Is Your Study Abroad Office Playing Dirty?

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Chances are you or someone you know has studied, or plans to study abroad. It’s a great opportunity to experience a new culture, learn a language, and travel to places you’ve never been before.But according to New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo (he’s the head of all law enforcement for the state), your choice of programs may have more to do with benefits for your study abroad office members than for you and your friends.

Remember that financial aide scandal last year? Large universities usually hire external companies to deal with student loans, and it turned out that several of these companies were bribing colleges with gifts and rewards in return for directing students to them. They got busted for it, and schools were forced to give back the cash they received. Read More »


What Do You Expect, Linds? You Dated a Douche!

293gileslohan101707.jpg Here’s the thing; you should never date a douchebag.

Now, sometimes, you don’t know you’re dating a douche until it’s too late. Maybe he’s awesome in the beginning, opening doors for you and being all polite and totally charming your parents, but then one day he decides to not only sleep with your best friend, but do it in your bed!

Sometimes, that sort of thing is hard to see coming.

Except when your guy looks the part.

See, if you start dating a guy who looks like he should be a total douche, but hasn’t yet shown the signs of real douchyism, chances are his true colors are going to be coming out pretty soon.

Nobody with oily hair, a body shaped by beer, couches, and pot, stupid fashion sense, and a monosyllabic speech pattern is going to turn out awesome in the end. You may think you can change this douche’s ways, get him on the fast track to a job and maybe the treadmill, but believe me—douchiness is almost impossible to stamp out.

Which is why I have no sympathy for Lindsay Lohan and her newest “scandal”. Apparently, her boyfriend for two minutes, Riley Giles (who she met in rehab. Cool!) is shopping around “personal photos” he took of her while they were dating. Obviously, those pics show LaLohan in all stages of “undress”, and are going to seriously tarnish her sweet, virginal image.

Well, okay. Chances are they’ll do nothing but prove what most of us already think, but still, who wants homemade nakey pictures of them sold to cheap tabloids? Read More »


A Little Nip/Tuck for the Holidays

nip/tuckSecret santas and fruit cake — two simple holidays staples I consider pretty innocent and wholesome. But in last night’s episode of Nip/Tuck, they were anything but. Santa’s secrecy reached a new level and that cake had some serious scandal baked inside.

Let’s begin with the love triangle.

Julia, Christian and Sean were seemingly adorable with their litte secret santa tradition. But beyond who’s buying what for who (like it’s hard to figure out with 3 people), Julia and Christian were secretly falling in love, leaving poor, mid-life crisis Sean out in the cold.

I couldn’t believe it took him so long to figure things out. But I guess it was quite appropriate for him to realize the truth once they revealed their gifts to each other. Merry Christmas Sean. Although it seemed like he was willing to accept the circumstances, I doubt Sean will give Christian his blessing.

Side note: Was this episode all about Julia or what? Not only were two guys practically fighting over her, but Eden was out to get her with her homemade fruit cake.

Honestly, what in God’s name was this about? Read More »


My Freshman Year: Day 100

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Days as a Freshman: 100

Mood: Total crap

“Here. I got the last piece.” Justin set a giant piece of chocolate cake in front of me and walked over to his own seat. “We’ll share. How ‘bout that?”

“This is huge!” I poked a fork into the inches of frosting.

“Please don’t tell me you’re one of those girls.” Justin sat down and leaned across our small corner café table, scooping up a piece with his own fork. “You don’t look like one of those girls who doesn’t eat stuff because she’s all caught up with being fat or whatever.” He shoved the piece into his mouth, “how can you not enjoy something like this?”

Poking the cake again, I stopped myself from admitting that sometimes I was very close to being one of those girls. I wasn’t fat, but I wasn’t thin either, and consuming a giant piece of chocolate cake at 11:30pm on a Monday was not how I usually did things.

But it also wasn’t usual for me to be caught up in a school-wide scandal, or sit inches away from a tall, attractive guy who liked to smile at me. Read More »


My Freshman Year: Day 87

studying

Days as a Freshman: 87

Mood: Kinda freaked

“So, should we start?”

As much as I could have stared back and forth from Sasha’s eyes to his friend’s bare chest forever, I didn’t want to spend my entire Saturday at the Soccer House. Eventually, the rest of the guys were going to wake up, and I wanted to be out of there before I was surrounded by some of the most infamous people on campus.

Maybe the rumors weren’t true. Maybe the Scandal everyone was still whispering about had been blown out of proportion, but as far as I knew, Sammy still wasn’t in class, and Public Safety had been seen patrolling around the Soccer House at night way more than usual.

Rumors always come from somewhere, and I wanted to be out the door before I found out just how close to the truth they were.

“Sure. Let’s start. I just gotta run upstairs and grab my book.” Sasha stood, kicking the table in the process and flinching. “Of course I forgot my book. Be right back.”

Jumping over the side of the couch and heading toward the stairs, Sasha clunked up the steps, his bare feet making enough noise on the old wood to wake up the entire house.

