Meet the new Four Loko

Google Cloud will change the way you write your finals

This is the smartest invention ever

4 habits you should adopt in college in college

Tips to beat final exam stress

Fast fixes for a rough week

Boost your resume over winter winter

Sorority pledges tormented by Facebook scammer

Are beer googles fact or fiction?

Top 50 ways to make money

Dealing with grief in college

How to plan the perfect college party

Just a typical Tuesday in class.

While every college girl shares many of the same college experiences (selling books, sexiled, one shot too many), she also carves her own path and has her own unique adventure. Have you ever wondered what it’s like for other girls? What it’s like to be an engineer? To get married?! To play an NCAA sport? Well wonder no more. Our one-of-a-kind CollegeCandy writers (and readers!) are sharing their unique experiences and opening our eyes to different college worlds.

It’s late on a Friday and I’m enjoying a night out with my friends at the local Steak ‘n Shake. I’m just about to dig in to a nice, juicy burger when a sudden realization hits me. I have a paper due in exactly one hour, and if I miss the deadline I will fail my web design class. I rush home and spend the next hour furiously banging out the rest of my paper about famous designers. With ten minutes to go, I hit the submit button. Crisis averted—for now.

This is a typical day in my life as an online college student.

I started as an online student with just one class. With a history of barely passing my on-campus classes, I needed a change. I knew it would still take a lot of work, but taking a class in my pajamas sounded like too good an idea to pass up. The result? I squeaked by with an “A” and scored higher online than in any of my real classes. The next semester I took two more. After that, I was hooked. Last semester I started my life as a full-time online college student working toward a degree in web design.

Don’t let me mislead you into thinking online classes are easy. Sometimes they’re down right infuriating. You can only talk to your classmates and professors by email, and working on a group project is like trying to herd cats. You’ll put in just as much time and hard work into your assignments as you would in any other class, and you’ll still find yourself chugging energy drinks in the library and cramming for finals.

Online classes do come with some drawbacks. If you take them through a real, accredited college or university (and the University of Phoenix does not count) you have to follow some strict guidelines. You need to be a least a little computer savvy to save your work in different formats and ensure it gets submitted to the right place.

More importantly, though, most professors take the stance that if you miss a single assignment or project during the semester, you fail. Since you don’t have to physically go to class, they see no reason why your project should be late. During my last semester I had surgery. I spent an entire week cramming to get in two weeks worth of assignments so I could take a week off to recover.

On the plus side, I can work from anywhere. If I need to go out of town, I can pack up my laptop and go. I also have the freedom to attend virtual classes at any time. I boot up the computer late at night and sign in to start reading the assignment for that week. Then I head out to the library to get some work done.

It’s not your typical college experience, but it works for me. And I love it.

If you ever consider online classes, be it one or an entire degree, take them from a college you know and trust. Pick one with a physical campus that offers regular degrees. The University of Phoenix, DeVry University, and ITT Tech are all scams. Let me repeat that. Scams. Your classes will be a push over, your credits won’t transfer to any other college, and your degree will be worthless. They’re known as degree mills because you’re essentially paying them to award you a worthless degree. So if you decide online is for you, talk to your current college and see what they offer. Whether on-campus or online, you still have to work your butt off to get a college education.

[Story submitted by reader, Jessica R. Thanks, Jess! You got your own story? Tell us all about it and you could be featured on CollegeCandy.com!]

Popularity pays off!

I really miss the days of screaming down the stairs, “Mom!  Can I go over to Ashley’s house to eat dinner and watch TGIF tonight!?”

No, I’m not reminiscing about Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper and Boy Meets World.  I’m talking about the “my dad will drop us off if your mom can pick us up” type of hang outs favored among middle school girls the world over.  In my house there were rules, though: no seeing friends on school nights, no sleepovers if my grades slipped below B’s.  At the time it seemed so unfair.  And you know what, it was unfair!  Mom and dad were totally salting my game.

Turns out, their best intentions may have actually been hurting my school performance more than helping it. A new study out of UCLA is claiming that more friends equals better grades.  While the study focuses on adolescents, I like to think the same principles can be applied to college students as well.  Seriously, think about it:

1. Intro to Geology.  Rocks (ooh!) and glaciers (ah!) and some kid next to you drooling on your shoulder as he snores through another riveting lecture (…ew!).  You know there’s no way you’re going to make it through an entire semester of this snoozefest alone.  Since habitual skipping and boring professors put you on the highway to SeeYouAgainNextYear-ville, I say round up a posse and brave the storm together.  Good friends are always there to poke you when you zone out and cram with you at 2am the night before the exam.

