Dear Mrs. Eng,

I loved your 2nd grade class. You taught me so many valuable lessons including how to play Oregon Trail. I will never forget you teaching me how to eat popcorn with chopsticks. And I loved the postcard you sent me from the Great Wall of China. How I’d love to see you again, Mrs. Eng, and thank you for all you have taught me. Let’s meet up somewhere! Just NOT at any of these places…

initiating the gallery...

Sincerely,

Brookita

When she’s not trying to avoid Mrs. Eng at the spa, Brooke enjoys gluten-free mac and cheese, cake batter froyo, and butterfingers. You can follower her on Twitter @brookitaa

[lead image via gualtiero boffi/shutterstock]

I’m a big proponent of being friendly with your professors because obviously if you’re a jerk and act like you don’t care, it’s going to reflect in your grades. However, there are some students who are buddy buddy with their professors, and sometimes that can get a little weird. I’m not sure how I feel about getting meals or hanging out with my professor. Don’t get me wrong, I think there are certain instances when it’s okay to be legitimate friends like if they’re around your age or you’ve had them every semester. But even then, a professor is still a professor. So where’s the line between being friendly and being friends? Read More »

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Facebook…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Teach Parents Tech, We Are Hunted and Paper Back Swap) 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.]

Winter Break is awesome: there are no tests to study for, you get to spend time with your friends and family, and you can get lots of sleep. The worst part of Winter Break, however, is that it just seems to go by too quickly. Sooner than you probably want to think about, you’re moving back into the dorms, buying books,  and dropping those 9am discussion sections you got stuck with. However, the process of preparing for the upcoming semester doesn’t have to be a hassle.

With Stingy Campus, planning your semester is easy, because everything you need is in one place!

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If you’re not already back you’re probably very, very close to heading back to school by now, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I mean there are only so many movie marathons you can watch, so many hours you can sleep, so many fights you can get into with your younger sibling before you realize it’s time to head back to school. That’s all well and good. It’s not the beginning of the semester I’m opposed to. It’s the beginning of classes.

I’ve had a fun few weeks, full of productive days that involved sleeping until noon, catching up on the new season of The Bachelor, and trying to determine the real reason Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal broke up. So I really don’t have time for pesky things like classes, and homework, papers and projects. There are so many other things I’d rather be doing. In fact, now that I think about it, there’s not much I wouldn’t rather be doing than starting classes…

10. Go a week without internet access. If you knew me at all you’d know this is big. Very big. I don’t think I’ve gone 24 hours without internet access, never mind an entire WEEK. It would be pure, unadulterated torture for me to go a week without updating Twitter, Facebook stalking or checking my favorite blogs (Looking at you, CollegeCandy), but I would do it if I meant I didn’t have to go class. I really, really would.

9. Spend some quality time with my professor during office hours. Yes, I would. I would make awkward conversation with my professors in their creepy offices with their creepy things if I didn’t have to listen to them lecture. I would dodge questions about the lack of progress I’ve been making on my thesis, and suck up so they’ll write me awesome recommendations letters. Just don’t make me go to class.

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I love the first week back after Thanksgiving break.

No scratch that, I hate it, actually. But what I do like is what that week represents. It’s the beginning of the end. The start of the finish. You’re over the hump. The semester is almost over. You’ve finally reached those last few dreadful weeks. And okay, maybe that doesn’t seem like something to be happy about, maybe you want to pull your hair out right now? Maybe you’re stressed? Sure, but just think, in a couple of weeks it will all be over.

How can you be sure that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel? Here are just a few signs that the semester is almost over.

10. You’ll do anything to avoid your homework. Okay. Time to get serious. You have a lot to get done these less few weeks. Time to buckle down and start working. No distractions. No Facebook. No phones. Reading time. But wait…you have been meaning to reorganize your desk. And your bookshelf. And…you get the idea.

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There’s a week and a half left of classes.

I have three finals, two papers, and one draft of my senior thesis keeping me from my winter break. Not a walk in the park, but also not an all time high as far finals week frenzies go.  But yet, here I sit, far too enamored in this week’s episode of What Not to Wear to even think about getting any of this work done.

This is not stuff worth procrastinating. It requires no freak outs, no massive amounts of brain power. These papers are not worth the all-nighters they will result in if I leave the researching and the writing until the last minute. They are not worth the caffeine induced frenzy I will face the morning after just to get through classes. I should focus, and buckle down, and power through so that I can be done with it. But yet, here I sit, watching Stacy London argue for wedges over flip flops.

It’s time to face the facts: I have senioritis.

I remember the symptoms from the last trimester of senior year in high school. Lack of motivation. An unwillingness to go to class. The desire to sleep through every single one of my professor’s well intentioned lectures. Reading for classes is a nuisance. Getting up in time for class is a struggle. I have no desire to accomplish anything ever…

Okay, so maybe most of those symptoms aren’t exactly restricted to senioritis.  But right now, they’re amplified. Procrastination is a part of every student’s life, but lately I’ve made it into an art form. I know that I should do these papers, go to class, finish out the semester, graduate, but right now I’m just having trouble seeing the point of it all.  Because frankly, I really, really don’t want to. With graduation comes responsibility, real life, a weekend that doesn’t include Friday’s off, and days that don’t include time slots for naps and Facebook stalking. So I should embrace the chance to be irresponsible while I can, right? Read More »

AHHHHHHHH!

