Everyone looks forward to the final couple of years of high school: you’re getting ready for college, looking forward to graduating, and enjoying all the perks of finally being at the top of the food chain. With all of the excitement of finally finishing high school comes a truckload of fun stuff that solidifies the rapidly approaching milestone of graduation: cap ...

College can be one of the most stressful times in a person’s life. Trying to fit in, maintain good grades, plan for the future, and be away from home, often causes anxiety for a lot of students. As a reaction to this stress, some students get depressed. They find that they cannot get themselves together. They may cry all of the ...

Some people walk onto campus in the first couple of days and have an instant crew of best friends – other people take a little more time to meet people. While making new friends and branching out beyond your life at home is one of the coolest things about college, it’s important to stay in contact with your friends back home ...

1. Pick a topic you’re passionate about. Your writing will be both easier and more genuine if you write about what you want to write about, instead of writing about what you think colleges want to hear. The most successful essays describe a moment of personal growth, difficulty, strength, or confidence, all of which people experience in vastly different ways. [gate] ...

Internships are the cherries on top of the resume sundae. They can make any student stand out to colleges, future employers, and boyfriends’ parents (just as a cherry stands out to a starving young child in a brightly colored ice cream store, or excuse me, froyo—the new trend). Internships are quickly becoming essential for any job and can offer a lot ...

Some people know what they want to do for the rest of their lives before they ever step on campus, which is wonderful. I was not one of those people. There was a vague idea of what I wanted to study, but the only concrete idea was the reasoning: I wanted to help people, preferably without looking like an idiot. Many ...

I hate this time of the year, and it is not because taxes confuse me. For American students, it is time to register for classes again, which means lines, paperwork, and money. All three of those are problem areas, but no more! This year, I conquered registration. Advising The first step in choosing classes is meeting with an advisor, so I ...

When school first begins in the fall, everyone is excited. A new semester, quarter, or term brings about feelings of a fresh start, or new beginning. Most students feel highly motivated to pass their classes with all A’s. That 4.0 grade point average looks within reach. As time goes on, however, some of that motivation begins to wane. Perhaps you didn't ...

In the frenzy that is preparing to leave the nest for the first time, there’s hardly time to sit around and contemplate your feelings. There are always more clothes to be packed, more things to buy, and emergency trips to the store to get something you forgot. As the day of departure grows nearer, emotions surface: worry, excitement, nervousness, apprehension, and ...

In Overachievers Anonymous, I wrote about what to do and ways to help if you are taking on a lot of things to fill up that college résumé to the brim, but after taking some time to reflect, I realized that an overload of work isn't the only thing that we have to worry about and that stresses us out, it ...

Graduation is a time for celebration, but graduation can also be a time of confusion. Many students leave college without the slightest clue of what to do next. Here are some things that you can do before your graduation date arrives to put you one step ahead. 1. Get familiar with your school's career services office. This office helps you to ...

From the vantage point of a high school desk, college can seem impossibly far off – a different, mythical world. It’s a quickly approaching leap from life at home to life in a college dorm, and in the scramble to prepare oneself academically for collegiate life, it’s easy to overlook the fact that in a few short months, you’ll be living ...

The college admissions essay is a part of the application process that often gives students the most anxiety. In the essay, applicants work hard to really let the admissions counselors get to know them beyond their test scores and grades. After writing what they feel is a nearly perfect essay the student finds out that their 800-word essay is longer than ...

As fall quarter draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the ups and downs of my first ten weeks of college. The thing I’m overwhelmingly glad I did was to get involved in student organizations here on campus. At OU, and at most other colleges, there are tons of student organizations to get involved with. I can say from firsthand ...

One of my favorite things about language is that no two people have exactly the same arsenal of diction and syntax from which they can pull and construct their writing and everyday conversations. There are words I do not know but that other people use on a daily basis, and there are words that, to me, have a slightly different connotation ...

Another icy gust of wind, and I’m instantly awake. It is nearing four in the morning in the grassy section of campus in front of Wilson Gym. From memory, I can imagine the shabby rows of tents that line the cement walkway, but right now all I can see is the interior of the sleeping bag I have pulled over my ...

Writing a resume doesn't have to be a painful process. The sole purpose of a resume is to show an employer that you have both the necessary skills and the experience to satisfactorily perform the tasks they are hiring for. Tons of advice on how to write a resume can be found online. There are many different resume layouts you can ...

Sitting in the dining hall and eating ice cream at 10 PM one night, my roommate excused herself from the table to get some cereal. When she was gone, one of the girls sitting with us laughed and said, “I don’t know how you live with her.” It was a good-natured joke, but also a good question, since we hadn’t met ...

You’ve made it. You’ve graduated high school. You’ve proven your tenacity, or at least your ability to stay awake for 6-8 hours a day, and now it’s time to take the first steps into adult life… with parental consent of course. Unfortunately, you’re still 17 (or 16, or whatever young age you are you genius, you), and you’re already begun college, ...

Before college, no one would’ve pegged me for a sorority girl. I played soccer for as long as I can remember, meaning I wasn’t afraid to get a little dirt under my un-manicured fingernails or a couple bruises on my shins. You wouldn’t find any Lilly in my closet, the only parts of the Greek alphabet I knew were the symbols ...