Xatal

Last week, I talked about deciding how many colleges to apply to and mentioned that you should have one or two “safety schools” on your list.

A safety school is a college where you’re convinced you’ll be accepted to. If for some horrible reason all of your other schools turn you down, you can count on your safety school to accept you, so at least you’ll have some place to go. Depending on how good your high school resume is, how selective the schools you picked are, and how many colleges you’ve applied to, you’ll almost definitely get into a school that’s better than your safety school. But it’s good to have a fallback option.

Unfortunately, a lot of students don’t put much thought into choosing a safety school and just pick the nearest college that they are all but guaranteed in to. This is actually a bad idea, because if you do end up going there, there’s a good chance you won’t like it. Keep reading »

As it comes closer to that wonderful time of college applications, you’ll have to start deciding where you’ll be applying to. Even if you already have some ideas where to apply to, it’s usually good to decide in concrete first where you’ll be applying.

The average student will apply to somewhere between five and ten schools. This gives you a good selection once you know where you’re admitted, and you can pick your best fit of those. You should never put all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to college applications. The best way to decide where to apply is to divide your colleges into three main categories: Top choices, safety schools, and reach schools. Keep reading »

Whoops! I completely missed October 1st as the day to make my stats post.

Keep reading »

Long distance relationships are tough, no matter the circumstances. Even the strongest of couples can be brought to an end by spending a short time apart. College long distance relationships are even more difficult, and if you already decided to stay together, you’ll need to watch out for some warning signs that will inevitably cause friction in a long-distance relationship.

1. Jealousy

The biggest one. If you’re jealous of every girl that your boyfriend talks to (or vice versa), then there will always be a lot of background tension in the relationship. In college, you meet a lot of new people of both genders. If you expect your partner to completely shut out the opposite sex, that’s ridiculous and you’ll greatly hinder his or her social life. Being jealous puts you in a bad mood and definitely pushes your partner away.

However, there are definitely times when you need to worry. When you hear about the same person a little too often or you feel like your partner is crossing some line, you should definitely bring it up. Don’t be hostile — be mature and calm, otherwise you may make a bad situation even worse. Keep reading »

With tons of midterm dates, finals, varying class schedules, homework due dates, and various other events going on, it’s easy to forget a few important dates and miss out on something important.

Last year I learned how important it was for me to keep an active calendar going, one where I could plot out events that I could otherwise forget. Keep reading »

I’ve spent the last week moving in and getting properly situated. I’m living in an apartment on campus, and it’s working out pretty well so far. The biggest change from living in the dorms has definitely been how much space I now have. Last year, I had to come up with clever ways of storing everything. This year, we have plenty of space and can store things with ease.

I’m living in a triple. Although it seems crowded, it’s not bad because the apartment has a living room that’s available, as well as a good-sized dining hall.

Cooking has been pretty nice. I have a meal plan from the dining hall, but I’m thinking that I won’t keep that for next quarter. We’ve already had a couple of barbecues and made other food in the meantime, and it tastes a lot better than dining hall food. However, who knows — once classes start, I’ll probably be grateful for the convenience of the dining hall.

Classes started last Thursday, and so far so good. I’m hoping to start regular updates again, but it’ll be hard to say, since so far I’ve been surprisingly busy. I’ve been trying to keep up on comments, so at least I don’t have much backlog to deal with.

Here’s to a new year!

Well, I’m back from Yosemite. As usual, it was beautiful, and definitely a great way to end my summer.

Now, I’m finally getting packed up. Tomorrow is my last full day at home, and I’ll be spending most of the day frantically hunting around to make sure that I have everything that I need.

This will probably be my last post until I get fully situated, so in the meantime, take care!

So now that I’m done working, it’s time to take my only real vacation of the summer.

I’m heading off to Yosemite National Park with three close friends today, and barring any sort of a disaster, it should be a great trip, filled with beautiful surroundings, fun hikes, and simple relaxation.

Going in the middle of the week in September may seem a bit weird, but it was the best choice for us — none of us were too busy in the middle of the week, and since weekends fill up fast, it made sense to go when it’d (hopefully) be less crowded.

I’ve got a four hour drive ahead of me here, but luckily I enjoy driving.

I’ll try to take some pictures and post them when I get back!