As classes get into full swing, your time is suddenly filled up with reading, late nights spent writing papers, and of course, eating. If you’ve been wondering why you’re always hungry when studying for History 210, researchers have an answer.

In a recent study done by Angelo Tremblay at his lab at the Universite Laval in Quebec, it was found that those performing mental tasks like trying to solve problems (e.g. Calculus 111), while working at a computer stimulated their appetite so much that they tended to eat more calories than their bodies actually burned while performing the task.

The psychological logic for the rise in appetite?  According to the study, mental work “destabilizes” our levels of insulin and glucose, which in turn stimulates the appetite.

Is this why after a weekend of total dedication to homework, I suddenly find I’ve depleted me and my roommate’s entire snack supply?

According to Tremblay’s study, participants consumed far more calories after performing a mental task like reading for a class than relaxing for the same amount of time. In addition, they concluded that time spent surfing the Internet, as well as instant messaging, may very well be a significant factor in the obesity epidemic amongst college students.

So studying is really to blame for the freshman 15? Read More »

Put down the North Face. Seriously.

That overly priced piece of fleece has been cramping styles of college chicks nationwide for way too long. Not only is it boring and blah (and yes getting it in bumble-bee yellow still makes it blah) - but its making you that girl. You know who I’m talking about: The one who walks around campus in her big sunglasses, tight stretch pants, boots and… NORTH FACE FLEECE.

I’m not saying it’s horrible to be one of those girls - in fact I think these girls get a bad rap for being bitchy and spoiled when that isn’t the case (note: I was one of them). What I am saying is that if you’re going to spend the money on a piece of outerwear there are so many, MANY cuter, warmer, more original, not fleecy things to buy!

Trust me, I understand the “I’m hungover and want to wear sweats to class” line of thinking, I really do. But at least fool the outside world that you care…even a little… and switch up your NFF for an actual jacket or coat. This fall there are just so many cute styles that it’s simply a waste to not wear one of them!

Here are some options to consider when trading in your beloved North Face Fleece: Read More »

As a creative writing major, I’m extremely lucky to have parents who didn’t scoff at getting the arty side of a liberal arts education. My parents are voracious readers who have a high level of respect for the arts, and as a result they can be happy for me, even when my class schedule looks distinctly impractical.

Love in the Novel
Nabokov
Intro to Buddhist Thought

These are the kind of classes my parents put up with throughout my college career, with nary an Econ class to be found among the lot.

Many students feel a lot of pressure, however, to take classes that will turn around into the best profit. They know their parents are dropping some major Benjamins to keep them in a good school, and they want to return the favor by, at the very least, not making their parents go gray worrying that their children will be living in a box on the street. So they take Econ and finance classes. They try to become good little doctors and lawyers and I-bankers.

But most of the people I know taking that path aren’t particularly happy doing it. Read More »

The first week of college is summer camp. The second is back to reality. When I arrived on campus a little over a week ago, I never imagined going from name-games to essays in a blink.

My college has a week of orientation, so it never really felt like school until I walked into Geology on Tuesday morning. Before that, I had been watching movies with other freshmen, exploring—well, really getting lost in—the campus, and trying every imaginable ice cream combination at the dining halls.

From the moment I walked into my class, I realized I can’t just watch movies and eat ice cream for the next four years. Buying textbooks before the class was its own problem—really, if a book is used, shouldn’t it be dirt cheap, not just a fraction less expensive than the new version?—but being in a room filled with strangers, most not naïve first years like me, was unnerving.

In high school, the first day was one of my favorites. Sure, I hated knowing I had a year of work ahead of me, but I loved seeing old friends, catching up on summer gossip. Here, I sat down and immediately started taking notes. What part of this lecture was important enough to write down? Who was the person sitting next to me? Was I allowed to raise my hand to ask a question? Read More »

Aside from the night after you’ve taken your last final, the first week of school is generally the best time of the whole semester. The weather is great, you’re reunited with all of your friends, and the school year has returned just when you were starting to feel like you had too much free time.

The campus is buzzing with returning students, eager to see what the new year has in store. Even if you anticipate your hardest semester to date, there’s still a feeling of excitement in the air during the very first week.

