The end of the semester is the worst for papers, especially in the spring. All you want to do is lay out by the pool with your friends and sip on something fruity, not sit inside on your computer typing out some analysis about something that you didn’t actually read. And even if you did read whatever it is you’re writing about, sometimes you just don’t have the energy to make more of an argument. Sometimes you run out of things to say. So what should you do when you need another half page or so, and you can’t.get.any.more.out? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered!

Here are some easy tricks (and subtle) to make your final paper longer…

initiating the gallery...

[Lead image via We Heart It/Gallery images via Google]

Caitlin is a senior at the University of Alabama who has an obsession with cupcakes, coffee, and Harry Potter. She always has random fun facts on reserve and aspires to be a professional blogger, social media bug, and/or James Franco’s assistant. Follow her fabulous life @caitlincorsetti. You’re welcome!

Whether you just graduated or you’ve had another year of college under your belt, the post-school slump is about to hit. It’s that period of time after the first few weeks of summer where you become gloomy because you miss your friends, your parents are getting on your nerves, and you don’t really have much to do except watch Netflix. The first couple of weeks are great. You’ve caught up on your shows (um Vampire Diaries, yes please!), you’ve been Skyping and Hey-Telling your friends in far places, and you’ve been sleeping in a lot and going to the pool.

But now the novelty of summer is starting to wear off. You’ve watched all of the episodes of current seasons so you resort to watching strange movies, you and your friends aren’t busy but talking proves to be more difficult, and you’re super tired and bored. Welcome to the post-school slump. I’m starting to experience it right now, although mine is paired with the anxiety and terror of the post-grad world. Don’t worry though, we can get through this together!

Here are some fun ways to get over it…

initiating the gallery...

Caitlin is a senior at the University of Alabama who has an obsession with cupcakes, coffee, and Harry Potter. She always has random fun facts on reserve and aspires to be a professional blogger, social media bug, and/or James Franco’s assistant. Follow her fabulous life @caitlincorsetti. You’re welcome!

[Images via We Heart It]

I used to be a college tour guide, in which I told prospective students that they could choose from over 150 different majors at my school. Apparently, 13 or so of them are completely useless — including mine. How about yours? Is your entire collegiate career a sham of actual productivity?

Earlier this week, The Daily Beast had the nerve to publish a list that finally identifies the thirteen most useless majors that college students call their own too often. The lucky thirteen was based on the undoubtedly truthful practices of science and statistics:

“This year we started with new research (PDF) from Georgetown University — which drew from two years of census data to determine the prospects for myriad majors — to narrow down our list to more than three dozen popular college majors. We also used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, equally weighing the following categories to determine current and future employment and earnings potential for our final ranking: Recent graduate employment, experienced graduate employment, recent graduate earnings, experienced graduate earnings, [and] projected growth in total number of jobs, 2010–2020.”

So basically, these were selected from the most popular majors in college, and then deemed “useless” when measuring how much money they haven’t earned past graduates and how many of them are still looking for jobs altogether. More importantly, these supposedly breakthrough findings are based on data collected over the past two years — you know, two of the bleakest years that our country has seen for quite a long time now.

And of course, which industries take a heavy blow throughout an economic recession? Without even looking at the list of overwhelming university uselessness just yet, it’s easy to guess that the liberal arts are, once again, deemed unfit for the blessed brains of science, math, engineering, etc.

I once defended all liberal arts majors on CollegeCandy, and I’ll do it again if I have to. I could continue my rant about how careers in the liberal arts aren’t as clear-cut as those in science-related fields, and I’d reiterate how so many people — more people than we think — don’t necessarily pursue careers in the fields they initially chose when they were 18-year-old freshmen in college. Because 18-year-olds don’t always make good decisions, and neither do 22-year-old graduates who are still somewhat confused by the direction of the rest of their lives, as well as 50-year-olds who undergo a career change after they’re flat-out disappointed in whatever they eventually chose to pursue.

However, I think it’s more important here to see how inaccurate the definitions of “useful” and “useless” are in this list’s context. These majors’ “uselessness” doesn’t matter at all because the definition of “usefulness” does not capture personal happiness, worldwide impact or cultural contribution — it only measures how fast YOU can pay off YOUR student loans by getting a high-paying job after graduation. But honestly, getting your money’s worth from a major and actually doing something useful with it are two different things. The nurse who majored in biology and spent a decade weighing patients on scales and measuring people’s blood pressure may not be as useful as the filmmaker who exposed an injustice through a documentary. Who has a bigger impact on the world? Who can be called more useful?

