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by Alexis Mattera

I met many people during my undergraduate years that, upon hearing my major, had a good chuckle before informing me I was never going to make any money doing what I loved – writing. Their majors? Usually something involving business. I still giggle a little thinking of that irony: They not only picked the wrong field but the wrong school if they were concerned with raking in a hefty salary.

According to a new survey from PayScale.com, Harvey Mudd College's 2011 graduates are have the highest salary potential, beating out Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard and Caltech. The college's potential starting median salary is $68,900 while its midcareer median salary is $126,000 yet a campus official said the school does not plan its curriculum based on salary potential. Thyra L. Briggs, vice president of admissions and financial aid, said Harvey Mudd students receive a strong math and science education wrapped in a liberal arts context, meaning students can “solve even the most demanding technical problems, but they also know how to work collaboratively, present their ideas to a broad range of audiences, and write well - traits that may distinguish them from other high-level math and science graduates." Instead of being pigeonholed into only one discipline, she said, Harvey Mudd grads leave school with an adaptability that's an asset in the working world or graduate study. Not bad!

Briggs agrees that the number one ranking is impressive but she’s more excited that more people are looking at Harvey Mudd – especially prospective students and their parents. Future college students, does this news change your opinion about Harvey Mudd? What’s more attractive to you about a college – higher earning potential upon graduation or a higher quality of education as a whole?

by Alexis Mattera

Summer breaks vary from college student to college student. Some work multiple jobs to help defray tuition costs, others intern or volunteer in their field of study and a select few sit by the pool and do absolutely nothing. Regardless of what they accomplish this summer – a semester paid in full, a professional reference or a tan – this student’s “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” essay is going to be way more impressive.

Twenty-two-year-old Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, an undergraduate intern with a team at Monash University's School of Physics, recently confirmed she had found part of the universe’s “missing mass.” For those not majoring in science or aerospace engineering, this basically means that scientists had previously detected matter present in the early history of the universe but it had disappeared. Astrophysicists had been stymied by its absence for decades...until advanced technologies and Fraser-McKelvie came along. "We don't know where it went. Now we do know where it went because that's what Amelia found," said Monash astrophysicist Dr. Kevin Pimbblet. Pretty amazing stuff!

Now we have to ask: What are you doing over your summer break?

by Anna Meskishvili

As a veteran PC user and a current Mac enthusiast, I can advise you on both sides of the PC vs. Mac argument better than those silly commercials ever could.

Purchasing your computer can be one of the most crucial decisions in your college career. Clearly, it is one of the most expensive purchases, but also it is something you will use every single day so you need to make sure it is right for you. Much like my article about roommates, you need to evaluate yourself before you run to that glossy Apple store or start customizing a Dell online.

The best place to start is with your intended major. As a freshman, I know it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what you’ll be studying but if you are enrolled in the College of Fine Arts for graphic design, the easy-to-use design applications on Macs are vital for an artist. If you are in the College of Engineering and need to use programs like Excel, PCs would be better. I know some business students that have both PCs and Macs because their Macs didn’t have some of the tools required for the courses they were taking.

I had a PC for my first two years of college but switched to a Mac this past year. As a communications major, I have a lot of presentations and Photoshop files on my desktop; having a Mac made compiling, combining and organizing these files much simpler than with a PC. But be wary that sending files from Mac to PC don’t always translate the way you want them to: I had an unfortunate incident when my “Scarlet Fever” campaign appeared hot pink on my professor’s screen.

In short, Macs have many benefits but PCs are still the preferred computer in most classrooms. Test-drive both models for your intended purposes and make sure they fit your needs before plunking down the plastic.

Anna Meskishvili is a rising senior at Boston University pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations at the College of 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 hopes to someday work in healthcare administration communication. She loves to travel, run and learn.

by Suada Kolovic

Over the years, students have mastered the art of distraction during class, from daydreaming to doodling to note-passing to sleeping to the quintessential distraction these days: texting. And while texting has revolutionized the way in which we communicate, does it have a place in the classroom? A survey of students at the University of New Hampshire found high rates of texting during class and a great deal of guilt about that behavior to go along with it. The majority of students surveyed admitted they felt guilty for sending text messages in class when they were not supposed to but despite those sentiments, a whopping 80 percent said they normally send at least one text message in each of their classes.

According to the survey, which was conducted by student researchers at the UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics, many students don’t believe that texting should be allowed in class, 49 percent felt guilty in class when it’s not allowed, 51 percent are distracted from class material when they text and 51 percent said they are prohibited from texting in up to half of their classes. The survey also showed that women were more likely to send text messages than men. "I wasn't surprised by the results, but I was surprised to see that some teachers didn't prohibit texting in their classes," said Gretchen Eastman, one of the lead student researchers on the study.

