Two Chicago-area community colleges are using zombies to urge students to consider their options before applying solely to four-year schools. Harper College and Elgin Community College, with some help from email provider Abeedle.com, are using a cartoon short featuring fictional high school seniors Lynette and Theo in a common predicament among the college-bound: to save money, or not to save?

In the short, Lynette goes to community college, is free of student loan debt, and uses the money she saved to become a filmmaker and purchase a sporty convertible. Theo, on the other hand, chooses the four-year university, and is depicted wandering around with the other “college zombies,” saddled with a large amount of debt.

This isn’t the first time the zombie hype has hit college campuses. The University of Florida recently posted a zombie preparedness plan on its e-Learning website, alongside more likely disaster scenarios. But this is a unique way to address the high costs of higher education and invite students to examine all of their options when considering where to go to school.

Enrollments at community colleges have increased by about 25 percent over the last year, according to the American Association of Community Colleges. The big decisions aren’t only about filling out those college applications, but figuring out how you’re going to pay for tuition at your intended school. If you’re concerned about how you’re going to cover the costs, consider a community college where you’d be able to complete your general education requirements and then transfer to a four-year college if you want that traditional college experience. Many community colleges and trade schools specialize in certain fields, so narrow down your college choices by your intended field of study, as well.

If you know community college isn’t for you, there are other ways to save. Compare the costs of in-state versus out-of-state tuition. Depending on your home state, you could still go to a state university that is far enough away that you get that “away at college” experience, while still enjoying the perks of in-state tuition. (In-state tuition is often half that of out-of-state tuition. Do the numbers!) Whatever you do, don’t assume that college is out of your reach because of the costs. While paying for college can take some creativity and persistence, it can be done, especially if you have some scholarship money padding that financial aid package.

Posted: under College Costs, College Search, Just for Fun, Tips.
Tags: College Costs, College Search, college tips, community college, Just for Fun, state colleges, Tips

Comments (0) Nov 20 2009

We’re almost a full week into November, which for many students means the end of the semester is nigh.  It’s likely time to start working on those final papers, or at least generating some paper topic ideas.  It’s better to start sooner than later to avoid pulling all-nighters or finding out too late that the jerk in your English class who’s writing a similar paper has checked out all the relevant books in the library before you get your chance.

But finding something new to say can be challenging, even for graduate students and undergraduate students in upper-division college courses.  If the usual strategies aren’t working, we’ve come across a couple of links that can help humanities students generate ideas for academic prose, or at least provide some much-needed levity while you’re agonizing over your coursework.  Note: you may not want to actually use these to write your papers, since your professor or TA is likely to see some of his or her own writing reflected in them.

The University of Chicago writing program has a tool to help both students and career academics craft a sophisticated argument without backbreaking labor: Make Your Own Academic Sentence.  By simply selecting from drop-down menus of current buzzwords in literary theory, you can stumble upon a unique academic argument, and possibly lay the groundwork for a final paper!  If you’re not sure of just what concepts to piece together, some samples are provided by the website’s Virtual Academic and his counterpart the Virtual Critic.

If you’ve got a great academic sentence, but no research area to apply it to, a recent piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education can help with that.  James Lambert’s article “Heteronormity is Hot Right Now” provides some helpful (and hopefully humorous) guidelines for humanities grad students on declaring their research interests (and possibly finding topics for their first seminar papers). Both of the above are also great for answering that question about your academic interests in your grad school application essays.

As a bonus for grad school applicants, the above links are likely to teach you some new (and obscure) vocabulary, so that’s even more of a time-saver for studying for the GRE. However, if nerd humor is not your taste, but you are concerned about getting papers started early and beating the finals week frenzy, you may want to check out our college resources on study skills.

Posted: under Graduate School, Just for Fun.
Tags: College Applications, Graduate School, Just for Fun, study skills

Comments (0) Nov 06 2009

Do you think you could get tricked into eating more healthy foods on campus? A recent article in the Boston Globe describes the strategies being taken by some schools in Massachusetts to get their students eating more nutritious meals and smaller portions, and it has required some sneakiness.

Most of you have probably heard of the “freshman 15,” the 15 (or more) pounds that you’re at risk of putting on that first year away in college when you’re making your own decisions on what to eat. According to the Globe and the Nutrition Journal, recent studies have shown that at least 1 in 4 college freshmen gain an average of 10 pounds in their first semester alone. (That’d make it more like the “freshman 20.”) Data like that and an increased awareness of obesity among young people has led schools like Wellesley College, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to take matters into their own hands by shrinking plate sizes and sneaking veggies onto students’ plates. And they’re not publicizing their methods, as anecdotal evidence has shown that if students are given a choice in whether to eat healthy or not, they’ll usually go for the burger and fries.

Elsewhere, schools are doing things like offering miniatures of popular food items (sliders vs. burgers) and substituting fattening ingredients for more low-calories options. Getting students to eat healthy and exercise portion control is made even tougher in cafeterias, where they can often make return trips for second and third helpings with no one there to stop them. “Whatever restraining influences parents might have had when the teenagers were at home are unshackled when kids go off to college,’’ Dr. David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life program at Children’s Hospital Boston said in the Boston Globe article.

