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by Alexis Mattera

How much will it cost to attend the school of your dreams? The federal government hopes its new law will make that question easier to answer but higher education experts have their doubts where accuracy is concerned.

By this October, the federal government will require all U.S. higher education institutions to offer net price calculators on their websites so prospective college students can easily compare attendance costs earlier in their college searches. Users will be asked questions about their financial and academic backgrounds and their answers – and the calculator’s tallies of tuition, fees, books, housing and food, minus scholarships and grants – will reveal the net price to attend that particular school. Though many experts are glad students will have access to this information, accuracy is a concern. Certain factors won’t be taken into consideration because direct student-to-school contact has been eliminated; for example, Washington University is willing to adjust financial aid packages if a parent loses their job and this might not be reflected in the calculators’ answers.

It’s likely the law will be revised to make side-by-side comparison more accurate before the calculators are implemented - read more about the net price calculators in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch - but would you use this new technology or do you think it’s still too early to glean accurate information?

by Aaron Lin

Eating in college brings a slew of questions. Are you going to have enough meals? Will you gain the Freshman 15 from dining hall food? Even with all the dining opportunities on campus, there are some foods that are easy to keep in your dorm room or apartment for quick snacks or healthy meals.

The USDA’s MyPlate (the replacement for the food pyramid many are used to) shows a few important ideas about proper diet. It’s in the shape of a plate and is divided into rough fourths, with each fourth representing one food group – fruits, grains, protein and vegetables plus a cup for the dairy group. The new diagram is all about good knowledge, good decisions and portion control. Keeping this in mind, here are a few foods that I’ve personally found last a while in the dorms and are generally healthy, too.

Fruits: Dried fruits are the way to go here. Coveted by hikers and endurance runners, raisins pack a natural sugar punch and don’t go bad in a matter of days. Try dried cranberries or banana chips, too.

Grains: I love the taste of whole wheat tortillas and bread. Go with whole grain or wheat because multi-grain is not the same thing.

Protein: Proteinis either animal- or plant-based. Some research shows that the plant-based kind is more easily absorbed so spread some peanut and cashew butter on bread or crackers!

Vegetables: Celery and baby carrots are both long lasting in the refrigerator. Celery tastes great with peanut butter and baby carrots are good with pretty much any dipping sauce. Steam carrots up in the microwave with a bowl and a bit of water or keep some folic acid-rich leafy greens like baby spinach handy, too.

Dairy: It’s tough if you don’t have a fridge but plain yogurt is packed with digestive-aiding probiotics.

Aaron Lin is a chemistry major at Louisiana State University but has plans to transfer to LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans to pursue a clinical laboratory science degree and further feed his interest in the application of scientific and medical knowledge. In his free time, Aaron likes to eat food, read and write about food, exercise to work off that food and play the occasional computer game. He also enjoys footbiking, running and Frisbee.

by Darci Miller

When I first began looking at colleges, I knew right away that I didn’t want to attend school locally. I wanted to forge my own way away from home and none of New York’s state schools really interested me. I did apply to one in-state school (Syracuse) that’s a multiple hour drive away from home but ended up not going there.

Starting at Miami was a bit of a culture shock. I went from seeing familiar faces everywhere in high school to being the one solitary Baldwinite at college. There are several others from my high school at Miami but they’re older than me and we’ve never interacted before. I was entirely on my own. My friends, on the other hand, moved on from high school in a very different way: Almost everybody I know attends college with at least one other person from high school and SUNY Binghamton is now the home of more than 20 members of my graduating class, many of whom now live together.

Sometimes, I’m a little bit jealous. If vacation days don’t line up, I’ll be sitting in my dorm room reading Facebook updates about how everyone’s getting together back at home – people can’t afford to fly down to Miami to visit one friend but they can afford to drive to Binghamton to visit dozens of them – but embarking on a college journey miles away from home does have its positives.

