Archive for the 'Advice' Category

By now, most of you are facing the wrath of some bitter finals, but once you’re done, you’ll likely be home free — for a few months, at least (unless you have summer courses or work — but either way, it’s different than your normal school routine, that’s for sure).

As you prepare to leave school, try to sell your books through postings on dormitory walls, craigslist, Amazon, Half.com, or other sites. The first stop (focusing on selling on-campus) is the most ideal exchange of all, since you’ll run in face-to-face with your classmate who can evaluate the book and pay you cash on the spot. The other choices are good, but if you’re already shipping your books home, you’ll probably want to coordinate with whoever is receiving your possessions for shipment options. As you may or may not know, Amazon and eBay/Half work on a rating system so your timeliness is important. Therefore, if you’re not able to ship on time, you may receive negative feedback. Be sure you’re able to coordinate all the details with the buyer (if you can’t get your book on time, don’t sell it until it’s in your hands and you can go to the post office).

Craigslist is the other option for local sales. Usually, the buyer will come visit you and purchase the book similar to an on-campus exchange. If you’re in a small college town, chances are you’re still going to be coordinating with someone who is a classmate. A little note regarding Craigslist: if you’re selling items, you can list them for free, but they eventually expire — make sure to relist them again. Better yet, create an account on Craigslist so that you can store your listings especially if the books don’t sell the first time around.

If you are able to store your books and keep them for the next semester, go for it. It’s probably the best way to be sure you get them off your hands. Your classmates will also be competing against selling the books, but you have an edge if you post your listings beforehand (with informative details, such as “used with highlights and notes in the margins” or “brand new, never used”) and be sure to check back to repost your listings when your competition gets in the way.

Finally, there are also some on-campus exchange services out there — look into those as well. Some are specific to schools, so I won’t be able to give you a detailed list of which schools offer which book-swapping services, but they’re helpful to explore. Just get rid of those books. You definitely won’t need them again!

College is a big time for students to find them selves and their passions and sometimes this entails studying a foreign language or a completely different culture. Study abroad programs are extremely popular for students who are typically in their sophomore or junior year of school and can last from a semester to a year long.

Why should you study abroad? Beyond the self-discovery, it’s an incredible valuable experience for travel combined with education that you typically cannot do later on in life (primarily due to job constraints, family responsibilities, etc.) Therefore, study abroad programs are popular.

If you want to learn a foreign language, there are hundreds of countries to choose from (provided that your university supports these programs — always check with the study abroad office to see if you can get college credit or if there are similar offerings that give you what you want). You also may want to ensure that you meet the prerequisites of the program — such as some fluency in the foreign language, for starters. The English speaking countries that are most popular include Australia, England and the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and even our local Canada.

What are you trying to get out of going abroad? Sometimes this will be experience in your major. (On the other hand, if your major is way too intensive, you may either consider summer study aboad programs rather than longer term.) Sometimes it will be language exposure. Some give you immersion with local people, local culture, and local flavor — and that is something that students may have to seek out themselves (especially since some programs would rather give students familiarity rather than cultural immersion). Regardless, study abroad is an enriching and self-growth experience above all else.

Students may live in dormitories or with host families (homestay programs), and depending on where you go, you may have more freedom within the dormitories. If you know students who are going to the same program, you might want to lease an apartment or sublet for the duration of the time that you are at the school.

Additionally, finance may be a factor in your study abroad decision. Surprisingly, a lot of study abroad programs may actually be cheaper than attending your school! Look into those options, and obviously, make sure you know exactly what is required of you.

Research the school you are attending and the city and make sure that it is right for you.

If you have any questions, Swarthmore has a great guide on study abroad programs that should definitely be read.

Congratulations, class of 2012! You’re probably pumped that you got into your school of choice and now you’re planning on making the next step. While your dorm room supplies should be purchased soon (we’ll talk about a good list of items to buy in an upcoming article), you definitely need to worry about bringing a computer to school. The question is: what kind should I bring? Are laptops better than desktops? What is the most suitable solution for me?

The answer of this question is determined by how often you intend to use it. Many classes require you to be mobile and utilize a laptop for this purpose. Additionally, if you have a roommate on a different schedule, you may want to have a laptop so that you can work elsewhere without disturbing him or her.

Laptops are great for taking notes, churning out papers in the library (on your own personal property), and since all are equipped with wifi nowadays, you can get yourself wireless internet access anywhere. On the other hand, laptops are more expensive than desktops, but that’s because they’re more portable and a lot easier to take with you (especially at the end of a semester).