If you’re particularly worried about the choices you’ve been making when eating (or drinking), consider burning off some of those calories. Try to make time for a club sport or a couple hours a week at your schools’ gym. Your tuition fees are already paying for your privileges to use their facilities, so you may as well visit them once in a while. And check out our site for options on healthy eating and eating on a budget, another difficult hurdle when you’re looking not to order pizza for the third night in a row.

Posted: under College Culture, Food/Cooking, Just for Fun.
Tags: College Culture, cooking, food, Food/Cooking, Just for Fun

Comments (0) Oct 29 2009

It’s a few months into your freshman year, and the homesickness may be setting in. Or you’ve found yourself at war with your first college roommate, who sneaks snacks from your cupboard when you’re hard at work studying in the library.

So much of what you learn before you head off to college is related to the more rigorous academics you’ll be tackling, or all the paperwork you need to fill out to make sure your financial aid application is filed completely and on time. These things are very important, and you will be faced with new adult-like responsibilities once you’re on that campus. But what about the things your guidance counselors don’t tell you?

Harlan Cohen, who wrote the book “The Naked Roommate, and 107 Other Issues You Might Run into in College,” has been making the rounds the last few weeks to inform college students - and their parents - that a few bumps in the road are normal. He describes the more realistic picture of the first one, even two, years of college as years of “discomfort,” and that students will come across situations they may not have been prepared to encounter: that overly-rambunctious roommate that stays up late and keeps you awake, or the fact that you thought it’d be way easier to make friends on a campus of more than 20,000 students, all around your age.

Cohen suggests that getting through those difficult times will only make you stronger. The bad memories you may think you’re collecting now will slowly become good memories, as one day we nearly guarantee you’ll be talking about the “good old days” of attending college. The uneasiness you feel now will subside, and you’ll start finding your niche. Take advantage of what college campuses have to offer, because chances are, there’s something for every kind of student, no matter how diverse their interests. Some of Cohen’s suggestions have included speaking up to disruptive or inappropriate roommates, taking care of yourself to avoid falling into a physical, mental or emotional slump, and forcing yourself to get our of your comfort zone somethings by joining a new student group or making connections with classmates.

Browse through our site for more tips on transitioning into that first year of a new college lifestyle and dealing with common roommate problems. Chances are the things you’re experiencing are pretty universal, and easily remedied with a little faith that things will get better and giving yourself enough time to adapt to a new life on campus.

Posted: under Just for Fun, Roommates, Tips.
Tags: campus life, college tips, Just for Fun, Roommates, Tips

Comments (0) Oct 15 2009

It’s nice to know that in the event of a disaster, your school will be prepared. Colleges and universities nationwide already have contingency plans for situations such as fires, floods, and other on-campus emergencies. In anticipation of on-campus outbreaks of the H1N1 swine flu virus, colleges are also reviewing and tweaking their plans for dealing smoothly with infectious diseases on campus. While undergoing this process, one official on the University of Florida campus decided to do one better and prepare his college for another type of outbreak-a zombie attack.

The zombie attack disaster preparedness plan was initially posted on the University of Florida’s e-Learning website along with response plans for other, more likely, disaster scenarios. The plan’s author, e-Learning Support Services Manager Doug Johnson, composed it as a joke one night during a bout of insomnia while his office was working on strategies for handling a campus closure, then posted it to provide a bit of levity for fellow e-Learning staff members.

Highlights of the plan include humorous definitions of “zombieism” and “zombie behavior spectrum disorder,” as well as a form for university employees to complete if they need to deal with undead coworkers. While it was removed from the University of Florida website shortly after discovery and publication by local media, The Gainesville Sun still has a copy available online.

While the University of Florida zombie attack plan was humorous in nature, zombies have been used to model disease outbreaks in serious contexts. Earlier this year, a group of Canadian graduate students modeled a zombie attack as a classroom exercise that is now slated for publication in the upcoming book Infections Disease Modeling Research Progress. Their zombie attack model could have useful implications for modeling and understanding the spread of other infectious diseases, including swine flu.

One of the jokes in Johnson’s paper was an allusion to the field of Zombie Studies (which, sadly, is not yet a viable college major), but given the recent uptick in interest in zombies on college campuses, can it be long before zombies find their way into more standardized parts of the college curriculum?  Perhaps we will soon see more eye-catching titles for college classes dealing with the undead.

Posted: under College Culture, Just for Fun.
Tags: college, College Culture, college news, College Search, Just for Fun

Comments (0) Oct 05 2009

Did you think your high school’s administrators were strict?  Chances are they’ve got nothing on Suzanne Lukas, the superintendent of Bonny Eagle High School in Maine.  During the school’s graduation ceremony, a student pointed to his friends and blew a kiss to his mom when his name was called.  Instead of shaking his hand and handing him his diploma, the superintendent told him to return to his seat empty handed.  He still hasn’t received his diploma.

The story’s getting national media coverage as the student’s family demands an apology and a diploma from the school’s superintendent.  While this story certainly appears to fall on the extreme end of things, it does serve as a good reminder to high school students to take school policy very seriously until you have that piece of paper in your hand and are literally out the door for the last time.

This has us curious, though.  For those of you who have already finished high school: did you run into any incidents at your high school graduation where students’ diplomas were withheld?  What antics did you or your classmates get away with as high school seniors and as participants in your school’s graduation ceremony?

Posted: under High School, High School News, Tips.
Tags: High School, High School News, high school students, Just for Fun

Comments (1) Jun 17 2009