By going to school away, you’ll get to miss out on all the stupid high school drama inherent in high school friendships. You’ll be able to make an entirely new group of friends without worrying about what your old friends think of you or of them. You can reinvent yourself entirely if you want to, become your own person and return home new, improved and blissfully unaware of who kissed who and who now hates who. Trust me, you won’t miss it!

Darci Miller is a New Yorker studying journalism and sport administration at the University of Miami. When she’s not writing for the school newspaper, you can find her at the gym, either working or working out. She loves all ‘80s pop culture (the cheesier the better!), and glues herself to her TV when the Olympics are on. She dreams big, and believes the sky’s the limit!

by Anna Meskishvili

Last week, Catholic University president John Garvey announced that beginning with this upcoming academic year, all dormitories would be single-sex. The university based this decision on reported studies that students living in co-ed environments are more likely to engage in binge drinking as well as hooking up.

Garvey emphasizes that within co-ed environments, gender roles get blurred and women try to “outdrink” men, which can only lead to harmful situations. From reckless drinking comes reckless behavior such as unprotected sex, which is more easily accessible in a co-ed dorm. If his changes are instituted, Garvey claims this is all less likely to occur.

This change in housing is not passing without some strong opposition. John F. Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University, claims that this may even be illegal because it violates the District of Columbia’s Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in housing based on sex, race, religion and other factors.

Through my own experience living in single-sex and co-ed dorms, I can tell you that boys will be boys and girls will be girls. No matter what environment you place 300 18-year-olds in, they will be as reckless as they choose to be. In fact, as stated in a CNN article about the matter, many women do their heaviest drinking while with other women and boys tend to “bro-out” with their guy friends and binge drink; therefore, separating the two groups will likely not change their initiative to engage in alcohol consumption.

From my experience living in an all-girls dorm, all the female interaction leads to cliques, cattiness and bullying; this is much less likely to occur when there are boys present to dilute the female egos. Being in single-sex dorms makes it harder to branch out and ultimately does not benefit the students living there. What do you think? Do you think that eliminating common ground between boys and girls in dorms will eliminate the problems Garvey cites, too?

Anna Meskishvili is a rising senior at Boston University pursuing a degree in public relations at the College of Communication and hopes to someday work in healthcare administration communication. She is part of Kappa Delta at BU and has loved every second of it. She is also involved in Public Relations Student Society of America and Ed on Campus. Anna was born in the Republic of Georgia and considers herself a citizen of the world because she’s lived in Russia, England, France, Brooklyn and Connecticut. She loves to travel, run and learn.

by Jessica Seals

During my freshman year of college, I seized every opportunity to go home and visit friends and family. Although I only live an hour away from campus, I looked forward to going home to catch up on how different life was now that I was technically no longer living there. As time went on, however, I noticed that I stopped going home as often as I did during my freshman year and so did all of my friends.

By the time my junior year rolled around, I had grown accustomed to being in Memphis and treating school as my home. Many of my friends had gotten their own apartments or rented houses and had made the cities where their schools were home as well. Now when I go home to visit, I am usually the only person who decides to do so; we have all gotten older, learned how to be independent and are starting to live our own lives separate from our parents. Now I am lucky if I can catch my friends when I can and we rely on setting up gatherings via Facebook even more than before.

The decline in the number of times everyone ventures home shows just how much going away to college can allow you to explore things on your own and branch out to experience things outside your hometown. I personally feel more independent and even closer to completely growing up and being on my own.

Jessica Seals is currently a senior at the University of Memphis majoring in political science and minoring in English. At the University of Memphis, she is the secretary of the Pre-Law Society, the philanthropy chair of the Phi Kappa Phi Student Council and a member of Professional Assertive United Sisters of Excellence (PAUSE), Golden Key Honor Society, Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society, Sigma Alpha Lambda Honor Society, and Black Scholars Unlimited. She also volunteers to tutor her fellow classmates and hopes to attend law school in the near future.

by Thomas Lee

The practical hassles of everyday life can become a problem for college students used to living at home. I learned this the hard way my freshman year when simple tasks like doing the laundry became a chore.

