For some, summer break means it’s time to go home. After living at school for the past few months, this can be a big adjustment. It means having to abide by your parents’ rules again. For me, I have to continually check-in with my mom, as well as be willing to drive my sisters around (using my own gas might I add). Let me tell you: I hate it.
Being at home also means that you’ll be seeing old friends from high school. People change when they go away to school, and sometimes your old friends aren’t who they used to be. I’ve found that new friends from school and boyfriends have separated my friends from high school and I. If we do see each other, it’s nothing like how it used to be.
I will say though that there are definitely perks to being back home for three months. First of all, it means no more fending for myself for my meals. My mom takes care of the grocery shopping and cooks dinner. There are also the perks of not paying for laundry. If you’re like me and lived in a dorm or somewhere where you had to pay for laundry, you know how nice it is not to convert all your money into quarters anymore.
No matter what your home situation is like, it is important to remember that you are going to be there for three months. Take advantage of the time with family and old friends because time with them is limited when you are away. When I come home for the summer I like to try and visit my old softball team. The summer gives me an opportunity to catch up with people I haven’t seen in awhile.
Summer break is a time to enjoy yourself and relax while taking a break from school. No matter if you’re happy or upset about spending the time at home, try to enjoy your time and make the most of your time off.
With another semester coming to an end I find myself reflecting on the things I wish I would have done differently. Luckily I am not graduating yet so there is still time to make changes. By no means am I an expert, but I want to offer a few recommendations for making the most out of college.
Schedule Early Classes. A great thing about course scheduling is that you can make your schedule whatever you want it to be. Most students choose to make their school days begin around noon, or 1pm, so that they can sleep in, and until recently, I looked at it from that perspective too. This semester, the only availability for a class I needed was at 8 in the morning every single day, and to be honest, I couldn’t be happier with it. Sure, getting up that early is still really tough, but its benefits outweigh anything that a 1pm schedule could get me. Waking up early lets you not only get all your work out of the way, it also allows you to explore any interests that would normally just be too time consuming. So if you ever wanted to try kickboxing, rock climbing, or maybe even salsa dancing, do yourself a favor, and actually give yourself the time to do all of that. Which brings me to my next point.
Try out new clubs and hobbies. There are a ton of them out there. Whether they’re related to the outdoors, or volunteer services, or even just fashion clubs, they get you out of your room, and into a crowd of people with similar interests to your own. On top of that, they can help you forget about school stress for a while and can get you into those industries you always wanted to work for or learn about.
Stay Fit. This is a really general statement, I know. But doing anything physical will help in ways you wouldn’t even imagine. Staying fit doesn’t necessarily mean going for long runs every day, or even working out at the gym. Doing anything that keeps your body active works for me, whether it’s playing football, rugby, or going on hiking trips, just make yourself sweat every once in awhile. Not only will it help you live longer, and feel more confident about yourself, staying active also helps you relax and think more clearly.
Take at least one class a semester that interests you. This one’s pretty self-explanatory. As an engineering major, I know that classes that you need to take can get pretty monotonous. But it’s always nice to have a class, any class, even one that doesn’t count towards your credits, that just lets you relax and learn about something that always seemed interesting to you.
Don’t just follow the crowd. I know the college cliche is to overwork yourself on weekdays and party on weekends. I know a decent amount of students in my dorm that follow that as a law, but honestly, making that your entire life is really boring. College is what you make of it, not what people tell you about it. People will tell you that college is a time to try new things, and meet new people, but that does not necessarily mean work and party. Do it your way, not the way of others.
Stay in touch with campus life. I went to a puppy parade last weekend. A puppy parade. That in itself should make you jump on your university’s website to see what’s being held this week. About a week ago, male students had a “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event, in which men actually walked a mile in high heels. From random things like that to cool community service events, a whole lot goes on around campus, so go check it out, you never know what you might find.
Remember how quickly high school flew by? Well, with more responsibility and opportunities, you can bet that college will come and go even faster. You don’t want to be walking across the stage on graduation day wishing you could do things differently. What advice would you give yourself as a freshman?
Are you approaching graduation and thinking about going to grad school? Or maybe you’ve been out of school for several years and are contemplating a return, but you’re wondering if it’s worth it. This is a question that many soon-to-be, as well as current, college graduates are faced with on a daily basis. When taking into consideration the present state of the job market, more and more students are turning to higher education as a means of differentiating themselves and taking their careers to the next level. The decision to pursue grad school has also become a way of “buying” more time and avoiding the harsh realities of our slowly recovering economy.
Click the image above to view the full infographic.
However, making the decision to go to graduate school is not as simple as one would hope. Students are forced to look into the inevitable financial burdens and intense time commitments associated with graduate level programs. Throughout this process students scour the web for trustworthy information on various programs and career paths to consider. One of the most credible sources they rely on is the U.S. News & World Report.
Each year they release a guidebook to the Best Grad Schools in the nation, but for the first time ever eCampus.com has decided to put a new spin on these rankings by creating an innovative visual in the form of an infographic. Using their findings on the top five professional fields (Business, Health & Medicine, Law, Engineering and Education), we’ve managed to take a large amount of useful information and condense it into a unique, easy to digest graphic. Our goal here, as with all of our infographics, is to bring you a large amount of practical information in the fastest and easiest way possible.
This infographic provides some of the hard-to-swallow facts about graduate school, and whether or not the time and money spent obtaining that advanced degree will really yield the results many students are hopeful for. With “The Good and Bad in Grad” exposed, eCampus.com hopes this fun and helpful visual guides prospective grad students to make the right decision for their future. What are your thoughts? Is Grad school something you’ve been considering?
