As a creative writing major, I’m extremely lucky to have parents who didn’t scoff at getting the arty side of a liberal arts education. My parents are voracious readers who have a high level of respect for the arts, and as a result they can be happy for me, even when my class schedule looks distinctly impractical.

Love in the Novel

Nabokov

Intro to Buddhist Thought

These are the kind of classes my parents put up with throughout my college career, with nary an Econ class to be found among the lot.

Many students feel a lot of pressure, however, to take classes that will turn around into the best profit. They know their parents are dropping some major Benjamins to keep them in a good school, and they want to return the favor by, at the very least, not making their parents go gray worrying that their children will be living in a box on the street. So they take Econ and finance classes. They try to become good little doctors and lawyers and I-bankers.

But most of the people I know taking that path aren’t particularly happy doing it. Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 140

Mood: Confused

I rolled a pencil back and forth on the smooth plastic-wooden café table. The coffee sitting next to me was still too hot to drink, and I needed to do something with my hands and attention. Even people watching was out of the question; with half the college still tucked away at home or on some exotic island vacation, campus was a dreary ghost town at night. Sometimes I felt like the only one.

But of course I wasn’t. Since I was meeting someone else here.

I looked up at the clock again, squinting my eyes to make out the tiny ticking hand that counted off seconds. Justin was five minutes late. I told myself it was nothing. People are late to things all the time. I was late to things all the time. There was no reason to panic, no reason to think he had decided against coming. No reason to worry.

He had invited me here, after all. He had been the one to mention meeting in the café on Sunday night to “catch-up”. It had been a quick phone call, but he had done most of the talking, and all of the suggesting. Read More »

I don’t know about you, but when I earn some cold hard cash, the word “budget” is definitely not the first thing on my mind.

In fact, that money is spent on clothes, nights out, and my astronomical rent (woo, New York City!) so fast that a budget is almost a laughable concept.

I’m willing to bet (I spend my money on gambling too, apparently) that you just may be in the same financial boat, which is why College Candy is here to help your broke ass out.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that budgeting your money isn’t so bad because–gasp!–it is now possible to manage your finances the same way we all manage our friends! How, you ask?

Social networking! It seems to be the only way we know how to do anything anymore. But, it’s so obvious! You gotta love it.

Financial social networking sites like Wesabe.com and Geezeo.com are here to save the day…and your pocketbook!

It works like traditional money managing software like Quicken or Money, but here’s the catch…your peers can offer feedback on just how well you are spending your paycheck. They can offer tips and tricks that may increase your savings or slash your debt. (Can they leave drunken wall posts too?) Read More »