OK, so you’re running late for your Monday morning class (again). You would have been on time, but you spent all Sunday watching TV (again), and had to stay up extra late to get your assignment done (again). Now, where the heck did you put that assignment? You tear through the pile of papers on your desk until you find it, crumpled and stained with last night’s coffee.

Sound familiar?

Now that you’re in college, you don’t have parents to bug you about keeping your room clean, or to tell you to turn off the TV and do your homework. As Spiderman says, “With great freedom comes great responsibility,” but when you’ve got no one to help you out, how do you stay organized?

You may not like it, but you’re going to have to make a sacrifice or two to get truly organized, starting with your precious weekend. Cancel your plans and put away your going-out top. It may suck now, but in the long-run, it will be worth it.

The first thing you need to stay organized is the right set of supplies. Get yourself up at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning and get your butt down to the school bookstore, or your local Staples or Target. You should buy:

-A notebook for each class – Or, even better, one large notebook divided into sections, so you can keep all your notes in one convenient, not-as-easy-to-lose place.

-A two-pocket folder or small binder for each class – to store all of those pesky class hand-outs that always seem to go missing

-A day planner – Each day should have enough space to write down your class schedule and any assignments you get. My personal fav is the Moleskin Weekly Planner, because it has an extra blank page next to each week, but whatever works best for you.)

-Lots of your favorite kind of pen (or pencil) – Don’t deny it. You know you have a favorite.

-A stapler – Especially if you write a lot of papers—your teachers will thank you.

-An accordion file Read More »

Despite all of you who are going off to college in the fall, moving thousands of miles away from dear old mom and dad, there are a few of us who choose to remain close to home. So close in fact, that we don’t even have to move. That’s right, I’m talking about living with your parents throughout college. Lucky (or not so lucky) for me and my peers, my hometown has our very own, reputable university. And with my college fund having the capacity to cover my entire undergrad at Lakehead or only ONE year at another school, the choice was pretty simple for me.

I know, I know, many of you are shocked. Isn’t a key part of the college experience the independence you gain living in dorms? You have to learn to cook, clean, do laundry and manage your own time! And what about rules? People always question how I live under my parents thumb at 19. And I do agree, it’s definitely not easy to abide by rules when I could be making my own, under my own roof.

Bar none, the best part about living on your own for school is the freedom. When you move out of your childhood home, curfew and chores go out the window! If you want to come home at 5AM every night (or morning depending on how you look at it), that’s totally possible. But with mom and dad sleeping soundly and working the next morning, even if your curfew is non-existent, you still can’t help but feeling guilty. After all, you’re still bumming off of them. Read More »

Aside from the night after you’ve taken your last final, the first week of school is generally the best time of the whole semester. The weather is great, you’re reunited with all of your friends, and the school year has returned just when you were starting to feel like you had too much free time.

The campus is buzzing with returning students, eager to see what the new year has in store. Even if you anticipate your hardest semester to date, there’s still a feeling of excitement in the air during the very first week.

1. You Get to Scope Out Your New Classes

Maybe I’m a dork, but I was always excited to see what my new classes would be like. In certain classes–the must-take courses taught by the professors with the best reputations– it was great to see what all the buzz was about. Other classes might have sounded intriguing in the course catalog; reading through the syllabus on the first day, I’d think the class sounded interesting, and hadn’t been assigned 500 pages of reading to prove me otherwise. I would also look through the syllabus and see what the course requirements looked like, so I could estimate how little effort I could put into the class, and still walk away with an “A.”

Of course, it’s also fun to see who else has signed up for the class. Whether you walk through the door and see five of the girls from your freshman dorm, or right into the eyes of your new insta-crush, it’s fun to find out who you’ll be taking the class with. Read More »

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it can take me a while to get into the academic-paper-writing mood of zen. A long while. Like…several months.

