Archive for the 'College Life' Category

I’m going to take a slight break from the schoolwork (as I type this here at the library as it pushes 5 in the morning, and the place isn’t empty by a long shot) and let people know about a fun annual event many colleges have as the semesters wind down called spring weekend. I never got involved with the planning for a spring weekend personally, but the events schools put on are generally pretty worthwhile and work toward building community at lots of places that, as most students find, can be rather impersonal.

Spring weekend celebrations are usually ways for student councils to justify the use of student life fees that otherwise go unspent (thus, all the more reason to take advantage of what’s offered). They usually revolve around parties with food (and sometimes booze for the 21+ crowd), games, student group performances, and the annual spring concert.

It’s always funny hearing about the spring concert while attending a place that attracts hundreds of shows each night throughout the area, but it’s still really neat to walk out of the library and step foot in a student center to be surrounded by colleagues taking in something completely nonacademic for just a few hours before the study grind continues. Of course, when our school announced the acts for this year’s show, there was an uproar over the supposed lack of diversity in attracting bands that cater to a rather homogeneous crowd.

I’m biased, mostly because I like the bands selected, but also because I can see through the event as not just another on-campus concert, but rather one of the few ways we can come together as a student body.

College can be a very impersonal time. Even if you make a bunch of really great friends (through classes, housing, extracurricular activities), chances are pretty good that you’ll never meet anywhere near everyone. To be honest, the same was true for me in high school and I still had a really good bunch of friends. But for a few moments, it’s still nice to come together as a group to bask in the fact that we’re all students at the same place, going to the same classes and readying for the same exams.

At some places, it’s the weekend football game or the big midnight mania basketball rally. At other places, it’s something like sitting in a packed library on a Sunday night toiling through fifty pages worth of term papers. Though completely different, both bring the feeling of a collective struggle. Spring weekend reminds me of this, and also reminds me that college is temporary and it’s best to take all of these opportunities in.

If you’re living with additional roommates, you might find yourself on a different schedule than them. You might be a late night owl or a morning person. Usually, college housing departments try to find you a roommate who fits in with your schedule so that you won’t be doing homework when your roommate is trying to go to sleep, but sometimes that’s not always the case.

If you have a roommate who can’t tolerate the work at night, there are a few options. You can call the hall of your dormitory your new workspace (several of my friends do that) or you can work in the library and come back when the library closes (if it closes!). You might want to set up a quiet workspace that your roommate will compromise on if you must be in your room. You also might want to consider reducing the lights and using flashlights or setting up a “barrier” to avoid waking the roommate.

This is something that college roommates need to discuss before the school year starts, because if you get adjusted to a schedule that doesn’t work out with your roommate, you’ll run into trouble early on.

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.

If you’ve never heard of Take Back the Night, chances are you will once you get on campus. The idea behind this program is to raise awareness about sexual assault on campuses and even before college (from family members, friends, and other people).

At my college, what we normally do is have a parade with thousands of participants. My school is in a big city and the policemen block off the roads for our late night stance against sexual violence. We walk for about .5 miles through extremely populated neighborhoods and chant phrases like “Students unite, take back the night,” and “Silence perpetuates violence.” By chanting these phrases through the streets, community members know that the students are all about focusing on a safe environment for them and for the neighbors.

After the march, which includes a moment of silence, our students congregate in a big auditorium where people share their gripping stories of abuse by the hands of their abusers. To protect the anonymity of these individuals, there is either a wall that blocks the microphone from the audience or the lights are off. This process goes on until dawn. Some of the scariest and most emotional stories are shared during this time. Students are here to support each other, and peer counselors are available to help the students during this difficult time.

How does your school — or does your school — handle TBTN? How do you raise the issues of abuse awareness within your college community?

We reported yesterday that 1 in 5 undergraduates is constantly stressed out. Additional findings, however, show that you’re likely to be more stressed out if you’re a female. The poll shows that men have an easier time sleeping (69% for men vs. 31% for women).

In the meantime, who do you turn to for help? Most turn to their friends first in hopes that they’ll be understood by their peers rather than family members. Next, they turn to their parents, and finally, to their siblings. Thirty three percent would confide in a significant other, twenty five percent will confide in a religious or spiritual leader, and twenty percent actually confide in their school guidance or mental health counselors.

Do you drink? Some people think that drinking may be contributing to the overall stress. Over 25% of students believe it’s not helping the situation. However, at the same time, about 33% of them want to turn to alcohol and drugs to relax.

Who are you? And how do you deal with stress at school?

According to a recent study, college students are stressed out. Are you one of them?

The data postulates that four out of ten college students are stressed out to some degree, but one in five, or 20%, are stressed out regularly. And even so, they’re able to enjoy college life and their extracurricular activities as well.

But what is the problem at school? Concentration and sleeping troubles are big contributors. Too much work is piled on at once, particularly during exam time. It doesn’t help that the Internet is contributing to a big deal of lifestyle changes in the past few years, but even so, students are feeling anxious, depressed, and lonely — even if they’ve already forged their online lives. A whopping 16% of students have spoken with friends who have considered suicide, 10% have thought of it themselves, and 13% have been diagnosed with depression.

