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. Everyone needs a little guidance now and then (or always) so we’ve pulled together a variety of perspectives (the does-it-all girl, the party girl and Ms. Study Lounge) to weigh in on your life conundrums and give you the best advice we can.

Every week they’ll be tackling your questions about college. From classes to keggers to keggers before classes, they’ll do their best to respond and be your Pez dispenser of collegiate wisdom. Got questions? Unsure of a decision? Just wanna chat it up with some really awesome chics?

Hit them up in the comments or shoot them an email with the subject “College Q&A”!

Question:
So, along with my 3 final exams and this mega paper that is worth 50% of my grade all happening next week, it’s my best friend/roommate’s 21st birthday this weekend. Any thoughts/tips/miracles that I might be able to use to fit it all in, do well and find time to pack to go home? I really don’t want to miss anything… Read More »

School is hard – you have to read and write and go to the library during parties to cram for exams. And sometimes all that isn’t even enough to get you that highly coveted “A.”

WTF? What ever happened to an A for effort? Or extra credit? Or taking a bit of pity on the kids you know bust their asses but still just miss the “A”?

I can’t tell you how many times I worked my booty off only to get screwed by a curve or my uncanny ability to freak out before exams…and then bomb them. I would seriously do anything for an “A” somtimes. Anything.

This week I asked the CollegeCandy writers to weigh in and tell me what they’d do for an “A.” Surprisingly, sexual favors weren’t that high on the list. Either we are getting less desperate (because we don’t need to be), or professors are getting really old and unattractive…

Erica – Kent State: Can’t say I’d go as far as sexual favors, but I wouldn’t be too proud to do a little flirting. Hey, why else do they let/force young, attractive TA’s teach classes?

Kathryn S.: Go to office hours for extra help. Ugh. This sounds lame, but you don’t even know how much I hate office hours.

Kari – FSU: I would recite the starting line up of the Miami Dolphins, in song form, for my sports fanatic prof in front of a 300 person lecture. And I have (he later confessed that he couldn’t give me any actual extra credit). Read More »

My roommate always jokes that I am constantly writing papers. Sometimes, I think she’s right. But I chose classes with papers on purpose—I hate studying for tests or doing problem sets. I would choose an essay over a quiz any day. And while I am glad I chose the classes I am taking, I have found that I always seem to be working…even on weekends.

This is the first time in my life where the amount of time spent in the classroom is significantly less than the amount of time doing work outside of class. Homework used to be a couple of hours a night, which seemed impossibly cruel after spending all my morning and most of my afternoon plunked in a desk at school. Now, class is brief and concise. There’s no taking attendance or explaining the homework. All we do is learn.

I like that I don’t have to spend unnecessary amounts of time doing absolutely nothing in class. But these short classes lead to another change from high school—lots and lots of out-of-class work. Although I have many more hours free than last year, I still feel as busy as ever. But almost two months into college, I think I’ve found my balance. The library has been my savior more than once on a Saturday when my friends and my cozy bed tried to beckon me away from my papers to write. Bringing my food up to my room to eat has given me an extra half an hour to read over a paper before it’s due. Most importantly, I’ve noticed that I have resources through peers and professors which I’ve never encountered before.

All in all, I know I may seem insanely busy to those around me. But there’s a difference between the busyness of this semester and my hectic, stress-filled days of high school. I am choosing these classes; I am choosing to write these essays on these topics; I am choosing to work harder than I would be if I were back home. For once in my academic life, I am busy learning, not busy doing useless assignments. So bring on the papers, I am ready to work.

Today, I realized I had been living a lie. When I changed my major from journalism to English last semester (big mistake – but that’s another story for another blog), I thought “Hey, sweet! I can catch up on classes this summer by reading classic lit (poolside, albeit), expanding my already-extensive vocabulary with words like ‘subtilization’ and ‘castrato’ and still work on my tan!”

Apparently, I had fallen prey to my university’s (and um, my so-called ‘friends’) pernicious lies about the elusive evil that is summer school. Both my advisor and financial counselor had blissfully encouraged me to spend my hard-earned work/study cash on summer classes because, well, they were going to be so much easier than the normal, semester-long demons I would inevitably have to struggle with during the fall semester. It sounded like a pretty good idea, and when I consulted my girls who had all previously taken summer classes, they too said that summer school was way easy. And okay, I got a little excited when I realized that this meant I could wear flip-flops and jean skirts to class every day if I wanted– something northeast Ohio school years rarely permit.

So, I took the plunge. I signed up for summer school…with little to no idea about what was in store for me.

I was still floating on cloud nine after a post-midnight romp with an attractive boy when I waltzed into my first English Studies class – totally ready to tackle Faulkner and Woolf with ease. However, as soon as the syllabus reached my freshly-manicured fingernails….I practically went into cardiac arrest. Read More »

When I read Sloane Crosley’s bio and saw that she listed, “…the cover story for the worst-selling issue of Maxim in that magazine’s history” among her accomplishments, I knew her literary voice was the type that I would enjoy.

Crosley was a writer living in Manhattan, publishing stories in magazines from Playboy to The New York Times until she decided to start writing essays after getting locked out of two separate apartments, in one day.

The collection of essays make for a great read because they’re almost like “speed dating” (to quote Ms. Crosley herself). Her voice, as well as her stories, are witty, honest, irreverent and entertaining.

Take this for example: in one of her essays Sloane reveals a collection of plastic ponies she had accumulated from boyfriends over the years which she kept “semi-secretly” in a kitchen drawer, imagining what it would be like if she died one day and people found them in her apartment…

Pick up the book, I’m telling you — you’ll totally enjoy it.

OR, Participate in her Pony Project on Flickr.

Have your own drawer full of plastic ponies or other “nostalgic” mementos of love gone awry / other hilarious disappointments and minor humiliations? Share your traumatic trinkets with us.

A lot of people think sitting front and center at a lecture is lame. Lame and nerdy. And a lot more think having scintillating discussions with the professor after class is even lamer.

But I think it’s the smartest thing you can do.

Make no mistake about it, even if you go to a small liberal arts college where kids walk around without shoes and you know the name of everyone in your class, you’re still one of hundreds. One of the hundreds of students your professor has.

Just another face, another paper, to be graded quickly before Must See TV comes on at 9:00.

But what if you want to do extra well in the class?

What if you’re like me, and really anal about your reputation, and simply can’t deal with the fact that someone might think you’re not trying? What if you’re taking that required math course, and honestly can’t remember those 5th grade times tables?

You get to know your professor.

*Be Engaged: Sitting front and center, looking awake, keeping your body language open and available helps your professor see that you’re actually taking in what they’re saying. After staring into a sea of glazed-over eyes, finding yours open and watching will set that professor’s heart aflutter.

*Answer Questions: Nobody likes know-it-alls and morons who love the sound of their own voice, but raising your hand once a class will keep you on your professor’s radar. Just make sure you have something worthwhile to say, because believe it or not, professors hate idiots just as much as you do. Read More »