If cost is an issue and roommates are not a problem, a desktop may be a viable solution. Most desktops are more powerful than laptops (since portable chips and storage are harder to produce). But on the other hand, you’ll be hand writing your notes instead of typing them, and it may be a lot easier (and faster) to have control over your keyboard rather than have to jot things down by hand. It’s less strenuous on your hands, too.

While mobility is the laptop’s biggest strength, it’s also the biggest weakness. Since you can carry it around anywhere, it’s more likely to be broken. With that in mind, opt in for a service contract that gives you full warranty support when breakage occurs. Also, since your laptop can be stolen easily, consider ways to keep it secure. Laptop manufacturer Targus has a wide variety of security accessories available. Don’t forget to have an extra battery on hand, especially if you’re mobile (without a power outlet) for a prolonged period of time. Battery life dies down over time, so this is a purchase you may want to revisit in a few years as well. (Be sure to check out discount outlets like eBay for cheaper deals than going directly to the manufacturer for spare parts. I saved over $100 on a laptop battery I’m using right now by using eBay instead of Dell.)

As always, visit your college computing website and get their suggested hardware and software recommendations. You may even be eligible for some seriously good educational discounts when buying through your school. If you have any questions, you should contact your school’s computing program for advice.

In December, we shared news about a teacher who was fired for posting her picture to MySpace. The woman in the story, Stacy Snyder, is far from being the last individual this will ever happen to. The Washington Post wrote on Monday that teachers are doing this a lot more frequently and are not aware of the consequences of their actions. Embarrassingly enough, these Facebook profiles don’t really exude “teaching.” In fact, if anything at all, they give the absolute wrong impression about the individuals who we trust our education and future growth as successful adults with.

The article says:
“One Montgomery County [Maryland] special education teacher displayed a poster that depicts talking sperm and invokes a slang term for oral sex. One woman who identified herself as a Prince William County [Virginia] kindergarten teacher posted a satiric shampoo commercial with a half-naked man having an orgasm in the shower. A D.C. public schools educator offered this tip on her page: ‘Teaching in DCPS — Lesson #1: Don’t smoke crack while pregnant.’”

Yeah. Whoa is right. These are teachers whose professions are on the line — behaving mostly like many of us.

The teachers interviewed for the article often thought that their information could only be seen by those who they accepted as friends. But they didn’t read the fine print and they didn’t see that they need to control their privacy settings. Consequently, they have faced some of the most embarrassing moments of their lives recently as the public caught wind of their mischievous actions supposedly done when nobody else was watching.

The end result is that it can cost you your job, just like Stacy Snyder. The article goes on to say that a father of a 6-year old complained about one of his teachers’ profiles on MySpace and the teacher was actually fired. The images that caused her removal were likely photos exposing lingerie and naked women. The father was quoted as saying that “These Web sites are the bars and restaurants of our new era. It’s like running into your teacher in a restaurant and seeing them not act appropriately.”

Indeed it is.

As one teacher, who admitted sleeping with a hooker, said: “I never thought about parents and kids [seeing it] before. That’s all I’m going to say.”

And then she disabled her profile for all to see.

As students continually open their lives up for the public to read and learn, there are tremendous risks involved. While two stories involve teachers (whose lives may impact the students and may set bad examples for the kids as well), the issue is that after you graduate, your public information should be revisited. Jobs are at risk if your profile gets out to your current or future employers, even if you’re an intern. While Facebook is perceived as a very social network, there needs to be a level of professionalism to preach as well. Anyone could be watching and anyone could ruin your life. The control begins with you knowing how to establish privacy settings and then considering what is appropriate for the rest of the world to read.

Today’s job market might suck (or maybe it doesn’t), but one thing is clear: there’s a lot of confusion in the “real world.”

It may then be better in this time of recession to focus on academics. Continue your studies and improve your skillset for the real world.

Why should you bother? If you’re still in school and are debating between a real life job or more school, more school might be a better fit. Here’s why.

You’re not losing out. With the economy in recession, you’re lucky if you get the chance to pursue your academic dreams rather than take the plunge later on after you’ve had a few years of work under your belt (and may then have financial and family obligations to worry about). With job cuts and an extremely volatile corporate society, it’s better to come to your new job interview (when availability increases) with a lot more experience than someone who has not had the opportunity to pursue other educational endeavors.

