purely pants-optional, but it’s a fact: ass cheeks will show, cellulite will be on parade, hairy man thighs will make a one-night-only appearance.

Dry Ice
Is it edible?  Will it kill you?  Why did those stupid pledges have to go stick it in the jungle juice and ruin a perfectly good concoction?  No, it doesn’t look like witches’ brew.  And the fact that he’s 22 and just drew that connection makes you question his sanity.

Read More »

We might be too old to go door-to-door and ask strangers for candy… but we’re not too old to dress up as slutty versions of our favorite childhood fairy tales characters, animals, or public service workers, are we? Besides, if we’re struggling to pay $49.99 for a “Sexy Bull Fighter” costume, dammit, we want to get the most bang for our buck!

Here are a few games and party options that you can host throughout Halloween week, just to get into the spirit of things!

Liquor Treat
This game can be the most fun, but is also the most difficult to pull off, especially if you live in a dorm with a strict RA or a No-Alcohol Policy. Similar to an “Around-the-World” party, you have to rally everyone on your floor/in your apartment building to participate. The members of each room or apartment choose a theme…and a type of liquor. When guests arrive, they go door to door and can stay to mingle in any room they like. When they ring the doorbell, they are also rewarded with a shot– hence, this is the grown-up’s version of Trick or Treat. Read More »

My school is famous for our Halloween debauchery. Every year literally tens of thousands of members of the under-25 crowd dress up (or down) to parade along Del Playa Drive in varying levels of consciousness. Halloween is like the senior prom of college (four years in a row).

The planning and upkeep in preparation for the big night(s) is fierce. Girls have been known to have mental and emotional breakdowns due to the stress of picking a costume, making that costume, making sure the costume is sexy/cute enough, and also making sure that nothing naughty falls out of it. OK, maybe not a full on breakdown, but that’s probably because they self medicate with shots of tequila.

There’s a lot of prep work that goes into the perfect Halloween and the key to success is planning. You don’t want to wake up on October 29th without a costume and be forced to go as a naughty school girl…again. So use this calendar as a countdown to Halloween; stay on track and you’ll be good to go come October 31st (or 25th if you like to celebrate all week long!) sans breakdown. You’ll look amazing, have a great time, and increase your chances of making out with Batman at a party.

October 8-10: Costumes, Costumes, Costumes!
This weekend, figure out what you want to be for Halloween, whether you are going solo or doing a group thang with your girlfriends. Peruse the Halloween stores, hit the internet for inspiration and settle on something. If it requires ordering, get on that now!  You want to make sure that it has time to ship and that it fits. (Note: Yes, showing a little butt cheek does count as fitting. It is Halloween, after all.) If you are making your costume, go out and pick up all the goods. It always takes longer to piece that thing together than you think and you don’t want to have to run out the night of Halloween when you realize you don’t have enough fabric to cover your nips. Read More »

Somewhere between midterms and fall parties and oversized flannel shirts paired with black leggings tucked into slouchy crochet style Uggs, it hits you. It’s Halloween crunch time. One morning you roll out of bed and realize your roommates have already perfected their Village People getup, your best friend and her boyfriend are pop culture referencing the shiz out of Taylor and Kanye, and your pseudo-fratty neighbors have their imitation silk Wal-Mart robes ready to make Hugh Hefner proud.

But with T-minus 36 hours to arguably the biggest party night (week?) of the year, you got nothing. Eff. You need to throw something awesome together fast.

Never fear.

Here’s a quick list of insta-costumes, all using stuff you probably have in your closet already or can snap up at Target on the cheapsies.

Super Hero: Mid-drift baring Wonder Woman costumes are so overdone. And also $60. Ouch. Save yourself the cash and the killer ab workout and opt for bright swimsuit bottoms over leggings, topped with a cami or another snug-fitting top. Decorate with your monogram in masking tape or Google image search a cause—maybe you’ll be super pizza bagel girl, or captain celebrity gossip. Complete the look with one of those thick workout headbands; fashion a cape from a sheet, or make a run to the fabric store for something snazzier. Wear boots and recruit sidekicks.

Beyonce: This one may take a little more effort (and guts) but if you got it, work it. You can pick up a black leotard at Wal-Mart, or any dance supply store. From there, all you need is a gaudy ring, tall heels, taller hair (great time to break out the Bump It) and YouTube dance moves. Convince the boyf, or another suitable male, to go as Jay-Z. Otherwise, live it up as a single lady. Hello, Sasha Fierce. Read More »

A few weeks ago I returned to my college campus to reunite with my old friends Boones Farm and Natty Light, watch a football game and eat some chipatis. When I arrived on campus I was inundated with drunk kids keg rolling (similar to a log roll but on an empty keg) down the street, rap music blaring from the windows of empty houses and guys doing 3-story beer bongs…all at the ripe hour of 10 a.m.