I stared down at my Chemistry book, turning the pages and pretending to be so interested in the equations that I had no idea the half-undressed guy was still in the kitchen, rummaging around in the refrigerator. I let my hair fall into my face, doing my best to stay quiet and blend into the old green cushions. Read More »


Spencer Pratt to Show His “O” Face? Dear God No.

heidi_montag_spencer_pratt.jpg Someone needs to swear to me this isn’t true.

Spencer Pratt, the shudder-inducing bitchy straight guy from The Hills, might be trying to sell his own sex tape!

Reportedly, Pratt has been trying to sell his tape under the radar, hoping to make it seem like it was leaked without his knowledge.

While it’s not clear who exactly is featured on the tape, it was apparently made in Brazil three years ago, before MTV brought the nauseating duo of Heidi and Spencer together on it’s scripted reality series.

Commenting on the scandal in US Weekly (and no doubt loving the attention) Pratt claimed “there is no sex tape” and maintained that even though he did go to Brazil three years ago, he “was never on camera.”

Normally, I totally love it when celebrity sex tapes come out (I mean, how stupid can you be to lose a homemade porno?), but when it comes to the possibility of Spencer Sex Tape, I hope against hope that there’s no such thing. Read More »


Choose Your Own Celebrity “Miss Fortune”

Back in the day, a celebrity’s entertainment value was limited to only two dimensions: the big screen and the small. But with the advent of the internet, (thank you, Al!) we are now able to delve deep into their personal lives and obsess over their every move 24/7- sometimes for the good they do, but mostly for the bad.

We follow their daily mishaps online as if it were the nail-biting storyline of our favorite primetime soap. There is something so inherently beautiful about the celebrity trainwreck. You know you should, but you cannot look away.

So, in celebration of this morbid fascination, we thought we would give you the chance to choose your favorite celebrity’s next misfortune.

The following are 5 Top Tabloid Heavyweights. Click on a storyline to vote for the headline you would like to see happen next.

Britney Spears

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Britney Spears’ next move?

Choose your own celebrity misfortune for Kate Moss, Ellen Degeneres, Paris Hilton and Heidi Montag after the jump. Read More »


My Freshman Year: Day 69

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Days as a Freshman: 69

Mood: nervous

“We’ve got a few minutes before class is over, if anyone has any questions about anything…” Professor Mullen looked around the room, taking her glasses off her face and leaning against the board.

English 205 was one of the harder Freshman English classes, but word of mouth had made it one of the most popular, especially with guys. Professor Mullen was around 35, tall, blond, and aggressively smart. She had a good sense of humor but wasn’t afraid to put people in her place, and most guys had a thing for being “reprimanded by Ms. Mullen”.

“What about the soccer scandal?” A girl in the front of the class raised her hand, a bunch of pink bracelets clanking together on her arm. “Don’t you think the school should be doing more to find out what really happened?”

People who had been dozing during the lecture suddenly perked up, and my notebook doodling grinded to a halt. Next to me, Rebecca stiffened, and I could feel her eyes slide over to my face. Read More »


My Freshman Year: Day 58

24426832.jpgDays as a Freshman: 58

Mood: totally freaking out

“So how do you combine these two molecules again?”

Sasha looked up, his adorable forehead knotted in frustration. I knew the answer, but something about his eyes catching mine stopped the flow of language to my mouth.

“It’s simple. You should have it in your notes. Here.” Grabbing Sasha’s notepad, Daniel Breely began to flick his pen across the page, shaking his puffy-haired head and mumbling under his breath.

I met Daniel B. (he insists everyone ad the “B”) during orientation, and quickly realized he would be a good ally to have. He’s one of those tall, skinny guys who wear pocket protectors with pride and he actually eats lunch at a table marked with handmade signs proclaiming “Caution, Geeks” and “Dorks Do it Better” in red marker. He’s got a reputation on campus as being the most genuine nerd alive.

He also helps people study for tests for $10 an hour.

Hiring Daniel B. to help Sasha and I with our Chem midterm was my idea. Needing some way to calm my anxiety about the whole Soccer House scandal, I decided having the most mind-numbingly flat personality in the world sit between Sasha and I would ease the tension.

Nothing but work would be talked about while Daniel B. was around. It was written in his “freelance tutor” contract.

“Hey, Grace?” Breaking my concentration on Daniel B’s tower of hair, Sasha leaned over, “What are you doing after this?” Read More »


Drunk Astronauts Give New Meaning to AirSick Bags

drunk guysIn the wonderful world (bubble) of a college student, it seems very little can be accomplished without an adequate “pregame” beforehand. It’s common to hear exchanges like,

“Wanna go bowling tonight?”

“Dude yea! Let’s pregame!”

“We should go see that new horror flick guys.”

“Hell yea, but it’ll be ten times scarier if we smoke the herb first!”

“Putt Putt?”

“Tequila!”

So if anyone can understand why there has been an outbreak of drunk astronauts, college kids take the cake:

“Ready for take off?”

“We got a couple minutes, man. Finish the flask”

Hollywood never called dibs on juicy scandals, so NASA decided to join the fun. Controversy has broken out when a recently published article in an aviation mag exposed NASA for allegedly sending astronauts up into space whilst wasted. Yes, you read right, sloshed, hammered, intoxicated. Houston, we have a problem. Read More »