Even more so, “useful” majors would be nothing without the “useless” ones — what industry can function without artists to create advertising or language majors to publicize it…or even write a manual for that fancy scientific invention? And what will all those useful people do with their free time, if not veg out in front of the television, watch movies, listen to music, read the news, or enjoy some other product from a liberal arts major? Sure, science may save lives, but art makes life worth living.

See for yourself how “useless” the following 13 majors are, and how messed up our world would be if bright minds like us stopped majoring in them:

initiating the gallery...

Are there certain college majors that are more useless than others? Or does its “usefulness” really depend on what is done with it after graduation?

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

Ah, kids these days. Apparently, high schools across the country are setting strict dress codes for dances because girls are choosing dresses that are too “sexy.” Naturally, we had to do some investigation into this subject. We combed the internet, looking at the most risque prom dresses out there. After careful analysis, we’ve come to a conclusion. These dresses aren’t sexy. They’re just ugly.

Click through the gallery to see what we mean.

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.

[Lead image via Kiselev Andrey Valerevich/Shutterstock]

I’m going through a particularly angsty period of my college career right now, so if you were to ask me what the worst subject in school is, I would probably say ALL OF THEM. But of course, the Twitterverse has some much more creative ideas than that.

This was one of my favorite trending topics lately, so here it is: the best of #WorstSubjectInSchool.

initiating the gallery...

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.

[Lead image via karam Miri/Shutterstock]

Here at the University of Alabama, I’ve been really fortunate with my class experiences. I graduated with a class of 102 students, so coming to a large SEC school was definitely culture shock. My first class had 300 students in it, and I felt like a number. As I finished my gen-eds and started on courses for my major, the class sizes shrank significantly. From my sophomore year on, I didn’t have a class with more than thirty students. It felt more like a normal experience once I got through the large lectures of Biology and Philosophy 101, but it seems that a lot of students actually like being in super-sized seminars.

I can’t help but think why. Sure lectures can be great if you don’t really need to pay attention or you’re feeling the effects of a Thursday night out. You can sit in the back and play Angry Birds without worrying that you’ll get called on to participate. But for me, I didn’t learn anything in my lecture classes. I felt awkward speaking up because there were so many people and most of the time, the professors spoke for so long you couldn’t even get a word in. We had clickers to check in for attendance and take quizzes and to me, that’s just not learning.

The small classes I’ve been taking are much more rewarding, and I actually learn stuff. There’s nothing wrong with big lecture halls, but I don’t like feeling like a number. I like for professors to know who I am and know how I work as a student because it makes for a better learning environment. If your professor doesn’t even know your name, they won’t really be able to help you if you’re having trouble in class. Most of the time they’ll just direct you to the class webpage or Power Point slides. In my small classes, I feel comfortable and like they actually care about me as a student.

Now that I’m about to graduate, I’m very close with several of my professors since I’ve taken more than one course with them. They want to know how I’m doing and what kind of jobs I’m looking for. They want to pick my brain about projects, and I can go to them for help whether it’s school related or not. I couldn’t do that with a professor from one of those lecture classes I had back in my freshman year. Those seminars seem like a waste of time with me just sitting there watching the professor click through slides. The classes that have stuck out to me are the small ones where I truly enjoyed being present.

How do you feel about lecture halls? Do you like smaller classes better?

Caitlin is a senior at the University of Alabama who has an obsession with cupcakes, coffee, and Harry Potter. She always has random fun facts on reserve and aspires to be a professional blogger,social media bug, and/or James Franco’s assistant. Follow her fabulous life @caitlincorsetti. You’re welcome!

We’ve all heard that we should try to avoid the dreaded “Freshman Fifteen” (which is actually more like the “Freshman Seven”), but there are other important benefits to maintaining a good nutrition and exercise routine. The better you treat your body, the better you will feel. The better you feel, the more successful you’ll be in school and the more energy you’ll have for the really fun stuff. Read on to learn how you can use the latest discoveries in health and fitness to stay healthy, happy, and motivated this school year.

1.     Cut down on time at the gym with interval workouts.

Intervals have long been an important part of many exercise routines. But a new study has shown that intense interval workouts may be just as effective as time-consuming endurance training. The study divided its subjects, healthy college students, into two groups. One group rode a stationary bike at a sustained pace for 90 to 120 minutes three times per week. The other group pedaled as hard as they could for 20 to 30 seconds, with short breaks in between, for a total of about six minutes of intense riding per day. The result? The students who rode intervals showed just a much of an increase in their endurance as the students who did sustained training, and showed the same molecular indicators of increased fitness in their muscles.

