[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.]

In high school, I had a clear label. I was Ms. Student Government, Ms. Good Grades, Ms. Overachiever. And even though all of our years of primary schooling have told us that labels are totally, totally terrible and that we should define people by their true selves and inner lights, etcetera, Oprah wisdom, etcetera, Oprah wisdom, I’m just going to say this: I heart labels.

Because for some reason, rather than being stifled and held down by my defined structural cocoon of a label, I ultimately felt freer to be anyone I wanted to be. Completely ridiculous, right? Yeah.

By being known as the Smart Girl, I no longer had to prove that part of myself. It was like, I could be flexible. I could get a B on a paper, I could forget to do my homework, I could bomb an English test, but I would still be known as the Smart Girl. I mean, I guess it’s kinda like how Paris Hilton could potentially save puppies and ace an LSAT, but she always has that Party Girl image. Except, the opposite, you know?

It’s like, when you have a defined label, all you need to do is be like, “But wait, that label is not all that defines me.” And wham, you can do whatever you want and you surprise people because obviously Real You is so much more interesting than Labeled You. Read More »

Got some college questions? Unsure of a decision? Dealing with someone else’s crazy ex? Just wanna chat it up with some really awesome chics? We’ve got the girls for you. Hit them up in the comments or shoot them an email with the subject “College Q&A”! They’ve got all the answers you need, no matter who you are.

Question:
I’m a high school senior and I’m starting college next fall. I’m really excited, but also really scared. Is there anything I can or should do now before I go? Maybe a few tips or things I can start on now (to prepare and also to pass the time of my boring senior year)?

Busy Bee:
Congrats on finally escaping the wrath of high school! Reminds me of my anxiousness back in the day… Anyway, my best advice to you is to live in the moment and really enjoy your last days of senior year. I know it’s boring and you probably have Senioritis, but you will not be seeing any of these people after graduation day. Make some more epic memories because you have a right to do so!

If you don’t want to just sit around this summer, I suggest volunteering or getting a job that you have always wanted but never did because it didn’t fit into your schedule. Because you won’t have to do any over-the-summer reading assignments and write a 6-page essay on how the character development contributes to the theme of the novel, you’ll have TONS of free time! Have you always wanted to build houses in Mexico? Work as a make-up artist for a fashion show? Then, do it! Plus, it’ll look good on your resume. Read More »

When I think back to senior year of high school, I remember a few things: hardly ever doing schoolwork, living under my parents’ roof, and being 10 pounds lighter, for instance. But there’s no doubt that waiting for those college acceptance (or rejection) letters to start rolling in is the most exciting and nerve-racking time in a senior’s life!

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.) Read More »

The New York Times is a journalistic institution, arguably the best newspaper in the world. So to see it scraping at the bottom of the barrel for stories – especially in the always over-hyped Education section – is disconcerting, to say the very least.

The Times recently published an article about colleges remaking the college tour. You know, rattling off facts and figures while walking backward (and skillfully avoiding tree root death-traps). However, the article focuses not so much on the content of the tours as the way the tour guides walk – backwards, as is traditional, or forward, the direction in which many colleges are now heading (no pun intended).

The article does explain how colleges are abandoning the fact-based approach in favor of anecdotes and personal experiences, but the bulk of the story is about the merits of walking forward on a college tour versus walking backwards. Isn’t this the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever read (well, besides the Times’s investigative report on hugging)? Read More »

The mere thought of shopping for college fills me with a great deal of excitement. I picture myself hopping from Bed, Bath and Beyond to Target to Harmon Beauty Supply, loading up a shopping cart with the essentials, some indulgences, and those must-have cutesy items to make my dorm room feel like home. My mother and I are all smiles and giggles as we go from aisle to aisle, looking like we walked straight out of The Donna Reed Show (except with up-to-date outfits, of course).

And then we actually go shopping.

You see, my mother is the Jewish mother. She makes all other Jewish mothers look negligent. Although it is purely out of the kindness of her heart, when we go shopping, she seems to be stocking up for an underground bomb shelter. She goes for the ultra-massive-enormous bulk pack instead of the three or four I’ll actually use during the school year. She does not seem to understand that I’m not going away forever; there will be times during the year when I’ll come home with an empty suitcase, only to fill it up with more supplies for my room. Plus, every store I could possibly need is within walking distance from campus. Read More »

Graduation is no longer just a corny Vitamin C song to me anymore. Next week is my own high school graduation, and now that the event is nearly here, it all feels so incredibly real: leaving home, heading to college, living mostly on my own without the guidance of my parents. I remember starting freshman year thinking that high school would be the longest four years of my life. In reality, the time flew by all too fast.

Looking back on my high school career, I was never that sentimental about moving from one grade to the next. I often counted down the last days of school on a huge calendar on my desk, just to make crossing off the final day that much sweeter.

