Is it just me or does this sound like an absolutely terrible idea in the making?

One freshman Princeton student commented that, “The show is a wonderful idea, because I’ve found that a lot of outsiders think [Princeton students] are something we’re not.”

Now what is it these outsiders think you are? Intelligent? Studious? Fortunate?—And what would you like them to believe after watching the show? That Princeton students can underage binge drink just as hard as the public university next door? Or that they can have just as much emotionally-detached, unprotected sex?

I think their notorious scholarly, possibly “nerdy,” reputations are better than what is possible and likely to come in the future if this “insider look” at Princeton undergrad life actually makes it onto the tube. Obviously Princeton isn’t a major party school (that I’ve heard of) but it’s still college. I don’t think these students want all their hard work to be ruined by the portrayal of select students maintaining their 4.0 GPAs through excessive use of Adderall.

On the other hand, if students’ relationship with drugs, alcohol and sex isn’t displayed on the show well then there may be little reason to watch… Somehow, watching Ivy League students being Ivy League students seems about as interesting as sitting through a 2-hour Physics lecture. Which, surprisingly, isn’t that interesting at all.

What do you think? Could this be a positive way for Princeton students to break out of their “square” reputations… or just a recipe for disaster?

So some of you may be a little bitter this school year. Instead of heading off to your dream school, you are stuck attending your fall-back as your friends suddenly turn all intellectual and boast about the awesome classes at Harvard, Princeton and NYU.

But little do they know, you’re getting the much better deal. While they rack up the student loans, you can enjoy the intellectually stimulating lectures of Ivy League professors without even having to get out of bed.

Two new websites, academicearth.org and openculture.com, are offering videos of lectures from top universities and – prepare yourself – they are totally free! Both websites are organized by topic and by school, offering courses from Berkeley, Harvard and Yale, among others. Want to see how a Princeton professor teaches Bio? Go for it! Want a motivating lecture on poly-sci? They have that too!

Ah, don’t you love living in the era of technology?

Finally all of us “average” people (i.e. those of us who couldn’t score a 2400 on our SATS or find the time to volunteer at eight different organizations during high school) can bask in the glory of partying it up at our party schools while we cyber “sit in on” the smarty-pants classes. If only we could print out that Harvard diploma, too.

Forget Jesus. Kanye West is here!

Nicolette Sheridan – have you learned nothing from Britney?

We love when Justin Timberlake shows up on SNL.

Weekend gun scare at Princeton.

Real Housewife Gretchen to promote gold digging?

Martha Stewart’s dog killed in an explosion?!

Tom Cruise is even creepier than I thought.

Check out Britney back on stage.

Losing weight vs. gaining muscle. The truth is here.

Sorry, peeps. Amy Winehouse will not be coming to Coachella.

And one last link…because we had to.

If it’s one thing we’ve learned here at CC, it’s that all people are fascinating (Yes, even your econ professor). Let’s face it – people love to glimpse into the lives of other people. Disagree? Then please explain why you’re currently looking at your friend’s brother’s girlfriend’s cousin’s photos on Facebook. Or reading about the latest Madonna/Jesus dramz in this week’s tabloids. Yeah we thought so.Fact is we connect to others by learning about them. And everyone has something to share (even if it is a story about that time you stayed in the library for 18 hours straight…)

So to give you yet another reason to procrastinate, we started ‘The Five Questions We Ask Everyone’ (and five just for that one person) because we know whether we’re schmoozing with an A- list celeb or your local bartender, you’ll be equally entertained. 

Let’s be honest here: who hasn’t read at least one Jodi Picoult book? Most of us, in fact, grab ‘em and read ‘em as soon as they hit bookstore shelves. Picoult has a knack for writing that most authors dream about. Her combination of research and talent come together seamlessly in books that are impossible to put down: My Sister’s Keeper, The Pact, Salem Falls… and those are only a few of the 15 books she’s written.