The survey looked at the texting behavior of students and researchers will present their findings at the university’s undergraduate research conference in late April. Let us know what you think. Do you feel bad about texting in class? Do u think txting in class can b distracting 4 u?

by Kayla Herrera

My name is Kayla Herrera and I am a third-year English major at Michigan Technological University. I grew up in Houghton, Michigan (where Michigan Tech is located) and my parents attended Michigan Tech as non-traditional students. When I moved away, it made quite an impact on me and I decided to attend school in the place I loved so much. There is something charming about the area and students I knew who transferred missed it as well.

I chose English as my major because it was the closest I could get to a journalism or writing major, which is why I chose to minor in journalism. Being an English major here is challenging because the school is mostly tech-based and the English classes aren't always what they should be. But outside of the classroom, I have become involved in numerous activities that have propelled my learning in writing and journalism.

I am an avid video gamer. It started when I was young, watching my father play his PlayStation and Sega Genesis games, and before long I picked up a controller for myself. It's one of my other passions and I have combined it with writing and found it to be absolutely satisfying. I am a bit of a nerd in the video game aspect but also in the English aspect. And I am proud of it.

I have always been told to write what I know and right now, all I know is college so seeing the advertisement for the virtual intern for Scholarships.com caught my eye. I was an opinion writer for the campus newspaper so I wrote on campus issues all the time. I saw it as another golden opportunity, a life lesson, or maybe an opening door to a whole other lifestyle. One can never know where an opportunity can really take them until they try!

by Kayla Herrera

If you are a gamer in college like me, you know how difficult it is to choose between saving money for school and buying that video game that just came out. You know you have to pay for cable and electricity but that video game is so enticing! But trust me, my gaming friends: It’s possible to game successfully and pay the bills!

As you probably know, there are tons of free games online; naturally, some are low-quality but if you dig, you'll find pretty good free games. For a classic, try Tetris Friends; I have become addicted to this site – it’s a nice way to fill what little free time you may have.

If you are looking for something more adventurous, get Steam. Steam is an online gaming platform that I mentioned briefly in my piece about long-distance dating. It runs smoothly, has a large selection of free games and games for purchase, offers demos of new releases and stores your games for you on your computer. The negative part? It's almost too easy to purchase games. It's thrilling to find a game you've been dying to have, click a button and own it but this can be bad news if you’re trying to watch your spending.

There is always the opportunity to get an emulator, which acts as a console and allows you to play older games from Sega Genesis or Nintendo 64 on your computer for free. All you need to do is download the emulator and start searching for games – easy and entertaining.

College gamers don’t have to break the bank; you just have to know how to wiggle your way through the system. The best part is you'll still have enough for groceries!

In addition to being a Scholarships.com virtual intern, Michigan Tech student Kayla Herrera is a media coordinator for the Michigan Tech Youth Programs, a writer for The Daily News in Iron Mountain, Mich., and a writer for Examiner.com. She love a tantalizing, action-packed video game and can't get enough of horror movies (Stephen King's books always have her in their grip, though she prefers the old over the new). Writing is what she has always done, and that is what she is here to do.

by Anna Meskishvili

Think your college identity is as safe as it can be? This next story may make you think again.

Daniel Fowler and Justin Camp, former students of the University of Central Missouri were charged with conspiracy, fraud, computer intrusion, identity theft and electronic communications interception in November for hacking into the university’s network with intentions to sell personal information about faculty and students.

Fowler admitted to hacking into the network in 2009 using a flash drive containing a virus to infiltrate other’s computers and gain access to their personal information. Instead of distributing mass emails with viruses, Fowler and Camp took a personal and “human factor” approach by offering to show pictures from the infected flash drive. Once the virus was released, the hackers had access to the now infected computer and used their access to the administrator’s computer to try to transfer money into their own student accounts. Crime doesn’t pay, though: They could now be facing up to 15 years in prison.

With the advancement and innovation of technology it’s often easy to forget about our own transparency in the technological web. Although what Fowler and Camp did was dangerous and irresponsible, it’s not uncommon on a smaller scale. An internal college profile has vital information and needs to heavily protected. At Boston University, we are required to change our master password several times throughout four years and the password is required to be a certain length and contain certain characters to validate its strength against hackers.

