One of the best ways to get your friends together is to hold a movie night. You can make it a big deal and have a bunch of people over, provide food, and watch several movies, or you can keep it chill, just invite a few people, and relax. It’s up to you. Either way, there are a few things that you’ll need.

First, obviously, is a movie! If you don’t have a specific one in mind (it’s fun to get together to rent a movie that’s just come out on DVD), you can always go with a college classic, like Animal House, National Lampoon’s Vacation, or Caddyshack. Having a scary movie night is a lot of fun, too—you can try out movies like The Exorcist or one of my favorites, 28 Days Later.

After you’ve picked out a movie (or maybe before), you’ll have to pick a night to watch it. Fridays and Saturdays are great, because you can stay up late and not go to class in the morning. Sundays can be good, too, if you’ve been partying really hard and are still hung over late at night. Thursdays can be good, as a way to start your weekend a little early. Really, you can do it on any night that works. Weekday, weekend, whatever . . . as long as you have a couple hours that you don’t desperately need to dedicate to homework, you’re good!

A lot of people like to eat while they watch movies, so you might want to stock your cupboards with college favorites like frozen pizza or pizza rolls. You’re getting together to watch a movie, not to cook, so keep it simple. If you’re the type that really likes to go all-out, you could prepare something before people come over. More munchy foods like chips and salsa (or dip) and popcorn are good, too. And don’t forget drinks—stock your fridge with beer, cider, soda, juice, or whatever else you and your friends like to drink. Making margaritas, martinis, or another slightly more involved drink is a favorite way to get ready for a movie, so consider getting the supplies to prep one of these.

And . . . that’s really it. It doesn’t take much to have a movie night—and that’s one of the reasons that college students like them so much! You don’t have to get party decorations, you don’t have to clean your room, you don’t have to buy a ton of food; it’s pretty simple. So don’t sweat getting ready, just get a movie, some food, some friends, and go for it!

With going away to school comes one of the staples of college life: long-distance relationships. Many people continue dating their high school boy- or girlfriends when they enter college (and many of these relationships are very successful and long-lasting). While it can be tough to maintain a successful relationship when you’re far away from your significant other, it’s definitely possible.

The first key to making long-distance relationships work is commitment. Both members of the relationship have to be fully committed to making it work. This seems obvious, but it’s something that you’ll need to think and talk about quite a bit. If both people aren’t ready to deal with the difficulties of a long-distance relationship, it can place a great added strain on the relationship. It’s important to address this issue before leaving for college, so make sure to bring it up early.

Probably the most obvious component of a successful long-distance relationship is communication. Because you can’t see each other very often, it’s important to stay in close communication—many couples find that talking on the phone every day keeps them close. Not all couples talk every day, but the successful ones communicate very often, via phone, email, text messaging, instant messaging, or another method of communication. Talk to each other like you would if you were together; talk about the things that happened that day, what you’re looking forward to in the coming weeks, the tough tests that you’re getting ready for, the latest dorm gossip, the school’s sports team . . . anything and everything that you would talk about in a normal face-to-face conversation.

While close communication is important, it won’t cut it forever—make sure to see each other when you can. If you’re across the state, this might mean spending weekends together (if you can drive to your boy- or girlfriend’s school). If you’re across the country, you may be limited to holidays and summer vacation. But no matter your situation, make sure to take any opportunity (within reason, of course) to spend time together. It’ll help strengthen your relationship and give you something to look forward to.

Making a relationship over a great distance work can be a difficult, but very rewarding, proposition. It takes a great deal of commitment, patience, and forgiveness. Be forgiving, because someday, your significant other will forget to call, not check her or his email, or have another plan for the weekend that you were hoping to come over. These things happen—but if you can just roll with it and not stress about it, you’ll be in much better shape. It can be tough, but with some perseverance, you’ll make it through. It’s definitely been done before!

One of the things near the forefront of most college students’ minds is dating. Guys talk about girls, girls talk about guys, they flirt, they date . . . that’s how college is. But the dating scene has changed with the rise of the internet, text messaging, instant messaging, social networking, and other technological advancements. And while online dating used to be the domain of the middle-aged single, it has changed and is becoming much more popular with the younger generation.

The most significant advantage of online dating is that you can meet a really large number of people from a wide area very quickly. Instead of trying to meet guys or girls in classes or at parties, you can just log on to any number of web sites, put in some information, and you’ll be presented with a list of people that might be a good match for you. You can be very specific in what you’re looking for, or very vague in your requirements and get as many suggestions as you want. You can search for people at your college, in your city, in your state, or just somewhere in your region.

In addition to seeing a large number of options, online dating also makes it easy for college students to talk to other students. Instead of trying to find some mutual interest before you make conversation (which is still a good thing to do, and a good skill to have), you can simply send a message saying “Hey, what’s up?” to someone, because you know that they’re single and looking to date. (Or else why would they be on the site?) It’s still good to be able to start conversations, but dating sites make it a little easier.