To access the full infographic, please click the image.
While you’re interning this summer, you also want to keep in touch with all of your friends online. Your Facebook wall is full of curse words, your Twitter feed is all about partying and you have a ton of posted pictures that are seemingly less than professional. Your boss just friend requested you—not to mention potential employers are constantly looking you up online—so it’s time to clean up your online platforms.
One of the easiest things you can do is control your privacy settings. When friending your boss, it’s important to make sure your profile doesn’t have anything too scandalous. Keep your albums private—if necessary, don’t feel like your employer or colleagues can’t see anything you post, unless you just really want to keep your personal life and work life completely separate. If friends post inappropriate comments on your wall, you can either make your entire wall private or make individual posts private. Even easier, you can talk to your friends about what they post; hopefully, they can clean up their act, at least while you’re actively interning.
Besides privacy, you also need to be conscious of what you are posting. Watch how much personal information you put on your profiles. When tweeting, don’t post every single thing you’re doing every hour of the day. Not only could it lead to unexpected stalkers, but it’s annoying for everyone who follows you. This isn’t necessarily unprofessional, but it makes your profiles overall appear too simple and doesn’t necessarily show off your true self—at least as an employee or intern. Instead, try retweeting posts from your company (not every single one, or even every day) and other places that interest you. Post some interesting articles related to your school major or skills. The more variety you have throughout your online profiles, the easier it will be for employers—current and those seeking you out for interviews—to paint a picture of what you can bring to the company and also how they can cater to your interests.
Finally, and most importantly, to keep a professional Facebook or Twitter, don’t post negative comments about your work. Think or yourself as an ambassador for the company. If you’re posting that you hate your boss, you have an annoying colleague, or that you just hate what you’re doing, you shouldn’t expect to be working there much longer. If you feel the need to vent—about work, personal issues or anything like that—keep it off the Internet. It might be funny, it might lead to a lot of comments on your Facebook wall, but it’s not classy or professional. Besides, a good phone call or in person venting session is always fun.
Overall, just be aware of what you and others are posting on your profiles. It’s not hard to remain professional, it just takes active attention to your accounts. Good luck, interns!
- ToonyToon
A summer of interning can be expensive, especially when you have to move to a different city. Even worse when you’re unpaid or making hardly anything. Being in a new city can add to the stress of money problems, since you don’t know what’s an expensive store or where the best bargains can be found. But there are ways to easily save your money while learning a lot at your internship—without having to call up your parents to get you some money pronto. By the end of the summer, you’ll be a money saving machine.
The best way to insure saved money is setting up a budget for each week or month, whatever’s necessary. But don’t just set up how much you’ll spend here and there for show—you need to actually stick to it. To make a successful budget, you need to first anticipate the necessities. If you’re in a housing arrangement not already paid for, rent is obviously a first priority (and don’t forget about utilities if those aren’t included). After subtracting rent from the amount of money you can afford to spend, food is priority number two. Think carefully about how much you actually think you’ll need to spend on food. If you want to save money, you should plan on stocking up on groceries to cook for yourself and pack a lunch instead of eating out at every meal. Instead of stopping by Starbucks on the way to work everyday, make yourself some Folgers. Carry a water bottle in your bag for throughout the day. These little things add up to a lot of money left in the bank.
Within this budget, you should plan to have extra money—not spending it all until there’s $0 left. By including some savings, you’ll always have something to fall back on if necessary, and saving your money is a good life practice in general. You do not want to go into debt because you were in the city and just couldn’t resist going into every store and buying a little something. Even if it’s not a shopping spree, every purchase counts toward that budget and could eat into your next meal or subtract from your rent—neither of which will end well for you. Plus, you never know when the unexpected could pop up. What if you get hurt and need to go to the hospital (even with insurance, this can cost you and your parents might not be able to take care of it immediately)? Or it’s late at night and you feel a little freaked out by your surroundings so want to take a cab home to be safe. Having extra for the unplanned for events will make you feel better and more prepared. Besides, having a big 0 staring at you is not going to make you feel good about surviving the rest of the summer on your own, no matter how pretty the new outfit or how awesome the new video game is.
Of course, you also need to think of the wants and needs. Obviously we all want a killer wardrobe and to go to an amazing concert, but we don’t need these things—you need clothes, duh, but not items that come with a $100 price tag. That doesn’t mean you can never splurge a little, but make sure you have room in your budget for it first. Keep your paycheck (if applicable) in mind and think about what you can actually afford to splurge on. If you already ate out several times this week and rent’s coming up, don’t tempt yourself with shopping trips No one said being frugal was easy, but to survive as an intern, sometimes we have to make sacrifices on the more fun aspects of life for a bit.
Saving money can be hard, especially with an itty bitty paycheck, but it can be done. If you’re serious about having money always available in the bank and not spending your summer entirely broke because you can’t stop spending, you need to carefully weigh your purchases. Buy groceries instead of dining out—you’ll save money and you’ll learn a lot of great dishes to prepare. Try not to buy new clothes or video games unless you really have the money to spare or actually need a new dress for a special work event. Don’t let yourself fall into debt because you decided to buy a new TV for your summer apartment. It isn’t worth it, and it’s better to get into good spending habits now so you’re prepared for when you’re alone in the future. Be strong, be smart with your money and try not to stress too much—it is summer after all.
Happy saving!
- ToonyToon
