As I write this, I am about to embark on my final semester of my college career. Weird, right? It almost seems like yesterday when I was a little freshman moving in to my dorm. Except for the growth part, a lot has changed in these three and a half years. I’ve learned the hardships of picking the right classes and managing my social life and my studies, but it was all worth the ride. It’s cliché, but some say that college is the best four years of your life, and it’s true. They go by in the blink of an eye, so take the time to cherish your college life.

1. Make a Bucket List

While it should be on nearly all seniors’ to-do lists, making a bucket list at the beginning of your college career can help you get to know your campus a lot better. Who knows? If you accidentally stumble upon one of your campus’ landmarks, you not only knocked something off “the list”, but have a great story to go along with it. If your school has a great basketball team, sit in the student section and go to a basketball game. The student section of a sports game has its own little bubble, and that’s where all the excitement is. Whatever is on your list, don’t miss out and start making it happen.

2. Take Advantage of Campus Resources

The thing about college is that it offers a variety of resources that very few students actually take advantage of. From coffee houses with free Wifi to free entry to recreation centers, free printing, and basically anything with the word FREE next to it, be sure to snatch up these opportunities now before you have to pay for the real thing once you enter the real world. Syllabus week is the best time to get freebies from bookstores, so don’t miss out!

3. Learn How to Balance Academics and Activities

This is a pretty simple rule to follow, but sometimes, a freshman’s first semester can get a little out of hand. You’re on your own for the first time without Mom and Dad deciding your every move, so it’s up to you to determine if you’re going to that 10 a.m. class or if you’re going to go out every night. Here’s a handy tip: Go to all of your classes during syllabus week. While you should be attending them all semester long, this way, you can decide whether it’s worth dragging yourself out of bed every morning. And while it’s fun to go out, know your limits and know your deadlines. Don’t go out the night before you have an exam, and instead of pulling all-nighters and cramming, study for an hour a day until you have the material down. Studies have shown that you retain more information the longer you study. Plus, you can still have free time to do whatever else you want.

4. Go to Your Professor’s Office Hours

Like the rule before it, this is another handy tip for freshmen. If you’re stuck on an issue or don’t understand the material from lecture, go to your professor’s office hours as soon as you notice a problem. Professors have taken an hour out of their day to meet with students to help them succeed in the class, so it’s harmless to take an hour out of your day, too. Plus, if you go early on, you can get to know the professor and see what a future exam might be like, and if you take the time to meet with the professor, chances are if you’re on the border for a grade, he or she will bump you up.

5. Have Fun!

Simple and easy. The opportunity to be a young undergraduate only comes once, so live it up to the fullest!

Finals. While high school cared enough to only dish ‘em out once a year, we’re no longer so lucky. “So I’m supposed to remember everything since August? Is this cumulative? IS THERE EXTRA CREDIT?!” (Sidenote: Who else is psyched that EC opps still exist in college?). So what’s a girl to do?

Simple. Start now. And follow these lovely (simple, and rewarding) steps to prep yourselves for hell week.

The 6.5 Steps to Finals Success:

Get papers out of the way: Papers are majorly lame. Are they going to get you an A on a final? Nope. So knock them out of the way first in order to focus on the heavily-weighted 100 short-answer exam you have coming up in your Psych class.

Breaks: So important. Has your mind gotten clogged up with calculator functions yet? Take this opportunity to f*&k s#!t up at the gym between 3-page increments of that research paper.

Hard work (Dedication!): Keep your eyes on the prize. By now, you have a ballpark idea of what your final grades could be. Let there be no slippage! And hey, coming home with a 3.5 (or better, obv) before Christmas will definitely boost your chances of seeing a shiny 4S under the tree (or by the light of your menorah)!

Rewards: Finally turned in that research paper? Good job. Treat yourself to a re-run of the VS Fashion Show or a well-deserved blackout!

Outlines: Get this crap out of the way ASAP. Literally… just re-type those study guides your professors gave you all the time and build up this study skeleton with a healthy dose of factual meat. So mindless, yet so helpful.

