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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Celebrate Holidays Even If You Can't Go Home - College Quick Tip #2

You may not be able to go home for every holiday that you celebrate, but that doesn't mean that you can't make the day special! Celebrate with friends! Try to do something tradtional, and something not-so-traditional.

Your univerisity might even host some sort of holiday-themed event. My college is usually deserted during holiday breaks and weekends, but for Thanksgiving they organize a very nice dinner for students who can't be with family.

Neither my roomate or I went home for Easter this year, instead we dyed a dozen eggs (not sure how we're going to eat that many!), baked cookies, and watched a movie! It was an easy, fun, and affordable way to make the day festive!

HAPPY EASTER! (And if you're not reading this on Easter, then, happy whatever day it is!)

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Top 5 College Tips

Here are my top 5 college tips for soon-to-be college freshmen (or current students). I'll be writing more in-depth posts about each of these in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Tip #1: Don't resist change

College is not high school (Halleluya!) and within a few weeks of starting - maybe even before that - you will not be the same person you were in high school. Let's be honest, it's probably for the best.

Call your parents, but don't let them make your decisions and fight your battles.

Keep in touch with friends back home and friends who went to other universities, but don't spend every weekend driving back to visit them (this goes for boyfriends and girlfriends too!).

If there's something about yourself that you want to change (it was shyness for me) this is the best time to start working on that. Don't be frustrated if it doesn't happen over night, but gradually you will come to understand yourself more and to, hopefully, like yourself more.


Tip #2 : Try to make friends wherever you go

I'm not going to say college doesn't have cliques, but all sorts of people become friends, especially in the first few weeks. You could find your best friend in the cafeteria, the university library, your classes, your residence hall, or sleeping right next to you in your dorm room (that was not meant to sound so creepy!).

And don't worry about not fitting in, there is a place for litterally everyone at college and eventually you will find where you belong. Here's a link to my full post about making friends in college http://adviceforthealmostadult.blogspot.com/2013/03/making-friends-and-fitting-in-at-college.html.


I studied abroad in Chester, England.
A beautiful and lively little city that I will always love.

Tip #3. Study Abroad if you can.

I never thought this would be an option for me becuase of money, but don't be so quick to write it off! A large portion of your financial aid could transfer if you go through the right program and you can try to find additional scholarships to help you pay for the costs. Talk to the study abroad advisor at your university to learn about your financial options.

I did have to take out additional loans but in the grand scheme of things it's not that much more than I would have paid for a semester at home (I'll be honest and tell you that by the time I graduate I'll have taken out $50,000 in loans, by studying abroad I only added about $2,000 to that total.)



Tip #4. Start making connections with your professors as soon as possible

A time will come when you will need to ask at least one of them for a letter of recomendation and you don't want to spend a month hyperventalating about choosing one to ask and fearing that they will reject you (not that I know anything about that).

Try to ask a question on the first day (maybe about the syllabus), if it's a discussion-based class try to add to the conversation at least once per class period, and go to see them during office hours in the first few weeks.

Forming a relationship with your professors will certainly be harder at some schools than others (I'm lucky to have gone to a small university with professors who are really easy to get in touch with). But no matter where you go it will be easier developing that relationship over several semesters than in your final year.

My university organized a trip to San Francisco for incoming
freshman. We had fun, bonded, and did community service!

Tip #5. Take advantage of the services your university offers

This can include a career resource center, counciling services, a gym, knowledgable and helpful librarians, free events (with free food and free shirts!), guest lecturers, a nutritionist, sporting events, opportunities to make connections with alumni, and partially sponsored travel opportunites (and those are just the ones off the top of my head!).

You're paying A LOT to study at that university, so get you money's worth!

Oh, and go to class! Seriously! You're paying somewhere near $100 per hour for your classes, so sleeping through a class is a very expensive nap.
                                                
                 
                      
Those are my top 5 college tips, but you never can be too prepared, so if you need more college tips check out these other posts:

What are your top 5 college tips (or tips for high school, life, whatever!)? Leave a comment, I'd love to know! Also let me know if there's anything you'd like me to see me blog about!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

5 Things You Should Never Say To Your Professor

Even our favorite professors get on our nerves sometimes and we just want to give them a piece of our mind. But most of the time it's just better to bite your tongue, and maybe think of a mean nickname that you will never utter out loud. That will show them! Here are 5 other things that you should never say to your professor:

1. "I was busy doing homework for a different class" Some classes are more important than others, just don't tell your teacher that theirs is the one that's on the bottom of your list!

2. "That is not ironic/symbolic" Maybe your teacher is reading into that Shakespeare quote way too much, but that's part of the fun. Just go with it, or ask them to explain further.

3. "I wrote the entire essay in the 3 hours before class" What your professor doesn't know won't hurt them... or influence their grading of your paper.

