Posts Tagged ‘college adventures’
Have we come...too far?
3. Meet with your advisor or mentor and go over the courses available to you. Most universities have a general education curriculum that you must satisfy; liberal arts colleges often have a core set of areas you must take courses in. If the average course load is 5 classes a semester, then take 5 classes not 6 or 7. Some students just love to overburden themselves, but it is not a good idea, especially when you are a first year student! And do not take 5 horribly rigorous courses all at once! Give yourself a break!
4. A major learning curve in college is learning to balance your life. Activities, sports, academics, laundry, sleep, social life….your schedule is up to you. You simply must have a calendar, and electronic is better. Try to plan your time. Put in class times, when homework and papers are due, test dates. Enter it ALL. You can even plan your times to do laundry and to study.
The keyword is BALANCE!
5. Take notes. Take notes. Take notes. If you have a writing disorder such as dysgraphia or Disorder of Written Expression arrange for a note taker. You are entitled to this accommodation! Notes are so important for college academic success. If the professor says it, it should be in your notes. If it is on the board or the overhead, it goes in the notes. Keep your notes organized so when it comes time to study, you know where to find them! You will soon discover that much of the material in your notes will be on the test, midterm or final. I guarantee it!
6. Take studying seriously. For every hour spent in class you should spend two hours in studying or prep work. Yes, I know that sounds like a lot of time. It is. This is college, and this is important. Don’t be the student who pulls an all nighter before the exam because they haven’t even read the text assignments. You will quickly realize that if you want to do better than a C, D or F, cramming like that will not cut it. Oh, and if your friends who make A’s deny that they study this much…they are lying.
Okay. Now you are actually in college and at college. You have moved in. Met the roommate. Gone to a couple of parties and met some other students. Awesome, dude. But there is another side to college…it is called learning. (more…)
Earlier today I had a thousand brilliant ideas despite my sleep deprived state. Funny articles I could write, movie and joke ideas, and maybe even some parody lyrics all rolling around in my head. So, I sat and ate potato chips while i tried to stare through the static on the tv to watch the last third of Back to the Future Part 2. The room was freshly painted and the smell was oppressive despite the best efforts to keep the door propped to make the air breathable. Why did I do that instead of race to my computer or notebook to jot down my brilliant ideas? (more…)
This November, California voters may or may not pass Prop 19 which would legalize marijuana. No, seriously. As a libertarian, this is an amazing step in the direction of liberty. As a functioning human being with a basic grasp on the english language and some abstract concepts, mostly those relating to bankruptcy, this is an amazing idea. Infuriating is the realization that both (because let’s be real, it’s gonna be Meg Whitman or Jerry Brown) gubernatorial candidates are opposed to it. So are Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, California’s “benevolent” senators (sorry, I’m a little bitter about a letter I sent them once. The responses were essentially, ‘we’re the senators, we know what’s best for you, leave us alone and pay your taxes.’ Unforgivable.) (more…)
This is exactly what the title says. You’ve been warned.
Less than a month away from being able to say I didn’t cut my hair for an entire year. Props to me for learning that little move that gets your hair out of your eyes without using you hands. Props also to my neck for only just now starting to hurt from having to do it so often. It’s also the longest it’s ever been. (more…)
Another cautionary tale…
Last night was the PPP party (pimps, prostitutes, and porn-stars party) at the Rouge (a bar, maybe a gay bar most nights of the week) in King’s Cross (a neighborhood in Sydney, it’s a kind of seedy red-light district, tons of sex shops and what not). Side note: when you go to a new place, you always learn a new language as evidenced by the amount of parentheses in that sentence. (more…)
WEEEEEELLLLLLL I’m BAAAAACCCKKKK!!!
I’m happily moved into my brand spankin new room at the Alpha Phi house in the grand ole city of Austin, TX and quite frankly, I couldn’t be more pleased! We had to come back to school 2 weeks early for work week/polish week (when we finalize and practice everything for rush and get all settled in before our PNM’s come down to rush! (potential new members) (more…)
Studying abroad is expensive. It’s a cruel fact. I went to a country that has a slightly favorable exchange rate ($1 = $1.10-1.18AU, it depends on the day) and it’s still sucking me dry. Beer at a decent bar $6-8AU. Pretty bad. (more…)
In Australia, “uni” means university while “college” means you live in a specific dorm on campus with its own traditions and culture. At my end of campus there’s Basser, Baxter, and Goldstein colleges and we all share a Hogwarts-esque dining hall. Since I go to Basser, I sit only with Basser kids in a column of tables at the far end of the dining hall. There isn’t any animosity between the “colleges” beyond what is typically fostered by some simple competition (there are inter college games of soccer, Australian rules football, and rugby; of which there are apparently two versions… it’s a big enough difference to spark debates but slight enough to be completely undetectable by the untrained eye). (more…)
If you are a rising high school senior of the Class 2011, July and August is the time to finalize your college list! Most students will begin classes during August or early September, and having a finalized list of colleges that you plan to apply to will help the application process flow smoothly. Your senior year is NOT the time to be researching schools! Your junior year and summer is best utilized for college research. (more…)
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