My freshman dorm only had two washers and dryers per hallway. A week’s worth of laundry quickly became an insurmountable pile because I couldn’t find a free washer. My parents suggested using a Laundromat but that costs extra money which a student may or may not have. The trick was for me to pick a specific time of the week where the laundry room would be mostly free and stick to it. Washing on Sunday afternoon when most students were not in the dorm became my weekly ritual.

The most difficult part of day-to-day college life for me was car trouble. Throughout all four years, gasoline prices were roughly around $3 a gallon and today show no signs of dropping. If you have a car on campus, the best thing you can do is hope to get a decent paying job and minimize your driving to only what is necessary. Another option is establishing a good network of friends and carpooling to save both time and money. Another major cost for me was car repair. I shelled out hundreds of dollars for a single repair, as well as an incident in which I was towed after having a flat tire. One rule of thumb (although this may differ by region) is to hook a white t-shirt or plastic bag to your window if your car breaks down as a distress signal to avoid towing for two days.

The best general advice I can give for college life is make smart, rational, common sense decisions. And don’t give in to peer pressure. But perhaps that is a story for another time.

Thomas Lee recently graduated from Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina with a BA in political science and journalism. His father is an ordained Church of God minister and his mother is a private school teacher; he also has two younger sisters. Thomas’ interests include politics, law, debate, global issues and writing fiction and he believes in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ and a strong commitment to biblical morality and ethics. He currently resides in Washington, North Carolina and will be attending law school in the near future.

by Thomas Lee

I first was involved in an internship my junior year. I heard about positions open in the Special Operations department at Fort Bragg and since much of the base was near my campus in Fayetteville, I applied and did a series of interviews. After a lengthy security clearance, I was hired at USASOC Public Affairs. I was assigned to post news footage relevant to Army Special Operations on the Public Affairs web database as well as answer phones and set up equipment.

At first, I was highly disciplined and could easily balance arriving at work and class on time but as the weeks went on, my classwork became more difficult and I started coming to class late. It was a nearly 30-minute drive from campus to work and back and my grades did suffer that semester due to a lack of balance.

My internship went on into the summer so I stayed at a house with some of friends. I also began drinking, which negatively affected my performance. My internship ended in March after a full year and I graduated in May.

I did learn about the day-to-day operations and inner workings of the military but I regret some of the decisions I made, like failing to plan properly. I give this advice to any student seeking an internship: Make sure you don’t overwork yourself and neglect academics and don’t slack off because it will reflect poorly on your future career.

Thomas Lee recently graduated from Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina with a BA in political science and journalism. His father is an ordained Church of God minister and his mother is a private school teacher; he also has two younger sisters. Thomas’ interests include politics, law, debate, global issues and writing fiction and he believes in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ and a strong commitment to biblical morality and ethics. He currently resides in Washington, North Carolina and will be attending law school in the near future.

by Shari Williams

Before starting school, I didn’t know very much about college life but now that I will be in school a year beyond my expected graduation date, I know what I could have done to enter the real world sooner.

At Towson, all freshmen receive class schedules assembled by the school. I didn't think to change the times of the classes (which were all at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday), nor did I research the professors. This turned out to be a huge mistake – I never was a morning person and I got stuck with some of the worst professors at Towsonmy school – as was the number of credits (12). I figured my university that I pay thousands of dollars in tuition to attend would know best, so I stuck with only 12 credits from then on. It was another oversight: Even though 12 credits is considered as full time, 12 credits is not enough to take every semester in order to graduate in four years without taking winter or summer classes. I had to figure this out myself and adjusted my class schedule accordingly.

I’m not saying you need to overload yourself with academics and never leave your dorm room – that’s not a college experience to remember! – but I am saying take as many classes as you can comfortably manage. If you have the means or have grants and scholarships, you can always take some classes over the summer or the next semester as long as it falls accordingly to your academic plan. Simply do what is best for you.

