Featured Desk Space: Pristine Organization

Marie keeps her bookshelf pristine.

Our very first submission to our Featured Desk Spaces feature (hah) comes from Marie at the University of Ottawa, Canada, where she's a sophomore accounting major.

She likes to keep her room and desk space as pristine as possible, utilizing what little space she has. If it sounds idealized for a dorm room; it definitely is. But Marie definitely pulls it off. She even has a GTD-inspired inbox. Cool. She explains,

My bedroom is 11'9" by 8'7" in a three bedroom apartment. First, I would like to point out that although it seems very clean/uncluttered, it was not for the pictures. This is what my room looks like all the time. Because it is so small, I need to put everything away right away or it becomes very messy. 

The bed, curtains, chair and desk were purchased used when we got the apartment. Two of the three bookshelves, the fan, alarm clock and lamp were from my room at my parent's home. The printer was purchased used. Only new things were the one bookshelf (three mini ones @ $10) and the green drawer unit.  

I liked having nothing on my desk other than my computer and which books, notebook or textbook I currently need. The printer has a cable that runs at the back of the bookshelf that I only plug when I need to. I try to print the least amount of stuff, and mostly just print everything to pdf and leave it on my computer. 

Marie's desk.

I have no other textbooks than the ones for this term because I have been able to sell everything from up to this point this summer. This is why I even currently have a spare shelf. 

I don't have speakers, another monitor, or a keyboard, but I don't have a mouse because the touchpad annoys me. I don't find those things necessary for me. 

All my clothes fit in my closet even if its tiny (I have a tall drawer unit in there, my suitcase, laundry hamper, and a rod to hang as much stuff as possible. 

One last thing; the shoe box on [my bookshelf] is my 'physical inbox'. This is where I put my mail, receipts, and anything else until I have time to deal with it. I never lose anything that way. 

The percent of college students that make their beds are in the single digits.

If you'd like your desk to be featured on HackCollege, shoot an email over to room@hackcollege.com with a description and pictures of your desk. Don't forget to tell us a little bit about yourself! 

Review: Brazen Careerist Gets a Facelift

At HackCollege, we believe that every student should have a blog -- regardless of your industry. With digital media exploding, there's a much lower barrier of entry into many careers if you can get involved in the discussion online. Here's what Brazen Careerist offers -- a fusion between your blog and a career profile, with a young person in mind. It's like combining your LinkedIn with your blog, creating an ideal career destination page that you'll want put on your business card.

The design of this "career page" is perfect (above). Front and center is your name, picture, and other vitals. Right away, that HR stalker knows she's in the right place. Below that, there's a tab for your "ideas" (it'll mostly be your blog posts -- but it could be so much more) and a tab for your resume. That's central to the navigation and those are the first things a prospective employer is going to want to see. The right column gives them a little look in to your personality: goals, interests, Twitter. It's out of the way and brief. That's all they need.

As for the cons, read them after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Save Money, Sharpen Razors with Jeans

It's no secret that blades for razors that work are expensive. It's also the case that most college students don't have the money to drop around twenty bones when the original blades get dull. When you are attempting this hack, make sure to go up with the razor and not down like you when you're shaving.

via Lifehacker

Show Us Your Desk Space

Is this dorm desk awesome or too crowded? Image from flickr user cbowns

We write about unpimping your dorm room every once in a while, and I'm slightly curious. I want to see what kind of setup everyone else has. Do you keep your desk clean? Did you pull the trigger on the second monitor? What kind of neat hacks have you come up with?

We'll be sharing the submissions throughout the next few days, depending on how many we get. Bonus points for ingenuity and cost circumvention.

So snap a picture with your cameraphone and send your workspaces over to room@hackcollege.com. Don't forget to include a description of anything cool. Keep in mind, your workspace doesn't have to be your desk.

And yes, for those of you keeping track, this is inspired by the Lifehacker Featured Workspace feature.

We Have a Winner - 3 Magazine Subscriptions Via Maghound

Leo Touza of Portland State University just won magazine subscriptions for a year courtesy of Maghound. We launched this little contest earlier in the week and asked you: What Condé Nast publication is second worst off in ad sales this year? The answer, to many peoples' surprise, is Wired. You can read all about it in the New York Times' article back in May, but there's a much more in-depth discussion about Wired's digital shift at Boing Boing -- don't miss the comments on that story. 

What's the story with Maghound? It's a magazine subscription service with an online interface that makes it really simple to manage what you're reading and where. I've tried out Maghound myself and you can expect a review soon. 

Congrats, Leo! 

The Freshman by The Verve Pipe Parody - Friday Fun

The day's almost over. Here's a little early taste of the weekend.

If you're seriously concerned about the freshman 15, here's a tip:

Weight Tracking to Fight the Freshman 15

But if you just want to say "Fuck it," here's another tip:

The Best Way to Reheat Pizza

College News Roundup - Week of 9/6/09

Looks like it must have been a slow week this week. I guess everyone has a hangover from the back-to-school frenzy.

College Football Season Begins

There isn't an article on this one, but we're just saying, it happened. Go Irish.

Obama Speaks to the Education Nation

While it was primarily geared for younger kids, Obama addressed the topic of education on Tuesday of this week.

I Got Four Problems But An Integral Ain't One

Problem: You're in over your head.

College is a huge change in lifestyle, especially if you're living at school. Not only is the core of your life changing, you're also being presenting with so many new things that want to be a part of you're new life. These could include but are not limited to, people, Greek life and/or clubs, jobs and your course work. Taking on all of the latter together is not only hard but will probably lead to burn out.

Thankfully, for most Freshman that're reading this, it is still the start of your year and you can implement the following without dissapointing too many people. The first and most important thing to remember is that school comes first, in front of anything. Yes, even that situation you're thinking about right now. If you don't know how the work load in college is going to be, don't do anything else besides school the first semester. That way you'll have a better idea of what you're able to handle. 

Problem: You've lost your drive.

If the ability to keep going for long term goals wears off, it's okay. If this happens to you start rewarding yourself in small increments. Like purchasing an album or two after doing well on a test, or buying yourself something from the vending machine after a successful hour of studying. If you are having trouble staying contrated try the FOCUS method. 

On the other side, if you want to give yourself a "major interest check-up" to see if you are still interested in the classes you will be taking. Chances are after the first year and half or two years of school you'll have changed. So the major you might have wanted when you were applying in high school might not be as cool or easy as you thought.  

Problem: After turning 21 bars are more fun than books.

If you haven't tried to get into a bar while being a minor, becoming 21 is a big step. Once this milestone is reached, there's a lot less work when it comes to getting alcohol.  In this case alcohol helps you procrastinate even more than ever. The problem here is that the futuremindedness that got you in this mess called college has been abandoned. Let's get it back.

Drinking should be reserved for special occaisions like, birthdays, holidays, Saturdays and other days like that. So to start drinking on a Tuesday just because there is nothing to do besides school work is a bad idea.  A solution that will help get back on the ball is to start planning for your future, whether it's grad school or getting a job. After looking at requirements for admission or an application for an internship, you'll hopefully get back to the books because it'll greatly improve your situation once you've gotten a degree.

Problem: You're running out of money.

There are a lot of options for making money, you could become an resident assistant or get another kind of assistantship that will help you out. Plus, internships don't have to be a summer only activity. See what's available around your college or university.

When you're looking at taking on more loans make sure you've read the fine print for interest rates and pay back procedures. Oh, and you could always have a passive income like this.

Have you had any of these problems something similar? Comment below to share!

Image: PhD. Comics