Raise your hand if you like your roommate. Okay… now raise your hand if you’ve ever been tempted to tuck her into a straightjacket. That’s what I thought. Approximately 50/50. In fact, I’ve met more people with roommate problems in the past few weeks than without. Luckily, I’ve been blessed with a roommate whom I adore. We’re polar opposites, but in the best way. She’s the little to my big. Our other friend wasn’t so lucky.

My college made a miniscule HUGE mistake when plotting out the housing plan for the year and ended up having to temporarily triple up some double rooms. Our unlucky suite-mates experienced snafu quick-fix firsthand. The original two girls in the room were anything but thrilled from right off the bat, and at first I sympathized with them. After all, that’s not what they bargained for! But after meeting the third girl, my roomie and I immediately bonded with her. And by the time they found her some new housing, we had become good friends. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for her roommates, and after a bitter battle involving Residence Life, some yelling, the police, writing witness statements, and a groundless order for no contact between the two parties, she was relocated to a room across the building. Read More »

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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Dear Those of You Lucky Enough to Still be in College,

The next (insert number of years here) is going to be one of the greatest times of your life. You’ll get to experience the freedom you’ve longed for, stay up for the late nights you didn’t expect, and find the greatest friends you never even knew existed.

You will fight with you roommate, multiple times. And it will be okay; nothing a small talk and a few bars of chocolate can’t fix. Remember, sometimes your mom can help. Call her, ask her what to do, involve her in your life. You are the one who needs to set the boundaries on when and how many times she can call. So talk to her.

It’s okay to fail. It’s okay to fail a lot, make mistakes, take stupid chances. There won’t be another time in your life when you can try this many things. So test out the waters, see what you like, find out what really makes you happy.

Sometimes it’s okay to skip your study sesh. You’re going to remember the night you stayed up playing Apples to Apples with your best friends, not what you got on a quiz that counts for 10% of your grade. Which brings me to…make memories! Yes, you go to college to get an education. But you’re only getting half of what you pay for if you only learn from books. So put off that paper one more day and go out with your friends.

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Now let me start this off by saying I have nothing against freshman.  I volunteer at Orientation every year. I dutifully hand out identification cards and point them in the direction of the cafeteria/registrar/financial aid office.  I’ll help them get through Writing 101. I’ll edit their articles. I’ll listen to their incessant chatter in the library with mild amusement.

But um…well…actually, it’s probably a little bit more than mild amusement. But it’s not my fault, honest. You see I have tutoring hours in the library and when no one shows up desperately asking me to explain what the Bard was rambling on about (All they really need to do is watch 10 Things I Hate You.) I’m left with nothing to do but catch up on my reading…or you know, listen in on other people’s conversation. And I can’t help it if the freshman sitting in the library basement at the table opposite me talk, really, really, loudly. And really, who wouldn’t be intrigued about “OMG. The most perfect schedule. EVER,” or how one particular girl was so thrown off by midterms week that she gave up brushing her teeth because she just didn’t have the time. Or about how one professor “totally mentions sex in every one of his lectures.”

No I am not making this stuff up. I am not that creative or gross. So yeah, as I said. These conversations are a lot more entertaining than Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Frankly, the guy liked to ramble on, and his writing can get a little stale.  But the freshman, they never steer me wrong. Their life altering college experience is my reality tv.

Here are just a few of my favorite freshmanism. (Yes I made that word up. It totally works though, don’t you think?)

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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.

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[Everyone’s got a morning after story (though most don't involve a large group of potential sorority sisters) and we wanna hear yours! Send it over to us and we’ll post it – anonymously, of course – right here!]

So one time I hooked up with a freshman. And I liked it. But I knew (or thought) it would be a one time thing.  Kind of like drinking a Venti before rush-hour was a one-time thing. Or shamelessly Googling pictures of Zac Efron. Or drinking margaritas on a Monday morning.

Yeah. Oops, I did it again.

Only this time he’s a sophomore…
And I’m about 4 months past graduation.

You’d think I would have figured these things out by now (that I’m probably too old to be prancing around the local college dive bar scoping out the sophomore scene), but I was too ignorant and curious.

He was just so sweet when I saw him.  He danced with me to my favorite Rihanna songs, bought me a Bud Light, held my hand while we stood up against the bar and made out.  His lips were just so soft and luscious.  Besides, I have been living at home for the past three months and hadn’t “gone all out” in way too long.  Like Fabolous would always say, this was my time. Read More »

[Meet Margaret, a freshman at Yale. We've been checking in with her every week to see what she's doing, who she's meeting, and what new college surprises she's tackling (or freaking out about) as she embarks on the journey we call college. Or as I like to call it, the best thing since Trader Joe's Honey Greek Yogurt.]

