Tips from a college student

Tomorrow is the first game for most schools football team. I don't know about you, but I love football. Even if you don't, it is a great place to hang out for free with friends and meet new people. Most schools you can get in for free with a college ID.

One of the main aspects of a college football game is tailgating before the game. For those who don't know, tailgating is basically a huge party in or around a truck before a game. You should try to find some people to tailgate with before the game, because that completes the atmosphere.

Just be careful to eat before the game because food in games costs a fortune and is a ripoff. I normally try to take some drinks in with me, at least a bottle of water if nothing else. If I don't then after about 3 hours of yelling I have no voice left.

College football is one of the biggest sports in America, and millions of people are either at games or watching on tv across the country. Take advantage of being in college and go to your games for free while you can, have fun and make some lasting memories.


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My buddy and I were discussing today how much different we are treated when we dress up instead of just being normal. In college, it seems like no one really dresses up or cares what they look like, and everyone looks like they are walking around asleep. But when dressing up, we have discovered that we are treated differently.

My buddy mainly focused his results on women, and while I have definitely had better results with dressed up, I have observed more how I am treated by everyone. If I am talking to a professor, in general they will listen more intently and be more focused on what I am saying if I look nice, where if I am dressed more casual the professor is just like whatever and acts like they don't care about what I'm saying. My buddy got several numbers from girls today and said that he had girls hitting on him all day. Many of the changes I noticed were little things, but in my opinion they matter and I'll explain why.

I have noticed a difference in how many greetings I get from people. For instance, if I'm walking down a hall or getting on a bus, normally people would just dart their eyes away so there wouldn't be an awkward situation but when I'm dressed up people seem to make eye connection and say hi and introduce themselves. It is as if me dressing up is the difference between people noticing me or not. I consider this a big deal, because I don't want to be invisible. I think that everyone likes to be noticed, and chances are you will meet many more people if people notice that you are present instead of you being just another person.

Let me clarify what I consider dressed up. Most people in college walk around in t-shirts and shorts or sweat pants. To class they will wear jeans and maybe dress up a little bit more. In my opinion, dressing up is just going a level higher than everyone else is. My buddy wore pinstripe pants and a dress shirt, but I just started fixing my hair and wearing stylish jeans and shirts instead of a hat and the first clothes that I saw that morning.

So try dressing up the next time you go somewhere and pay attention to the way people act around you. Do the same thing we did, you and a friend dress up and then discuss your results later. I think you will be surprised at how much a little change like clothing or fixing your hair instead of a hat can make.


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Most colleges have a student life or student activities department that arranges free or really cheap events on campus for students to attend. These are great places to meet new people and make friends. Most of the time there are events set up the first week or weekend for the sole purpose of students just hanging out and meeting people.

If you have problems meeting people, or just need something cheap to do, these events are the place for you. Check your school website and bulletin boards around campus for times and dates of activities put on by the school. Hey, even if you're not really interested in what's going on, you can still have fun just hanging out with people!

By the way, most of this can be applied to athletic events too, so when football season comes around watch out for a tailgate party! Kickoff for most schools is next weekend, so you better find some people to tailgate with now!


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Many people are still unaware of what a blog is, and how to navigate one. I am going to address how to navigate a blog in this post so if you are not familiar with blogs hopefully you will be more clear after reading this.

To start off, there is a lot of content that isn't on the front page. You can access this by clicking the labels on the right sidebar for different categories that posts are under. Another way to access them is by clicking in the archives, also in the right sidebar. Some of the most valuable content on this site is probably archived, so check out the archives for some more posts!

If you read the blog frequently, you should consider subscribing. You can subscribe by clicking on the orange box in the address bar or by choosing one of the subscribe links on the right side bar. If you put in your email address, posts will be emailed to you. If you subscribe through RSS, you can view it in a reader or in your favorites folder. I subscribe to many different blogs, because by doing this I can click on the RSS feed and see the title of all of the most recent posts. This way I can decide what I want to read without actually going to all of the different websites. This method helps me be more efficient in my time online.

Another option is to just bookmark this site. You can do that by either hitting "ctrl" and "D" at the same time, or clicking bookmarks and bookmark this page (Mozilla, may be different in other browsers).

One of the awesome things about blogs is you can respond to the posts through comments. This makes the articles interactive, and makes you feel more in touch between the author and the readers. Feel free to comment on all of the posts on this blog, just please don't spam the site.

Blogs are cool because they are free to access. Bloggers make money mainly off of ads, so if you wanted to support a particular blogger one good way would be by clicking on his ads. I don't like having ads all over the site, but I have put a few ads on here. I hope that they aren't intrusive or take away from the site as I have done my best to make them unobtrusive.

