This guest post was written by the incredibly talented KyleRutty from FindingWood.com.  Take a look at his website for more stories from college, relationships and more.

Everyone’s heard the stereotypes about frat guys. Frat guys are douche bags. Frat guys roofie girls while burning and pillaging sorority houses. Frat guys binge drink and wind up on some story on Dateline or 60 minutes. But beyond all the fabricated stories and stereotypes, fraternities are in a nutshell, the college experience.

If you strip down a fraternity to its bare essentials, what you have is a group of guys with a common interest who are all in college for primarily four things; meet girls, have fun, get a diploma, and have memories that will last forever. A fraternity is a breeding ground for fun, girls, drinking and memories. “Oh you like sports, you like girls, you like drinking and having fun, wait, let’s hang out and do this every weekend.” That’s what a fraternity is.

Where else can I go to a Tarzan and Jane party, get dressed up like a gorilla, drink eight shots of cheap alcohol, talk to girls dressed up like Flintstone models, and have fifteen hundred pictures where I’m grinning like a kid at Disneyland for the first time. Ok, so maybe we’re all douche bags for having fun, then that’s fine, I’m a douche bag.

As a member of a fraternity I made life long bonds coupled with thousands of memories that I will carry with me forever. The best part of it all was I never forced to jeopardize my morals at any point. If you choose to be a douche bag, it’s on you. But most fraternities are large, and you will realize that you will click with a smaller group within the fraternity that shares an even stronger shared set of interests than the large umbrella of the fraternity in general.

Obviously there are exceptions for everything, and people that are easilty influenced shouldn’t join a fraternity they have nothing in common with. If you’re a surfer or skater that enjoys Reggae Music, then joining the muscle strapped fraternity that loves country music and baseball probably isn’t the best fit for you. But that’s the best thing about it, fraternities are like going to the cereal aisle at Albertsons. The business fraternity is like the Wheaties of fraternities, not the best tasting cereal, but better for you in the long run. The fraternity that drinks and parties like a ‘Lil Wayne tour bus is like the Cookie Crisp of Cereals, great tasting not always the best for educational goals.

All I am saying as that its imperative to form your own opinion. While eight people might tell you that all fraternity guys are douche bags, its quite plasuable that none of them are speaking from experience. And when I say experience, I’m not talking about meeting an idiot at a party that happens to be in a fraternity, but actually trying the experience and seeing what its like for themselves. Before you decide whether or not to rush a fraternity, talk to both sides, make sure you know the benefits and negative side effects of joining a fraternity. I say this because for me, fraternity life was part of my college experience that I will never regret.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com

Every college student thinks about switching majors at some point in their college careers.  Maybe you’re all of a sudden not as passionate about organic chemistry as you were your freshman year, or maybe you can’t handle the intense workload of computer science, or maybe you can’t relate to the people in your classes and want a change.  There’s a million reasons to consider switching majors in college, but there are just as many reasons or excuses not too.  It’s one of those big decisions that can be life changing, so there are several things to consider.

First of all you may be thinking to yourself: “I’ve already come so far, spent the last X years in this major, I would be throwing all of that away if I switched now.”  However, think about what it means if you don’t switch out now.  You’ll be spending the rest of your life doing something that you’re not 100 percent passionate about.  You may always wonder what it would have been like to follow your gut feeling way back in college.  The most common misconception while you’re in college is the fact that your years in college are long.  They really aren’t in the grand scheme of things.  Four to six years of college is nothing compared to the rest of your life.

One option you may consider is taking a couple classes from the major you want to switch into before making the leap.  It may seem like a waste of time at first because you’re probably overwhelmed with classes you have to take for your current major, but it’s a lot better than jumping into another major and wanting nothing more than to return to your first choice.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com

The heavy cost of heavy drinking

With aggressive drinking and partying comes a heavy price tag in the shape of a hangover.  Every college student figures out their hangover prevention system by their third or fourth year of college, but I’m about to give all the youngsters out there the secret to bouncing back after an all day bender.  So take out your notepads and pay attention, this will save you a lot of Sundays which would otherwise be lost to recovery.

Key Principle 1: Don’t Crash Before Hydrating

While it may be extremely hard to not simply face-plant into your bed as soon as you get home after a long night of partying, you’re going to have to resist that urge.  The number one cause of hangovers is dehydration (it’s science), so you’ll have to do your best to drink lots of water (or even better, drink something with electrolytes like Gatorade).  If you’re planning to really get after it one night, you might have to just setup the water rehydration plan before you go out. One of my favorite moves is to already have a glass of water or gatorade sitting next to my bed before I go out so I don’t forget to drink it before hitting the bed.

Key Principle 2: Learn to Recognize Your Shrinking Sobriety

The ability to tell when you’ve had too much to drink and then cut yourself off is a skill that can only be obtained through years of training in the most raucous party environments.  You’ll just have to get your reps in during your first couple years of college.  Once you learn to recognize when you’ve had too much, you’ll be able to prevent a lot of bad hangovers and more importantly, prevent bad decisions you may or may not regret (see TextsFromLastNight).

