It’s hard to believe that our parents grew up in a generation where cupcakes were just something that parents brought into elementary school classes on their child’s birthday. Not like today when cupcakes are not only America’s favorite dessert, but also one of the very few desserts with bakery brand name recognition. Just tell someone you’re going to NYC and they’ll recommend the best cupcake store in the entire world.

While we wouldn’t dare try telling you which bakery makes the best c-cakes. We will round up all our favorites and give you the official rundown.

initiating the gallery...

This week, under the category of “news that made me say WTF!” was this little story about students at Georgetown University taping their mouths and chaining themselves to a statue in front of the school in protest of the fact the Georgetown doesn’t provide or help to provide contraceptive options like condoms to it’s students. The school, a private Catholic university stands by the religious policies of the Catholic church under which it was founded and refuses to provide any contraception that prevents the creation of life. Let the debate begin!

OK, let’s go ahead and get this out before the NYC-liberal-arts-student part of me literally explodes – SERIOUSLY! Are you freakin’ kidding me?! Georgetown, a major university, which does not require it’s students to follow Catholic doctrine, is still, in this day and age, refusing to hand out condoms!? Are you gonna provide daycare, Georgetown?

Ah, I feel better now.

But honestly, there are a lot of good reasons why Georgetown should step up and help with the sexual health of it’s students. To begin with, Georgetown is located in Washington D.C. where officials have declared a citywide HIV/AIDS epidemic. That means that, completely outside of the pregnancy prevention argument, Georgetown is refusing to help it’s students protect themselves from devastating, life-changing illness. And yes, students at GU could just go around the corner to the drugstore and buy their own condoms, but as many many schools have found out, it’s a lot harder to get students to do that (when you’re this close to getting it on in your dorm, that CVS might as well be China).

And this isn’t just a Georgetown issue, students at religious universities all over the country encounter these same things -  last year, a student at Stonehill College collected free condoms from family-planning clinics and distributed them at school. Stonehill’s administration found out and went around confiscating them from would-be sexy-timers.

And yet, though it goes against all of my personal sexual beliefs, I do have to defend Georgetown’s choices too. It is a private, religious school. They don’t make any qualms about their beliefs or that the school itself upholds those ideas – if people choose to go there anyway, then they have to accept that the school won’t violate it’s principles for them. The university, all private religious schools, and the students there who do follow those doctrines have a right to their beliefs and to force them to do otherwise would be wrong.  To fund and staff a school organization aimed at providing contraception would cost money, and by that virtue, take money away from it’s staff and students. While some of those students would benefit from that organization, there are also those who would not want to use them and isn’t it unfair then that their tuition money would be spent on something they can’t use – essentially wasting it for them? If students choose to have sex, shouldn’t they at least be adult enough to remember to make a drugstore run before the big date?

OK, so it’s thoughts and opinions time! Should religious universities like Georgetown buck up and get with the times? Should they at least be obligated to give their students options? Or should the students just accept that there are certain things that go along with the schools they’ve picked and make their own arrangements?

Let’s hear it!

There’s nothing like bringing in the mail and finding that large envelope between the Victoria’s Secret catalog and some random bills addressed to your parents. Your heart pounds as you tear it open and find out that you’ve been accepted to the school of your dreams. You can barely sleep that night, excited to run into school the next day sporting the shirt you bought during your campus tour, telling every one of your peers, teachers, and even the lunch ladies where you’ll be headed next year while your parents are at home preparing your deposit and sending e-mails notifying the other universities you were accepted to that they can suck it you won’t be attending.

But what if, some time later, you found out that THEY TOOK IT BACK!? (Cue the tears, hair pulling, “I can’t show my face at graduation!” etc.)

Luckily, most of us don’t have to experience that sort of shame and disappointment, but that was a very real scenario for 30 high school seniors with their hearts set on Georgetown. Recently, the biology department accidentally sent congratulatory e-mails to thirty students that had not actually been accepted, but were flagged by the admissions department as “likely.” Noticing their error, the department later sent another e-mail explaining the mistake and giving their heartfelt apologies.

Because an “I’m sorry” email can make up for the cruel “Welcome to Georgetown…oh wait…SIIIKE!”

The good news is that those pegged as a “likely” applicant means they have a very good chance of acceptance unless they run into a disciplinary problem or their grades decline. The bad news is that, unlike every other high school senior out there, they’ll actually have to do their schoolwork during their senior year.