So why wouldn’t you use an online dating site to find your potential match? Some people find it a little weird to be meeting and talking with people without having even seen each other face-to-face. (Especially because pictures don’t always portray people accurately. Like it or not, that matters to a lot of people.) It also makes some people uncomfortable to try to make conversation without already having something in common, like having the same professor or studying the same subject. A lot of people also don’t like paying for the chance to meet people (there are free sites, but many online dating sites require a membership fee).

Whether or not you’re interested in online dating is up to you. It might make you a little leery. You might think that it could save you a lot of time and help you bypass at least part of the dating game. Whatever you think about it, it’s good to know that it’s an option, just in case you decide to take another route through the dating scene.

Some people might say that football is the official college sport, because it’s followed so closely by millions of people around the country. Others would argue that basketball is the epitome of college sports, because of March Madness and the hype generated by the NCAA tournament. I have to respectfully disagree with both of these groups of people, and declare the official college sport . . . frisbee!

Unless you’re in the depths of a frigid winter, you’re almost guaranteed to see at least a few sets of people throwing a frisbee around every time you set foot on a college campus. And in the summer, you’ll see college-aged kids throwing frisbees on campuses, in parks, at beaches, in streets, and everywhere else that you might find groups of people. Where there are college students, there are frisbees.

Why is the frisbee such an important symbol of university life? There are many reasons, but I believe that the most important one is the also the simplest: because it’s so much fun! There’s something inherently satisfying in throwing an object that doesn’t look like it should be able to fly over great distances and having one of your friends snagging it out of the air with style before throwing it all the way back. Frisbees are easy to carry around in a backpack, are cheap (and thus easy to replace when thrown into a lake or lost in other ways), and easy to start up games with. Because of all these reasons, the frisbee is—and always will be—a favorite of college students.

If you haven’t thrown a frisbee since you were a little kid, or have never been very good at it, this summer is a perfect time to get into it and learn! Odds are very high that one of your friends plays pretty often, so ask them to get out and throw with you for a little while. They can offer some tips on your throwing technique, and you’ll be playing catch in no time (and, most likely, you’ll be hooked). You can now easily kill an hour with a group of your friends just throwing back and forth (if you think an hour is a long time to do just that, try it sometime—you may find that you’ll play a lot longer without even noticing!).

Once you’ve got the throw and the catch down, you can start trying other frisbee games. Try catching it behind your back, between your legs, or while jumping in the air. Have a competition with a friend to see who can catch the disc with the most style. You can also try disc golf, which is an adaptation of “normal” golf. Disc golf courses are popping up all over the country, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find one near you. Disc golf is one of the most fun (and free!) sports around (it is, by its very nature, extremely relaxed). Whether you’re just learning to throw, or working on lowering your score on the course, get out there and have fun with a frisbee!

One of the best parts about summer is the amount of free activities that are going on. Whether they’re put on by your local college, the city you live in, your church, or another public or private group, you’ll have many opportunities to enjoy some free entertainment (which is especially nice as a student with limited income). You might have to do a little leg work to find out when and where these events are, but it’s definitely worth it.

There are many ways to find out about free summer activities, but word-of-mouth is usually the best way. Ask your friends about events they’ve heard of, and when you find out about something going on, let people know! Invite your friends, and tell them to invite their friends—start sharing information between groups of friends, and you’ll have more free summer fun on your hands than you know what to do with. You can also check your local newspaper or city magazine; most of them have events calendars that will list free events. There are many places online that will give you the information you’re looking for, as well. Just Google “free events [your city name]” and you should get at least a few useful results.

Many cities have a free concert series in the summer, where local bars show up and sell drinks, companies will have promos, and you’ll get to chill out and listen to local music. Even if you’re not a huge fan of the type of music being played, these concerts are a lot of fun (they also make for good dates, if you don’t want to take your date out to an expensive restaurant or movie). It’s always cool to hear local musicians—and if you play in a band, maybe you’ll end up on stage for one of the events!

Another common free activity is outdoor movie showings, many times put on by art galleries, museums, history centers, or other nonprofit organizations. A lot of these groups will show indie movies that you’ve never heard of or older, artsy movies. Attending one of these free showings is a good way to expose yourself to movies that you wouldn’t have watched otherwise, and enjoy a summer evening when the sun isn’t blazing down on you. Some groups also offer family-friendly movie nights, and show kid’s movies (think Disney and Pixar).

There are many other smaller, less-organized events that pop up every now and then, as well. An apartment complex might have a community grill-out night, a local church could put on a lawn games competition, and schools often put on free productions through their theater programs. You can really find almost anything for free if you look hard enough. So no matter what you’re interested in and what you like to do, explore a little this summer and hit up some free activities, even if they’re not things that you would usually do. Step outside of your comfort zone, and you might find that you really like something you’d never even thought of before!