College News & Views - Vol. 1

BetterGrads College News & Views is a weekly collection of college-themed posts around the web. Our social media team, partners and guest contributors take part in providing this service to you. This week, we came across several articles related to being ready for college, what students think of the price tag for a degree, and some tips students can use when gearing up for the semester.   College Preparation: ACT Scores show 1 in 4 high school grads are unprepared for college (TIME) Standardized tests are questioned by many as a legitimate measuring system for a student’s success, but this year’s ACT results are out, regardless. Nearly 30 percent fell below the college-level standards in English, math, science and reading. Is this reflective of a larger problem? Or are there other ways we can effectively test students’ college preparedness? Getting ready for college (Freelance Writer Network) This author provides a [...]

All-Nighters and Other College Sleeping Myths

Side effects include: heart disease stress depression No, these are not documented side effects from consuming too much candy on Halloween. And no, this is not a new FDA-mandated warning label that will appear on cans of the controversial energy drink Four Loko. Rather these are the some of the long-term side effects stemming from lack of sleep.

To sleep, perchance to dream…

The nice folks over at The Huffington Post have been doing an interesting series about…sleep! More specifically, Dr. Michael Breus and other insightful authors have been taking a look at sleep and the college student.

Fueled by Ramen

Okay, so that’s the swanky indie music label that manages Paramore, but it truly does speak to this generation’s college-going-post-post-punk enthusiast culture. I’ve blogged about the merits of Ramen before, but this cartoon by our in-house BetterGrads artist Nick Schwartz sums up the perils of college cuisine much more succinctly. It’s true. You may find yourself uncontrollably floating in your bathtub due to the mass amounts of sodium leaking out of your pores each time you break a sweat. And I’ll find myself asking how the hell you managed to find a bathtub on campus. In preparation for this fall’s college semester, I strongly suggest you take some preemptive measures to plan for a wider selection of nutrition sources. Fruit snacks, anyone? © image by Nick Schwartz

Avoiding the Freshman 15

For those of you preparing to head off to college this fall, you will experience the unique dining experience of the dorm cafeteria, or DC. Eating at the DC is different because it provides you with a near limitless array of food choices, and you don’t have to prepare any of it yourself. If you haven’t heard of the Freshman 15, it refers to the 15 pounds that students gain during their freshman year due to a few factors. If you want to avoid this personal expansion, follow these steps. Every meal doesn’t have to be a buffet The DC typically has at least seven or eight meal options of a variety of cuisines, but you don’t have to eat all of them at every meal. Avoid the temptation of filling your tray to capacity every time you go to the DC. This well help you avoid packing on extra [...]

In the news: Cornell University and the relevance of mental health resources in college

In light of the recent tragedies at Cornell University, I thought it would be timely to revisit the topic of mental health and wellness for college students. I do not pretend to be a mental health professional or expert—only a recent college grad sharing personal experience and observations. A few key sets of resources come to mind when it comes to mental and emotional health issues in college.

Managing Your Stress

In most of my blog posts so far, the subject has featured extra-curricular activities (clubs, internships, sporting events). However, pursuing many of these things can overwhelm any college student. To avoid overwhelming yourself, you can follow some of my tips. Staying in No matter where you go to school, there are plentiful opportunities to go out and party it up (Whoo!) on every Friday and Saturday night (not to mention Thursday, and for some schools, Wednesday). But, you don’t always have to be the life of every party, and skipping one every once in a while is good for the mind. Your friends may dis you, but staying in is a better way to relax than hitting the bars or the clubs. For me, at the end of a week filled with classes, club meetings, and study sessions, a night of pizza and TV was like heaven. When your body [...]

Don’t Worry, Be Happy :)

What is it that makes you feel down sometimes, or perhaps more times than usual these days? Although college can be one of the most fun experiences of your lifetime, it can also be one of the most challenging. Now, you have probably heard of that before, but if you really think about it, such obstacles or even lack of obstacles can altar your mood. You’re also at a unique place in this time of your life as a student in this recession. This is quite a challenging time for all of us, but within these times, lays many opportunities that can allow ourselves to seize the control of the tools available for our success. You literally have the world and such a vast amount of information at your fingertips. You can find out about anything within a click of a button. And yet, with all this available to us, [...]