Welcome back to The Rival Rundown! If you’ve always wanted to give props to your school on CC, now’s your chance! Shoot us an email explaining what’s awesome and unique about your school (or what stinks about Rival U) at rivalrundown [at] collegecandy.com!

Our focus this week are two Big East schools who have thirty years of history as basketball powerhouses. Syracuse and Georgetown may be known for their excellence in ballin’, but they are also competitive in top-notch academics and, er, curiously named mascots. Here’s to one of the most well-rounded rivalries in college sports!

Quick Facts

Georgetown: Private Jesuit university in Washington, DC with 7,000 undergraduates. Founded 1789.
Syracuse: Private research university in Syracuse, NY with 13,000 undergraduates. Founded 1870.

1. Basketball Record

Georgetown: 37-43
Syracuse: 43-37

Three credits to: Syracuse

2. Mascot Matchup

Georgetown: The university admits it cannot trace the precise origins of who coined the school nickname, but it is known that the Georgetown Hoyas (represented by a bulldog) take the name from a Latin saying, “Hoya Saxa!” meaning “What rocks!” It’s believed that the saying was used to describe the stonewall-like defenses of Georgetown’s athletics.
Syracuse: Formerly known as the Orangemen and Orangewomen, Syracuse athletes were officially labeled “The Orange” in 2004. The ‘Cuse nickname is simply derived from the vibrant tangerine hue of the school color.

Three credits to: Georgetown, for identifying an interjection from a dead language as a mascot.

3. Distinguished Programs

Georgetown: Arguably the best program in international relations in the country, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service has brought generations of global leaders to the helm, including Bill Clinton and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Syracuse: The Newhouse School of Public Communications is synonymous with excellence in communications and journalism. If your dream is to see your byline alongside those of alums Steve Kroft and Bob Costas,  then Syracuse is for you!

Three credits to:  Georgetown, whose program has the edge of being located in the capital of the free world.

4. Ass-Kicking Alumni

Georgetown: Patrick Ewing, Bradley Cooper (drool), Allen Iverson (attended)
Syracuse: Betsey Johnson, Aaron Sorkin, Carmello Anthony (attended)

Three credits to:  A tie! Both schools bost plenty more A-list alums from a wide variety of disciplines, and these are but a few selections. Bravo!

5. Acceptance Rate Agony

Georgetown: 18.8%
Syracuse: 52.5%

Three credits to:  Georgetown

And the diploma goes to: Georgetown. Though the Orange give a strong showing as the basketball series leader, the Hoyas come out on top. Go Hoyas!

Wait, was Joaquin Phoenix working?

Angels and Demons: from awesome book to awesome movie?

Joe the Plumber now Joe the Plumber/Country Star and no longer a supporter of John McCain.

Courtney Cox is returning to comedy.

Juciy Campus founder thinks students are too serious.

Yes. There is a National Museum of Pasta. Delicious.

College grad starts an online college guidebook.

Rachel Bilson is adorable.

The world doesn’t revolve around you, people.

SAE fraternity pays for hazing.

Ever date a guy who is too tall?

Apparently, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s great-great-grandfather Cornelius Vanderbuilt was the slave owner of Michelle Obama’s great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson. And what’s more, Anderson’s kin has personally invited Obama to visit her ancestor’s grave at the Georgetown, SC plantation named Friendfield. Not surprisingly, Michelle Obama has yet to respond to the invite.

I’m  going to assume that supporting the final days of her husband’s campaign for President of the United States is taking precedence.

We thought we’d seen it all earlier this election season when news of Bristol (daughter of Sarah) Palin’s teenage pregnancy made headlines. But now we’re talking about celebrities/politicians and slavery. Will the press never end?

Of course not.

UPDATE: The source, Mollygood.com (via the New York Daily News), has updated the story to note that Cornelius Vanderbilt came into ownership of Friendfield after Jim Robinson was enslaved there. To clarify, the Vanderbilts never actually owned Robinson as a slave. My apologies for any confusion.

Last week, I warned you that the grad school application process is quite a time consuming effort. Well guess what folks? You’re going to need to put ample time into choosing your prospective grad schools too! Sure, this might seem a bit obvious, but this columnist doesn’t always think things through.