You get money. There are grants, loans, and even stipends to be had when pursuing higher education. If you go with a Ph.D, you’re often paid for a lot of your program costs. In other words, there’s nothing to lose and much to gain if you’re committed to the program. If a doctorate is something you’ve envisioned, why not?

You can broaden your network. While the mindset may not be completely job centric, many know that college is a means to an end (a solid career). This means that you need to start building up those networks now. Use the career resources available to you. Talk with professors. Many programs with tight-knit alumni will often “help a brother out.” You have more time to really build up these connections while you’re continuing your educational pursuits, so you might as well take advantage of them as they’re critical (and highly undervalued!)

If you’ve been considering graduate school, it’s a good time right now to apply and consider these options. You’ll be happy that you did.

You may have opened one too many thick envelopes (or, unfortunately, thin ones) and have felt some extreme emotional highs and lows this past month. The Moscow Times says that the top schools are reporting all-time acceptance lows, with Harvard at 7.1%, Yale at 8.3%, and Columbia at 8.7%.

In Russia, things are different, the Times reports. You don’t apply to a college. You apply to an academic program. Acceptance can be a lot easier or harder. But it’s not anything at all like American college acceptance and the world won’t end if you don’t get accepted into the program. Life goes on, they say, and in Russia, that’s true.

In America, the mantra seems to be “you are were you went.” In reality, that’s not the case. How many Yale graduates do you know that don’t fit the “Yale” perception — at least not yours? Chances are, you’re thinking along the same lines as me, and you need to know that not getting into your #1 choice isn’t the end of the world.

In ten years, college won’t really matter. In reality, college doesn’t matter even a few years after you graduate. Your hard work and perseverance will pay, but it may have nothing to do with the school you go to.

It’s not the end of the world as you know it if you don’t get in. Aim to succeed in college and beyond and let fate guide you to where you belong. It’ll likely be a lot better than you think — and everything works out for the best.

I wanted to be a historian. It started when I was just a naïve first year (which, for me, was at the first of three colleges I’d attend before finally finding myself on track to graduation). I loved the feeling of being better informed about the world around me through learning about what got us to where we are. I thought about how neat it would be recite stories of the past like professors and using that to investigate more.

Then I transferred to a school that, believe it or not, didn’t have a history major. So I wouldn’t be majoring in history. Suddenly, I was majoring in urban planning. I grew to love that too and, for awhile, thought about graduate studies in the field. Then, after taking a graduate urban planning course as an undergrad, I thought otherwise. So history and urban planning were out.

Soon thereafter, I shifted to political science. That’s my major to this day. I can’t say I got much out of it, to be fair. Most of what I’ve learned has been in some way repeated on political news pages. And of course it’s very heavy on the front-loading and, unfortunately, most professors at universities seem to be in a Bush-bashing mood, for better or for worse, though it can take away from the learning.

The funny thing is that after I graduate, I can still probably be whatever I want. If I want to take a job with a firm on Wall Street, that door’s still open. If I want to stay home and write music, I could probably do that too. If I wanted to be a doctor, I could still go through a post-bacc program. That’s the funny thing about college – beyond helping to better structure a curriculum, majors don’t mean a whole lot.

There are always going to be courses I’ll regret taking across multiple disciplines, maybe because of a scheduling conflict or a prerequisite I didn’t have, but I’ll always have the nine or ten political science courses with me as a foundation. Truthfully, I’ve forgotten most of what I’ve been taught (which generally happens about a week after the final exam), but I’m sure they helped me to think better when tackling issues in the future. It didn’t subject me to a career as a Washington bureaucrat or a first year law student, but it did awaken me to how much else is out there and how much more colleges offer outside of fields of specialization.

Some believe a college education to be as important as a high school diploma, especially as it relates to earnings. If that’s true, specialization doesn’t come until long after we move on from the undergraduate experience.

The truth is that bad things can happen anywhere. Without bringing statistics into the fray, if you don’t know some very basic things about staying safe on the street, you could run into trouble.

Recently, a Columbia University student was fatally hit by a car just north of the New York City campus fleeing a couple of troublemakers. It’s brought into questions about campus safety and security and living in perceived “bad” neighborhoods, especially (but not always) in urban areas.

Be sure to familiarize yourself with everything your public safety office has to offer. They’re not just there to bust parties. They’re there to keep you safe. Lots of schools offer call boxes throughout campus that, when pressed, immediately alerts public safety and can send someone to your location. Lots have cameras throughout campus that deter would-be criminals. Many schools also offer late-night escort services that allow students to call for rides home if they don’t want to walk back from their wherever they may be.