Hi everyone, my name is Jenn. And I’m a grad school application survivor.

The experience was traumatic and tortuous and for a while there I didn’t think I’d make it through.  But now that I’ve seen the other side I thought it was time I shared some of my lessons learned with you. (While editing out the banging my head against my desk, pulling my hair out, staring at a blank computer screen as I read the application essay over and over parts.)

This is not a full proof guide to getting into grad school. In fact, it’s not a guide to getting into grad school at all. (I may have finished the applications but I haven’t gotten into any of the programs yet…) These are just some tips, things I wish I knew before I started the application process. So I thought I’d pass on my infinite wisdom to our lovely readers…

1. Make friends with your professors. And no. I’m telling you to make him your beer bong partner. Or a friend with benefits. But make sure at least one or two of your professors know who you are. Start with your advisor. They’re supposed to have a vested interest in your academic career so sharing your goals and aspirations with them, and asking them for advice about graduate programs is a great way to start talking about the application process. Once you’re comfortable with them, then you could start fishing around for recommendation letters. Some professors might even offer. It’s much easier than awkward e-mails or a post-class request when they have no idea who you are. I promise.  

2. Take the GRE the summer before you senior year. Even if you don’t think you’ll be applying to graduate school, do it anyway. This was my original plan. And then I started to have doubts. Should I put myself through the tortuous process of studying and stressing when I wasn’t even sure I would be applying to graduate schools? I didn’t. But I should have. Because then I ended up prepping for the GRE in the midst of a million other things that needed to be done. Take the GRE. And take it early.   Read More »

Now let me start this off by saying I have nothing against freshman.  I volunteer at Orientation every year. I dutifully hand out identification cards and point them in the direction of the cafeteria/registrar/financial aid office.  I’ll help them get through Writing 101. I’ll edit their articles. I’ll listen to their incessant chatter in the library with mild amusement.

But um…well…actually, it’s probably a little bit more than mild amusement. But it’s not my fault, honest. You see I have tutoring hours in the library and when no one shows up desperately asking me to explain what the Bard was rambling on about (All they really need to do is watch 10 Things I Hate You.) I’m left with nothing to do but catch up on my reading…or you know, listen in on other people’s conversation. And I can’t help it if the freshman sitting in the library basement at the table opposite me talk, really, really, loudly. And really, who wouldn’t be intrigued about “OMG. The most perfect schedule. EVER,” or how one particular girl was so thrown off by midterms week that she gave up brushing her teeth because she just didn’t have the time. Or about how one professor “totally mentions sex in every one of his lectures.”

No I am not making this stuff up. I am not that creative or gross. So yeah, as I said. These conversations are a lot more entertaining than Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Frankly, the guy liked to ramble on, and his writing can get a little stale.  But the freshman, they never steer me wrong. Their life altering college experience is my reality tv.

Here are just a few of my favorite freshmanism. (Yes I made that word up. It totally works though, don’t you think?)

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I’ve sat down to write the first entry of the column that will chronicle my final year as a college student about fifty a few times now, but I just haven’t been able to figure out where to start. So I figure I might as well start with the truth: I can’t seem to write this column because I’m not really sure how I feel about this whole “senior year” thing.

I mean, sure, part of me revels in the fact that this will be the last year I am forced to deal with pretentious professors and overzealous freshmen. No more writing papers on topics I just don’t care about or being forced to take core courses I have no use for. (I am a currently taking Plagues, Outbreaks and Biological Warfare for my science requirement. I can be bitter.) No more late night cram sessions or midterms. Or finals. No more college.

But no more college doesn’t just mean no more classes, its means no more college. No more college means no more built in, ever expanding social network. No more themed parties or club sponsored events or months off in between semesters. No more college means that I’m going to have to join the real world.

So with that in mind, I’ve decided I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. I’m a recently 21-year-old, single college girl with way too much to worry about. I have every reason to check out and give in to that oh so tempting state of being known as Senioritis. The only problem? Life won’t let me. You see, it seems that Junior Jenn was much more eager than Senior Jenn. Junior Jenn believed that writing a senior thesis would be fun, that attempting to finish out both of my majors in the fall semester was a great idea, that taking on leadership roles in clubs would be worth it, and that – oh yeah – taking on the roll of tutor in addition to already working 10+ hours a week would be the right thing to do. Read More »

Freshman year is an incredible experience. For many, it’s the first taste of Keystone freedom, the first foray into frat parties out into the world. You‘ll drink with meet people from all walks of life. You’ll quickly wonder how you ever survived without your newfound friends.

But be warned: for every awesome new friend that you make, you’ll find yourself face to face with an enemy. Not a “sleep with one eye open” enemy; more like a “OMG I want to gouge out my eyes whenever you come near me” type.

Here are my personal picks for people to avoid: Read More »