Here’s something you probably already know…high school students aren’t exactly happy with their education. At least that’s what Jezebel is telling us. Apparently high school students feel like their education is not preparing them enough for college.

And frankly, I don’t blame them. Not just because I think there should be more emphasis on math and science or something like that, but because I genuinely feel that high school doesn’t do enough to prepare students for college inside and outside of the classroom. Networking? Time management? These things matter too, a lot more than AP scores or SATs.

1. Survival Skills. I’m not trying to take us back to the days of home economics, believe me. But I think there is something to be said for high schools offering their students the means to learn some basic survival skills. A few quick and easy snacks for late night studying. Some meals that can be made in the dorm room. A few basic rules for laundry room virgins. These are things college students need to know, but I’d be really surprised if any high school offered courses in them.

2. Networking Skills. Colleges put a lot of emphasis on these skills because they’re a great asset when trying to find a job, but they’re also a great asset when applying to college. Think college interviews. Meetings with advisors. Getting to know faculty parties. All those events that colleges throw with alumni and business partners who they’ve already hired from? All the people these students meet? Wouldn’t a few tips offered up in high school go a long way?

3. Computer Skills. College is about presentations and research papers, Excel spread sheets and charts and graphs. And while some colleges require students take basic computer classes, they wouldn’t need to if high school classes taught more than basic typing. I understand that resources are limited and not all schools have access to enough computers for students to learn these skills but those that do should take full advantage of them.

4. Writing Skills. Whether you’re a science major or an English major you will be spending a large chunk of your time in college writing. But more college students than we realize enter freshman year without even understanding how to cite sources properly. Research skills, writing skills, the ability to analyze an argument. These are the types of skills high school seniors should be learning in English classes. Not how to best beat that AP Lit. test.

5. Time Management. Every high school senior should be heading off to college to take this one because let’s face it, just about every high school senior needs it. In high school we didn’t really need time management skills. We went to school, did our thing, went home, did the homework we couldn’t avoid and repeated the process. Now things are just a little bit different. There’s all this free time and it seems like we should be able to get things done but five hours on Facebook go by fast. Teaching students how to organize their life, schedule their classes, and make time for school and a social life would probably be the greatest skill high school teachers could give soon to be college freshman.

Your turn. What do you wish your students had taught you about preparing for college?  

[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 When Parents Text, College Daybreak and iConcertCal) 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.]

It’s a terrible habit of nearly every college student: procrastination. I procrastinate as long as I absolutely can, sometimes even opting to vacuum the entire apartment and do the dishes instead of sitting down to do what I have to do. And then when I do finally start studying or writing a paper, I have a hard time staying focused.

Yes, as great as the internet is at keeping us amused, connected, and informed, it’s a major source of distraction that gets in the way of me doing, well, anything. At all. Ever.

I’m sick of wasting all my time, but I don’t have a lot of willpower to keep me off of Zappos.com and on the actual task at hand. That’s why I’m glad I’ve discovered RescueTime. RescueTime is a web-based tool that aims to help you make better use of your time.

Simply download and install the program (the “Lite” edition is free), and it’ll start tracking the time you spend on each application or website. Soon, you’ll be able to see how efficiently you’re spending your time.

You already know that you waste a lot of time stalking your crush on Facebook, reading your favorite blogs, and watching Funny or Die videos. However, when you’re faced with the actual numbers of how much time you’re wasting and compare that to the amount of time you’ve spent sitting at your computer, it can be a little shocking.

And that’s the reaction RescueTime is hoping for. RescueTime shows you exactly what you’re spending your time doing. Once you know how you’re spending (or wasting away) your time, you can (hopefully) learn to budget your time towards more productive endeavors. In fact, RescueTime claims to recover an average of nearly 4 lost work hours a week!

There is a catch, though: you have to actually want to be more productive. If wasting away hours on the internet doesn’t bother you, then you probably won’t find much use for RescueTime. But for the rest of you, do yourself a favor and download it — you’ll be more productive in no time at all!

Pretty cool, eh? Well, there’s plenty more web where that came from. Check out the other sites that are on Laura’s web radar!

Heidi Montag does a PSA. Sorta.

Breakup services do the dirty work for you.

What can you get with Monopoly money? Drugs!

Want Sharon Osbourne’s boobs?

19-year-old designer does London Fashion Week.

Need some help with time management?

Yep, I guess you could say I’ve been experiencing a bit of a time management crisis.

I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later, since I’m pretty compulsive when it comes to my work and I have a hard time saying no to an extra-curricular opportunity. But, then again, it seems counter-intuitive that I, a devout non-procrastinator, should have trouble budgeting my time. Aren’t procrastinators the ones who usually feel the crunch when 500 pages of reading come crashing down on them at 3 in the morning? Since when does actually completing all the work assigned to me do more harm than good?