So if you don’t hours to spend at the gym, you can still get a great workout with a series of short, intense intervals. In order for this to work, you really have to push yourself, so give those intervals all you’ve got.

2.     Exercise to reduce stress and feel more focused.

In the unforgettable words of Elle Woods, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands.” While you probably don’t have a husband, a good workout may keep you from freaking out on your roommate. It will also help you pay more attention and concentrate in class. So don’t say you’re too stressed to go to the gym! Working out or even just taking a walk will help you feel better and complete that mountain of homework more efficiently.

3.     Stock up on healthy snacks.

Busy schedules and late nights can lead to lots of snacking, which doesn’t have to be a bad thing. A recently published study, the most comprehensive look so far at the causes of weight gain, showed that what you eat makes a big difference. Some results were expected – the participants who gained the most weight over a 20-year period ate large amounts of french fries, potato chips, sugar-sweetened drinks, red meats and desserts. Most people who maintained their weight or lost weight ate lots of standard healthy foods – fruits, vegetables and whole grains. But, surprisingly, consumption of dairy had a neutral effect on weight gain and weight loss was greatest among the subjects who ate lots of peanut butter and yogurt.

So, you can replace fried and processed snacks with food that tastes good, but is still healthy. Try some peanut butter on a whole grain cracker, or naturally sweet fruit yogurt instead of potato chips and soda from the vending machine. Fueling your body properly will give you more energy and prevent weight gain.

4.     Fidget!

In my favorite study of the summer, researchers found that performing more “incidental movement” each day – from tapping a toe while sitting to walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator – helps improve cardiovascular fitness. This is great news for college students, since we spend so much time sitting. The study also found that some people are naturally more inclined to fidget throughout the day. If you’re one of those people (I definitely am), then keep it up! If not, start fidgeting! It’s possible to improve your health with the simplest, smallest movements, as well as larger changes like walking short distances instead of driving. Just try not to annoy your classmates by making noise or kicking their desks.

Well, their great advice has inspired me to give a little advice of my own. Less about choosing a college, and more about the things you should remember once you get there, about how to bridge that gap between college and the real world, and how to make the most of your opportunities while you still have them.

I mean it’s not all boys, beer, and parties (even though those are important too), so here are a few things I wish I knew when I was a mere freshman.

1. You’ll change your major at least once. Everyone always told me this, but I would just shake my head at them and laugh. Not me, I knew what I wanted to major in. I loved to read and to write. I was going to be an English major. But even I eventually had a moment of doubt. The entire second semester of my freshman year into the summer before my sophomore I was convinced I would be changing my major to information systems. That seemed like a far more practical choice with better options for post-grad jobs. Granted I eventually realized I was not made to be an information systems major and found my way back to English (and later, Philosophy) but I was so concerned with trying to pick a major that I didn’t even realize that…

2. What you get your degree in may not necessarily be the field you work in. It’s the truth. Your major does not necessarily have to dictate what you do with your life so much as it explains what you enjoy and what skill sets you will have post graduation.  Granted, pre-med students more often than not will probably go on to become doctors and psychology majors will probably continue their research in graduate schools, but history majors can become politicians or writers or lawyers. I mean, philosophy majors don’t necessarily become…philosophers, right? No, trust me, they don’t. 

3. The humanities are actually pretty applicable to real life. The humanities (English, Philosophy, History) tend to get a bad reputation these days. Because there’s no set post-college career path humanities majors are accused of being lazy, impractical, and unwilling to grow up. Sure, we spend our time reading and discussing and analyzing and researching about things that have already happened, things that have only happened in books, and thinks that will never happen, but all that reading and discussing, all those skills we develop actually come in handy later on in life. It took me a while, but eventually I learned how to spin the skills of an English and Philosophy major to work for just about any job. I mean, what job description these days doesn’t ask for excellent analytical skills, great communication skills, and the ability to work well with others, right?

4. Your advisor can help you. This one may seem like a no brainer, but not nearly enough people utilize their college advisors, and I certainly didn’t during my first few years. These people are there to do more than tell you what classes you need to take in order to graduate on time. They’re there to help you figure out what you want to do with your life. Have something in mind? Ask for their opinions? If they can’t help you, they’ll probably be able to tell you who can, and tell you what you need to do to make it happen. They have connections, and they want to use them to help you, so let them.

5. Get as many internships as possible. The best way to determine whether or not a certain job is right for you is to do that job, and an internship is the perfect way to try it out while you’re still in college. Internships are great because they give you some real life experience, allow you to put all those skills (directly related or not) to good use, and sometimes (if you’re lucky enough to intern for CollegeCandy) they’re actually a lot of fun. Internships allow you to further develop your skills, build up your resume, and test drive a few post-grad options. So do one, do four, do forty, and make the most of all the options available to you as a college girl.

