Monthly Archives: March 2011

March 18, 2011

Tax Credits & Benefits for Students


Don’t forget that your taxes this year are due on April 18th! Even if you’re a student, regardless of if your employed part-time, full-time, or not at all it’s important to do your taxes.

The last thing you’d want is a nasty letter from the IRS come graduation time!

Here’s a few useful links for Education Tax Benefits & Credits you might not have known about before:

http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/tax.phtml

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=213044,00.html

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96341,00.html

Good luck on finals everyone, and good luck on your brackets!
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March 15, 2011

Studying Tips for College Students

Studying can be a difficult challenge for a variety of reasons. For some, it’s an issue of your studying environment and for others, it’s the idea of just sitting down and concentrating. Regardless of your reason, we want to help you succeed and make it to graduation so you can wear your awesome graduation stole! (alright…. that last sentence was a shameless plug, we’ll admit it).

But in all seriousness, here’s a few of the best study web sites and a few quick tips we’ve come across while searching the web.

“Drink a glass of water before sitting to study. This will really enrich your brain connections to help you to concentrate.” (while we’re not sure if this is true, it doesn’t seem like it could help.  If you stay hydrated, you’re less likely to get hungry, and we know how much hunger can be a distraction and lead to the 2 hour “meal break”)
via HowToStudy.com

http://www.how-to-study.com/study-skills/en/studying/33/becoming-a-flexible-reader/

“Learn the general concepts first, don’t worry about learning the details until you have learned the main ideas.”
via TestTakingTips.com

http://www.testtakingtips.com/study/index.htm

“Study in chunks: 20-50 minute time periods followed by a brief break (5-10 minutes) is the most effective way to study”
via Dartmouth

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/study.html

Have some study tips of your own to help you get to graduation?  Let us know!

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March 10, 2011

Recovering from Email *!@#)_#!@-Ups

It’s funny to think years ago losing your wallet would be the biggest nightmare. But nowadays, most people might opt to lose a wallet rather than say their computer or smartphone or have their facebook or gmail accounts hacked.

With our lives turning more digital and everything from class projects, to receipts and business correspondence and deals stored via email, it’s easy to see why that’s the case.

Today’s post comes from Gawker that covers ways to recover from an email disaster.  While these are more specific to mess-ups or fumbles.  Definitely a must read for all college graduates entering the work force!

http://gawker.com/#!5780691/how-to-recover-from-an-email-disaster

And here’s some info on how to recover a deleted username from Google: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=67422

And an interesting post on a user’s experience with recovering a hacked google account:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=4fabfb260a81e5fc&hl=en

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March 6, 2011

Saying Goodbyes

Goodbyes are always difficult.  I recently had a college friend who passed away.  This was a very young man who had only graduated a few years ago and went on to recently earn his Masters.  And while we weren’t the closest of friends, the moments, times, and projects we collaborated in and shared were all awesome.  This gentleman exuberated happiness, love and care everywhere he went and regardless of if you were a girl or a guy, you’d pretty much get the biggest bear hug in your life everytime you see him.
My tip to the Class of 2011: Stay close to your friends, make that effort to keep in touch and do schedule those annual reunions.

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