Jodi Picoult is smart (Princeton for undergrad and Harvard for her masters!), she’s talented (Um, have you read her books?!) and we got to talk to her! Read on to get inside our favorite author’s head.

5 Questions We Ask Everyone:

1.    What is your favorite college memory/the most trouble you’ve ever gotten into?

I was the only girl on the men’s crew team.  I had just joined up – and was not feeling particularly beloved by the guys – when the coach of the women’s team asked me to be a coxswain for the day.  It went HORRIBLY and I was in tears when I got out of the crew shell.  The stroke of the women’s boat started screaming at me.  Well, suddenly, the guys swarmed around the girl who was yelling at me.  They told her she better apologize to me, or they’d make life hell for her at the boathouse.  It was the first time I really felt like I totally belonged.

2.    What are the five things you can’t live without

My husband, my three kids (do they count as one?), chocolate, my Blackberry, Ouidad Climate Control for hair.

3.    What’s your motto/advice you live by?

Why do it when you can overdo it?

4.    Your favorite song to belt out in the car/for karaoke?

Right now, “I’m Yours,” by Jason Mraz.

5.    Ten years from now you will be….

Changing the world one mind at a time, just like I’m doing now.

5 Questions Just for Jodi:

1.    Where do you get the inspiration/ideas for your books?

From what-if questions to which I don’t know the answers.

2.   What do you do to get over writer’s block?

I don’t believe in writer’s block – it’s for people who have too much time on their hands.  When I started writing I had a newborn, and then two more kids quickly, and I wrote in any five minute block I had.  There are days you don’t write pure poetry, but you can always go back and edit a bad page…not a blank page.

3.    Which of your books would you like to see made into a movie first and who do you see starring in it?

“My Sister’s Keeper” is coming out June 26 starring Abigail Breslin and Cameron Diaz.

4.    How did you break into writing?

It’s really difficult – I sent out hundreds of letters to agents who rejected me before finding one who thought she could represent me.  She sold my first book in three months.

5    Favorite snacks to munch on when you are busy writing?

I am a sucker for Chex Mix.

I remember in my senior year of high school, one girl was found to have plagiarized part of a paper from the internet. Not only was she suspended; she had to deliver a speech in front of the entire class, explaining why plagiarism was wrong.

Princeton has been particularly aggressive on the cheating front in the same way. We have honor code meetings, have to write a page on matriculation illustrating our understanding of it, and get regular updates from the honor committee. All the same, when I arrived there I discovered whole new layers of gray areas.

In problem set classes, for example, there are plenty of people who like to work in study groups. That’s all well and good, except when “study groups” turn into “let’s just copy the answers off each other.” I thought that kind of behavior was only in the occasional math class, but I was surprised to learn that it’s much more prevalent in college. When all that matters for your future career is that good grade in an Orgo class, it can be extremely tempting just to write down the process and answer of your friends, whether you understand it or not, and worry about the final exam later.

I’m not taking a holier-than-thou position on this, either. I’m just lucky I’m not tempted in my classes. As an English major, I don’t have much opportunity to enter the grey area of cheating short of blatant plagiarism, which offends my sensibilities as a writer. I’m curious how fellow students feel about the study group phenomenon, however. When the chips are down in a really tough class with a really tough grader, would you copy the answer of a friend on a problem set?

I have friends who specifically take the classes of people they know just so they can hit them up for answers on a regular basis. I find it disturbing, but I also acknowledge that not every college class is going to reach the ideal of “I just take it to learn!” Some classes are a grind and are meant to be endured rather than enjoyed. But how far will today’s college student go to endure them?

Last year I was on the receiving end of some of the grey area-cheating. I took a class with a friend that was heavy on the paperwriting. I was accustomed to this, but my friend wasn’t. He took to sending me drafts the night before the deadline, pleading for revision help. On a couple of occasions, I gave revision suggestions. Then I told myself that enough was enough, and I wouldn’t do it anymore. I don’t think giving revision help is cheating at all; it’s not giving any direct answers, and at Princeton you can get revision help from the teachers right up until the day the paper is due. But it still made me cautious about how much help to offer.