Of course, there could be the random time you’re stopped by someone, possibly scammed into giving money. For me, it was having someone bump into me then claiming I broke whatever he was holding. It was late at night and I was alone. In classic scam fashion, it was demanded I then turn over money to make up for his loss. I panicked, but handed over $10 and kept walking. It was a sound lesson in my own safety being more valuable than $10.

I know friends that carry mace late at night. I don’t condone that type of defense, but it’s perfectly sensible. Students can easily come off as targets, especially in poorly lit areas, alone, late at night. There’s a perhaps reasonable expectation that they’re mostly defenseless. The trick, of course, is to not fall into a defenseless trap and to best avoid situations where the likelihood of confrontation may occur.

It’s impossible to keep entire universities completely safe, but with a bit of common sense and utilization of resources provided by universities, it’s easy to stay safe.

Something lots of students don’t really think about when they’re off at college is what to do in the event they wind up in a medical emergency. When it happens, and it’s happened to me, is to just do wind up in whichever emergency room the ambulance drives your broken body to. Chances are, as it was in my case, that you’ll find yourself at closest one. Well, not all hospitals are equal.

I wound up at a really horrible hospital that so happens to be footsteps from where an incident took place that left me with a few broken bones that still bother me now, years later. Had I wound up in a hospital that specializes in my injury, I likely would have received a much better treatment.

USNews and World Report, the same people that put together that top college list every year, also rank hospitals. It’s really worth studying this and putting together a list of the best facilities for various needs. It’s also worth having a primary care practitioner at your college, especially if “home” is far away. It can help with insurance companies that require referrals for even the most routine procedures.

Another issue you’ll likely be confronted with, especially as a first year student, is whether to pick up an insurance plan or, if available, retain coverage under your parents (likely a possibility if you’re under 25). The decision to spend a few more hundred dollars up front could save you thousands down the road. At my school and many others (since the company that handles health insurance for mine takes covers many universities), students are presented with a primary and comprehensive plan.

The primary is, simply put, the bare minimum. In the event of something happening, the coverage is there. It’s not the best and it requires more to spend out of pocket, but it’s something. Then there’s the comprehensive coverage that, for the most part, covers everything. Is it a game? Sure. But so is health insurance. And, knowing firsthand, having the best coverage can be a real lifesaver.

College. To many, it sounds like newfound independence. And in reality, it is. Why are you going to college? If the answer is “to learn enough to become successful later in life,” the college years are a great time to start becoming successful.

TwinCommas explains why college is a perfect time to start a new business. A lot of what they say makes a lot of complete sense. Remember Mark Zuckerberg? He’s now worth $5 billion dollars and was a Harvard dropout. Bill Gates? Yes, him too — but his valuation is even higher.

Why not start with your own business? Do you have anything to lose?

As the TwinCommas blog explains, there are many good reasons why starting a business is a good idea during school. Here are the key points:

Minimal responsibilities: If you’re like me, you’re living in a dorm. You’re calling mom and dad every so often, hanging with your friends, and doing your schoolwork. You may have a significant other. But you don’t have kids. At least, not now. Between classes, instead of partying (or in addition — it’s your choice, really), focus on the moneymaking opportunities because you have nothing to lose and only experience to gain.

Age: Most of the successful entrepreneurs started their businesses well before they turned 30. Because you’re starting early, you have a lot of time to learn from your mistakes and grow your company, and hey, you might be able to retire early.

Inexpensive labor: Got a roommate? Give him some work to do. College students are often looking for work. If your business makes money, it’s really cheap labor (and it can also form some great relationships that will last well beyond college in the real world).

Knowledge: In school, you have professors to consult and a library of books and internet resources all within arm’s reach. This is the best time to take advantage of these abundant resources.

Software: Does “college discount” ring a bell? You’re a student, after all, so your academic discount will work for software you use for school/business.

Equipment: Just like you have access to professors, so too you have access to computer rooms and scientific labs filled to the brim with high-tech equipment that can help you get a kick start on your business. You won’t have that luxury after school.

Financial bonuses: I know a few programs that will invest in the most viable (purely subjective, as it’s judged) college business, and this can also get you on your way. Grants are not hard to come by if you have a business that will thrive.

In the end, if you have that killer idea, you have the resources to take advantage of it. Do it now.