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If you’re in college, chances are you’ve been reminded – on a daily basis, no less – about the importance of networking in the adult world. Why wait until then? Get a head start on building your network and you might connect with someone that could potentially help you find a job after you graduate. Need some help getting started? Check out U.S. World News’ six tips to network while still in college:

• Play the student card: Take advantage of the fact that you’re still a student. Alumni are more likely to help you while you’re still in school because you’re just asking for advice and not looking for a job, says Heather Krasna, director of career services at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs. Ask questions, request an informational interview and grow those relationships while there’s no pressure.
• Use your friends’ parents as resources: Believe it or not, your friends’ parents are great contacts. Not only do they offer decades of experience but since there’s already a relationship established, you’re more likely to be comfortable asking for advice and possibly their contacts!
• Get out of the bubble: Some campuses offer that country-like feel, a pastoral paradise if you will. And while it’s great not having big city distractions, it can hinder your networking opportunities. Emily Bennington, who helps college graduates transition into careers through her company, Professional Studio 365, suggests, “Rather than using your savings for a spring break in Daytona ... go to a conference that's within your industry.”
• Use LinkedIn: So you’re a whiz when it comes to Twitter and Facebook but if LinkedIn isn’t on your radar, you’re going to fall behind professionally. The sooner you familiarize yourself with LinkedIn, the better. Boasting more than 100 million members, it’s a great way to engage with professionals in your desired field.
• Use Twitter strategically: Sure, Twitter keeps you posted on what’s most important to you (be that Kim Kardashian or Scholarships.com) but it can also provide an avenue for you to connect with professionals in your field. Make a list of people in your industry who you look up to and use the network strategically to connect with them.
• Get an internship: This tip is an oldie but a goodie. The value of an internship is undeniable – not only will you walk away with real-life experience to put on your resume, an internship puts you in eyesight of people who work in your field and positions you conveniently ahead of other job seekers.

When it comes to taking the SATs, most students are prepared for the parental pressure, competitive stress and the likelihood of cold sweats that go along with taking an exam so integral with the college admissions process. And if you’re planning on attending an institution of higher education, the SATs and other standardized tests are impossible to avoid…well, almost impossible: Six students tried to pay their way out of taking the exam and allegedly hired a recent high school graduate to assume their identities and deliver high test scores. Needless to say, they were all caught and must now face the consequences.

According to reports, an Emory University student was charged Tuesday with standing in to take the SAT for students at Long Island’s Great Neck North High School. The bogus test-taker, Sam Eshaghoff, is a 19-year-old Great Neck North alumnus who was arrested and charged with first-degree scheme to defraud, first-degree falsifying business records and second-degree criminal impersonation. He faces four years in prison. The six students who allegedly hired Eshagoff face misdemeanor charges and a year in jail. Because they were underage when the phony testing took place, prosecutors declined to identify them.

"These are serious allegations," said Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. "There's no level playing field when students are paying someone they know will get them a premier score when other kids are doing it the fair way and the honest way." Do you think these students, who because of Eshaghoff received SAT scores between 2140-2220, should be kicked out of their institutions? Should they be forced to take retake the SATs?

Money may not be able to buy happiness or love but a new study shows it’s an integral factor in getting into college.

The study – “Running in Place: Low-Income Students and the Dynamics of Higher Education Stratification” – reveals that despite efforts to attract and enroll more low-income students, such students are still more likely to attend community colleges or noncompetitive four-year universities than more elite schools. These students are indeed taking the steps necessary to increase their grades and standardized test scores but their wealthier counterparts are taking wider, faster strides toward the same goal.

According to the study’s lead author and associate professor of higher education at the University of Michigan Michael N. Bastedo, “The distance between academic credentials for wealthy students and low-income students is getting longer and longer...and that’s despite the fact that low-income students are rising in their own academic achievement.” Selective colleges claim they want to bring in more low-income students but the study’s authors say ancillary factors like higher/better job placement and more generous alumni are proving detrimental.

There is much more to the study here including the authors’ suggestions for improving equity (i.e., optional SATs, greater access to Advanced Placement and honors courses). Take a look and share your thoughts!

