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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

This isn’t a useful strategy in this situation, but I have to say it. Next time, don’t let your grade fall throughout the semester! Work hard through your class, and you won’t have this problem.

But that’s not the case. You’re worried about your grade, so you’re trying to figure out what to do about it. One of the best ways to show your professor that you’re concerned about the class and working hard to improve your grade is to do really well on the final. Easier said than done, yes, but you have to work hard to get out of the hole you dug yourself into. Start early, and get some serious studying done. Use effective study strategies, get enough sleep, and get out there and slay the test. If you can get an A on the test, your professor might be willing to bump your grade up a bit. If you class has a final project instead of a final exam, do the same thing. You have to create a pretty strong impression, so don’t mess around.

If you’re not so confident in your abilities to impress your professor academically, you’ll have to take more direct measures. Go talk to your professor about the class. Don’t bring up the subject of your grade, but ask questions about the test or your project. Get some clarification on things you don’t understand. Show your professor that you want to turn your academics around and that you’re willing to work hard for the class.

Similarly, going to class-organized study groups is a great way to show your commitment. Your professor may show up to one of these sessions, or s/he might get a record of who attended. Even if the professor doesn’t find out that you were there, it’ll help you test-taking or project-completing.

An absolute worst-case scenario strategy is to directly approach your professor about your grade. This isn’t likely to work, and can be extremely awkward, so I don’t recommend it, but you might be able to get moved from an F to a D- if you make a really strong case. If you have to go this far, I wish you luck, because you’re going to have a tough time. But it could be worth it!

One of the more immediately obvious differences is the way in which you’ll find out about opportunities for involvement. Because universities are so much larger than high schools, there’s almost sure to be a volunteer coordinator or another similar person working there. A good way to go about finding this person is to contact your college’s office of alumni affairs or alumni council (both of which you should be able to find on the school’s website fairly easily). Someone in this group will be able to direct you to who you need to talk to.

After you talk to the correct university representative, you’ll probably start noticing another significant difference between high school and college in this respect: in college, it’s much more organized. In high school, it’s often pretty informal, and you can just walk in and start helping out somewhere. At the post-secondary level, you’ll probably be placed in a very specific place to do a more specific task. You’ll still have the choice of what you want to do, of course, but it’s likely that the options will be tailored to the needs of the school. It’s also fairly likely that you’ll be working in a group; groups of alumni often gather to do some sort of service project for their college.

Alumni organizations are also good ways to get involved. Many alumni groups organize regular volunteer sessions at their college, and you can hook up with them by contacting your alumni office and asking about organizations that stay involved with the school. It’s often easier to do it this way, because you might know a few of the people that you’re working with, and at the very least, you have something significant in common. A lot of these groups use Facebook or another online social networking tool to stay in touch, and this makes it really easy to find out about events that you can take part in.

However you get in contact with your school or an alumni group, it’s good to get out there and give back to your school. You’ll be working for a good cause, get to meet other alumni from your college, and have fun. So, whether you’ve graduated already or not, find out about doing some volunteer work around your campus. You’ll be glad you did.

Why stay involved? There are many reasons, most of which have to do with helping the school and the faculty that have helped you out over the past four years. And while you may not think right now that they did anything to help you, it’s possible that you’ll change your mind in six months (or a few years). Try to imagine what it’s like to be a high school teacher or administrator. You get up every day and go to work, where hundreds, if not thousands, of teenagers are waiting for you. And they’re usually not very cooperative (and often not friendly). But you still do it every day, because you want to help them move on and improve their lives. Sound like a tough job? It is. It’s people like these that make big differences in lives, and it behooves every high school graduate to give back to their high school.

If nothing else, it’s good to stay involved in your high school so that you can help out the students there. They’re probably thinking the same thing you were—that they’d rather not be in class, that the teachers don’t like them, and that administrators exist to give them trouble. Wouldn’t it be nice if a former student could talk to them, even if just to sympathize? You, like the teachers, can make a difference in these students’ lives.

