10 Ways your Co-curricular Activities can Lead to Post-college Success

Keeping your grades up and keeping your nose in the grindstone is important for every graduate but it’s not the only thing that ensures post-college success. More colleges are focusing on the all-round growth of a student where you have the chance to excel inside as well as outside the classroom.

To some co-curricular activates seem like a distraction from course work and an unnecessary one at that but others find it essential to stay active in various clubs and after school programs.

10 Absolute Deal Breakers when it comes to Choosing a College

The tiniest things can be the most pivotal while making such a life-changing decision. But really there are just a few questions you need to ask yourself before zeroing in on the perfect college. Here are 10 absolute deal breakers and what you can do to figure out what works for you:

1. “It’s too close to home!”

Getting as far away from home as possible can sound like the best idea when you’re looking to party away your college life. And obviously you don’t want your parents to be close enough to drop in at your dorm! On the other hand, being close to home means mom’s food everyday and not having to leave the friends you grew up with.

Ask yourself: Where do I want to spend the next 4 years? Do I want to stay close to home or explore a whole new state? Are there any places I don’t want to go?

2. “It’s in the back of beyond!”

Even if you do choose a college out of your state, there are several location-based factors to look into. Some colleges are located near cities, others are in small suburbs or towns and some even have wooded forests close-by. Go for one that suits your personality and upbringing. Getting away from the city can be a good change in lifestyle as long as the college suits your other requirements.

Ask yourself: Is it in a small area where the university takes up half the town? Or is it a city college surrounded by clubs, stores, movie theatres and malls?

3. “It’s too small! No one knows about it.”

Larger universities have better options – more classes, more clubs, and better sports facilitates. But smaller ones are known for their more student-friendly environment with better student-to-teacher ratios.

Ask yourself: In which environment would I learn more? Is this school accredited?

4. “But it doesn’t offer dance as a major!”

If they aren’t offering the major you’re interested in, just don’t go! What’s the point of studying in an absolutely fab college if you don’t get to do what you want? That’s one way of looking at it! If you’re confused, start by eliminating what you don’t want to study and then work backwards. You don’t have to decide it all right away – this is just a starting point for your college search.

Ask yourself: Will a degree from this college get me the job I want? Will I earn a certificate, or a 2 year degree, or a 4 year degree? What is their graduation rate?

5. “It’s too expensive!”

Cost is an enormous deal-breaker for so many of us! Look into scholarships, student loans, online programs and part-time courses. Choosing a college should be about the best education and not about the best price. Compare graduation and loan default rates, tuition and expenses, average debt at the school using ED’s college Navigator tool.

Ask yourself: Will spending this much on my education help me earn more? Does my dream job require specific qualifications? How long will it take me to pay back a student loan?

6. “I can’t become the best fashion stylist if I study there!”

If your goal is fairly specific and you aim to be the best in your field, it’s important to choose a college that will give you every opportunity to excel.

Ask yourself: Does this college offer the best placements? Will studying here help me grow only academically? Or will it help me increase my overall competency?

7. “The recruiter won’t leave me alone”

Stay away from colleges that keep hounding you to apply. If the recruiter keeps luring you with dangling carrots, making it difficult for you to think straight, it’s a cue for you to look elsewhere. There’s no reason to let anyone else make this decision for you.

Ask yourself: Is the recruiter giving me enough time to explore my options? Am I facing any pressure to enroll?

8. “But what if I change my mind mid-way?”
You’re not expected to know exactly what you want to do immediately after high school. More than 50% of students change their majors half-way through college, so choose a university that allows flexibility.

Ask yourself: Are my credits transferable if I switch to another school?

9. “I’ve heard the teachers aren’t friendly”
This can be an important one, especially if you aren’t the kind that studies on your own. A professor can make or break your motivation to do well in college. The ratings given to teachers by ex-students can help you make an informed decision. Try reading reviews on RateMyProfessors.com.

Ask yourself: Am I willing to put in extra leg work even if the teacher isn’t? Does my motivation to study XYZ subject come from my great school teacher?

10. “There aren’t any cute girls around!”
You know you’re thinking about it. Even on your campus visit you couldn’t help noticing that there wasn’t a good chance of you dating anyone you saw. So don’t deny yourself a good college dating life. It can be as important to keep you focused on what you want to achieve at college. But going to a Co-ed school just for the cuties might not be the best choice career-wise.

Ask yourself: Does dating distract me or do I study better in pairs?

7 Ways to Save Money as a Freshman

In your freshman year, college seems like a key to freedom. The first year away from home can be the most empowering and terrifying year of your life!
It starts off all nice and dandy – your own apartment or dorm room, cool newroommates replace annoying siblings, parties carry on without curfews. Credit cards get swiped left, right and center and before you know it, you could be in a huge pile of debt by the time you graduate.
According to Alexa von Tobel, personal finance expert, credit card debt in college senior amounts to about $4,000 on an average from credit cards, without counting $30,000 in student debt.
Start early and nip the spending in the bud. Establish a simple and practical plan for your expenditure and start save money as a freshman. Here are 7 quintessential tips to save money in your freshman year:

1. Make a Budget, Check It Twice
The easiest way to spend money is to lose track of it. If you’re getting a certain amount every month from you part-time job or your parents (lucky bum!) make sure you have a plan as to how you’re going to spend it. Rent, food and transport take up a major chunk.  Once you subtract the essentials, you have a clearer idea of how much disposable income you have at hand. Always withdraw in small amount, so your wallet has just enough for the week and you avoid overspending.