The AP has more data available:

Is college, then, the end all for students? Frankly, a lot of my friends who have graduated and are in the real world wish they were back at school. But not all hope is lost. There are plenty of students who still have a positive outlook on life despite the stress of school.

The best recommendations are to manage your time efficiently and to enjoy the time while it lasts.

Living in a stuffy dorm room? Turn it into someplace you’d want (your second home — or better yet, the place you want to be instead of home). Make the most out of your living space while you have it. If you’re not sure how and you’re super busy with classes, getting internships, or work study jobs, that’s where I come in.

So how do you make the best out of your space? If you’re in a small room or have a roommate or two, you won’t have unlimited space to store your stuff. Chances are you won’t have a lot of space at all. You can buy containers online or at your nearest department store. Some college stores also have good containers suitable for dorm room accommodations. You can usually find anything from futons to media storage to cabinets. Yaffa Blocks are very popular among the college crowd.

You can also find college-sized sheets (twin extra long!) at stores online, especially Campus Linens. Most of the sets are perfect and can save you a trip to your local Bed Bath and Beyond. You can get color-coordinated sheets, pillowcases, and towels, as well as a really nice comforter.

Get inspired with organizational tactics from sites such as Lifehacker or Real Simple. These tips will allow you to maximize your space while still feeling like you have a lot of room.

The next stop is to decorate. I personally like dorm rooms with personality: posters, photos, pictures, and the like. You can get a lot of decorating ideas online. Some of my favorites: take old pictures of calendars and put them on your wall. I also find that the Have a Day poster is one of the favorites in college dorm rooms. Add paintings or glow-in-the-dark stickers to your wall. You can even go crazy with some crazy college furniture.

Without a doubt, if you have the mind to decorate and you want to, your dorm room can be more than just a place to sleep at during school. It can be your humble abode, your castle, your mansion. And why not make the best of it while you have time? There’s nothing stopping you from exercising your creativity, so just do it and relax.

I’ve sat in a ton of classes with folks that are older than my parents. Have you? It’s not an anomaly. Baby Boomers are doing that nowadays, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education:

“With the help of community colleges, some baby boomers are changing gears and retraining for new jobs that are less physically taxing. In doing so, these workers are among those who are redefining the traditional notion of retirement by working much later in life. And they are also leaving their mark on community colleges, many of which are fine-tuning their programs and making them more accessible to older adults.”

As the old folk realize that their blue collar jobs are not worth the physical strain and hassle, they are looking to educate themselves in college classrooms for more technical or clerical positions that don’t require the manual labor. One baby boomer, for example, went from carrying boxes of bread to take courses to become a surgical technician. Another went into construction but realized that sitting in a cubicle is a better way to spend the rest of his life. He’s back in school in his second semester. One 54-year-old electrician is studying to start his own business.

It’s never too late to start learning. It’s never too late to educate yourself and bring yourself to a higher level and boost your career opportunities. If there’s one lesson college students can take away from it, it’s that you can start school, go into work, and then go back to school to find something better. You have your entire life ahead of you.

If you’re a college senior, don’t forget that this is your last semester and graduation is only a few short months away. The future is now.

While “senioritis” and doing nothing might be your proposed direction, it’s not the best one for now. You’re almost fully into “real” adulthood, and your responsibilities are going to get bigger than ever. Don’t assume you’re getting off easy for the remaining three months. You still probably have requirements to take care of academically, like taking classes that can maintain your grade point average. Additionally, your goals for the upcoming years are still to be finalized, whether they are for fellowships, graduate studies, or professional pursuits. It’s right now that you should be working to solidify your plans for the years ahead.

Be advised that some schools have varying requirements regarding graduation. Some require you to actually apply to graduate, whereas others will assume that you’re in the graduating class of 2008. Whatever the case may be, make sure that all paperwork is filed so that you get to proceed with receiving your honors of academic completion.

As far as other requirements, you’ll likely be responsible to maintain a certain GPA, to finish any incomplete courses, to ensure that your major requirements are met, and any additional requirements are also addressed. If you have a major advisor at this time and you’re still in doubt about your requirements, it’s best to coordinate with him/her as soon as possible to work out any logistics in your schedule. Some major requirements classes, for example, are only taught during certain semesters. What do you do when it’s not offered at your last possible semester? Work with your advisor to see if there are any suitable alternative courses that still will get you out the door.

Research graduation requirements as soon as you can on your school’s website to make sure that all issues, financial and academic, are resolved.

It’s never too early to start preparing for the commencement weekend (or days). Start working out lodging details for out-of-town guests. Some schools offer this on-campus. Others partner with local hotels for good deals. Jump at opportunities for affordable discounts and rates, because these places will sell out quickly. If you can make a trip out of graduation for your family, they’ll probably appreciate it. Plan out a week with the family when they come up — or just have them attend the festivities. In any case, you want to prepare early and not later. Big tip: If you have a big family (and there are only a few tickets handed out for your commencement exercises), become friends with your classmates quickly and have them give you those extra tickets. They will go away fast.

It’s a busy time of year for the second-semester college senior, but if you make the best of it and work hard to do so, you’ll get ahead of your classmates and be all ready for the big day. And after that, the future is looking at you.