4. "I don't remember reading about that part in the Sparknotes" I LOVE Sparknotes (a post on that is soon to come!) and I highly doubt that professors can really be that oblivious about how students manage to read a million pages in a week with everything else going on. But just in case they don't know, lets keep that little tool a secret amongst us students.

5. "Why did I even bother coming to class today?" We've all felt like this at some point (or at many points), but your teacher had to climb out of bed today too. We're all in the same boat, or sinking ship rather. They're just getting paid for it... and you're paying for it for the next twenty years. So don't waste your money sleeping through class!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Making Friends and Fitting In at College

For some people making friends is easy. For the rest of us it can be the scariest part of starting something new. But college is the best time to make friends, and the easiest too! The most important thing to remember as a freshman is that everyone wants to make friends as much as you do!

Here are my 7 steps for making friends and finding you place in College! (PS If you're not a freshman skip to #7)

1.     In Your First Few Weeks: be super friendly and start up conversations with random people, this is something that you can only get away with as a freshman, so take advantage of it. Don't be intimidated by upperclassmen, most of us get excited to meet freshman and hear about how they are liking school. The cafeteria is a great place to start making friends, so sit down with someone you don't know and introduce yourself!

2.     The first few weeks of college will be the best time to start making friends, but don't worry if you haven't found your future bestie after one month. Many of the friends you make at the beginning will start to slowly drift away and be replaced with people that you have more in common with and get along better with. This may sound harsh, but everyone will find their place eventually.

3.     Join clubs and organizations in the first few months. Attend your school's club fair at the beginning of the year and find something that sounds interesting to you. Don't overwhelm yourself with ten different organizations, but pick 1-3 and start going to their meetings! You might not love them after the first meeting, but give them a few weeks. If you still aren't enjoying yourself or making friends after five meetings, then you can consider leaving the club or sticking with it to see if it gets better. In all likelihood it will get better and you will start making friends.

4.     When second semester starts consider joining another organization or rushing for a fraternity or sorority. I didn't know when I started at university that there was such a thing as a professional fraternity, and my opinion of social fraternities was low. But I know so many people who have made so many friends through groups like these. A warning though: rushing and pledging will likely be a big time commitment.

5.     Keep trying! Fitting in and making friends does not happen over night, and it is harder for some than for others. Don't compare yourself with everyone else. And know that a lot of people may not be as popular as they seem. When you get to know your peers you might just find that they get lonely too.

6.     Get out there and try something new! I read something once that said "do what scares you", I think this is a perfect motto for college. If you decide to go to a school event ask yourself "what's the worst thing that could happen?" It's probably not that bad. If you've always wanted to learn how to play tennis, sign up for a class! If you've love World of War Craft, there's probably a student organization centered around gamers. And if you can't seem to find a club or a class that piques your interest, find some students and start your own club!

7.     It's never too late to start making friends! You will gain friends and lose friends during your time at college. If you're feeling lonely or like you don't fit in, you just need to keep trying and keep putting yourself out there. You're never going to make friends sitting alone in your room eating Nutella by the spoonful! Join a new club at the beginning of the semester and start meeting new people! You might think it's odd to join clubs after your first year and it seems like everyone else is already settled, but it's really not. Regard every semester as a new start!

Taking a short trip with new friends is a great way to bond!
This photo is from when I studied abroad in England.
We all became closer after a few days exploring London!
Your four (or more) years in college will leave you with tons of awesome memories, and some lifelong friends. If you were shy in high school and had a hard time making friends, don't start freaking out! College is your chance for a fresh start. So immerse yourself in clubs and school activities and you might find that you're not as shy as you were last year! The university is a place of change and growth, so get out there and start becoming who you want to be!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

College Quick Tip: Show Your School Spirit!

Starting this week I'm going to be posting a "College Quick Tip" every week, along with my longer posts! So, lets start it off with some school spirit!

  • You'll get lots of free shirts during your time at college, collect as many as you can! They're great to wear on any jeans-and-t-shirt kind of day and perfect to wear to sporting events. Sometimes you'll end up with a massive extra large shirt, but they're still great for sleeping in or cutting up for art projects (like quilts and pillows). Or you can cut them up so that they fit better (check YouTube for tons of great how-to videos!)
  • Go to sporting events, even if you think you don't like sports. They can be really fun, I swear! Even if you don't really understand the rules you can still get really into the game.
  • Join a club like the pep band or spirit team, or whatever. You should join lots of clubs and organizations while in college, and this is a great place to start. You'll meet people from outside of your classes and residence halls and you'll have fun cheering on your team!

