Graduation Day. The most important day of your college career. (At least for your parents.) A day to celebrate. A day to remember. A day  to cherish. A day…that can definitely get pretty boring. Because while our parents and professors may be up for a few hours of ceremony and speeches, I personally feel like I could do without the hours upon hours of speeches that college seniors have to deal with… but speeches we will have to endure. (Want a preview? Check out our graduation speech mashup.)

Or at least, you know, pretend to endure. Because while we can’t get out of listening to those speeches, we can make them a little bit more entertaining. Sure you’ll have to sit there quietly and listen to your president speak, listen to the valedictorian speak, and listen to the commencement speaker give his or her big speech. But that doesn’t mean your mind is not allowed to wander right? I mean it’s only natural. So let it wander on over to one of these games.

1. Count the “Likes, Okays, Ums, and Yeas”

Speeches getting boring? That’s okay. Focus on the speech impediments instead. Every speaker has them. Whether it be a tendency to say like far too often, um in between every other word, or phrase every statement like it’s a question, every speaker has one. In high school, I had a math teacher who said “um kay” after every single sentence. I spent many a math class keeping track of just how many times she could say that particular phrase in a 40 minute period. Want a hint? It was well over ninety.

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OK, so this isn't Kathy, but how cute is this lady?!

Kathy Vitzthum took her first class at Iowa State in 1992. Since then, she’s continued taking one college class per semester while working at raising a family. Now, 19 years later, she’s graduating with a degree in accounting, and fulfilling a promise she made to her father years ago.

Gawker was kind enough to bring this woman’s story to our attention and we thought we’d bring it to yours. Because not only does she deserve a little recognition for having the determination to stick with it for 19 years while holding a job and raising a family, but she’s also done the one thing no one else has. (Poor Cappie he left after just 5 years.) Read More »

If I had to come up with one thing I’ve learned since becoming a post-grad it would not be how to set a budget or how to meet people without classes or student groups. It would be that all those stereotypes about unemployed college graduates trying to find what they want to do next in life are wrong. Believe it or not, I don’t spend all day on the couch or in bed. I don’t go days without showering. And I’m not living in some cockroach infested apartment – although I feel like that will happen once I truly live on my own.

Unfortunately though, it’s pretty hard to convince the masses otherwise. Upon meeting someone for the first time, I feel like I always have to defend myself as a “post-grad” because the bulk of people I’m meeting are either unemployed and unmotivated, still in college, or are at least ten years older than me – and they have no clue. You would think that having some kind of detailed plan such as the LSAT and freelance writing to fall back on would help, but no – it just leaves people scratching their heads.

If they’re not scratching their heads, I get a lot of “You must miss college.” Uh, duh. Of course I miss a lot of things about college (there’s a reason people refer to it as the best time of their lives), but considering I have only been a “graduate” for the past few months, it’s not something I’m sulking over too much. And in all reality, I miss a lot of things a lot more than college — you know, things like not having to pay back student loans! Read More »

You hear the same marketing crap all the time: you’re in college to better your future.

Of course, having a Bachelors doesn’t really do anything anymore. I’ve heard about a ton about people who have their Bachelors and are working at a Domino’s or something. Getting a Masters seems like the next logical step, for students and apparently their parents. So is it such a bad thing that I really don’t want to go?

Being around a ton of people who are all talking about getting recommendations and narrowing down their grad school list makes me realize more and more that grad school really isn’t for me. My mom’s look of horror when I told her this one day this summer is the only thing I see when I talk about wanting to go into vet tech after I get out of school. Issue is, as an English major, I’m mildly suffering with what-do-I-do- with-this-diploma? syndrome. Publishing and editing are options, sure, but I don’t want to deal with that crap. It seems that some people assume that because a field has something to do with your major, you will inevitably want to be a part of that field.

And of course, there’s that inevitable money issue breathing down the necks of graduates. Do you stay in school for another two years so you don’t have to pay off loans just yet? Everyone seems to sort of just assume that jobs are lining up to grab college grads, but with the economy the way it is, I’m thinking that this is somehow far from the case. More and more of my senior class seems to be regretting their major because there’s nothing they can do with it to get money. What ever happened to going to college to just learn? Read More »

Someone up above must hate me, because Heidi Montag released another terrible song. Perhaps this is what the U.S. Military is using in their latest foray into alternative forms of torture.

Don Imus seems to be back to his old ways. Shocking.

A lot of little children (and some really awesome college students…not me…ok, maybe me) spent their Friday evening at home with the Jonas Brothers.

The perfect breakfast for the morning after a late night summer Beer-B-Q.

To make money, or to make a difference; that is the question for many college grads.

Is your brain gay?

Some guys just can’t quite distinguish between fact and a cartoon from the early 90′s.

[Photo courtesy of the one and only, Perez Hilton.]

Did you know the Daytime Emmy’s happened? Yeah, us either. But Ellen Degeneres did.

We can’t stop laughing. Just look.

Not sure which is more disturbing about this story; being contestants on American Gladiator, or being the mother of your own grandchildren.

Apparently, Boys Like Girls like girls. In other news: girls also like boys.

Porn isn’t just for boys, anymore. Even a good girl can learn a few things…

This just in: the real world isn’t as fun as college.

Or at least that’s what one professor in particular thinks.

A recent essay in The New York Times written by Joanne Ciulla, a University of Richmond professor, discusses the modern work ethic and how college students today have a somewhat warped view of the world.

It struck me as interesting, and I must admit, it is hard not to be offended by the characteristics she describes college students of today having:

ENTITLED TO A DO-OVER

“It has become common for students to ask to retake tests or to rewrite papers in order to get a better grade…While the apparent desire for self-improvement is admirable, usually the higher grade is what really matters. Sometimes a student’s second try is not much better than the first, but he or she still expects a better grade for the effort. This attitude leads to the second problem.”

So, we want to work hard to do the best we possibly can on an assignment and now professors are pissed about this?

CLOCK PUNCHING

“Students tend to take an industrial view of work. They commonly contest a grade by saying they deserve a higher one because they put so much time into studying or writing a paper. Such students see grades as pay for the time spent on the job, not the quality of the product.”

Don’t you think this might be a direct result of the college system and grading as a whole?

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