Over the past three months, I’ve found myself falling victim to a peril of college life that most don’t consider an issue until it hits them. It’s that feeling of uncontrollable anxiety when you realize you have three papers, several long reading assignments, classes, TA sessions, club meetings, play rehearsals, study sessions, and exams (breathe) all happening in a very, very short time span. And in said short time span, you are simply incapable of getting it all done.

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?? Read More »

Welcome to college, freshmen!

You may have made it through Welcome Week without any run-ins with the campus police (congrats!), but you still have plenty of opportunities to meet them up close and personal.

There are going to be many times this year and well into your college career that you will find yourself surrounded by alcohol. And, naturally, you are going to want to partake. Just beware–while you are navigating the university party scene, your RA’s, Campus Police, and Public Safety units are gearing up to bust underage revelers.

Here are some tips on how you can avoid getting written up before your first semester is over.

1. Don’t act like ‘The Freshman.’

Just because you suddenly have access to alcohol, it doesn’t mean you need to consume ALL of the alcohol at once. Even if the cops are out and about, they don’t have the manpower to hunt down every single underage boozer. So, they’ll zero in on the kid stumbling around with a trash can on his head before thinking twice about the passive mingler. The same goes with your RA, who really doesn’t want to walk in on you peeing in the corner of elevator. Read More »