College campuses have been the breeding grounds for some of the most successful business in the world. We’re talking Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Yahoo! to name a few. Check out who else made Huffington Post’s list of the most successful college entrepreneurs:

• Mark Zuckerberg: In 2004, at the ripe age of 19, Zuckerberg created what would one day become the second most visited website in the world – Facebook.
• Bill Gates: After taking a leave of absence from Harvard, Gates started creating processors and computer interfaces that are still used today. He then founded a little company you might have heard of (Microsoft).
• Michael Dell: Dell was a pre-med student at the University of Texas, Austin in 1984 when he started a small business in his dorm upgrading computers. He went public in 1988 and eventually brought “Dude, you’re getting a Dell!” to the masses.
• Bo Peabody: As a student at Williams College, Peabody, Bretty Hershey and their economics professor designed one of the original social networks in 1992. Today, it is known as Tripod.com.
• Jerry Yang and David Filo: Graduate students at Stanford University, Yang and Filo created Yahoo! as a way to help their Stanford friends locate cool websites.
• Steve Wozniak: In 1975, Wozniak dropped out of the University of California, Berkeley to work with Steve Jobs on circuit board designs and operating systems. These projects eventually evolved into Apple.
• Larry Page and Sergey Brin: In 1996, Page and Brin, who were PhD students at Stanford University at the time, left school to begin working on a new search technology founded on one idea that the order of websites listed on search engines would be based on relevance. From that idea, Google was born.
• Marc Andreessen: While at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Andreessen and Eric Bana began creating a user-friendly browser that integrated graphics and would work on a range of computers. They called it Mosaic, Andreessen eventually started his own software company, Mosaic Netscape.
• Frederick W. Smith: As an undergrad at Yale, Smith wrote a paper outlining a delivery system that would work in a computer-dominated industry. After he graduated, Smith ran with the idea and founded Federal Express.
• Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian: After graduating from the University of Virginia in 2005, Huffman and Ohanian founded the popular social news website Reddit.

What do you think of the individuals that made the list? Any surprises? Do you think it’s problematic that not a single woman made the list?

by Casandra Pagni, Scholarships.com Virtual Intern

It's hard to look for a job on any search engine without coming across a result from CareerBuilder, Monster, Indeed or another employment website. As a recent graduate and someone who has browsed and used these websites extensively over the past few months, I'd like to help you get the most out of posting your resume and other credentials on the Internet.

The good: Career-centric sites can be great tools in helping you browse available jobs in desired industries and particular areas. Since these websites have a large and credible following, many employers will post opportunities because they know there will be lots of traffic from potential applicants. You can also post your resume directly to the sites so that employers can search by criteria and contact you if they are interested; another benefit of these websites is that you can have your resume reviewed by professionals – for free! – and receive valuable feedback.

The bad: If you post your resume to one or more of these websites, it’s likely that you’ll be contacted by companies that send out mass emails expressing their interest in hiring new employees. They are usually sales or insurance agent positions and if that's not your forte or field of interest, the emails can get annoying quite quickly. Also, spam emails or weekly updates can cloud potentially important emails in your inbox.

The lowdown: If you are looking for part-time or full-time work, use these websites but with some savvy. It can be extremely helpful to browse these career posting websites to find job opening but I recommend using them as a resource and then contacting the employer directly. Doing this allows you to submit the correct formats of your resume and any other documents you might need (i.e. letters of recommendations, certifications or awards) and personalize your email and cover letter to the appropriate hiring manager.

Chicagoland native Casandra Pagni spent the past four years in the wonderful city of Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. From watching football games in the Big House to bruising her knees playing intramural broomball on ice, she had the time of her life while at Michigan and embraced her inner and outer sports fanatic by covering the softball and hockey teams for the campus newspaper, The Michigan Daily. Casandra was also a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority and a teacher ambassador and this past April, Casandra graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and earned a secondary teaching certification. She is currently in Chicago looking for a teaching position.

The University of Southern California has secured a major donation – the fourth of more than $50 million given to the university this school year alone – from Julie and John Mork. The couple donated $110 million to USC to fund the Mork Family Scholars Program, which will provide high school seniors “of extraordinary intellectual talent and capability full tuition and $5,000 living stipends,” the university said in a statement.

John Mork, a trustee who graduated from USC in 1970, is the chief executive officer of Energy Corp. of America, a private company that handles the exploration, extraction, production and transportation of natural gas and oil, based in Denver. “Attending USC is the dream of talented high school seniors from all walks of life,” said John Mork. “We hope this gift will help transform hundreds of young lives.” Julie Mork, who graduated from UCLA, is the managing director of the Energy Corp. of America Foundation, a charitable organization that focuses on children and education. According to the LA Times, about 100 undergraduates will benefit from the scholarships each year.