2. Get Appwise
Making a budget is as good as making a New Year’s resolution! It can all collapse unless you take action to execute it. Dollarbird and Expensify are great expense tracking apps for your iPhone. Try Pennies or You Need a Budget for a more detailed look at your spending habits. Keep a tally of every bill on your phone and get reports every month.

3. Don’t Spend. Invest.
While buying a high priced item, like a laptop or a mobile phone, make sure it’s durable, it has a decent warranty and it comes with the latest software. This way you won’t have to bother about buying a new one until you’re out of college. While choosing which items to invest in and which ones to go low cost, just think of how many years you would like to be using the product.

4. Rent textbooks
Avoid your college bookstore, where textbooks are known to be marked-up for convenience.  Rent books online at TextbookRecycling.com (they donate to charity from every sale) or even better rent the more expensive textbooks from BookRenter.com for a semester or entire year.

5. Take advantage of student perks
studentuniverse.com helps you save on travel. They even offer deals on J Crew and iTunes. A free 6 months membership to Amazon Prime and 25% cashback on Lenovo PCs are perks meant only for students. Take advantage of your ID, whenever and wherever you can! Cafeteria meals and college meal plans can save you a wad of cash and they’re usually much healthier than outside food.

6. Avoid the spend crowd
This could be one of the toughest challenges. Peer pressure leads to an unnecessary amount of spending and it’s harder than you think to avoid hanging with the spend crowd. Having to drop out of a holiday/party plans can be a tough call. But avoiding the crowd that parties more than studies could go a long way in saving the big buck.

7. Carpool
Pool your resources. This happens most often with roomies and the fridge but it could extend to your fuel budget as well. Cut down on individual expenses by using a common car to get to your campus every day.

5 Things You Never Knew About World-Famous Dropouts

It’s no longer surprising to hear that some of the richest people in the world are college dropouts. Almost 16% of the 400 wealthiest Americans did not graduate college. Of course, statistically speaking, those who complete college make way more money than those who don’t. For obvious reasons, being a graduate gives you an edge when it comes to getting a job and staying employed. Yet most of us can’t help but be inspired by the ones that choose to drop-out saving precious time and money to fuel their extraordinary dreams.

Look up the 5 wealthiest drop outs and you’ll find a billion reasons why they have the most aspirational success stories. But here’s something you didn’t know about these rolling-in-dough masterminds:

1. Bill Gates:

Gates spent most of his college life fishing out crumpled listings of operating systems from the garbage bin outside the Computer Science Center and coding away to glory. It’s a lesser known fact that he actually had enough credits to graduate but decided against it, as he was already successful after 2 short years at Harvard.

2. Mark Zuckerberg:

Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, this social media magnate was once the nerdiest kid in college. You wouldn’t want to invite him to parties or take him on a date. In the early years of Facebook, he in fact spent considerable sums of money tackling litigations related to problems created by his friends, who were promised senior positions in the company. Today, he is one of the youngest billionaires.

3. Lawrence Ellison:

The CEO and Co-founder of Oracle Corporation has a traditional superhero story – his dad was an air force pilot and he never met his mom until he was 48! Believe it or not his Jewish mom was never married and he was given away at the age of 9 months  to be brought up by his uncle and aunt in New York. Batman, much?

4. Michael Dell:

Investing in stocks since the age of 7, Dell’s favorite toy was a calculator. He dropped out of the pre-medical program at the University of Texas because it just wasn’t challenging enough for his keen business mind. Just imagine your laptop might not have existed if he had gone ahead and become a doctor!

5. Marc Rich:

Having that surname sure has its advantages! Founder of Glencore, Rich was indicted for tax evasion, but later famously pardoned on Bill Clinton’s last day in office. What you didn’t know is that his most expensive investment was his wife! He met Denise Eisenberg on a blind date and they were married for 30 long years. Ten years after the divorce it was discovered that, Denise had over 140 million USD protected from scrutiny in the form of a trust, which included a Learjet 60 and a yacht called the “Lady Joy.”

Dream on

We can grow to the extent of our dreams.
Anything outside of this realm seems unreal, unME!
There's a reason we're told to dream big, reach for the stars.
Tonight, there's a song called DREAM that refuses to leave my playlisted head.
It reminds me of this poem I made up in the eight grade. Five years after it was written, two lines got published in the school magazine.

Dream of the world the way you see it
Make the world the way you dream it

And year before last it was mutilated and added as a quote to the month of April in a corporate calendar. Since then I have given up on a list of dreams. I have cut and proportioned myself to look like the person I thought I should be. On the way, giving up many of the pleasures of dreaming. I once thought of becoming a beautician so that I could punish little girls with horrendous haircuts similar to the ones I was forced to have during my preteens.

May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young

It seems only the young are allowed such dreams. Such altering states of imagined achievement in our little heads. Now they're labeled fantasies, analyzed my men called Sigmond and discarded as minor infractions in normal thought process. As an adult,I'm not allowed to envision long lustfully gorgeous hair swaying in the breeze as I, the trapeze artist, sway from one silk ladder to the next. Sigh!

I was a little girl alone in my little world who dreamed of a little home for me.
I played pretend between the trees, and fed my houseguests bark and leaves, and laughed in my pretty bed of green.

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest swing.
I had a dream.

Long walks in the dark through woods grown behind the park, I asked God who I'm supposed to be.
The stars smiled down on me, God answered in silent reverie. I said a prayer and fell asleep.

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest tree.
I had a dream.

Now I'm old and feeling grey. I don't know what's left to say about this life I'm willing to leave.
I lived it full and I lived it well, there's many tales I've lived to tell. I'm ready now, I'm ready now, I'm ready now to fly from the highest wing.

I had a dream

THANK YOU PRESCILLA AHN :) I shall be humming this tune for days to come.