Sleep: Awkward that I need to remind you… but I guess that’s what happens when you move outta momma’s house. It’s been scientifically proven that you’ll be 100% more alert if you sleep before an important exam or project than if you pull an all nighter. (And I didn’t even need to research that! Thanks, common sense.) It’s more efficient to do a bit of studying before bed, say 11:30ish, and rise half an hour earlier to put in that much more effort. You’ll retain the information better because it’s being repeated at another time, and you won’t wake up ugly. Win-win!

Rewards: Yeah, there’s the other .5. Go rage again, you deserve it. Or be mellow and buy a holiday latte. Your call.

Good luck, fellow freshies! Break is right around the corner.

Leah is a freshman at the College of Charleston whose hobbies include underwater basket weaving, painting hopscotch blocks for inner-city schools and harassing unfaithful celebs and politicians via Twitter (@leahsparagus).

Freshman girls. Two words uttered with excitement by upperclassmen guys, but uttered with disdain accompanied with scoffs and eye rolls by upperclassmen girls. These perceived interlopers consistently dampened discussions I had with many of my friends around our upcoming sophomore year. Sound a little off to you?

It’s as though we view the average freshman girl as a super-eager, stupid, slutty, and sloppy caricature: think Rebecca Black-out. Full disclosure, I’ve repressed the fact that I’ve come pretty close to resembling that image on a few Friday, Saturday, and maybe even a handful of Sunday nights my own first year of college. So, maybe I’m a little biased in their defense.

I thought this was a secret sentiment, but when I signed onto Twitter the one day in early August, at the top of my timeline, a public tweet by a fellow rising sophomore read: “Attention incoming freshman girls: We already hate you.”

It has now come to my attention that a phenomenon is occurring in which confident young women are reverting to insecure mean girls. So what is going on? Why do freshmen girls make their (slightly) older counterparts so crazy?

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We here at CollegeCandy apparently make it seem like college is an absolute blast: dressing up for themed parties on weeknights, collecting endless memories around your college town and learning life lessons from all the top-notch faculty that tuition can buy. But after your first month, your impression of the next few years might be pretty scary: a strong hate for your new roommate, difficult classes that move too fast and too many drunk texts that alcohol can take the blame for. You’ve waited so long to finally get here and, now that you are, maybe it’s just not all that it’s hyped up to be…

But before you sign those papers to withdraw from college – or the college experience – completely, let me tell you: college is awesome. It’s exciting and fun and full of new people, new places, new experiences. This is the beginning of the rest of your life! You’ll find your lifelong friends and deepest passions while occasionally losing your cell phone and too many hours of sleep. You’ll wake up with more stress than your shoulders can handle and fall asleep in shock at what you’ve achieved in a single day. Because for the first time, it really is all about you: learning from your past (or leaving it behind), savoring the present and focusing on your future.

It’s just the first month that’s incredibly and painfully rough: you’ll feel like you’re the weird new kid on campus, contemplate breaking up with your high school sweetheart and crave the company of family, friends and homemade cooking. But honestly, it’s all the unfamiliarity of these years that holds so much potential for what it all could be. And it could be – no, it’s going to be – absolutely great.

Don’t listen to all your friends at other schools who are “lovin’ it!”. They’re not. Well maybe some…but most people admit at the end of freshmen year that the first month was more scary than fun. More lonely than they thought it would be. So just know that it will get better and you will have fun. It takes time to make the bestest friends of your life. You probably won’t meet them the first month.

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It’s finally here! Once again, we’ve been knocked to the bottom of the totem pole, but this time, it’s not a big deal. While looking like a major n00b around campus for the first month or so is far from fun, there’s certainly more of a welcoming vibe from the upperclassmen. If you have yet to move in and make your mark in your classes and social circles, read carefully.

Move-In Day can either be a hit or a miss. The worst part is over when you finally chuck the deuces up to your parents as they get back in the car (“Later, guys! No, I totally won’t give in to peer pressure. I’ll def study hard. Love you too!”). Trust me, missing them won’t be as bad as you think. It’s like ripping off a bandaid. Don’t do it slowly or you’ll both cry.

Now, may I be the first to remind you: just because your new friends take full advantage of the free beer and meal plan doesn’t mean you should, too. Keep that cute lil ass of yours in check!