Since I don’t usually have that kind of luxury to juggle around class deadlines, I do fun writing exercises to help me get in the mood. They’re easy, short, and they really will help your writing skills get better, so you can snag the high grades you need. Try these, or make up your own.

• Journaling. I don’t mean the kind of journaling that your sixth-grade teacher made you do about your summer vacation. I mean real journaling about what you really care about. Write a page about how much of a douchebag your ex is, or a few paragraphs about your favorite kind of chocolate and why exactly you love it so much. Loosening your writing muscles will help you get better starts on your papers.

• Songwriting. Come on. We’ve all listened to a Backstreet Boys song or two and thought to ourselves, “My four-year-old cousin could write better lyrics than those.” So why not prove it? Rather than calling up your baby cousin, do it yourself. A quick exercise like scribbling down a song will give you more creative, open ideas about the content and outlets of your academic writing. Read More »

Don’t you just L-O-V-E the Super Bowl? It’s that time of the year when all of the dudes in our lives melt themselves down into screaming little boys.

They stuff their faces with whatever you put in front of them, drink their manjuice from a keg, and lose their temper at the television set.

As grotesque as this may sound to some of you, I actually enjoy this night. Then again, I’ve always been pretty good at kicking it with the guys.

There is a certain art to hanging with the guys, specially on Super Bowl Sunday, without being THAT chick. You know…THAT chick:

1. Who’s there solely to baby sit her boyfriend.

2. Who’s there solely because she has no life outside of her boyfriend.

3. Who’s there to invite all of the girls so that they could all have “Girl Time” while the boys have “Boy Time”.

4. Who admits she’s only there for the food and beer.

5. Who doesn’t know which teams are playing.

You don’t wanna be any of those girls. Instead, use this event as a chance to prove your ability to truly hang. The cool points you’ll score might just last you all year.

So how do you do it? Read More »

We know it’s not even Hump Day yet, but take a second to unwind and try out a little brain teaser!

MaggyPixel is kind of like the old bar favorite Photo Hunt, except less erotic and presumably easier because we’re going to assume you’re not drunk at noon on a Tuesday.At any rate, try to see if you can spot the differences!

Don’t know which candidate you’re leaning towards for next year’s presidential elections?

Yeah, me either.

Despite the candidates push to get the attention of our generation, I still haven’t done as much homework as I need to on the candidates and their issues.

From getting on MySpace to being interviewed by Tyra Banks, these candidates are speaking to the ladies and gents of our technology savvy generation.

They (finally!) understand that the young people in this country have a voice, and that voice is going to speak loudly in ’08.

This quiz (I know, quizzes, UGH!) is a good precursor to all that candidate homework that is right around the corner. It asks how you feel about a few of the very important issues and tells you how you align with EACH of the presidential candidates. Read More »

Not even a month into my senior year of college and I’ve already skipped two classes, started my homework for all of them the night before or the morning of class, and most impressively, have yet to even open the textbook for one class. It looks like this will be my finest year of procrastination yet.

My procrastination however, is actually quite productive in its own way.

I don’t simply lounge around on the couch and troll Facebook to see what my best friend from elementary school is up to these days. I mean of course I do that too, but you’d be surprised at how effective your time-wasting can actually be, aside from effectively lowering your GPA. Check out these sites next time you’re procrastinating, which will likely be within in the next 24 hours:

Watch TV on alluc.org

This site has years of procrastination in store for you, from anime cartoons to movies to guilty-pleasure TV shows from simpler days. “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place,” anyone?

Get Life Advice at tomatonation.com

This gal Sara “Sars” Bunting is a humor writer and totally addictive. You’ll find all sorts of essays on her site, but it’s her advice column that has me refreshing her page an alarming number of times a day. Best of all? Her advice archives are separated into categories, so no matter what your current life drama, you’ll find some sound advice or at least some comfort in knowing that you’re not alone in your all-consuming hatred for your roommate’s cat and why won’t it stop peeing on the couch?! Read More »