1. You Get to Scope Out Your New Classes

Maybe I’m a dork, but I was always excited to see what my new classes would be like. In certain classes–the must-take courses taught by the professors with the best reputations– it was great to see what all the buzz was about. Other classes might have sounded intriguing in the course catalog; reading through the syllabus on the first day, I’d think the class sounded interesting, and hadn’t been assigned 500 pages of reading to prove me otherwise. I would also look through the syllabus and see what the course requirements looked like, so I could estimate how little effort I could put into the class, and still walk away with an “A.”

Of course, it’s also fun to see who else has signed up for the class. Whether you walk through the door and see five of the girls from your freshman dorm, or right into the eyes of your new insta-crush, it’s fun to find out who you’ll be taking the class with. Read More »

Life after college…it can be hard to fathom actually getting to the diploma, no matter how many years you’ve been in school. But what happens after graduation? Most of your peers will be joining the work force, but a decent percentage will move on to even higher education and pursue master’s degrees, PhDs, or professional certifications. While the job application process is hard, getting into and completing a post-graduate degree is even harder. Having experienced the trials and tribulations firsthand, I’m here to share some tips so you can decide whether moving on to even MORE school is the right choice for you.

Towards the end of my junior year of undergrad, I realized that I had to start thinking of a post-college plan. I was finishing a Bachelor’s in English, had no clue what career path I wanted to pursue, and was having way too much fun on Thirsty Thursdays to want to give up my laid-back student lifestyle. So, I decided to elongate my college experience by going to grad school. Boy, did I get a rude awakening.

Once you’ve finished your Bachelor’s degree, choosing a path for the future should be taken very seriously. If you are considering moving on to graduate or doctorate work, don’t make the same mistakes I made.

The first thing you need before you begin applying to graduate schools is TIME. I decided to get a masters on a whim a few weeks into the fall semester of my senior year. I found myself trying to balance fifteen credit hours, two part-time jobs, and an active social life with preparing for the application process. I didn’t anticipate simply applying to schools to be so much work, so in my mind, I had plenty of time to apply to and choose a school, while fighting a major case of senioritis (in the form of an unyielding craving for margaritas).

Before you even decide to start looking at schools, you need to ask yourself: Am I willing to set aside the time? Read More »

Say, have you heard of Camille Paglia? If not, good news: it turns out that you are not old. You’ve also, apparently, managed to avoid the massive headaches that she’s been inflicting on thinking people for the better part of the last two decades. Now, for the bad news: she’s back, and she’s aiming to annoy the world once more.

Here’s the deal: Camille Paglia was the Ann Coulter of the ‘90s. She wrote a book, Sexual Personae, which dealt “shockingly” with issues of sex and gender, in that it basically re-iterated the talking points of idiot wife-beaters across the nation. (Here’s a sample quote: “If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.”) This book turned her into a popular media personality, and spawned countless essays and TV appearances; she was the go-to girl when conservatives needed to call upon some random crazy to bash women.

The peak of her career, of course, came when she took it upon herself to defend rapists, by saying that women who got drunk or wore skimpy clothes in the presence of men deserved to be sexually assaulted, because men simply could not be expected to contain their awesome sexual power. In her words, “woman’s flirtatious arts of self-concealment mean man’s approach must take the form of rape.” Read More »

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it can take me a while to get into the academic-paper-writing mood of zen. A long while. Like…several months.

Since I don’t usually have that kind of luxury to juggle around class deadlines, I do fun writing exercises to help me get in the mood. They’re easy, short, and they really will help your writing skills get better, so you can snag the high grades you need. Try these, or make up your own.

• Journaling. I don’t mean the kind of journaling that your sixth-grade teacher made you do about your summer vacation. I mean real journaling about what you really care about. Write a page about how much of a douchebag your ex is, or a few paragraphs about your favorite kind of chocolate and why exactly you love it so much. Loosening your writing muscles will help you get better starts on your papers.

• Songwriting. Come on. We’ve all listened to a Backstreet Boys song or two and thought to ourselves, “My four-year-old cousin could write better lyrics than those.” So why not prove it? Rather than calling up your baby cousin, do it yourself. A quick exercise like scribbling down a song will give you more creative, open ideas about the content and outlets of your academic writing. Read More »