On the verge of a meltdown and a stress-induced chocolate binge, I turned to my college-grad-turned-medical-student brother for advice. I told him what my weekly schedule was like and asked what – if anything – I’m doing wrong. Much to my surprise, he told me that I’m actually doing much more than is necessary to do well in my classes.

Huh??

According to his – erm – medical advice, skimming readings here and there doesn’t hurt, nor does skipping some readings altogether when I just don’t have time – prioritizing, basically. It turned out that I was also studying far more than necessary for my exams, starting my review two weeks in advance in some cases; although I was getting good results, I could’ve cut my study time in half and still have done as well, as long as I had a structured and effective study plan. He also suggested that I cut back on my dozen or so extra-curricular commitments, at least until I get my bearings in college and can balance my schedule better. It was difficult for me to do so, since I have an interest in pretty much everything my school has to offer, but I trimmed down my schedule until I was sure I could handle the load in addition to my classes.

I’m also discovering ways to maximize my working time and minimize time wasted. To keep myself from getting distracted while I work, I’ve been hitting the library without my laptop, since I tend to fall prey to the allure of e-mail/Facebook/Twitter even when I’m in my most intense work mode. Also, instead of going on the Internet multiple times throughout the day, I’ve started setting aside time in the morning and the evening for that business so that I’m not breaking my focus every twenty or so minutes. That’s been the hardest habit to kick, given my love for being wired every second of the day, but it’s been paying off in efficient studying.

Still, there are certain weeks when I find that everything seems to be converging at once. An English paper due here, a history research paper there, an article for the paper and an exam to study for and a club meeting – all going on in the same weekend, usually a weekend that is also hosting the opening of a student play or a concert that I’m dying to go to. That just seems to be the nature of college, though, and one of the many reasons I just love being here. At least now, thanks to a little help from my bro, I’m better equipped to handle these tougher times.

What are some of your own time management tips for the busy college girl?

Heidi Klum gives birth to a little girl!

The Kardashian’s are designing for Bebe.

Jon Gosselin is becoming a Jew??

Need a Halloween costume? Make one yourself!

Manage your time and kick some academic booty.

A first kiss…at 42-years-old.

Between homework, studying, group projects and partying, I really had a tough time managing my time in college. I was always looking for ways to make my life easier, and it always backfired on me. No matter what anyone says, Sparknotes is not an acceptable substitute for reading the book. You’re still not going to know the main character’s sister’s dog’s name. And your professor is always going to ask you for it.

But the good people at Microsoft must have heard my cries of pain and despair when they took it upon themselves to create their new program, Office Live Workspace. Not only does it let me store my documents and information online and let met access them anywhere from the Internet, but also, it’s FREE. So, when you’ve got a paper due in 12 minutes and your printer is out of ink, all you have to do is save that puppy to your personal online space, haul ass to the ‘brary, print it out and turn it in. Phew.

Even more amazing, Workspace takes the headache out of group projects because it has simplified the sharing process. Everyone in a group can access the latest edition of the document in a glorified, virtual “workspace” where they can collaborate, comment on and edit the same document. Without coordinating their super busy (or super “I don’t want to go to the library in the dead of winter to meet up with these losers”) schedules. Lord knows that’s the most annoying part of any group assignment (besides the a-hole who does nothing and gets the good grade…)

Microsoft’s new program inspired me to search for other ways to smooth out my path toward academic success. Along the way, I found a website dedicated to tips for the college student. CollegeTips.com is a survival guide that answers your questions from studying to managing money and managing time (so you can make it to that toga party Saturday night and get that paper done). CollegeTips supplies students with tips on how to get to know your professors, handle a double major, as well as test-taking strategies and exam tips. Not only that, though, CollegeTips will also advise you on the best way to do your laundry and how to find student ID discounts. And not to be forgotten, there are also tips on how best to pre-game parties and avoid hangovers. It’s a one-stop source for the best way to go about your complete college experience.

Lastly, I think everyone should become a member of Wiggio.com. Exciting features to take advantage of on the site are a shared calendar; ability to send mass messages via email, text or voice note; polling to get group members opinions; and a shared task list and document folder. Wiggio is a management tool that can help the busy and unorganized student get their life in order in one simple program.

While I can’t guarantee that these websites will keep you out of the library forever, they will cut down on the amount of all-nighters and shots of espresso. And if you get in a few more extra hours of sleep a night too, well I wouldn’t be surprised.

