It’s the start of a new school year and to honor that, we at CollegeCandy are bringing back our favorite series, “We’ve All Been There.” Every week, Lauren – University of Michigan will comment on the common experiences all college women share, like the dreaded move-in day, including some new ones thrown into the mix.

You’ve spent the last 3 nights enjoying the free booze freedom that Welcome Week allows, but as you wake up with the garbage can next to your bed – again – you realize it might be time to buckle down. Classes are looming ever closer and not only can your body not handle another 12-hour hangover, you’ve got a lot of stuff to prepare before those 18 credits take over your life.

So while your friends watch another SATC marathon/discuss what they’re going to wear to the night’s festivities, you grab your schedule and head out for something a little more….fun: school supplies shopping (!!).

Most people wouldn’t find this particular type of shopping exciting, but back-to-school shopping has been the highlight of your Augusts since you were 6 years old. The smell of fresh books, the feel of a new (medium point) pen as it runs across the pages of a fresh, crisp college-ruled notebook. The richness of a new, juicy highlighter. You can’t wait to get it all home and organized for the first day of classes. Read More »

Since school is right around the corner, I thought I’d give a list of some of my favorite inspirational and informative books for school. Whether they help you in deciding your major or cooking up a mean dinner, these books are a college student’s best friends (next to the microwave, Vitamin Water and Jersey Shore).

1. What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles
We’ve all taken those online quizzes about your future career, but have you ever really done a personality assessment to see what career is going to suit you best? “Parachute” has been around for years and is considered one of the foremost books on the subject. It’s not a short read, but it will get you to really evaluate every part of what makes you, you! By breaking down your strengths and weaknesses, you will find out not only what job will make you happy, but also what field you will find success in. My parents bought this for me after high school and I chucked it to the back of my bookshelf. However, after my first year of university, I dug it out and read through. I feel like it really assured me that I had switched into the right program for me.

2. How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman
This book is a life-saver for anyone who needs to cook their own meals. I consider myself fairly capable in the kitchen, but this book helped me expand my skills and taught me the basics. There are chapters on how to cook simple things like meat and pasta, which are then followed with recipes where you can test your new knowledge. I find that once you have a basic understanding of how to cook your food (like thawing your chicken breast, cooking it in a pan with oil, etc), you can combine them to create all sorts of great meals!

3. The Alchemist, by Paolo Coelho
This classic novel teaches the important lesson that, essentially, you must do what you love. It’s a short book with a powerful lesson. I think that for college students, this book can have a huge impact. It made me think about my purpose on Earth (known as your Personal Legend in the book) and totally influenced my career choice and goals. As a student, I think it’s so easy to get lost with all the pressure and distractions in life. Re-reading books like this (or The Little Prince – another great one!) every once in a while help to keep your goals in sight and your head on straight.

4. This Year I Will…, by MJ Ryan
Once you’ve decided your major and picked your classes, you’ve got to set yourself some goals! I know I sound like a broken record, but seriously! Writing your goals down for the year – whether they be academic, professional, personal, etc. – is a wonderful strategy. This book is great for helping you to not only set realistic goals (I’m going to do my best as opposed to I’m going to get the highest grade in the course), but create a plan to fulfill them through the school year. It’s designed to help you set and keep New Year’s resolutions, but there is no reason why you can’t apply it any time of the year!

5. A Great Agenda
My final book is not really a book in the “novel” sense, but it’s still crucial and probably the most important one on this list. If you’ve never used an agenda or day planner before, let this be the year! Go to your local bookstore and find a really pretty one (or, if you’re more tech savvy, use an online program!) and fill it with everything! I try to color-code mine (I know, I know – nerd alert) by class and then also for school and extra-curriculars. Seriously, once you get into the routine, you will thank me.

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Zappos…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Party School Texts, Daily Burn and Musicovery) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

Life can be pretty overwhelming sometimes: balancing classes, a job, and social life can sometimes be too much for one person. I know it gets hard for me to remember all that I have to do—especially schoolwork.  I have a regular planner that I carry around in my purse to help keep me organized, but I don’t always remember to look at it every day when I get home, which means sometimes I forget about a reading assignment or worse, a test… which doesn’t really help my G.P.A.  I know I need a better way to organize my schoolwork, but I haven’t found a way that works for me yet.

A few years ago, Andrew Schaper was a high school student with the same organization problems I have.  In order to solve these problems, he created Soshiku, a website that helps you manage and keep track of all your school assignments. Read More »

"How many more hours until I'm chugging eggnog with the fam?"

Finals week is probably the most daunting few days of your college career. Winter break is so close you can almost taste the gingerbread cookies in your mouth. But first you have to survive your Calculus exam. Four exams, three term papers and a presentation may seem like the impossible dream. But I promise, where there is a will (to get home and gorge yourself on home cooking and holiday cookies) there is a way.