OK, now it’s your turn: Looking back on your college experience, what are some things you wish you knew way back when?

Dear Tuffy Luv,
I’m pretty sure you already answered a question like mine but I couldn’t find the answer, so here goes. I’m a high school senior applying to college and I’m having a bit of a problem with my safety school. It’s brilliant: great nightlife, safe area, amazing dorms and has a course that I love. One bad thing though: it’s my hometown. The dorms are down the road. The campus is a 10 minute drive from home. Not that I don’t love my hometown and my folks, but isn’t college my one chance to become independent and get a little space? When it comes down to it, I want to be able to stumble home drunk at 2 a.m and not have to worry about seeing people I know on every street corner.

Would staying in town for college be a waste of an experience? [Ed. Note: No! Just ask our commuter student!]

Should I apply to a worse school just because I don’t want to stay in my town? I mean, my folks think I should stay in dorms (and I will) but still. Any advice would be lovely

- Confused about College

Dear Confused about College,

Well, I’m more of a relationship columnist, but…well, I really like your question. So, okay, I’ll come at this from the angle of forming new (and dealing with old) relationships via college, yes?

Yes, a major function of college is to have new experiences. You may indeed feel the need to “stumble home drunk at 2am” (although, if you do, and this goes for ALL OF YOU, please NEVER NEVER do it alone!!! Stumbling in any condition at 2am anywhere is not safe enough to go it alone!!!), and certainly that is harder if you’re worried about running into people.

But, look, you’re certainly not gonna bump into your parents on campus. So that’s a plus. And I think it’s really great and supportive of them that they want you to live in a dorm even though the school’s so nearby. It’s cool that they want you to have new experiences without them.

This leads me to believe they’ll probably kinda leave you alone. So you can check that off your list of worries.

As for running into people you know from, say, high school–well, they’ll all be busy having their own new experiences. I doubt they’re gonna care what you’re doing, just as you probably could give a shoop about what they’re doing out at 2am.

Who knows? You might even find that, outside the context of high school, someone you’ve known for years and never connected with could be really cool. Old associates often become new friends.

And, honey–if it’s a good school, that, honestly, is more important. Don’t go to a worse school just to avoid old neighbors! Seriously, girl. You got a good head on your shoulders. Go to a good school and use it!!! Besides, it’s your safety school, yes? You may not even end up there.

Here’s to hoping you get into your first choice and have all the exciting, brand-new, branching-out experiences you crave and deserve! (WHILE, of course, maintaining your GPA!!!!!!!!)

Hearts & Skulls,
Tuffy Luv

Need more Tuffy Luv? Check it all out here!

This is boring.

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like soul mates!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Schools all over have been experimenting with social media lately – some of them getting into it and some of them encouraging their students to stay out of it. Now Harrisburg University of Science and Tech are blocking all social media from the school’s network including Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and AIM for a week. They’re not the first school to try a move like this, but my question is, is it right?

I think we’re all willing to admit that we’re maybe a little over-connected, maybe a little obsessed with our social media and it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world not to check our Twitter feeds every two minutes. I’m not striking out against the school not supporting social media – it’s their network and if they don’t want students using it that way, it’s their prerogative to block those sites. My problem is that this is an experiment. That’s right, a guy at Harrisburg saw his teen daughter juggling a lot of social media and decided to see what would happen if he took it away. Except, instead of conducting this little experiment in his home, he chose to use his position at the college to pull a social media blackout for a week. And then proceeded to tell virtually no one about it. My qualms about the experiment’s ethics aside (hello, consent?) the bigger question is, is this something the school should really be policing?

I talked a while back about school’s trying to force community policy to curb student binge drinking, and I feel much the same on this issue. Sure, we all know that we overdo it a little on the Facebook updates – just as we all know that if you can’t remember where you live when you leave the bar, it’s probably not fun party time for your liver – but is it actually our school’s business to step in and dictate this stuff for us?

OK, in this case, it’s not that the school is against social media (it is a tech school, after all) they just wanted to study the effects, so maybe that’s not so bad. And as I said, the schools should have a right to police the things that students use their network for, since they are the ones providing it. I just can’t help but get a little squirmy at the Orwellian-ness of it all; just making rules and taking things away without warning and then we all just have to live with it.

And not even have a chance to Tweet about it. Gah.

What do you say? Am I overreacting to a harmless little experiment? Or is this a much bigger issue about how school’s get involved in our lives? Duke it out!