Tag Archives: College

May 17, 2011

Students & Budgeting

Budgeting has always been a tricky thing. In this economy, it’s even more tricky for recent college graduates. Everything from student loans, to leisure activities, to rent, and basic living expenses.

So how does one balance a budget? There isn’t a formula per say, but we did find a few blog posts we hope you’ll find helpful.

The first post comes from the GetRichSlowly Blog that talks about the building blogs that help create a better budget.

The second post comes from dumblittleman.com – While this one is not focused directly on budgeting, it focuses more on mental energy. With only x hours in a day, it’s important to focus on the things that are most important to you and to do them early and when you’re coherent.

Take a read and let us know what works for you!

May 11, 2011

What Was The Most Valuable Lesson You Learned In College?


You’d be surprised how often one hears this question.  What was the most valuable thing you learned in college?  Or what was your favorite course?  While it’s easy to dismiss a class where you might have had a teacher who wasn’t the most fun to be around, it’s often these classes that you remember about the most years later.

What was the most valuable lesson I learned in college?  It came in Junior year in my an upper division Communication course.  Our class was completing a group project for a local charity, Direct Relief International, and it was from this experience that I really was able to see the value of communication and marketing, and how it tied into practical applications in the real world.  The hands on experience in this course taught me things that simply reading in a book, I probably would not have absorbed.

The other most valuable lessons I’ve learned in college were from my fraternity.  It was through my fraternity that I’ve met some of my closest and still closest brothers and friends.  We struggled together, lived together, learned together, cooked (or tried to cook together), and grew together.  It was from this experience that I truly felt the “college experience” that eventually prepared me for the real world.

Whether your most valuable lesson comes from a class or out side, it’s up to you how you apply it post graduation and the friends you choose to keep in touch with.  To all the high school seniors graduating soon, make your college experience worth it!

May 5, 2011

Making Each Day Your Masterpiece

Today’s post comes from TheSimpleDollar.com. In the post, Trent writes about a notion that John Wooden had come up with previously, which is to about making today your masterpiece. I myself am a big John Wooden fan. I’ve read his leadership foundations book and followed many of his videos.

The first interesting point brought up in the post is that if today was your last day, would you be happy with your actions? Would you be content with being judged by today’s actions? In the fast moving business world, it’s easy to see how a day can get away from you, but we’d imagine it’d be the same in college. A flurry of classes and finals can drain your energy and by the time you’re home you just want to relax.

Another interesting point brought up is for the desire to learn something new or practice something old. I think the key to this statement comes from the latter, which is to practice something old. Often times as children our parents spend countless hours and funds to have us pick up a new sport or learn a new instrument, but then that too often goes to waste when we rebel in high school and “grow” out of it. Picking up an old hobby can spark wonders with your creative processes.

In summary, really consider reading the full post here . It’s a great post filled with lots of good information!

April 10, 2011

Senioritis & A Busy Schedule

Feel the burn yet? Senior year is coming quickly to an end for many and it’s likely your calendar is filling up with those end of the year banquets, papers, team projects, final exams and more.  Oh and not to mention planning a graduation party or sending out all of those invites to relatives!
Here’s 4 small but cool tips from Unclutterer on how to best unclutter your schedule in your remaining days.

To add to theirs, we’d also recommending:

  • Picking your social events wisely.  The last thing you want is to catch a full case of senioritis and cause you to do badly in a course.
  • Make use of your study time, go explore the college area.  Go study in a new location around campus or that coffee shop you never stepped foot in.  Don’t study in your apartment or dorm if you can avoid it!
  • Eat with friends.  It doesn’t have to always be out, but cook!  Do a dinner party and make some bomb grub.
  • Watch less TV – Trust us your favorite show will still be there when you graduate.  Spend free time with your friends while you’re still in close proximity to them.

photo credit

February 2, 2011

Tips To Start Cooking In College

For the novice in the kitchen, making your first full dish can be a very daunting task. Do you have all of the right ingredients? What’s in your pantry? What’s the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon? Can I substitute baking soda with baking powder?

The list goes on and on.

Our recommendations?
A) Start easy. Start with a simple dish, grab the recipe online and make it. Once you’ve made it, try again, but this time only skimming the recipe. By the 3rd time you make this hopefully it’ll feel a little more “second nature.” I still remember the first dish I ever made, spicy salsa!

B) Print out your recipes on some old computer paper and save it! A printed version is much easier to reference then sliding back and forth between your laptop.

C) Automate the clean-up. If you have a dishwashing machine, load it up after! A lot of people hate cooking because of the clean-up. Make this step easier for you.