So giving back to your high school sounds like a good idea. How do you get started? Different schools allow different levels of involvement, so it’s important to talk to someone at the school first. Call up the principal or another high-level administrator (if your high school is large enough, you might even have a volunteer coordinator or some other such person to talk to) and ask them how you can help out. Maybe you can be a chaperone at a dance, or stop into a classroom once a week to help out one of the teachers that you liked a lot. Or you could be a gym monitor over a lunch period. Some athletically inclined alumni will get involved in a high school sports program that they participated in as a student. I know people who have gone back to help coach a team that they were on many years before.

Regardless of how you give back, you will be greatly appreciated, and you will make a positive difference in the lives of the students, the teachers, and the faculty at your high school. And isn’t that reason enough? Call up your high school today and see what you can do to help out.

A mentor, really, is anyone older than you who takes you under their wing. Mentoring is about giving advice and offering guidance. This can be socially, academically, spiritually, or any other number of ways. Mentoring relationships are found between friends and family members as well as in other places. There are many formal mentoring programs, but there are just as many informal mentoring relationships. How you find one is up to you.

My alma mater has a great example of a college-level mentoring program. Alumni can sign up to be part of this program, and if they do, they are paired with an undergraduate student. Every so often, the mentor and the student meet for lunch and talk. It’s very informal and relaxed, and students can gain a great deal of useful information from the alumni. Sometimes it’s serious things, like how to make the right decision when it comes to declaring a major. Other times, it’s things like the best bars at which to find cute guys. It depends completely on the mentor and the student.

Whether you choose to engage in a formal mentoring program or just meet up with someone you look up to every once in a while, I highly recommend finding a mentor. You can use online directories, such as can be found through statewide mentoring partnerships, or talk to someone in at your school (usually academic counselors and career development services have good ideas on this topic). Mentoring is great for everybody, but it can be especially helpful for college students, so many campuses provide resources for making these connections. You can also find useful information on finding a mentor at Goal-Setting-College.com.

Once you’ve found a mentoring relationship, it’s important to be willing to put time and effort into it. This can be difficult if you’re not a socially outgoing person, but it’s crucial to the effectiveness of the relationship. And because there is so much that you can get out of it, it’s essential to be willing to step out of your comfort zone just a little bit to make the most of it. Ask questions, share stories, and get to know your mentor. It may be a little awkward at first, but most relationships are—so take some time, be patient, and you’ll be rewarded. Remember this experience, too, because you may find yourself on the other side of the table in a few years!

Mentoring is a very fulfilling experience, and I hope that you’re able to find a mentor that can help you throughout your college years. I also hope that you’ll step up as a mentor yourself one day!

First of all, the number of people that are really stoked on the school is greatly increased. Why? It’s hard to say. Maybe because very few people get to choose which high school they go to, and they feel a stronger sense of ownership of their college. Or because college sports are a much bigger deal than high school sports. Whatever the reason, you’ll find out pretty quickly (especially if you go to big sports games, like football, basketball, or hockey) that school spirit is a pretty serious thing in college. You’ll see people with their faces and bodies painted, wearing all kinds of clothing of your school’s color, and a range of other crazy things. You also might be surprised at just how loud a crowd of students can get (especially if the game is later in the day and people have had a chance to have a few drinks).

Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? And you want to get involved? Fortunately, it’s easy. Showing your school pride is as simple as wearing a school shirt around campus. You can even find free clothes with your school’s logo on it if you look around enough. Many on-campus events include giveaways where you can pick up lanyards, water bottles, t-shirts, bandanas, and other things. If not, go to your book or clothing store and pick up a shirt. Simple.

If you want to take it up a notch, it’s time to get creative. What can you wear that’s your school color? Where I went to school, Mardi Gras-like beads were very popular at my school. Scarves are great, too, unless it’s really hot out. Wearing shoes in your school’s color is another good way to add some color, too.

Once you’ve adorned yourself with as many crazy, school-colored things as possible, there’s only one thing left to do. Get a group of your friends together, get to the game, and get loud!