Do use your time management skills to help lessen the stress of your workload. Plan out your days using your friendly school-provided calendar – yes, the one that I’m sure you tossed aside long ago – to map out your plan of attack. When you realize your end goal is attainable, the path to getting their seems less dreaded.

Don’t cram your studies into a series of all-nighters at the library. You will go stir-crazy and end up mindlessly watching videos of people falling on Youtube at 4:00 a.m.  Don’t be that person. Nobody likes that person. Your GPA won’t like that person. Read More »

You’ve spent the last 3 nights enjoying the free booze freedom that Welcome Week allows, but as you wake up with the garbage can next to your bed – again – you realize it might be time to buckle down. Classes are looming ever closer and not only can your body not handle another 12-hour hangover, you’ve got a lot of stuff to prepare before those 18 credits take over your life.

So while your friends watch another SATC marathon/discuss what they’re going to wear to the night’s festivities, you grab your schedule and head out for something a little more….fun: school supplies shopping (!!).

Most people wouldn’t find this particular type of shopping exciting, but back-to-school shopping has been the highlight of your Augusts since you were 6 years old. The smell of fresh books, the feel of a new (medium point) pen as it runs across the pages of a fresh, crisp college-ruled notebook. The richness of a new, juicy highlighter. You can’t wait to get it all home and organized for the first day of classes. Read More »

We all have problems managing our time; if you don’t, then post in the comments and let us know how you do it. Seriously, we can use all the help we can get.I’ve picked up some tricks and techniques recently that have really helped to open up my days, make me feel less stressed, and allow me to get everything done on time. Well, almost everything, but I’m working on it.

I’m happy to share – after all, that is what this column is all about – so check them out!

1. Make a schedule for yourself.

This is really the most basic time-management tool. I use a daily planner and I write a new to-do list for each day. Then I cross things out as I finish them. For longer-term projects, I write down the due date and then I write down what I need to accomplish on the project on a daily or weekly basis. You can do whatever works for you—color-code your schedule, write it on a white board, use an electronic calendar, etc.

2. Consolidate activities.

I used to go to the bank every time I got a new check, which sometimes meant I’d be going several times per week. I wasn’t using that money immediately after depositing it, so there was no reason for me to go so often. Now, I only go to the bank once every two weeks. It saves me tons of time, and I just keep all my checks together until I go on my biweekly trip.

Think about the things you do often—run errands, cook, do homework—and then think about whether you can consolidate any of them. Maybe it would help you to cook several huge batches of food on weekends and then freeze them in meal-sized portions to use throughout the week. Can you do a quick math assignment while you’re riding the subway or waiting on the phone for a customer-service rep? If so, you’ll have more free time later. Read More »

Are you Wonder Woman? Do you balance more activities, projects, and tasks than there are hours in a day? Do you think sleep is a myth? If you constantly find yourself having to schedule in five minute appointments with yourself just to down a bagel and keep going, you may have what some people refer to as “a hectic schedule.”

Sure, it seems overwhelming; sure, sometimes you want to break down and cry; but at the end of the day, you love what you do, and you’re proud of the fact that you can accomplish an exponential amount more than most mortals. And you know that everything you do will benefit you in the long run.

I love to feel useful, so it’s always been hard for me to say “no” to picking up an extra shift, or doing an extra project. When I was in high school, I worked part time, was active in drama club, cheerleading, amnesty international, gay/straight alliance, dance classes, and, senior year, I edited the yearbook. And I did it all while making honor roll each semester. In college, I wasn’t so active in extra-curriculars, but I held down two restaurant jobs, took a full course load, and partied my face off, while making Dean’s List. You can call me a nerd; I just think I have a severe case of ADHD that’s never been officially diagnosed.

That said, Wonder Woman, I know the meaning of stress, and I know the importance of staying organized. Here are some of my own personal life-saving tips. Read More »

Shopping for college can be stressful: you don’t know how much room you will have in your dorm, how much is too much, if you’ve brought enough, and if it will match the stuff your roommate has.

Shopping for elementary school supplies was so much more fun – you got to stock up on your favorite Lisa Frank supplies and you begged your mom to buy you a few gel pens because everyone was using them.

This year, instead of making a quick pit-stop at Staples on the way to school and buying a few notebooks and black pens, why not bring some of that grade school excitement back with fun school supplies?

Remember how excited you were to use those gel pens to fill out worksheets in the first couple weeks of school? How cool it was to start a brand new notebook? Here are some funky school supplies that will make you want to head to class, take some notes, and do some hardcore studying. Or at least they will help you make friends by serving as a good conversation starter for the girl sitting next to you.

This stuff puts the “cool” back in school. Yeah…I went there.

Calculator – You will probably need to bring one of those nerdy graphing calculators to your Advanced Stats class, but why not buy one of those enormous & brightly colored calculators for when you just need to add, subtract, multiply, or divide? Math sucks, but bright pink makes everything better. Read More »