1) The Internet: Essential to keeping up with friends from home (and that kid you haven’t seen since  pre-kindergarden), essential to keeping up with world news (gawker.com, anyone?), and very, very excellent at wasting your time (during class, during your chem final cramming session, at four am in the morning when you just have to broadcast your insomnia on Twitter…).  Leave your laptop in your dorm room when you attend lectures if you want to save your grades. If you must bring it to take notes, turn off the wireless.  And if you really don’t trust yourself, install a self-control application to help set a daily time limit on time-wasting websites.

2) Ass-crack of dawn classes. Try as you might to schedule classes around your personal body rhythms (the preferred way to avoid this), there comes a time in every girl’s college career when she realizes that the only available section of a mandatory course meets early in the morning.  Combat the potential damage to your batting average by buying a new alarm clock, an extra cup of coffee, rewarding yourself for waking up with five minutes on your favorite blog before you dash off to class, or finding a classmate on your hallway to share in your pain….and notes, if one of you ever oversleeps.

3) Ovulation. For all intents and purposes: that time of the month when you really need to get some.  Do not go out to a bar and accept drinks from a cute stranger/stick your tongue down his throat if it’s Tuesday night you know you should be working on the key slides for your history power-point presentation.  Save your grades, buy a vibrator. You’ll also cut out the make-up application time, the cab fare, the hangover, and the heartbreak.

4) Poor time management.  Do not: begin a physics problem set two hours before the deadline; assume that you don’t need sleep to start, finish, and edit your English paper; double-book your best friend’s birthday dinner and your art history study session; forget to crack your sociology textbook until finals season rolls around; let your period catch you off-guard before your swim test.  Avoid these things with: an online calendar, a cute planner, a that-time-of-the-month reminder.

5) “Interesting” (and insanely difficult) electives. You’ve always wanted to know how to fix a computer.  Or understand  evolutionary anthropology. Only the computer science teacher lost you on the syllabus and that anthro course requires you to read two books per week and write two thousand words of textual analysis.  Yes, college is a time to explore new things, but just prepare yourself for an inevitable dip in the GPA when you’re up until two in the morning working on this “elective” and ignoring the work of your more important courses. You should definitely still take it (that’s what college is for, right?), just be forewarned…

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.

3. Eliminate activities.

There are probably a few hobbies you have that you really enjoy doing, and a few things you do that you may consider a slight waste of time. I spend way too much time surfing the Internet, so if I’m going to write a big article or work on a portion of my book, I’ll disable my wireless connection. If you feel like you watch too much TV, you might want to drop a couple of shows from your repertoire and catch up on episodes online later (but only if you have extra time). Consider your biggest time-wasters (Bromance, anyone?), and get rid of them! You’ll be amazed at how your week opens up if you downgrade this way.

I know many of you guys are multitasking mavens, so please feel free to share more tips in the comments!

[Image courtesy of blogs.theage.com.]

This week, the girls go on go-sees, which made me hate Saleisha for the first time. She did some major ass-kissing and and just came off really fake. It doesn’t seem like any of the girls do particularly well, and only Bianca and Saleisha make it back from the go-sees on time.

The rest of the girls are disqualified from the challenge for arriving late, so the competition isn’t too tough, but it’s Bianca that wins the challenge.The next morning, the models head over to their photoshoot, where they’re greeted by Mr. Jay, sexy Nigel, and (fake) lions and dragons. The goal is to stand out in a crowd. Is Nigel eligible to win? He’s clearly the prettiest.

Jenah is up first and doesn’t impress me much. Does anyone else think she looked like she looked like an awkward teenager playing dress-up with all that makeup? Saleisha does a decent job, as does Bianca once she finds her groove. Chantal is critiqued for looking like a showgirl, and Heather falls flat as well.

The challenge and photo-shoot are both pretty lackluster this week, especially with only five girls left. When I think back to past winners like Naima and Yoanna, the girls this season don’t hold a candle to them. They’re all pretty, but so are a lot of people. I think if they made Chantal a brunette, she would be a lot more striking.

At judging, the girls get scolded by Tyra for being late returning from go-sees, who says her reasoning is that they need to learn time management for when they’re working models on their way to a job or to catch a flight. Failing to mention, of course, that should they be working models, they would probably have someone to manage their time for them. And also failing to mention that the ANTM contestants tend to drop off the face of the earth after each cycle, so they don’t need to worry about time management as working models.

Despite seemingly a unremarkable photo shoot, Saleisha delivers a nice, “edgy” photo and is the first to get called by the judges—and the first of the four girls that’ll be going to Bejing. Bianca is called up next, followed by Chantal, leaving Jenah and Heather in the bottom two.

It’s Jenah that makes it, with a warning to fix her attitude, and Heather gets the boot and a pep talk from Tyra.

Don’t miss next week’s episode which promises model backstabbing and scandal. Which is the whole reason we love reality TV, right?