Hangover Prevention Myths:

1) Eating a big late night dinner will prevent the pain. FALSE.  This can actually backfire on you if the food contains a lot of salt which will cause even more dehydration.  Just stick to Key Principle 1 and you’ll wake up on Sunday and feel like running 6 miles.

2) “Sticking to beer will keep you in the clear”. FALSE. Once again, it’s all about hydration, and even though beer has a lot of water in it, it can still dry you out, especially if you’re planning to do some heavy day-drinking.  However, drinking beer can help you work with Key Principle 2, because it’s slower than ripping shots of tequila and trying to figure out if you’ve had too much.

Keeping these principles and myths in mind the next time you go out will save you some serious pain on Sunday morning so you can spend more time doing homework, studying or drinking more on Sunday.  I’m open to more suggestions from readers as well.  Cheers.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com

Now that January is approaching, many students will be taking advantage of the multitude of J-term study options. I highly encourage every student to spend at least one January studying instead of taking a break from school; not only will it be an academically and socially rewarding experience, it can be a whole lot of fun!

The first step in making sure that you have a successful J-term experience is determining exactly what you want to do. There are several options. Probably the most common is just taking a J-term class. This is very similar to taking a class during the semester, with a few notable differences. First, obviously, is the shorter length of the class. Because you only have one month to complete the class, you’ll be going to it more often and for longer periods of time. You might go four or five days a week, and anywhere from three to five hours at a time (depending on how your school does it; there is a lot of variation). And while this may sound like way too much studying when you’re supposed to be out of school, you have to think about the class you’re taking. For example, I took an English class focused on hard-boiled detective fiction, in which we read books like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. How cool is that? Many departments offer fun classes over J-term, so check out the catalog and see what you can find.

Another study focused option is studying abroad. Most schools offer study abroad programs, and those that don’t can hook you up with one that does pretty easily. You can travel all over the world and study whatever you’d like. Many students at my university studied theater in London, theology in Rome, and business all over Europe. I studied ghosts and monsters in 19th-century British literature in the UK. You have all kinds of options, both in classes and destinations. Some programs even travel through different areas, so you may be able to see several different countries over the course of a month. To find a study abroad program, check out www.studyabroad.com.

Another great J-term option is the service-learning trip. This is less focused on academic learning and more centered around volunteer service. You could be building houses in Mexico, helping out at a school in Tanzania, or doing natural disaster cleanup in South America. There are many service-learning organizations that take J-term trips with college students—ask around your campus, and you’ll be sure to find at least one that you can hook up with.

No matter what you do over J-term, I recommend making the most of it. Take one or two to do nothing (you deserve it), but use the rest of them to do something beneficial for yourself and others. Maybe it’s studying, maybe it’s serving, or maybe it’s something completely different. What have you spent your J-terms doing? Leave comments below and let us know!

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com

There’s no denying it now. No matter where you live, winter is here. Most of the country has seen some snow, and those that haven’t are getting cold (well, relatively, anyway). Most college students are done with finals by now, or will be very shortly, so it’s time to get outside and enjoy the winter! You may be thinking, “Enjoy winter outside? Why would I do that? I’d much rather be inside!”

Many people go into a sort of hibernation during the winter and hide out inside throughout the cold months. And this is certainly a viable way to go about it. There’s something to be said for grabbing a good book and parking yourself in a chair for the day. But if you do this all the time, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities! Winter, even though the weather can be nasty, is a great time to do outdoor activities. You just have to know which ones to go for.

Something that a lot of people forget about once they get out of elementary or middle school is sledding. When was the last time that you went sliding down a hill on a flimsy piece of plastic? It’s probably been a long time. But do you remember how fun it was? You can buy a sled for a couple bucks (or make your own—large lunch trays work pretty well), find a hill near your house, and go for it! Get a group together and get out for a couple hours. You’ll be surprised at how much fun you have.

Another activity that you may not have done in a few years is ice skating. Whether you’re good at it or not, it can be a really fun time. Yes, you might fall a few times . . . but so will everybody else! Unless you’re friends with several people on the hockey team, it’s pretty likely that no one will be a very proficient skater. Many skating rinks have student nights when you can rent a pair of skates for a few dollars, and if there’s a skating rink on your campus, you may be able to rent skates and get on the ice for free (if not, it should be very inexpensive).

One great winter activity needs little explanation: the snowball fight. Whether it’s organized or impromptu, throwing snow at your friends and family is awesome. It’s just that simple.

In addition to all of these classic activities, I encourage you to get out and try something new this winter. Rent cross-country skis or snowshoes, and spend an afternoon at a state park. Try skiing or snowboarding. Do something that you do in the summer—throw a frisbee or a football, or go for a run—in the snow instead of inside. Just start trying things, and you’re bound to find a winter activity that you enjoy!

As always, if you have any questions, comments or funny stories you'd like me to share about college or the blog, email me at stu@stuvu.com