Okay, so I am completely not a hippie. Let me just get that out there. Incense makes me sneeze, middle-of-the-forehead headbands make me look like an awkward boy and I own nothing made of hemp.

All that being said, I really do value the idea of finding inner peace and the feeling of “chillness.” So much so that one of my favorite teachers pegged me as the type who would go off to college and become one of those offbeat Bohemian types. Like Ashley Olsen.

And I clung to that idea—the idea that college would be a time for lots of self-pondering, free of nagging parents and 7 hour school days. I would ideally sit underneath a tree reading Whitman surrounded by perpetually tan Frisbee players and crooning guitar boys singing love songs aimed indirectly at me. And I would feel self-actualized and understand the deeper version of myself and be eternally fulfilled.

Well this little fantasy has turned out to be flat out false. Read More »

Whether you’re fresh on campus or are a seasoned beer pong pro, everyone can remember the day they said goodbye to their high school friends.  It began a whole new type of LDR.  The long distance friendship (or LDF) is most common among people who have known one another for years, and are then forcefully separated by miles and ten different college towns.

Everyone wants to remain the same Popsicle-sharing, boy-loving, outfit-coordinating band of buds, so you promise to keep in touch.  Skype, AIM, gchat, Facebook…somehow you make it happen.  As you’re settling into your new dorm and meeting new people, sometimes it feels good to catch up with a familiar face.  While at first it’s all innocent I miss you’s and I’m coming to visit you’s, eventually friends start to brag.  Their cafeteria is delicious, they slept with their hot RA, they’ve made new BFFs galore.  The list usually goes on for another twenty pages, but I’ll let you just go back through your text inbox to read of the others.

Before you get down on yourself for wearily picking through mystery meat, pushing aside gray peas, and sitting with what you’re sure is the foreign exchange table, I’d like to decode your friends’ overzealous statements.  Don’t worry; they’re having a hard time adjusting, too.

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So, you’ve moved into the dorms, made it through syllabus week in class, and you’re feeling ready to get your day drink on. Tailgating before the big game is a rite of passage every freshman should look forward to. It’s a chance to bleed (insert your school’s colors here) and act like it’s five o’clock somewhere… even if it’s only nine in the morning.

To help you do it right, we’ve got some advice for your first tailgate. So follow the guidelines below and get ready to party hardy.

Stick With a Crew

It’s always a good idea for girls to stay with a group of friends when they go out. When it comes to tailgating, multiply a party’s noise level by 20 and the guest list by 100. Try and keep track of each other so you don’t find yourself alone in a sea of school spirit and booze.

Plan Ahead

While I’m all for spontaneity, a tailgate day is one of those times that calls for a little preparation. Know what time you’re meeting up with your friends and what time you’re heading to the tailgate. And even if you skip breakfast every other day, make an exception on this day because drinking on an empty stomach will really screw you over. If you really want to be a champ and go out at night too, leave some time to nap. Trust me, you’ll need it.

Dress Comfortably

At a tailgate, you’ll be in a huge crowd and on your feet for a few hours, so keep the outfit simple. Denim shorts, a school t-shirt, and flats or sandals are a perfect go-to. Go all out with face paint, ribbons, and beads in your school colors and you’ll be good to go. Read More »

So here I sit in my dorm room listening to Shakira’s Waka Waka playing on repeat and sweating from shaking it like a She Wolf.

Needless to say, the first days of college have been treating me well.

After a month of worrying over whether my roommates and I would get along, I now believe that whoever does rooming assignments has some sort of magical touch because while we 4 are not best friends (does anyone really have a best friend after 5 days?) we do get along curiously well and sometimes I feel myself falling into Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants or Sex and the City mode… especially after we all bonded over some fro yo last night.

The question is: am I in a college-themed chick flick?

Possibly. The floor below and above us is dotted with various cute boys with whom we flirt and our dorm room kinda looks like PBTeen threw up in it… in a good way. Lax bros chill on campus in lax pennies and backwards lax caps in lawn chairs (can we just call them lax chairs?). Growing up in a lax-bro-less suburb, I really thought that they were a myth, but I am now a firm believer. And lax bros (despite being majorly douchey) are hot.

But all that aside, campus is incredibly gorgeous and full of like-minded people sunbathing in the grass while others Frisbee about. And the birds are chirping and I never have breakouts and my hair looks like The Little Mermaid’s lux locks every day. OK, that last part is a lie – my hair still hasn’t gotten used to the water in these showers yet. If only, right? Read More »