Protecting yourself online goes without saying but protecting your personal college information is a must. Although it’s unlikely you will be a victim of a hacker, be sure never to reveal your password or open emails from unknown senders.

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

by Casandra Pagni

So many of us (myself included) feel safe behind the veil of technology. Whether it's a Facebook profile, ultra-organized email or Twitter, let’s face it: It’s much easier to be the person you want to be when you carefully craft it out and spell check it twice. You can appear any way you want to...as long as you don’t have to think on the spot. I'm not trying to say that having a solid grasp on social media isn't beneficial (it certainly is!) but even in a technology-driven world, face-to-face conversational skills are still important.

The majority of interviews – especially selective or final ones – are still conducted in person. For a successful in-person interview, communicating well with a prospective employer while still showing some of your personality is critical. That's the benefit of face-to-face communication: You can show that you are unique, relatable and ready to be hired all through the way you talk. It’s important to convey confidence in your abilities at an interview and much of that confidence can be exuded through clear, thoughtful speech. Even phone interviews require these skills, as employers won't be as responsive to someone who has a robotic voice or is reading from a script.

Strong conversational skills are key in networking, too. Your ability to schmooze with someone in your field of interest may be the way to meet someone else who can put in a good word for you for a job or recommend another contact who can help. When it comes to getting a job, any connections could lead to potential employment.

Don't think you're a skilled conversationalist? Don't worry...just put your down your BlackBerry and talk! Practice makes perfect so instead of texting today, try making a phone call. I know it sounds crazy, but a confident, articulate voice might help land you a job down the road.

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.

by Agnes Jasinski

You already know all about the technology gap, and probably have little faith in your instructors’ web know-how when compared to your own. A recent study, however, shows that you young people may not be as savvy as you think when it comes to online research.

Researchers from Northwestern University looked at 102 University of Illinois at Chicago students to determine how they went about their research when given a number of information-seeking tasks. The study, published by the International Journal of Communication, described the pitfalls of the trust students place in Google and the search engine’s rankings. The main criteria students looked at when choosing which sites to find their information on were where those sites were ranked in Google and other popular search engines like Yahoo!. They also placed little weight on more reputable sites ending in dot-gov or dot-edu, for example, when compared to dot-com pages.

According to the press release for the study, one student responded that they chose a particular site because it was the first to come up in Google. The student was unable to describe much else about that site. Other sites the students said they relied on to complete tasks included SparkNotes, Facebook, and Wikipedia. If you follow the blog, you may remember our tip to use Wikipedia as a starting point only when beginning research; the user-edited Encyclopedia should never be used as a reference, and anything you do find there should be fact-checked elsewhere.

The study suggests that students need more instruction on credible online sources and how to use the web and similar technologies appropriately. IT staff members would probably agree. In an article in eCampus News describing a recent survey of IT officials, faculty, and college students, students and instructors viewed their campuses’ use of technology in the classroom in a much more positive light than the IT staff members. According to that survey, IT staff says more needs to be done in terms of education technology on college campuses and the access to technology in the classroom by students and instructors.

by Alexis Mattera

When I first heard that Harrisburg University of Science and Technology planned to block Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and AOL Instant Messenger from its campus wireless network this week, I wondered how it would play out. Today, I got my answer (thanks, Inside Higher Ed!).

Fact: The sites are blocked on campus. Another fact: Students are resourceful. It seems like every student carries a smartphone or iPad equipped with access to their carriers’ respective 3G networks and Harrisburg U. students who don’t have left campus to get their social media fixes via the Wi-Fi in a nearby hotel’s lobby or attempted to hack into the campus network to bypass the block. Eric Darr, the provost behind the plan, said the university never expected full abstinence but bus personal observations reveal the proportion of students participating is between 10 and 15 percent – notable because students are required to have laptops and have their computers open in class. In Darr’s eyes, the initiative has been a success because people have become more aware of the role social media plays in their lives. “This extreme media coverage in and of itself is forcing more focus on social media,” he said. “That was the whole point of this in the first place.”

The slight percentage Darr noted could have been far different if the social media ban was implemented on a residential campus (Harrisburg is nonresidential, meaning that many students live nearby instead of living in dormitories and on-campus apartments), where students were more dependent on campus networks. Plain and simple, students can log on all they want when they get home…and they have been: Gio Acosta, a junior, said that while the ban has helped him focus in class, he still gives in to the digital urge at home. “They didn’t make any rules about that,” he said.

Do we have any readers currently at Harrisburg U. out there? If so, tell us how you’ve been dealing with the ban. Are you participating? Ignoring it? Hacking your way around it?