For me, grad school was a roll of the dice, and six possible schools came up for me: Georgetown, Rutgers, Ohio State, North Carolina State, San Francisco State, and the school I eventually chose, hereafter refered to as X University.I chose these schools on a whim. Georgetown was my “reach,” and the closest I could get to Ivy League while maintaining a glimmer of hope for acceptance. Rutgers was relatively close to my hometown (by close I mean a 5 hour drive); Ohio State is a party school notorious for it’s tailgating parties (I swear, that’s why I applied- don’t judge); North Carolina State was an hour from my only other friend attending grad school; and San Francisco just seemed like a cool city to live in, as did the location of X University.

Rule number one in choosing grad school? Don’t be superficial when planning your future!

Take your time to research graduate programs across the country. If you want to focus on a particular location, check out as many schools in that region as you can. Take notes. Google the faculty. Check out some of the courses being offered, and find out what the plan of study entails. Many grad schools have student ambassadors that you can email to get a current students’ point of view on the program. Seriously, folks, exhaust the freaking websites. Scour them like you scour Perez Hilton.

In college, you have a lot of room to change your mind. Changed your major? No biggie. Transfer student? Piece of cake. On the five- or six-year plan? Join the club. Masters programs, on the other hand, are only two years long. Stretching out the plan of study can raise flags when you are applying for jobs or PhD programs, and not only is transferring schools relatively rare, you’re likely to lose the credits you’ve already earned. Having transferred schools and changed majors in undergrad, I can appreciate the trial-and-error aspect of college. In graduate school however, you’re in it for the long haul.

In the end, my final decision was between Georgetown and X University. Georgetown= awesome school. X University= tuition waiver. I reasoned that completing a M.A. in itself would be an accomplishment. Where I got the degree wasn’t that important right? Let’s just say I plan on framing my Georgetown acceptance letter and hanging it above my X University diploma. Oh, what could have been.

I realized I was at the wrong school during my first semester, when the homework for a required course consisted of blogging about our experience as graduate students each week. That’s what Myspace bulletins are for! Though my friends and I drank away our frustrations that fall, it wasn’t until the following semester that I realized I would give anything to transfer to Northeastern University, a school that hadn’t been picked up on my original radar, but that I thought was pretty much the perfect school for me. I was shit out of luck.

Make a list of you want to get out of your education. Trust me, you’re going to be working your butt off in grad school, so it might as well be worth it. Take your time looking at schools, my friends. A few extra hours of your time now is much more efficient than two years of your life at a school that isn’t right for you.

DC Chief of Police, Mayor, and City Official React to Supreme Court’s Decision on Thursday

On Thursday the US Supreme Court struck down the D.C ban on handgun ownership as unconstitutional. It’s decision overruled 200+ years worth of lower court decisions that suggested that the intent of the amendment strictly concerned gun ownership in a citizens’ militia. The 1976 law prohibited handgun ownership and required that shotguns and rifles be kept unloaded and either disassembled or under a trigger lock.

The plaintiff in the case, Gillian St. Lawrence, a 29 year old residing in the posh neighborhood of Georgetown in Northwest DC, stated, “I’m thrilled… I’m finally going to be able to take the trigger lock off my shotgun and load it if I need to be able to defend myself in my own home”. It should be noted that the majority of murders occur on the opposite side of town—in the urban areas of Southeast and Northeast.

Last year there were 143 murders in DC and the thugs seem ready to beat that number this year. There have been 85 murders in DC so far this year. So let’s make it easier shall we? Hunting season is officially starting up once more in DC. Come one come all! (Your writer is a resident of DC).

In Other News:

On Thursday, the Bush administration agreed to remove North Korea from it’s “axis of evil” list in the so-called War against Terror. Despite the countries 6 month delay at filing a report on its’ plutonium production, and the gaping holes in said report, the administration praised the country for its’ significant step forward. On Friday, in a reciprocal show of good faith, North Korean officials toppled the cooling tower at its’ plutonium production facility. It remains to be seen, however, the extent to which the reclusive rouge regime will in fact halt it’s nuclear program.

In Zimbabwe, citizens are heading to the polls to vote in single candidate run-off election. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the race last Sunday following the murder of 80+ members of his party. On Friday he stated, “What is happening today is not an election. It is an exercise in mass intimidation with people all over the country being forced to vote,”. The United States has already warned that it will not recognize the results of the election.

And Now For Something Completely Different:

Next month the Church of Sweden will carry out “drive-in” weddings. The 7 minute ceremonies will be accompanied by a priest singing Elvis tunes and a gospel choir. Those desired to take the plunge will be directed to the highway turnoff by the red neon “Get Married” sign at the exit.

Ooookkkkay. So that’s the news!

[photo courtesy of the Washington Post]