D) Cook with friends. Someone prepare on the main dish, someone prepare on the side dish! In no time you’ll have a feast and at 1/2 the cost it would have costed to go out!

You’ll become the next Bobby Flay in no time!

Here are some great resources to find free and easy to follow recipes at. Personally I like FoodNetwork.com the most as it provides the most fun to read and interesting reader comments on how to “hack” the recipe to add a kick or spice to it!

CooksIllustrated.com
FoodNetwork.com
AllRecipes.com
Epicurious.com
Cooks.com

Photo Credit: xkcd.com.

January 21, 2011

The World According To… Americans?

Sometimes we just have to go with a funny and bizarre post.  This one comes from one of our favorite comics, XKCD.

The World … According to Americans.

Now just make sure you don’t show this to your history or global studies teacher though, they may start viewing you differently.

On another note, we’ve already started getting in orders for April 2011 graduations. If you or your organization is graduating in April or May, be sure to order your graduation stoles early to save money!

Photo Credit XKCD http://xkcd.com/850/

January 11, 2011

Productivity & Power Naps

Today’s post covers a topic many students are probably familiar with – productivity.

So where are you most productive, is it at your place, in the library, a coffee shop? Working on a desk, or the sofa?  We’ve also found personally that as you change and evolve your study habits from when you were a freshmen to when you are a senior and ready for graduation, that your timing and duration for study often change.

For us, our top productivity hot spots are:

  • The Library
  • The Local Coffee Shop (Except that time when that one student stole all of the power surge spots!)
  • The Book Store

Feel free to share your thoughts with us! And while you’re at that, check out our how to guide/must read for reasons to power nap.

Photo Credit: lionheartphotography

January 11, 2011

Symptoms of Senioritis? Ever Feel Burnt Out?

Do you ever feel burnt out?  Either from your busy schedule of classes and work or from overbooking your weekends with Greek or club events?  Senior year is often the toughest for many students, and especially when the true symptoms of “senioritis” hit.

What are the symptoms of senioritis?
(Some aren’t necessarily bad!)

  • Planning your summer escape / exploration of the world!
  • Triple checking your credits to make sure you have all the credits you need to graduate.
  • Taking it a little easier on classes when you know you’ll pass for sure and don’t care so much for that A.
  • Starting the weekend on Thursday… ending on Monday.
  • Skipping classes more often.
  • Signing up for summer school ;)

Check out today’s recommended read that comes from PsychologyToday.com.  The post covers when to recognize that you’ve run into burn out and some recommendations on how to recover from it.

Photo Credit: Hey Danielle

January 7, 2011

Computer Tips for College Students

If you’re a junior or senior in college, it’s likely you’re still rocking out on the brand new laptop your parents got you when you were just entering college.  By now, it’s probably not running as quickly as it was in Freshmen year.  What can we say, the dozens of essays and research papers, not to mention the internet browsing (Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia) and additions to your music catalog have likely slowed it down a little.

Today’s post covers some tips LifeHacker.com has provided on speeding up your laptop.  Make sure to give the post a read if you haven’t already, but in addition to that, here are 3 recommendations (2 of which are no cost) that come from our staff.

  1. Download Google Chrome.  So you remember when you first found out about Firefox and how fast it was compared to Internet Explorer?  Well Google Chrome feels about 10x faster than Firefox! Free Download of Chrome at: http://www.google.com/chrome
  2. Run a Defragmentation on your hard drive.  Defragmentation is sort of like picking up clothes and tidying up around your place.  It helps keep your files organized and in quick and easily accessible areas of your hard drive.  Try to run a defragmentation every month or two.
  3. Consider getting an external hard drive.  If you’re short on hard drive space, opt for an external that will allow you to free up precious space from the C: drive and likely speed up your computer.
  4. Download Avast Antivirus.  It’s free for personal use.  Let the program run a full and comprehensive scan of your system to ensure your computer is clean of viruses.

Have some tips? Let us know!

Photo credit

January 3, 2011

Does Wearing Glasses Helps You Land A Job?

So we don’t know the full scientific validity behind this article, but check it… from the DailyMail, a new study reports that when you wear glasses to an interview, you’re more likely to be hired.  That said, this strategy will likely give you an advantage over the other candidates competing for the same position.

It’ll only be strange later on when you have to lie and say you’re wearing contacts now!

Interested in preparing for your job interview?  Can you answer these 5 questions on the spot?

  1. What do you see yourself doing in five years?
  2. What’s the most rewarding thing you hope to gain from your career?
  3. What do you really enjoy or want to do in life?
  4. What motivates you to go the extra mile on a project or job?
  5. Describe a big mistake you made in college.

photo credit: evil erin