Your Student Guide to College Life

November 19th, 2008

The Art of the Strategic Suck-up

Okay, to heck with everyone else, you say, I WANT A GOOD GRADE! Now what do I do?

First, you’ve got to get your head in the right place and looking at that teacher with the right perspective. The teacher is not the enemy, despite all evidence to the contrary.

Think of that teacher as a member of the fraternity or sorority you want to join, or the one that’s doing the hiring for that job you really want, or—to a mild extent—that guy or girl you have a crush on. What do they all have in common? You would be nice to all of those people and you would probably laugh or at least attempt a sincere smile at their jokes, even if it was really lame. You would say “Hi, how’s it going?” if you passed them on campus or around town, or you would at least give them a nod and a friendly smile. You would make eye contact when they were talking to you, unless of course the guy or girl was so hot that you couldn’t maintain eye contact without turning every shade of oh-my-god-I-know-I’m-blushing. But how often is a teacher that hot?

Is it really that simple? Sure. Teachers are people too, and they respond the same way most people do; they remember the people who are nice to them, especially when they just attempted a witty joke that bombed and almost nobody thought it was funny. They also remember the people who aren’t so nice to them, just the way we do.

For the really shy or too cool, there are ways of getting the suck-up benefit without even having to do anything. As part of the strategic suck-up, here’s what you probably don’t want to do and stuff you probably wouldn’t do if the teacher was one of those people that you wanted to like you. You probably wouldn’t glare at them with death ray eyes because it’s exactly the moment that class ended and the teacher is still finishing their last couple of sentences. You probably wouldn’t be late to meet them or for a date. And you probably wouldn’t turn to your friend and start whispering while they were talking to you.

Of course, you can really pull out the stops and make sure that teacher will think of you favorably simply by doing the work and then showing the teacher that you are doing the work when they ask the class a question. But that’s not for everybody.

At the bare minimum, think of class as a date: show up on-time and smiling, and show that you’re listening to them when they’re talking. It all helps.

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

November 18th, 2008

The Best Advice a Grad Student Ever Gave Me

What’s the best way to get through college? The answer came to me from a grad student friend of mine, and it has been the best advice ever on the subject of doing well in college. Think of the school part of college as your job. Your most important job.

What good will that do me, you ask. How is school like a job, you ask, citing the obvious that you aren’t making money, you’re spending money—and a lot of it on books, and rent, and pizza. My tuition pays the teacher’s salary. He works for me, you say. Well, you’re right, and you’re wrong.

First, most full-time teachers make between $50-90,000 per year, so it takes an awful lot of students to pay salaries. In fact, most salaries are covered by taxpayer subsidies. But that’s not the main reason you should think of class as a job, and your teacher as—yep, you guessed it—your boss.

Let’s get right in the head, perspective-wise. You go to class, do the work, and then you get a grade. That grade is your pay for all your hard work, and the teacher signs your proverbial report card: your paycheck. Just like a boss at work who pays you, they add up how hard you work and figure out what your paycheck should be.

Now that you’ve got the right perspective, how does thinking of school like the most important job you’ve ever had really help? Well, chances are, up to this point, most of your jobs have been for fun-money or at least something you didn’t absolutely need. You need good grades. There are more and more people in the world, and technology is minimizing the number of workers required to keep the world going. Job competition is tough and only getting tougher. Some industries already require transcripts in their hiring practice, and admittance to any kind of grad program is directly tied like a ball-and-chain to transcripts. Transcripts may not end up being required of you for your post grad goals, but in today’s world especially, you can’t know that for sure now.

There are also a few other ways thinking of class as a job and the teacher as your boss can help you out. To do well in a job, your boss wants you there on-time, and expects it all the time, allowing for the occasional tardiness. Your boss probably wouldn’t be too happy about you sleeping in class. Your boss expects a certain amount of actual labor for the money they pay you. So does the teacher.

Class sizes range from 15 to 120 people. Imagine for a moment that you are a manager at a business with 50 employees, and everyone is late. You’re going to be cranky. Granted, it never happens that everyone is late at the same time. But teachers probably have just as many class sessions as you do, let’s say on average 12 per week. More often than not, one or two or more straggle in late for every class. That would be a lot of crankiness for most bosses, who usually deal with only 5 shifts per week.

Teachers don’t see everything in a classroom, but they always see when someone is sleeping during class, so don’t do it—it’s not the kind of memory you want the teacher to have when they are grading your essay or in the event that you end up right on the cusp of a B- or a C+.

Finally, the work. The homework. The studying. It’s all labor baby. And in this case, a teacher has even more power than an employer. An employer has to pay you your hourly rate, regardless of hard you worked, but a teacher has grades. The hardest work gets the best grades, which is usually pretty fair. The guy who spent 10 hours on an essay probably doesn’t deserve the same grade as the guy who threw it together in 1 hour, right?