Now while this is the single largest donation in the university’s history for undergraduate scholarships, it isn’t the Morks first philanthropic gift to the school. In 2005, the family contributed $15 million to the USC Viterbi School of Engineering that resulted in the naming of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science after the Mork family. And this time around, to show their appreciation, USC will place a plaque with the names and images of the Mork family at Bovard Auditorium.

At Scholarships.com, we know scholarships and if you’re interested in attending the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, then we have the scholarship for you! The Scottish university where Prince William and Kate Middleton met and studied is presenting the royal alumni with an early wedding gift – a scholarship in their honor. The unnamed scholarship will pay about $115,000 in tuition costs, accommodation and living expenses for an undergraduate degree in science, arts, medicine or divinity. The award will be open to applicants of all nationalities who would have been unable to attend the university without such financial support.

"This will be the first scholarship of its kind at St. Andrews and a reflection of this university's commitment to ensure that we find, attract and support the most gifted students from anywhere in the world," said Louise Richardson, the university's principal and vice-chancellor. St. Andrews is Scotland’s first university and the third-oldest in the English-speaking world.

For those of you who aren’t lured by the idea of studying in the former halls of the royal couple, conduct a free scholarship search at Scholarships.com for scholarship opportunities in your own backyard.

Last year, the staff at Stephens College accepted the unorthodox challenge from an alum – a woman in her 80s who is committed to fitness and eating well – to lose a collective 250 pounds by January 1st with the promise to pledge $1 million to the women’s college. And with a payout like that, of course they did it! According to Chris Smith, director of marketing and public relations at the college, of the 107 employees who signed up for the challenge, those who weighed in right before Christmas had lost a total of 302 pounds, exceeding the donor’s requirement ahead of schedule.

How’d they do it? The school played a major role in helping employees meet the goal, Stephens offered free yoga, Pilates and other exercise classes during lunchtime and after work, and started a blog with low-fat, nutritious recipes and health tips. According to the Chronicle, Brenda K. McSherry, director of health services, said the employees were also permitted to take up to an hour of paid time to exercise…after all, the school did have $1 million on the line. In addition to the $1 million donation, the anonymous donor will add another $100,000 if Dianne M. Lynch, Stephens’s president, loses 25 pounds herself. Ms. Lynch, who was not given a specific deadline, told the Columbia Daily Tribune, that she was more than halfway to the goal, with about 10 pounds to go. But what do you think, is it wrong to award money based on numbers on a scale or is cold hard cash the right incentive to get people to lose weight?

Giving back to your alma mater is a tradition deeply rooted in the inner workings of any university. Once your status has shifted from “student” to “alumni,” you can bet there is an expectation for you to give back. And while some go out of their way to avoid the financial strains of contributing, a Yale graduate recently pledged $50 million to the School of Management…and that ain’t chump change.

A member of Yale University’s Class of 1964 has given a $50 million gift to the Ivy League school towards construction of a new building at the School of Management. Edward P. Evans, the former chairman and CEO of the Macmillan publishing house, will fund a portion of the estimated $189 million construction costs. In honor of the gift – the largest in the School of Management’s history – the building will be named Edward P. Evans Hall.

According to the Associated Press, Yale President Richard Levin says the large losses in the university’s endowment during the recession have prompted the school to secure funding before new projects begin. School of Management Dean Sharon Oster said the university has raised all but some $25 million toward the campus plan and the campaign will continue for another six months. Officials say the new building is expected to open in 2013 and allow the graduate school to add 200 more students.

They may not agree on politics, health care or Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds’ divorce but the consensus among recent college graduates is almost unanimous about one thing: Eighty-nine percent say they are happy they earned a college degree.

This statistic, found in a new report by the American Council on Education is surprising considering the economic climate but the 800 young alumni surveyed were more than pleased with their post-secondary educations. Close to 9 out of 10 respondents said undergrad was worth the time and money spent, and 85 percent reported their educations prepared them for their current jobs. The Chronicle of Higher Education and University of Wisconsin president Kevin P. Reilly both agree the findings will help combat the higher education budget slashing proposed by some government officials.

Some of the survey’s findings aren’t as overwhelming – only 62 percent of national respondents believed college generally prepared grads for working life – but the overall alumni satisfaction considerably strengthens the case for greater access to and increased quality of higher education. And as for the students who said they left college unprepared for the real world, an extra internship or semester abroad could have easily provided the experience they craved. College IS what you make of it, after all!