2.  When you’re four tequila shots in, up on the bar shaking what yo mama gave ya, you want a true friend either a) making a fool of themselves right there along with you or b) standing down below holding their purse against your butt to hide the fact that you didn’t wear undies with your minidress. This doesn’t really relate to grades, but it’s still a good case as to why you should have friends.

3. You know how they say the best romances evolve out of friendships?  Well, I think the best grades and the best romances evolve out of being extra-friendly with your TA!  Instant A!

4.  If one keg equals roughly sixty beers and one party consists of thirty friends, how many kegs do you need to get everyone drunk? See, friends encourage you to brush up on math even outside class!

5.  As an alumna of the Greek system, I can speak from personal experience when I say having a whole house of sorority friends saved my grades on more than one occasion. I present to you the two most beautiful words in my undergrad vocabulary: test files.  It was law that after you took a class, you did not recycle those old binders of notes and exams.  Would you throw away an impossible to find designer purse?  No?  Well then why would you throw away Professor Leery’s legendarily brain-twisting psych exam?   Make your own test file system with your circle of friends and you’re destined for success!

College time is like dog years; the things you accomplish/see/learn/sleep through in one year would take seven in the real world. And by the time you graduate, you’ll have a whole lot to look back on. Between your academic accomplishments, your social accomplishments and just those little things you’ve learned about life (like doing your own laundry – HUGE milestone!), there’s a lot to be proud of. I know I’ll always look back on my four and a half years (yes, getting my parents to pay for one extra semester was a HUGE accomplishment) and feel proud about that time I didn’t die when Jell-o wrestling my roommate in my backyard.

Having done so much, it’s hard to pick out our greatest college accomplishments, but this week I asked the CollegeCandy writers (and all our Twitter/Facebook friends) to come up with theirs:

Kari – Florida State: My greatest accomplishment is an even tie between raising $300 for charity playing quarters and getting invited to a party thrown by a secret society. Equally awesome.

Hannah – University of Northern Colorado, Greeley: Never sleeping through my 9 am class that I HATED even though it would have been so much easier! [Submitted by a fabulous reader via Facebook.]

Rachael – University of Miami: Managing to earn myself a position in nearly every student organization I’m involved in, as well as placing in nationals with my debate teams two years in a row, all while maintaining a good enough GPA for Deans’ List or higher four out of six semesters. Balancing all of that is definitely my biggest achievement!

Hannah – Assumption College: My greatest college accomplishment to date has been graduating Summa Cum Laude,;it is something I have worked hard for throughout my four years.

Christie – NC State: My greatest college achievement is finally breaking out of my shell. I was super shy in high school.

Brittany – University of Saint Thomas: Greatest accomplishment? I shot gunned a beer once from a paint shooter… Does that count? Or getting on the Dean’s List. It’s a toss up.

@Msmiceli: My greatest college accomplishment is not putting massive amounts of Nair in my roommate’s shampoo. [Submitted via Twitter, duh.]

Ricki – University of Michigan: Managing to get the Comm department to give me money and save me from being poor this summer!

Kelly – University of Iowa: Being voted Best Cocktail Waitress by a group of regulars in the bar I work at.

Norah – Drake University: Making it through a rough junior year. Also that time I made the last cup in beer pong with my eyes closed.

@theurbanwhisk: Not passing out or throwing up while being part of the girls wing eating contest during Greek Week! [Another Tweeter!]

Brithny – Duke: Riding the mechanical bull for a whole two minutes at our local saloon. Oh, the South.

Emmy – Loyola University Chicago: Finding my ID, keys, wallet, AND coat after leaving them at the bar one crazy night.

Lauren – University of Michigan: Either the time I got an A on a presentation I gave while completely drunk (it was St. Patrick’s day), or winning the beer pong tournament that got me completely drunk before I had to give said presentation.

[Reader] Abby – Loyola University Chicago: Setting the curve on my accounting final!

Charlsie – Hollins University: My greatest college accomplishment, academically, was writing my Honors Thesis about the Evolution of Girls’ Literature from the 1800s until now. The project took me an entire school year to complete, but I ended up with sixty pages of writing that I feel proud of, despite many bumps along the way. Getting an A on this was probably the sweetest grade over the past four years

Alex – Lakehead University: My job at Lakehead! I work in Orientation and help plan every detail. I’m especially involved in the volunteer-aspect and just feel like I’ve really made a difference.