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We all know a person who seems to know tons of people and has no trouble making friends. You probably have thought to yourself before that you wish you could be like that person and meet people with no problem, but you are introverted and are not good at meeting people. When going off to college for the first time, everyone is nervous because they are leaving their old friends behind and are worried about meeting new people. But this is one of the greatest things about college, you meet all different types of people and establish relationships that will last a lifetime. There are some secrets to meeting people that many people don't realize, and even people who are good at making friends probably don't realize why they are.

First and most obvious, you have to talk to new people in order to make new friends. If all you do is sit in your dorm room all day, you will not meet new people. You need to get out and interact with people on campus, whether at sporting events or just the computer lab. Start random conversations, it's not hard. If you're waiting in a long line, start talking to the people in line with you about how long the line is, then introduce yourself and roll from there. If you're at a sporting event, that's one of the easiest ways to meet people. Just talk about the teams to people around you, because they are obviously interested in them or they wouldn't be there!

A very easy way to start a conversation is with a question. When you ask it, don't act scared or nervous, because that will make the person feel nervous and awkward. Be confident and make eye contact. Listen to what the person says, and continue the conversation from there.

Don't have a really shallow conversation, like, "hi my names jon, have a good day!" Find out about them, where they're from, where they go to school, what they want to do when the graduate, common friends, etc.

An important point is that you must try to initiate conversations and take advantage of every opportunity you have to talk to new people. Always introduce yourself, and go beyond your name and the obvious. Listen to what the other persons says, don't just let one person do all the talking. If you feel like you're doing all the talking, stop and give them a chance to talk, and continue the conversation from what they say.

Soon you will have a large network of friends, which is a very good thing to have. The saying "it's not what you know, it's who you know" is very true. Obviously you can't be a complete idiot and go far in life, unless you're a professional athlete or something, but you can be the most educated person in the world and not be successful if you don't know people. The easiest way to get jobs, favors, etc is through friends. I have never gotten a job that I just went out and applied for. Every job I've ever had I have been set up with through a friend.

Friends are a very important part of life, and are crucial to your happiness in college and success after college. So why are you still reading this? Go meet some new people and create some new friendships!

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Yesterday's move-in went pretty well. I have discovered a few more tips for moving into your dorm.
Don't forget to bring a lockable container. I brought a filing cabinet, because I like to have a lot of space to lock up food and dishes. They can also be useful for locking other things, such as bank statements, valuables, or anything else you don't want other people using or seeing.
Bring lots of stuff to put on the walls, because its better to have too much than too little. Make sure you talk to your roommate first before you hang stuff all over the walls, because you don't want to have any conflicts. Hanging stuff on the walls helps make you feel at home at college, and individualizes your dorm room to show a little bit of you. Personally, I hang up a lot of posters of bands and sports teams, as I have a lot of them and they take up a lot of space. I don't really like the colors of the walls, so I like to take up as much space as possible. Me and my roommate are both big Duke fans, so naturally we have a lot of Duke stuff in our room.
Another tip for move in day is don't get stressed about having stuff everywhere at first, because you will eventually find somewhere to put it, and will probably change the location 5 times before you decide where you will permanently keep it. I just throw my stuff in drawers all over the room, because I know that in the future I will be bored and have time to go through and organize everything, but at the time of move in I was more interested in meeting some new people than organizing my room.
And that reminds me, make sure you bring some storage containers. We have them all over our room, from pull out drawers to filing cabinets to bookshelfs. You will be surprised at how much junk you accumulate, and how much you can cram into a small dorm room with good use of storage containers.
You will probably also want to bring a fan, as it is hard for everyone to be comfortable at one temperature. It is also useful for drowning out noise at night when you are trying to sleep and everyone else is wanting to stay up partying. I run an air purifier and a fan to drown out noise, because I have trouble sleeping when hearing noises from people yelling or other random stuff.
Another very useful thing is either a curtain or a blanket to hang over a window. When you want to sleep in until early afternoon, and trust me sometimes you will, it is much easier if the light from the window is blocked.

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Today I am moving into my dorm, and thought I would share some tips for moving in. Because of the size of the typical dorm room in college, you have to be very organized and creative to get everything in. The first thing to do is move all the furniture around to where you want it before you move your junk in. I have discovered this the hard way, as it is very difficult to move furniture when there are boxes and junk sitting every where. Also, don't move in alone. If your parents aren't helping you, get some random people on the hall to help. There are normally people sitting around wasting time that wouldn't mind helping, and you can also use this opportunity to meet new people. My goal this year is to meet as many people as I can, because I believe that networking is one of the biggest advantages of going to college.

One big issue in moving in is your roommate. My roommate and I try to help when the other one moves in, because you need to coordinate with them about who gets which desk, dresser, closet, etc., and you don't want to start on the wrong foot with a new roommate. One of the biggest problems in college is roommate conflict, so it is best to try to avoid this from the start and try to keep things going smoothly.

I will be back either tonight or tomorrow with more information about moving into the dorm at college.

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