Nowadays, with the ease of the internet, it seems like the grey area of cheating or plagiarism has expanded hugely, and the good ole-fashioned honor code is struggling to keep up.

Where do you draw the line?

[Photo courtesy of reviewjournal.com]

In reality, though, more than half of Princeton’s student body is on financial aid, and a very large percentage of that is on nearly 100% financial aid. In addition to that, students spend a lot of time in the summer traveling to developing countries, doing community service in struggling neighborhoods, and generally getting their hands dirty. And yet, the myth persists…and for good reason.

There are a lot of different ways people can be “sheltered.” Ivy Leaguers may not all be rolling in wealth, but they still have an embarrassing lack of practical knowledge across the board. Because most of us spent our young lives with our noses stuck in books or playing some sport obsessively, we don’t really know how to, well, get along in the real world.

Most of us can’t change a tire, balance a checkbook, buy health insurance, or even iron a shirt properly. We take our laundry home for the parents to do whenever possible, and we hold off getting our hair cut until we can get home too. We’re good at buying the stuff we need online, but don’t ask us to pick out the right screws from a hardware store or a good cut of meat from the butcher. We’re learned and ridiculously mature in some ways, and yet so unaware in many others.

I know the Ivy League is all about giving students a top-notch liberal arts education, but it would be great if they could give us a little practical knowledge as well; the stuff we didn’t have time to learn from our parents because we were too busy studying for the SAT’s. I say, if we’re going to be the leaders of tomorrow, we ought to know how the world really works on the micro level.

We should be able to take a class on real world knowledge, whether it’s fixing a leaky faucet, cooking, or tying a full Windsor knot in a tie. Because the college life may involve memorizing the events that led up to the Civil War, or surfing the internet for some answers, but one day we’ll suddenly be expected to know about Grown-Up Stuff, and who’s going to teach us that?

Things didn’t seem to be getting off on a good foot when I discovered myself and my boyfriend, also on the same hall, were completely surrounded by freshmen. We were juniors, with a buttload of junior independent work to get done in the course of the year, and we didn’t have as much patience for freshmen shenanigans as in the past. But still, we vowed to be good sports. The freshmen started things off with a bang by constantly converging in the hall right in front of my door to chatter loudly about inane subjects. On weekend nights, the music coming out of their rooms shook the floors, no matter how many times we asked them to turn it down.

The girls decided to label me as a spoil-sport because of this polite request, and insisted on giving me dirty looks in the bathroom. They continually stole the chalk from my chalkboard, left dirty dishes in the sink of the kitchen, and had atrocious hygiene when it came to disposing of sanitary items. That, however, was only the beginning.

The girls were all members of the same sorority and talked constantly about how to rise through the ranks and how drunk they would have to get to fit in. Their talk was not only rudely loud but made me grit my teeth as a feminist, particularly how they would loudly call each other sluts and bitches. On Halloween, they were all dressing up as bowling pins for a frat party. As I passed by one open door where they were all dressing I remember hearing one girl ask timidly, “I have white leggings, which would go better. Should I wear those?” Another girl, the ringleader of the group, immediately snapped back, “NO! We’re going for conformity, we must conform.” It sounded like something out of a horrible mean-girls-ish movie, but she meant it seriously.

As the weekends of the semester went on and the parties got wilder, the freshmen decided loudly dancing in the hallway wasn’t enough to get on people’s nerves. They began drawing obscene images on the boards of the people they decided weren’t cool enough. Again and again I left my room in the morning to find cartoons on my board. I rolled my eyes, but didn’t say anything; it was just some chalk drawings, after all. However, the freshmen were only getting started.