Graduating a four-year program in five years is not the end of the world but it is not something that you should shoot for, either. If you can handle five or more classes each semester, take them; you can also consider enrolling in a few online courses or opting to take a few classes pass/fail. Take what you can handle so that you can succeed.

Shari Williams is a junior at Towson University with a double major in deaf studies and broadcast journalism and a minor in entertainment, media and film. With experience in public relations, a love for music and a passion for acting, she longs to be a jack of all trades. A Baltimore native, Shari is an avid traveler and opportunity seeker. She hopes to become the next face seen on the morning news or the voice heard over the radio.

by Jacquelene Bennett

Packing for college can be stressful and frustrating. You buy something you think you are going to need and end up never using it or you forget to buy something and end up making 20 trips to the store on the already crazy move-in day. But fear not, I am here to help.

Now I know that colleges give students lists of things to bring with them but those lists can be wrong. Below, I have provided you with some helpful tips on what and what not to bring with you to college that I have learned myself over the last few years.

What to Bring

• Extra linens. A few towels and an extra set of extra-long twin sheets go a long way when you’re out of quarters for laundry.
• Mattress pads. If you are able to get several of these for your bed, DO IT – you back will thank you later on because you will be sleeping on an old, used mattress that will be very uncomfortable otherwise.
• Pictures and decorations. Being away from home for the first time sucks. Bring lots of pictures and familiar stuff to make you feel more comfortable.

What Not to Bring

• Desk lamp. The light is too bright to have on while your roommate is asleep and the overhead light you have in your room is good enough while you are doing homework.
• Printer. More than likely, your school has a printing quota that allows you to print from the school’s computer labs that rather than buying your own paper and ink.
• Every article of clothing you own. When you move in, it’s still summertime. Bring only seasonal clothing with you and switch them out when you are home for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Jacquelene Bennett is a rising senior at the University of Redlands where her areas of study are creative writing, government and religious studies. When she is not studying or working, you can usually find her eating frozen yogurt or blogging about her day. She has a cactus named Kat and believes that Stephen Colbert is a genius. Jacquelene works hard, laughs hard and knows that one day you’ll see her name in lights.

by Thomas Lee

In my last article, I mentioned some of my experiences with college political parties and gave a little advice on how to choose one. While the two main choices are College Democrats or College Republicans, there are other ways one can get politically motivated on campus.

One way is joining Student Government Association or SGA as it is called at many schools. SGA is a student-led body that usually has a president and senators who help make operational or financial decisions that affect student life. I was an SGA senator my sophomore and junior years and helped plan the budget on the financial committee. SGA was allotted a certain amount of money from the main budget every three-month grant period and the finance committee would then receive proposals from all the organizations and departments on campus requesting money for specific functions. SGA then usually granted money to campus functions and student events that would promote campus life. It wasn’t a perfect process, but when has politics ever been?

Although it might not seem political at first glance, campus Greek life also plays a large role in making decisions that impact non-Greek students. At Methodist University, we instituted a Greek Council my junior year, as there ended up being a total of two fraternities and two sororities by the time I graduated. Greek Council was a governing body made of members from all four groups. They helped promote SGA events and raised money for community causes, such as helping soldiers. Ultimately, Greek Council influenced the university board of directors to approve the construction of a four-house Greek village. Academic Greek clubs such as Alpha Chi also may help in campus and community service.

So just because you don’t identify as a donkey or an elephant doesn’t mean you still can’t rock the vote on your campus!

Thomas Lee recently graduated from Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina with a BA in political science and journalism. His father is an ordained Church of God minister and his mother is a private school teacher; he also has two younger sisters. Thomas’ interests include politics, law, debate, global issues and writing fiction and he believes in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ and a strong commitment to biblical morality and ethics. He currently resides in Washington, North Carolina and will be attending law school in the near future.