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] ...

College is often one of the best times in a person’s life. It is a time to really pursue goals, dreams, learn, and make new friends. It is also a time to learn valuable financial lessons. Most people are familiar with the image of the broke college student struggling to afford necessities, and schlepping home tons of dirty laundry on the ...

Hello fellow Fastwebbers! Brace yourself for the best advice that you will ever receive about high school! These are the things they don't want you to know, the things that everyone is keeping from you ‒ but I am here to give them to you. Just think of me as the nerdy guy in all of the James Bond movies that ...

College can be one of the most important times in a person’s life. A degree alone, however, is usually not enough to secure your first full-time job post graduation. It is very important that your resume at graduation is full of actual work experience. The best thing any student can do while in school is to complete an internship and/or work ...

College: it’s a word that has a different meaning to everybody. To some, it could mean further pursuing your dream career, for others it could be the long awaited escape from the prison that high school and your house can be, and for some it could be that dreaded thing your family is forcing you to go to. However, no matter ...

The first day of a new class always starts with a mixture of anticipation, nervousness, and excitement. If you take enough classes in college you are sure to run into the dreaded “bad professor” who seems to ruin your hopes of having a great semester. Every instructor has his or her own style. Sometimes the way a teacher teaches isn't conducive ...

It’s quite an easy thing to become lazy in your first semester of college. Nobody is yelling in your ear for you to get up (unless your roommate just cares that much), you can skip class more easily (depending on your professor’s attendance policy), and at any given time, you’re probably no more than 300 feet from an Xbox. A lot ...

“She sells sea- She sells- She sells seashells by the seashore.” It was a problem- a minor one in North America, but big elsewhere. In Mandarin Chinese, there are five consonant sounds I still struggle with, especially when presented in rapid succession, and two of them appear in that line. Generally, I avoid saying certain phrases in English (“we were where”), ...

The fading sounds of applause echo across the huge hall, dying down into nothing as we begin our final set. Our first song of the night is a showstopper, the second a laid back interlude. Our last song, however, is much darker, striking a melancholy theme that will haunt the audience throughout the final moments of our performance. The hall is ...

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 ...

Most students graduate high school ready to take on the world. Perhaps they are accepted into their first choice college, or even if it is a second choice school at least the freedom of living away from home is something to look forward to. The financial aid award letter arrives in the mail and mixed in with the grants and work-study ...

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 ...

I am completely obsessed with my family. I wouldn’t have what anyone would call a normal family, but then again, who does? In high school, I found that the more I got to know a friend’s family, the a) more funny they became, and b) the less eccentric my own family seemed. With that in mind however, there are still many ...

As college students across the nation lock themselves in their dorm rooms and curl up in bed with a spoon and a jar of Nutella in preparation for final exams, many of them will realize they are in over their heads. [gate] After all, there is a difference between stressing over an important final because there is a lot of information ...

Like she has for years, my mom recently surprised me by telling me something I had never heard before. Like mothers and daughters do, we were sitting on the couch, watching TV and discussing my feelings for people at school. These are the people who seem to have it all: the straight A’s, the college scholarships, the popularity. All without really ...

Welcome to 2013, everyone! It's looking bright and cheery from my standpoint and – Hey! Wait! It's January, isn't it? Well, then it's about time for that FAFSA form. Now to me, that word incites a bit of fear because it just sounds so official, so important, and so future-ruining. But there's no need to worry! Because you are now entering ...

Along with all the beauty that is fall also comes the beginning of cold and flu season. Coughing, wheezing, and sniffling are beginning to replace the usual silence during lecture. Even with everyone trying their best not to get sick, it is unavoidable and practically an epidemic in the dorms. It seems that when one person on the floor gets sick, ...

Let's face it, college can be very stressful. Between carrying a full-time course load, work-study or a part-time job, internships, exams, papers due, finding time for friends, and keeping in touch with your family, it can all be too much. Some stress may be healthy, but too much of it will make you very sick. According to womenshealth.gov, stress can lead ...

One of the most intimidating aspects of college is the increased difficulty in academic coursework. Unlike high school, you can’t squeeze by with cramming for a big test the night before, and you can’t just take your chances with your midterms because they can be a huge part of your final grade. My history class, for example, has only three assignments: ...