But now, I find myself feeling rather schmaltzy about it all. On the last day of classes, I shambled after classmates and teachers to get signatures for my yearbook. I spent most of last week reminiscing with friends about the past few years the way my grandparents do about the “olden days.” I’m normally not one to wear my emotions on my sleeve, but something about this particular milestone in my life has been bringing these feelings the surface. The sadness about leaving friends and family, the uncontainable excitement of a new adventure – the mixture of the two is something I’ve never experienced before now. Read More »

The time is not yet ripe for incoming college freshmen to begin shopping for their dorm rooms, as many of us don’t even have our room assignments yet. But since I’m suffering from acute Senioritis and have nothing else better to do, I’ve taken to scouring the Internet for the best dorm buys.

Some of the things I’ve found have made me laugh from their sheer absurdity, while others have made me cry, usually because they’re either too expensive or they violate my university’s safety policy. Whether they’re indulgent or utterly necessary, here are some of the items that have set my heart a-flutter with desire: Read More »

Lately, it feels as if I’m in a Samuel Beckett play. With four weeks to go until I graduate from high school and hardly anything worthwhile to do, I find myself stuck in a waiting game. My school days are drawn-out and boring as anything; the highlights of my days are the art house films we’re watching in French and the various incarnations of dodgeball my gym teacher keeps thinking up. I keep looking at the calendar each day, and although my parents tell me the weeks will fly by quickly, graduation could not be farther away in my mind. And not to mention freshman move-in day, which seems like light years away.

I have, however, found a few things to keep me occupied until graduation. It’s not much, but at least it’s preventing me from losing my mind from anxious waiting: Read More »

The times, as Bob Dylan says, they are a-changin’ for those of us counting down the days until obligatory public schooling ends.

While change has been the topic on everyone’s mind since second semester senioritis kicked in, it didn’t quite hit me until last Friday, the official college decision day, on which my classmates proudly wore t-shirts to school bearing their college’s name to celebrate this momentous milestone. Some called it tactless, others called it pointless, but I saw it as truly emblematic of the change we are all about to go through. Especially since just a day earlier, we had received our caps and gowns for graduation while the rest of the school elected next year’s student government. Talk about symbolism!

The more I’ve thought about it, the more interested I’ve become in what this seemingly insignificant ritual truly means. No longer are we going to identify ourselves as high school seniors, students that attend X High School or live in X town. Starting in the fall (or even sooner for those who can’t wait to get the hell out of Dodge), we will refer to ourselves as freshmen at Y College or Z University. This transition is almost like a change in our identities as we move on to the next phase of life, discovering our passions and skills and setting the groundwork for future careers. Read More »

A few weeks ago we put out a call for prom pics. We thought it would be fun for CollegeCandy readers to share their favorite prom memories with one another and to compare prom experiences. Ok, that’s bullsh*t. We really just wanted to have something fun to look at in the CollegeCandy headquarters.

And boy did we. The prom pictures flooded our inboxes and left many of us “working” late to sort through them. The funny thing is, though, that no matter how many we got and how many different places were represented, prom is the same no matter where you go.

We chose a handful of our favorites to break it all down below. We’re pretty sure you’ll enjoy these more than the actual prom itself as much as we did.

The Posed Group Shot:

There are so many of us that there is no way we can all fit in one frame. Also, one person in this picture will look bad, thereby ruining it for the rest of us.

"Wait, no. You are ruining it! Everyone has to stand in front of their date. That is THE prom pic!"

The Glam Factor:

12 cans of hairspray, 3 bottles of self tanner and countless eyeshadows were used in the taking of this photo.

The Corsage/Dress Color Scheme:

"Thank you for listening and getting a flower to match my dress. Now we will look perfect forever."

The Corsages:

"These things are going to die in a few minutes, so let's get an artsy shot!"

The Putting-On of the Boutonniere:

Girl: "OMG my mouth is KILLING me from all this smiling. But we have to get the pic of me putting this thing on you." Boy: "Watch my nipple, woman."

The “My Baby is All Grown Up” Moment:

"Mom, this is really awkward. Stop crying. Mom. Mom! It's not that big a deal!"

The BFFs:

The just-girls shot must always be taken in a garden setting. Always.

The Limo:

"Ohmygod, mom. Get a picture of this! We're in a limo!"

1 or 2 pictures from the actual event:

"I had class with these girls once freshman year, but they look so pretty so we shoved the camera in my date's hands and made him get a pic."

Look how much FUN WE'RE HAVING!!

Aw. Together forever. Or until they go off to separate colleges and hook up with other people at their first frat party.

The Picture with Asian Tourists
(Ok, so that one isn’t quite so standard, but it is pretty awesome. How could we not include it?)

Sigh. Prom. What we would give to go back there and do it all again (in sweatpants…without a limo….and without that awkward date who spent the entire night at the dinner buffet instead of on the dance floor with us.) At least we can relive it through everyone else’s identical experience.

(Thanks to everyone who submitted prom pictures. You definitely made our week.)