As a seasoned veteran of college, I’ve had my fair share of head pounding hangovers. Fortunately for you, I’ve put together this wonderful class called Hangover Prevention 101 which will teach how to not wake up feeling like your head is in a vice.

First of all, hangovers are generally caused by dehydration. After a night of heavy drinking and debauchery, I like to drink at least one tall glass over water before face-planting into my bed. The more alcohol you drink, the more water you’ll need to drink before going to sleep to prevent that dreadful hangover.

Another rule of thumb is to stay away from overly sweet drinks. Now I know a lot of rookie drinkers love the jungle juice, and all that sweet stuff that doesn’t taste like alcohol, but that’s the stuff that goes straight to your head! If you stick to beer, and mixed drinks made with mixers that don’t have too much sugar you’ll be fine. Stay away from too much soda and juice mixers. If you can man up, drinking vodka and soda waters will prevent hangovers 99.7 percent of the time (that’s a scientific fact by the way). An example of what not to drink: some kind of sweet rum with coke…. that’s a headache in a glass. It might even be diabetes in a glass too.

If you’ve crossed the point of no return in terms of getting absolutely hammered, one great way to get back to sobriety is doing something active like dancing. You can dance off a buzz pretty quickly which will generally help your chances of not getting a hangover in the morning.

Lastly, the best way to prevent a hangover is to not drink at all. But that’s not an option for everybody. And that concludes Hangover Prevention 101.

Whether its time to cram at the last minute for your midterm or you just want to get some homework done, finding a place where you can be productive for long periods of time can be a challenge. There are several options, and where you get your best work done depends on your preferences. Here are some suggestions.

1. Library

The is probably the most obvious and popular study area on campus. Often times the library has reading rooms and separate meeting areas where you can meet partners for group work. Some parts of the library are loud and some extremely quiet. Choose the place that best suits you.

2. Labs

If you’re a scientist of some kind, you’re probably going to spend a ton of time in your labs anyway. Might as well do all of your homework there then pitch a tent and start paying rent to the school.

3. Coffee Shop

Another popular place to study if you can find a table. It’s always nice to study in a coffee shop, that way if you get hungry you can get something to eat and if your philosphy book is lulling you to sleep, you can grab a coffee.

4. University Union

Most campuses have a central Student’s union with comfy couches and tables for meeting with friends. This isn’t usually the quietest of places, but if you’re just meeting for a group project, it can work just fine.

5. Grass Lawns

On a sunny day, nothing beats studying outdoors on the grass. Usually its only good for reading, but nowadays many schools have WiFi networks so you can bust out your laptop and start surfing the web.

6. The Beach

If you’re lucky enough to go to school near the beach, you can always go out there and get some sun while reading a book. Personally I usually go to the beach with the intent of reading, but fall asleep just minutes after opening the book.

7. Your Room

My personal favorite for studying is my room. It doesn’t get any more private than studying in your room (unless you have a roomate). The only bad part about your room is that it can be distracting if you’re sucked into the computer or TV.

Living with a complete stranger for your entire first year of college could be a little scary when you think about it, but it’s also a very necessary step to making friends and fully experiencing the college life. You may feel tempted to live with a friend from high school, but this is a mistake because the two of you won’t meet as many people as you would if you were in separate rooms. Living with a stranger could be difficult, but here are some great tips for living with a dorm roommate.

1) Be honest on your dorm application

Usually when you apply for the dorms you are supposed to give a description of what you are like, and what you want your roommate to be like. It’s important not to lie on these, for example if you smoke, you shouldn’t say that you don’t.

2) Respect your roommate’s privacy

Sharing a room can be difficult when it comes to privacy, simply because there’s two people living in a small space. Just remember not to look through your roommate’s stuff, and to always ask before you use anything that belongs to them. Once you’ve established some sort of a relationship, these measures will probably not need to be taken for everything.

3) Communicate

A common problem between roommates and just people in general is a lack of communication. Anytime there is a problem, you should always let your roommate know, rather than keeping inside and expecting them to read your mind and address the issue. When you move in, you should tell your roommate to let you know if you’re doing anything annoying, and that you’ll do the same for them.

4) Keep the room decently clean

Unless you and your roommate are both messy people, it’s important to always try to keep the room in decent order. This is mostly because in such a small space as a dorm room, any amount of clutter can make the room very unlivable.

5) Hang out with your roommate outside of the room

Try to become friends with your roommate by hanging out with him/her outside of the room. Have lunch or dinner with them every now and then, go to sporting events, study together, do anything that’s outside the room and you’ll build your relationship beyond just someone who you share a room with.

If you stick to these tips, you’ll have a much more enjoyable experience in the dorms and your first year in college. Good luck!

Meeting people in the dorms during your first year of college is crucial to your college experience down the road because the people you meet in the dorms could very well become the people you hang out with for the next four… five… or six years.

It’s important to note that during the first few weeks of the school year, people are very open to meeting just about anybody they run into, simply because everybody is new, and nobody has a real clear idea of who they hang out with. So take this time to say ‘hi’ to everyone you come in contact with. Most people will at least say ‘hi’, and maybe even stop to chat and get acquainted. It seems like after the first few weeks, people establish their friends, and are less open to random greetings from people outside of their circles.

Another key part of meeting people in the dorms and being social in general is keeping your dorm room door open at all times. Even though you may lose a bit of privacy, other people will most likely stop by to chat if your door is open. It also allows your tiny dorm room to air out since two people living in a small space can get stuffy.

Every now and then the dorm managers will hold little social gatherings where people from the dorm are invited to basically meet up, talk and do some sort of activity like sports, movies etc. Definitely take advantage of these opportunities to meet your neighbors.

Some colleges have inter-dorm or inter-hall competitions like dodgeball, kickball and other seemingly childish games that turn out to be cool again because you’re no longer the uptight, too cool for school high-schooler anymore. These can be a lot of fun, and really bring the people of your dorm together. You can also meet people from other dorms as well.

Meeting people in the dorms really just comes down to being social, open and friendly. Saying ‘hi’ to anyone with a smile will never get you turned away, so get out there and meet your hall-mates.

Setting up your dorm room is an exciting and an important part of the first few weeks of college. When you get to your dorm room, the furniture will be set up in the standard way that the university wants it. However, you can and your roommate can change the layout just how you want it.

The first thing you should do before setting up your dorm room is make sure you and your roommate are on the same page, that way you aren’t moving things around when he doesn’t want them moved at all. Some things to consider when moving your furniture:

1) Proximity of beds – you probably don’t want to have your beds right up next to each other, unless you’ve bonded with your roommate within a couple of days to the point where you feel like sharing a bed. Weird.

2) Direction of desks – if privacy is an issue with your desk and computer, you may want to consider having your desk face a direction where your roommate may not be able to see whats going on, on your screen.

3) Placement of Appliances (refrigerator, microwave etc.) – even though your room is really small and these things aren’t going to be that far away, it’s just a good idea to put these things in convenient locations.

4) Posters and Wall Art – you should establish which parts of the walls you can put posters on with your roommate or establish that the both of you can put posters anywhere. Decorating the walls can be a great way to make your dorm room feel more like home, rather than what it is… a dorm room.

Once you get your dorm room set up just right, you can sit back relax and enjoy your college experience.