Celia – Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi: Switching majors to something I actually enjoyed versus something I knew would make money. It’s a lot easier to make it to that 9am when it’s something you absolutely love studying! [Another fabulous Facebook friend.]

What’s your greatest college accomplishment?

I remember in my senior year of high school, one girl was found to have plagiarized part of a paper from the internet. Not only was she suspended; she had to deliver a speech in front of the entire class, explaining why plagiarism was wrong.

Princeton has been particularly aggressive on the cheating front in the same way. We have honor code meetings, have to write a page on matriculation illustrating our understanding of it, and get regular updates from the honor committee. All the same, when I arrived there I discovered whole new layers of gray areas.

In problem set classes, for example, there are plenty of people who like to work in study groups. That’s all well and good, except when “study groups” turn into “let’s just copy the answers off each other.” I thought that kind of behavior was only in the occasional math class, but I was surprised to learn that it’s much more prevalent in college. When all that matters for your future career is that good grade in an Orgo class, it can be extremely tempting just to write down the process and answer of your friends, whether you understand it or not, and worry about the final exam later.

I’m not taking a holier-than-thou position on this, either. I’m just lucky I’m not tempted in my classes. As an English major, I don’t have much opportunity to enter the grey area of cheating short of blatant plagiarism, which offends my sensibilities as a writer. I’m curious how fellow students feel about the study group phenomenon, however. When the chips are down in a really tough class with a really tough grader, would you copy the answer of a friend on a problem set?

I have friends who specifically take the classes of people they know just so they can hit them up for answers on a regular basis. I find it disturbing, but I also acknowledge that not every college class is going to reach the ideal of “I just take it to learn!” Some classes are a grind and are meant to be endured rather than enjoyed. But how far will today’s college student go to endure them?

Last year I was on the receiving end of some of the grey area-cheating. I took a class with a friend that was heavy on the paperwriting. I was accustomed to this, but my friend wasn’t. He took to sending me drafts the night before the deadline, pleading for revision help. On a couple of occasions, I gave revision suggestions. Then I told myself that enough was enough, and I wouldn’t do it anymore. I don’t think giving revision help is cheating at all; it’s not giving any direct answers, and at Princeton you can get revision help from the teachers right up until the day the paper is due. But it still made me cautious about how much help to offer.

Nowadays, with the ease of the internet, it seems like the grey area of cheating or plagiarism has expanded hugely, and the good ole-fashioned honor code is struggling to keep up.

Where do you draw the line?

[Photo courtesy of reviewjournal.com]

Sauntering into the huge lecture room with confidence, I grabbed myself a blue book and 15-page questionnaire and found a seat. I had only spent a few hours studying the night before, but it was fine, because I was taking the class Pass/Fail, and had already secured enough good grades to keep me in the Pass range, no matter how I did on the final. Plus, it was Ancient Greek. Who does well on the final exam (which reviewed the entire year) in Ancient Greek? The coolness factor of learning a dead language wore off after the first couple of weeks, and by this exam, I was happy if I never say another Gamma or Delta in my life.

I proceeded to fail the final for three hours, and when finally satisfied with my poor memory and congregation skills, I passed the test in and walked out of the door. Who cares? I thought, practically skipping back to my dorm. No more Greek for the rest of my life!

The numbers came back, and I did indeed fail. Miserably. But as soon as I looked at my final grade, my nonchalance immediately disappeared. The Registrar didn’t have me down as P/F in Ancient Greek, they had me with a letter grade! A very horrible letter grade.

I was pissed, I was embarrassed, and most importantly, my workaholic status had been blemished. But what could I do? I had been an idiot. Twice. Once for never checking if the Registrar had my records in order, and twice for sitting in the back of the library and laughing with a friend instead of reviewing “Kronos and His Family”.

Little did I know, I could have sued.

This week, a 27-year-old guy filed a compliant against Columbia University for an F he received on a final exam. The nursing student claims he told professors he needed to miss the test to care for a sick relative, but when he came back, found that he had failed (in absentia, I’m guessing), and was cut from his program.

Nicholas Perrino claims the school ignored his appeals in the matter, and is now suing to get the F erased from his record, reinstated into his program, and have part of his tuition reimbursed.

If things really happened the way they did, I can understand the guy’s case. Real life should always come before school. But if he’s just BSing because he doesn’t want an F, he should cry me a river.

Nobody likes bad grades, dude. Even when they’re in Ancient Greek.