We’ve been on a giveaway high the past few weeks and there’s no sign that it’s going to end anytime soon. Not only are we giving away free food (click here to enter!), but we’re also giving away a 16GB iPod Nano valued at $180, already stocked with the ‘Take Me Home Tonight’ soundtrack. Yep that’s right, Take Me Home Tonight’s soundtrack, which is chock full of the ’80s greatest jams. (Get the full rundown below.)

Want more than the soundtrack? Check out the movie (and cutie-patootie Topher Grace) this weekend. It’s coming out Friday and it’s sure to impress you more than ’80s night at your favorite frat house.

Ready to win the iPod Nano? Check out the rules: 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 »

After spending all of spring semester counting down the days until summer break started, I’m now faced with the end of summer and even more school.  Where did the time go?  What was I doing when the sun was shining and the waves were crashing?  Oh yeah, I was probably online.  Hazard of the job, I suppose (and of being a college student).

However, I decided that I would not let the rest of the summer go to waste.  I’m going to take stock of all the things I was excited about before the summer began and make sure I do them before I go back to my dungeon dorm room.

Eat A Lot of Free Food – My mom loves to cook for me whenever I’m home.  I don’t have to say anything more than, “I think I’m coming up to visit on Saturday” and she’ll have already bought the ingredients for my favorite meals.  Things like eggs benedict, home-made macaroni and cheese (with six kinds of cheese!! mmm), cherry roasted baby-back ribs and so much more are thrown at me (not literally, although I fully support food fights) from the moment I step out of my car.  Plus, a plate of brownies or cookies that seem to fall into my hands at random times.  Yes, I’ll leave fit to burst and probably need a couple days to sleep off the food coma, but it’s so worth it.  Just thinking about a whole semester of dorm food and ramen noodles makes me wanna go home right now… Read More »

Winter is a time for work.  We’re working hard on our schoolwork, our savings accounts, our bodies, and many other very useful things.  Summer, by contrast, is a time for play.  We’re ready to kill some brain cells, show off our bodies in barely-there outfits, and spend all that money we worked so hard to save.

Our friends over at Oscar Mayer, the people who have given us hundreds of good times at cook-outs and barbecues throughout our young lives, are giving us something else – free hot dogs.  Oh yes!  That word was FREE, homies!  Oscar Mayer doesn’t want you to spend your hard-earned cash on delicious food to sustain your amazing summer schedule.  If you go to www.oscarmayer.com, you can sign up for a coupon for free hot dogs.  Could summer get any better?

Um, yes.  I think it could.  I don’t mean to be greedy, but why don’t any other businesses give away free stuff?  Free hot dogs are pretty rad (as is free chocolate!), but where is my free pair of designer shoes?

Here are the Top 5 things I would like to see free coupons for: Read More »

Despite all of you who are going off to college in the fall, moving thousands of miles away from dear old mom and dad, there are a few of us who choose to remain close to home. So close in fact, that we don’t even have to move. That’s right, I’m talking about living with your parents throughout college. Lucky (or not so lucky) for me and my peers, my hometown has our very own, reputable university. And with my college fund having the capacity to cover my entire undergrad at Lakehead or only ONE year at another school, the choice was pretty simple for me.

I know, I know, many of you are shocked. Isn’t a key part of the college experience the independence you gain living in dorms? You have to learn to cook, clean, do laundry and manage your own time! And what about rules? People always question how I live under my parents thumb at 19. And I do agree, it’s definitely not easy to abide by rules when I could be making my own, under my own roof.

Bar none, the best part about living on your own for school is the freedom. When you move out of your childhood home, curfew and chores go out the window! If you want to come home at 5AM every night (or morning depending on how you look at it), that’s totally possible. But with mom and dad sleeping soundly and working the next morning, even if your curfew is non-existent, you still can’t help but feeling guilty. After all, you’re still bumming off of them. Read More »