It’s pretty simple: show up on-time, be respectful, as you would to an employer, and remember that hard work will actually get you a much fatter pay-off. And that might be the deciding factor between you and someone else with the same exact degree when you’re trying to get the job you really, really want once college is in the rearview mirror.

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

November 18th, 2008

Choosing a Major

One of the challenges that every college student has to face is choosing a major. You will usually be required to declare a major by the end of your second year; fortunately, this timeframe gives you a little time to think about it and make an informed decision that you’ll be happy with for the rest of your college career and—hopefully—the rest of your life.

One of the most cliché answers to the question “How do I choose my major?” is “Find what you like to do.” While this is good advice, it’s fairly unclear on how to go about finding such things. For example, what if your favorite thing to do is play hockey? Does your school offer a degree in hockey playing? Probably not. Or what if the highlight of your week is the one day that you go to the local animal shelter and play with the animals? Are you fortunate enough to be able to take a class called “Playing with Animals”? Unlikely. So what do you do?

It’s in situations like these where you have to be a little creative in adapting what you like to do to what you want to study. Let’s take the first example above. Playing professional hockey, while it would satisfactorily answer the “What do you like to do?” question, is not a viable option for the vast majority of student athletes. So what else can you study that could be related to hockey? It helps to think about who else is involved in the sport. For example, which types of people, other than players, do teams hire? There are athletic trainers, doctors, public relations teams, business administrators, and equipment managers, to name a few. So majoring in athletic training, medicine, public relations or business administration might be a way to stay involved with the sport. Becoming a sports journalist would also allow you to be close to the action, not only during the hockey season, but during the rest of the year as well. With a little creative thinking, it’s easy to think of several degrees that fit your interests.

As for the second example, the same strategy can be applied. Which degrees will allow you to work with animals? Veterinary medicine is an obvious choice, but something like non-profit business administration or public relations may also be worth considering. Places like animal shelters and adoption agencies have business needs as well, so they will be looking for people who are passionate about animals but also have the skills to help them succeed in the business world.

Choosing a major can be stressful, but if you take the time and think about what you like to do and how you can use your education to keep you involved in that field, you’ll make a choice that you can be proud of.

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

November 13th, 2008

Campusbooze.com - Boozing on a Budget

If you’re like most college students, you probably don’t have a stash of cash just ready to go when you feel like partying.  When throwing a party, problems tend to rise when you start to plan what kind of alcohol you’re going to have and who’s going to pay for it.  Thankfully the people at campusbooze.com took care of all of our problems.  Campusbooze.com shows you which stores have the cheapest alcohol, with prices updated 3 times a week.  This way you know you’re always getting the most bang for your buck, which is hugely important when you’re living on a college student budget.

Let’s pretend like we learned something in that economics class and breakdown why campusbooze.com is a MUST when throwing a party.

1. Stretch you dollars

In this gloomy economy, college students need to pinch every penny they earn whether it’s earned through a job at Starbucks, or by turnin’ tricks on the streets.

2. Know who’s paying what, before you go on a beer run

Someone always gets shafted when one person goes on a beer run for a group of stingy college students.  With campusbooze.com, you can figure out exactly how much money you’re budgeting for your party, and split up the cost BEFORE you go out and harvest your beer crop.

3. Maximize your keg stands to dollars ratio

If you’re working with a fixed budget for a party, you can go to campusbooze.com and figure out how much money you want to devote to beer, and blow the rest on handles of your favorite liquor.  Everyone wins!

The bottom line is, campusbooze.com can take any budget you have for a party, and maximize the alcohol potential in about 3 minutes flat.  Check it out.

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

November 12th, 2008

From Work to Party Chic in 5 Minutes

After a long day of work the last thing you have time to do is go home and change. You want to go the bar or the club with your friends and work off some unnecessary stress. This is how you can do exactly that while looking your best and not making your boss flinch from your choice of attire.

Khakis or a cute skirt can never be too dressy or to club ready when paired with the right accessories. Sometimes if you’re really pushing it, you can throw on a pair of neutral corduroy pants and a fancy shirt and be good to go out with your buddies after working from nine to five.

Layer, Layer, Layer. This is crucial. Put your professional clothes over your snappy drink wear and always make sure it matches. Your job isn’t the time to experiment with fashion unless you work in the industry so keep the fishnets or clogs in your locker.

A fresh shave or make-up instantly makes you look more professional and attractive to both your bosses and those hotties at the bar. Always look your best and sometimes all it takes is five minutes in front of the mirror in the morning to get it right.

Have fun with it. No matter what you’re wearing, make sure you’re comfortable and that it fits you in all the right places, nothing is worse than a bad fit to kill your self esteem.

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