I had almost never spoken to any of them directly and had never done anything to offend, but they decided I was the girl they were going to ostracize, to punish. They began drawing obscene images exclusively on my board, then, finally, the images were accompanied by truly offensive words, f****t and c**t. I couldn’t believe it. Weren’t these intelligent, thinking human beings? Hadn’t they had to pass rigorous tests to get into Princeton? How could they be so thoughtless, so causelessly cruel?

In part II of the harrowing saga, I strike back, but so do they…

It may seem crazy to put yourself through hell to join a group, but there is a purpose to pledge term: group bonding and appreciation as you work towards something. I worked hard with my pledge class to succeed at many (mostly ridiculous) tasks, which eventually ended with a very large and exciting payoff.

Payoff being the operative word. Because why else would someone slave away like a dog for weeks without any sort of payoff – unless, of course, they were into all that S&M shit?

Maybe we should ask the people over at Princeton. One of the residential colleges over there recently started a new “program” (service, really) for seniors working on their theses. Obviously, writing a thesis is super duper hard (which is why I decided not to do one, naturally) so someone thought it would be a great idea to offer those thesis-ites a little help.

In the way of freshman.

Volunteers.

Doing random crap for them.

“Each participating Whitman senior will be assigned 2 underclassmen who will be “on call” during the final thesis push. If you are working away in your room and feel like you need a midnight snack all you have to do is contact your thesis buddy and he/she will bring you a hot dog and a red bull or whatever else you need to burn the midnight oil.”

Obviously, the idea isn’t to take advantage of your buddy, but to have him or her help out in a pinch. Other examples of acceptable duties include: taking care of a load of laundry, picking up/dropping off some library books, or proofreading a chapter for typos.

I know I am not alone in wondering why anyone would want to do this. What does the freshman get out of this? Gratification? Um, can I take gratification to the mall and put it towards a new pair of jeans? I don’t think so. And, no, I am not a total bitch who doesn’t find it nice to help someone in need, but shouldn’t the people in charge offer their freshman to more noble causes like feeding the hungry or ending the world AIDs epidemic? Do these privileged Princeton seniors really need someone to bring ‘em a Red Bull?

I don’t know about you, but I will not do anyone’s laundry if there is nothing in it for me. The only reason I do my own is because I have learned it is not appropriate to go anywhere without undies on. We will just have to wait and see how this university-sponsored hazing program turns out.

Good luck, freshmen; welcome to hell.

It was boring and hard, which meant that no matter what I tried, I constantly fell asleep next to my computer and woke up completely lost.

If only I could have taken one of these classes compiled by Mental Floss Magazine, I’m sure my GPA would have looked much better. Instead of dozing off to the lulling sound of a professor droning on about ratios, I could have been studying muppets and watching Sesame Street.

All of these, at one time, actually existed.

The Horror Film in Context – Bowdoin – Watch people get their heads smashed in and then talk about why society likes to watch people get their heads smashed in.

Simpsons and Philosophy – Cal-Berkeley – How much does this popular show reflect society? Apparently enough to warrant a semester’s worth of lectures.

Maple Syrup-The Real Thing – Alfred – Haven’t you always wanted to know the entire history of syrup?

The Science of Harry Potter – Frostburg State – Is it possible to make broomsticks fly? Let’s discuss.

Oprah Winfrey-The Tycon – U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – Race, Success, Money…and dealing with crazy movie stars jumping on your couch.

Far Side Entomology – Oregon State – Comic strips and insects. Sure, why not?

History of Electronic Dance Music – UCLA – Ace of Base never sounded so smart.

The Future is Lost: TV Series as Cultural Phenomenon – Tufts – Smart kids + mind-numbingly confusing show that went nowhere = deeper meanings that never existed.

Muppet Magic: Jim Henson’s Art – UC-Santa Cruz – How have muppets change your life, Little Jimmy?

Getting Dressed – Princeton – If you are what you wear, this class is probably full of polos and boat shoes.

Biblical Model for Home and Family –Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – Gosh, I’ve always wanted to know how to “submit graciously” to my future husband!