I felt home.

College life offers students experiences they would never have anywhere else, mostly because having people lift your legs while you hold onto a keg and drink beer for as long as you can isn’t really socially acceptable anywhere else. Nor is reviewing your text messages from the night before to figure out what you did after leaving the house. Or making a meal out of tomatoes, cream cheese and Shredded Wheat (the only things left in your kitchen).

But those things are not only accepted in college, they are expected. They are things that define college life. And the things I miss most about being a real person with a “real” job. (I write about college life all day… I’m not sure anyone would consider that as grueling as an Investment Banker.)

So this week I asked the CollegeCandy writers to break it all down for us and define the life that is college:

“You know you’re in college when______________”

What are your tell-tale signs?

Laura – St. Johns: When going to bed at midnight is considered “early” and waking up anytime before noon on the weekend is unheard of.

Ness – Sheridan: When your diet consists mainly of KD, hot dogs, and, if you’re lucky, maybe a little chicken.

Charlsie – Hollins University: When the word “sketchy” is used in your vocabulary more often than not to describe your Friday/Saturday night antics.

Teresa – UCSD: When your tagged Facebook photos pretty much render you unemployable, but they’re priceless enough that you can’t bring yourself to de-tag. Read More »

Now that I’m halfway done with my college career (a pretty cushy place to be, considering I have two more years before the real world), I anticipate all the bright eyed and bushy tailed freshmen about to invade the dorms and use fake-id’s at all my favorite bars. Putting myself in their shoes, I wish that someone had been there to give me advice for my college career (all I got was my Mom telling me not to hook up with any fraternity boys until Spring semester). So I dove in head first and learned a few lessons of my own.

I learned the value of my dry erase board to my social life, I learned that “attendance optional” classes are not always a good thing. I learned that I should always have an assortment of costumes readily available, and that sharing drinks with my friends meant sharing drinks with whoever they made out with (and whoever they made out with…) All of these were very important lessons, and I’d like to share some of the pearls of wisdom I gained my freshman year. Read More »

Happy Halloween, CollegeCandies! We hope you started your morning off right: with a Pumpkin Spice Latte and a bowl of candy corn pumpkins. Mmmmm.

We know that most people count down to birthdays and Christmas, but Halloween is our favorite holiday of the year by far. I mean, there are costumes! And candy! And scary movies! And candy!

Oh wait…we said that one already.

Since we love this day so much, this week we asked our writers to weigh in on their favorite Halloween traditions. Some are old, some are new, but all are reasons to make this our #1 holiday.

Olua: Since my family never let me celebrate Halloween, I used to love watching all the cartoon specials they showed Halloween week. They also used to give us candy in class. Good times.

Kathryn S.: Getting wasted in a vinyl dress. Spill all the beer you want on me, it’ll slide right off!

Erica – Kent State: Carving pumpkins. This year my roommates and I did it surrounded by Carlo Rossi, pumpkin shaped cookies and our kittens. Then we baked the seeds. Delicious!

Carly – Grinnell: I love handing out candy to kids at the door. I just think it’s so fun to look at their costumes. Oh, and watching scary movies. Yessss.

Kelly – UMass: Keg stands in a slutty costume Read More »

While Halloween now is more closely associated with finding a (slutty) costume and drinking Halloween inspired beverages, as a kid, there was nothing better than going door to door loading up on enough candy to last you till the 4th of July.Only problem is, my mom – the smart woman that she is – knew her life would be torturous through July if she let her three hyper children keep that much sugar around.

So every year, my two older brothers and I would have to dump all of our coveted, prized candy into the middle of the table. My mother then carefully separated the candy into piles – Milky Ways in one pile, Twix in another, Candy Corn in another, and so on. She then handed a bucket to each of us and, one by one, we would go around taking our pick and filling our buckets.

Once they were filled, the rest of the candy went to inner-city kids whose neighborhoods were too dangerous to trick-or-treat in (which now I see was a very noble thing but at the time I couldn’t understand why they deserved my candy gold. After all, I spent three long hours in the cold with clown makeup on my face, saying stupid poems at people’s doors while they filled my bag up with all that deliciousness). Read More »