I joined my university's Pep Band my freshman year!
We just returned from the Big West basketball championship game.
We amped up our school spirit with music, chants, signs, and face paint!
Our team won!!!
My attempt at a fierce face! I need to work on that!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Choosing a Major and Not Regretting It

Deciding what to study in college feels like deciding what you want to spend the rest of your life doing. That can be daunting. Especially when everyone around you seems to have known their true calling since they were in kindergarten. But no one really knows what they will be doing five years down the road. And, while this is an important decision, it will not lock you into one path for the rest of your life.

I like to use my brother as an example: He got his degree in micro-biology, and he currently has a very respectable job selling computer software to large companies. It's honestly a bit too complicated for me to really understand, but it has nothing to do with biology. And yet, he does not regret his course of study and it is in fact that degree, among other things, which helped him to start his career in the computer software industry.
This is the book my mom gave my brother
when he graduated from junior college!
It's funny how things work out!

Lately I've been stressed out trying to deal with school while looking for jobs and internships to apply for. There have been moments when I wish my passion had been for science or business, or something practical like that. I even took the LSAT and almost applied to law school. But the mere thought of three years of nothing but law classes makes my stomach churn.

I have friends studying science and a brother in nursing school and they know exactly the type of job they want to apply for. I don't even know where to start. But just because I can't see where I'll be in six months, doesn't mean that I don't have a future. There are prospects out there, I just have to work a little bit harder to find them.

I read something the other day that said "minor in something that you love, major in something that will get your a job". I can't remember who said it, but I'm guessing it was either a bitter liberal arts major who struggled to find a decent job or some logical person who studied math but whose real passion was for film. On its face, this seems like good advice, but no matter what choose you will be studying it for four years. Don't major (or minor) in something that you don't like. You don't have to love it, but you should like it.

I will NEVER regret my choice to be an English major, no matter where I end up in twelve months or twelve years. I got to study what I loved for four years. I enjoyed every single English class I took and I loved my professors. That cannot be said for my general education courses. But I also do not regret minoring in pre-law, even if I never go to law school. And I wish I had taken a computer class and a marketing class.

My main piece of advice is to take a wide variety of classes that sound interesting to you during your first year or two of college. You will get a feel for what you love, what you never want anything to do with ever again, and what you might like to learn more about. It's OK if you end up taking a few courses that do not contribute directly to your degree, you will learn about what you want to do for the rest of your life and gain knowledge that could help you land a job in the future.

Also, remember that this choice will not dictate the rest of your life. It's far to stressful to decide on your whole future when you're 18, or even 21! Do what makes you happy and try new things, you never know what you are going to love.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Stay Healthy in College and Beat the "Freshman 15"

We've all heard of the dreaded "freshman 15". And some of us have experienced it. But the truth is that no two college experiences are the same, and that includes experiences with weight. Some gain weight, some loose weight, and some stay the same. And it's important to remember that weight isn't the only thing that matters when it comes to health.

It can be really tough to try to get healthy while dealing with school and trying to have a social life. Some times health is put on the back-burner, but I've got some easy tips to help you make simple changes.


#1. Exercising Can Be Fun... Kinda
Some lucky people love working out, for the rest of us it can feel like torture. Make it a little more bearable by listening to music or recorded lectures to distract yourself. I like exercise videos because they force me to work my whole body and they're not monotonous like the treadmill. (but if you aren't on the ground floor of your building, you might be more comfortable at the gym rather than wondering what your neighbors will think of your loud noises).

You can get workout videos for cheap at Ross, the Grocery Outlet, and even the Dollar Store. Or, you can head over to YouTube right now! I recommend this 10 minute workout from two cute British guys, or this video in which they appear shirtless.



Saturday, March 2, 2013

5 Tips for Being Safe while Drinking

Hey there college students! This is just a friendly reminder to be safe over spring break! Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind when drinking:

1. Use the buddy system - keep an eye out for your friends and be sure they keep an eye out for you. Talk about limits before you go somewhere (like: "do not let me go home with a stranger" or "don't let me have more than three drinks") It may seem like common sense to you, but be sure you're on the same page

2. Don't take drinks from strangers or set your drink down - to avoid being drugged.

3. Decide on you limits before you start drinking - and count how many drinks you have. (Remember, in general a shot, a small glass of wine, and a beer all contain the same amount of alcohol. But sometimes they can be bigger, so watch out).

4. NEVER drive while intoxicated and don't let your friends either - Get a taxi, take a bus, or walk (but always make sure you're not alone). There are plenty of other options. Some places may even have shuttles, if you're staying at a hotel ask about this.

5. Know your limits - This can be hard if you aren't used to drinking, but take it slow and don't feel pressured to keep up with anyone else. Know that alcohol will effect you more if you haven't eaten or if you're small. Also, if you are taking any medications check to see if it's safe to drink while on them.

Those are my 5 basic, common-sense tips for being safe when drinking, let me know if you have any others!

PLEASE be safe no matter what you are doing over spring break. And remember, it's totally normal to spend your spring break at home with your parents too =)