How Nice Is Your Dorm?

When the summer is in full swing, millions of incoming freshman like you make their way to college. This may be your first time away from your parents. This is an eye opening experience and a life lesson for you. After selecting the college you want to attend, one of the most important decisions left to make is the rooming situation, a.k.a. dorming. There are many different options and combinations that colleges can offer you. But most likely you are to find the following two options, a traditional double or a suite style double room.

The 1st type of dorm (traditional double) is one that houses two students with most basic amenities. Incoming freshman are placed with one roommate in their dorm, sometimes through personality polls. These polls are great for matching up two night owls or quiet studiers together. Colleges try their hardest to find roommates that would be compatible matches. For sleeping, the beds will be situated on opposite sides of the room, with a desk and some sort of storage space given to each student. Depending on your dorm, some offer sinks in the dorm room. This is way more convenient than walking down the hall just to brush your teeth and definitely something to look for. The entire floor or wing of a dorm will share a common bathroom facility. Meaning you will have a large bathroom with many individual bathroom stalls to shower. In the higher end dorms, there are sometimes kitchen facilities to prepare your own food. If not though, a quick walk to the College Café solves the hunger.

The 2nd dorm type (suite style double room) that a freshman would be placed in has a little bit more privacy than the 1st. You do still have a roommate (but that is what the college dorming experience is all about). You and your roommate share a bathroom with another dorm room. Meaning that instead of a community bathroom, two pairs of students would share a bathroom in between their dorms. This provides much more privacy and a lot less student traffic. Sinks will be located in the bathroom, so it is much easier and convenient than the community bathroom set-up. Whether or not these rooms have a community kitchen entirely depends on the college.

When searching colleges and especially during a campus tour from a guide, ask questions!!!! Tour guides have been dorming at college for at least a semester and know the ins and outs of dorm living. A tour guide will be able to show you inside a dorm, so you can see exactly the type of room you will be spending your college years in. Make a list of questions about dorming and take them with you and just maybe you will find the right accommodation for yourself.

-Dylan Swartz

Ways to Save Money On Textbooks

It’s not too late to save money on textbooks! Everyone knows how pricey one semester’s worth of textbooks can be, so here are some tricks to help you save loads.

Timing Is Key – You’re most likely to get a great deal on books if you’re buying really early or really late. As soon as you find out your class schedule for the next semester, buy your books! Procrastinating will leave you with substantially higher buying and renting prices during peak textbook purchasing time. However, if you procrastinate too much, you’ll still be fine. Wait till the semester has been underway for about a week or so (deal with sharing a textbook with a friend until then), then rent or purchase your books. Prices will plummet after the new semester starts.

Share With Friends – If you and your friends are taking the same classes, share textbooks! You’ll most likely choose to study together for every big exam anyways, so why not save yourselves some money in the process? That expensive chem textbook will suddenly drop from $180 to $90, and that French workbook will go from $40 to $20 – talk about cheap!

E-textbooks – Now e-learning is definitely not for everyone. However, for those who can still learn and study without a hard copy of a book, the benefits you can reap in savings are insane! By choosing an e-book, you can save up to 75% -- it doesn’t get better than that!

We all know how expensive textbook shopping is; it is definitely a necessary evil though. Never skip out on buying your books because you’d rather have a new Xbox for your room or you think you really need a new pair of Steve Madden heels. You never know when you’re going to end up with a super-strict professor or a class that’s really going to challenge you, so it’s better to be safe than sorry. Remember, if you end up getting a book and realizing that you don’t really need it for your class, you can always return it – almost all textbook renting and buying sites have a flexible return policy.

Creative Ways To Make Money In College

Alexis Dent

We all know how hard it can be to save money while in college, and we all know that it can be even harder to earn it. With classes, sports, clubs, and activities, your free time is already limited, so who wants to spend what little free time they have doing some lame on-campus job? For some people who love structure, an on-campus job and/or work-study prove to be very useful. However, for others, working in the library every Tuesday and Thursday just won’t cut it. Here are some out-of-the-box ways to earn money in college.

Tutor – You can oftentimes sign up to be a tutor through your school’s academic support program, which makes tutoring your peers in your free time rather easy. However, you can also make some nice money by having your friends tell their friends that you’re a math savant or an literary genius. By tutoring on your own and not through your school, you can always create your schedule, set your own tutoring rates (be reasonable!), and choose who you want (and don’t want) to tutor.

Odd “Jobs” – In high school, an odd job was mowing lawns, raking leaves, or washing cars. However, once you’re in college, there are no lawns to mow or leaves to rake – your tuition covers that. And there are no cars to wash – it’s much easier to convince your elderly neighbor that you should wash his car than it is to convince your peers. Despite all this, you can still earn some extra money in unlikely ways. I’ve heard about all kind of campus “businesses”, from doing other students’ laundry to being a McDonalds delivery guy to students on campus. If you want to earn a couple extra bucks, you can definitely get creative and do it.

Selling Books – Textbook costs are pretty hefty, and we all hate coughing up tons of dough on books we’ll use for just a few months. However, at the end of the semester you can sell many, if not all, of your books back. Your school’s bookstore isn’t always the best bet – usually an online textbook retailer or website like Amazon will prove to be more lucrative. Now I know what some of you guys might be thinking: “That’s not making money, that’s earning money back!” But since you (or your parents) spent that money months ago on the textbooks, oftentimes you totally forget that you’re only making part of the money back.

While an on-campus job is always a steady way to earn some money while in school, that’s not always the best route for everyone. If you think a little bit, there is definitely a fun and creative way that you can make a couple bucks without cleaning tables in the dining hall.

Fun Things To Do Off-Campus

Alexis Dent

School can become very hectic, and there’s always a need for fun things to do when you need to alleviate some of the stress of college-life. Depending on whether your college is rural, urban, or suburban, it’ll have varying options for activities and entertainment, but here are some things you can do in basically every college town:

Go out to dinner – Even if you go to school in a small town or rural area where there are more hills than townies, there will always be a nice casual restaurant to go to. Going out to dinner is not only a great way to catch a break from dining hall food, but it also fosters a great environment to sit down and talk with your friends about things other than yesterday’s impossible-to-pass chemistry exam.

Go bowling – A bowling alley is another college town staple! Bowling alleys frequently have specials and coupons, so you can often end up getting a great deal on food and games! It’s a fun change of pace for any college student, and usually some good laughs ensue because of all those stray gutter balls.

Shopping – Most girls (and some guys) LOVE to shop. Find the best (or in some cases, the only) shopping mall in your area and make that your go-to destination when your wardrobe needs to be re-vamped or you just want to window shop and spend some time away from campus.

Get outdoors – In some areas, the outdoor activity of choice is biking through the park, in others, its hiking, and in some, it’s just traipsing around the city streets on a nice day. Fresh air and exercise are two of the greatest things for your body. While it becomes easy to sit in your dorm and study (or sleep), going outside and enjoying your surroundings can be a great way to truly come to know and appreciate your college town.

Do something new – This one isn’t as specific, because doing something new will vary from person to person. Whether it’s trying sushi for the first time, riding the local amusement park’s huge rollercoaster, or even volunteering, dare to do something you didn’t do in high school. College is all about new experiences and broadening your horizons, so be sure to break your typical boundaries – in a positive way.

No matter how you choose to occupy your free time at school, remember that college is all about balancing work and fun. Too much of either is bad, but a perfect balance will have you succeeding in the classroom and with your friends. When you arrive at school be sure to start looking for things that will be fun to do with your friends when on-campus life gets a little dull!