That said, rest assured that everyone is friendly. So be outgoing, Hang out with your God-fearing RA’s rather…um…interesting roomies. Don’t freak out if you don’t instantly click with someone- you’ve got four years to make another impression. And also- this is important!- don’t be weirded out by the idea of tagging along with the crew you meet heading out at the same time as yours. Bigger crews = better fun. By doing this, you’ll make connections for next week as well! Read More »

You’re off to college! Welcome to the world of crazy terms and way more abbreviations than you’d ever need.  We decided to round up a bunch of typical campus words to ease your transition into the big time. Because how embarrassing would it be if you didn’t know what shacking was?! Ah, you’re welcome. Read More »

Remember freshman year? How scared you were? Nervous? So determined to make all the right decisions? Don’t you wish someone had handed you advice on what you should actually know before going into college?

Well, our good friends over at College Magazine compiled 100 postcards by upperclass students, sharing something they wish they had known while in their freshman year. And here, at CollegeCandy we consider ourselves experts on college life so we wanted to add in some things we wish we had known.

1. It’s okay to change your mind. We’re not all that mature or worldly during high school. It’s okay to change your mind if you hate your major or your school. It might only be four years of college, but it’s worth choosing something that will keep you happy the rest of your life.

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It started at the bus stop. I was probably wearing obnoxiously colored leggings and keds, and she was probably wearing a denim jumper and Mary Janes with those little white socks with the frilly edges. You know the types. She asked if I wanted to share a  bus seat with her since we were in the same kindergarten class. I said yes. Fast forward 13 years, and we’re texting each other about our plans for the first night of college. Were we going to be going to the same rager with jungle juice being served in a fishtank? Was her roommate going to faceplant off of a bar in the basement of a frat house? Were we going to find a DD just so we could go to Wawa at 3am? Not quite yet.

Going to college with my BFF wasn’t always so kosher. Here are a few things that really helped us out.

1. DO make your own decision. We didn’t decide to go to school together. In fact, we refused to tell each other what our final results were from each college, just in case one of us would be swayed by the other’s decision. We wanted to make our own, independent decision.

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It seems like just yesterday I was an awkward freshman getting ready for the big move in. Before you take the plunge into the best four days of your life, pretty much everyone from older siblings to family friends reliving their frat days has some advice to offer you. Sometimes you receive gems, like tips on how to navigate a gross cafeteria or where the best study spots on campus are, but sadly that’s not always the case. Here is a round up of the worst advice incoming freshman receive. Read More »

It’s the summer after you’ve graduated high school. You’ve finished your exams. You’ve finished the college application process. You have your diploma, you’ve taken the pictures in the cap and gown and you finally decided on a college. So now all you want to do is kick back and relax and enjoy an entire summer free of responsibility and full of hanging with your friends before you each go your separate ways to start some new adventures.

Believe me, I know exactly how you feel. I was there four short years ago. And because I’ve been there already I know what comes next. So I thought I’d give you a little advice. Because all those papers that came along with your acceptance letter, they weren’t there just to stuff the envelope. Starting college involves a lot more than checking off the box next to “I will attend.” So here are a few things to keep in mind.

1. Send in a picture for your id. Chances are you already have a form telling you how to do this. So send in the picture. And make it a good one. One you like. One you won’t regret four months later, or better yet, four years later, when you’re a senior using an id that looks nothing like you because you no longer have pink hair.

2. Activate your college e-mail address. Again you were probably sent a whole bunch of papers when you sent in your acceptance . One of them probably tells you how to activate your e-mail. Do that. So you’ll get all those e-mails different offices will no doubt be sending you. And so you can join your school’s Facebook network.

3. Get in touch with your roommate. So it’s not an awkward first meeting on move in day. So you know what you’re getting into. And so you don’t end up with two refrigerators and no microwave. Plan ladies, and plan well.

4. Check the parking policies. Find out if your campus allows freshman to bring cars on campus. And if they do, find out if you have to pay for your parking pass. And then sign up for a parking pass. If you have a car, that is.

5. Check and double check that move in date. Season four. Episode one of Gilmore Girls. Rory wrote the wrong date down. Chaos ensued.

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