Friday, June 5, 2009 by Kelly Sutton Yesterday I was lucky enough to get on the phone to interview Monica Rankin, a professor at UT Dallas. I discovered Monica earlier in the week after seeing a post on ReadWriteWeb about how she used Twitter in one of her classes. Enjoy!
HackCollege Interview with Monica Rankin [MP3 Audio]
Click through for the full transcript.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 by Kelly Sutton Hey! You look like you're having a wonderful summer day! How about I bring you down just a tad with a graphic I found? Okay!
Click through for an infographic that shows the average student loan debt of anyone who graduated this past May by state. The "winner"? Iowa of all states.
Student Debt by State [via Education Online]
Worried about your loans? Make sure you didn't accidentally sign up for some high-rate private loans.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 by Kelly Sutton Has the latest Internet addiction actually been made relevant by a prof at UT Dallas? Quite possibly.
Professor Monica Rankin from UT Dallas observed the technologies (some) of her students were using and decided to adapt her lectures. Given that her typical class has 90 students in it, discussions become nearly impossible. This is similar to a system that Harvard has implemented that Diana Kimball discussed during the educational panel I was on at SXSW 2009. (Download an audio recording here.) With the UT Dallas Twitter system, TAs monitor the "backchannel" during class and follow up with @-replies or direct messages.
Professor Rankin starts off each class with the specialized hashtag for the current lecture. This allows everyone in class to track the discussion. Participation is not requried, but encouraged.
This video below is a good 5-minute summary of how her class works. It's a little propagandalistically (is that a word?) positive, but the students' accounts are convincing nonetheless.
Now if only Twitter supported mathematical formulas...
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 by Chris Lesinski 
Sunday at LMU: National Laundry Day. The following is a guest post courtesy of Justin Burklow ('10) of the University of the Incarnate Word who won our finals week 24-hour Guest Post Showdown. This post earned him a Matrix Pro smart phone and $100 at AT&T.
Massive piles of laundry haunt the average college student (or Mom on the weekends back home) and going starkers isn’t really an option. Having survived several years of college, months of traveling, and now dealing with an economic recession, I have devised several methods of keeping laundry costs down. You can use these tips on your escapades over the summer, to butter up the parental units by saving their money, or just to store in the noggin for next semester.
The fungus-growing, dandruff-spreading classmate wearing the sweats that can be smelt five rows over is an expert at this. Do not turn into him... but you can learn from his methods. I’ve found I can wear a shirt at least twice before putting it in the laundry due to smells or stains. Pants (especially jeans) can last a week. Do not experiment with underwear or socks; it doesn’t work. By wearing your clothes more than once before washing, it cuts effort, electricity use, quarters, and clothing getting spin-cycle damage.
Raise your hand if you’ve noticed the person who wears the same shirt all the time. Don’t be that guy either. The point is two-fold. Use your hangers or buy a clothes tree to let your multi-use clothes air out for a couple days while sporting different styles. This prolongs their use keeps you looking snazzy, saving you washes and friends.
Not always an option for the inmates of dormville, but if you are lucky enough to live in a house or apartment, you can employ this method recommended by many home economists. Attaching your threads to a stout line after a dunking saves all the quarters or electricity used in drying. It also eliminates wear and tear from lint collectors and gives you a couple minutes of therapy hanging clothes up in the glorious sun.
I should be getting some sort of kickback from the company for this... but I’m not. This underwear can be worn consecutively all semester with just a quick washing in the sink and hanging up to dry for 15 minutes each night. While this sounds worse than borrowing intimates from a Wookie, it’s hygienic, comfortable, and saves you from having to go commando.
Wear long and prosper!
Monday, May 25, 2009 by Luke Turcotte You’ve all heard the stories, whether you like it or not there’s agood chance you up and coming Freshman are going to fall victim to the “Freshman 15”. Eating well, exercising and whatever diet secret this month’s edition of Shape magazine unveils are all great forms of defense against a 18/F/California’s worst nightmare. Unfortunately, most Freshman don’t realize they’ve put on a few extra pounds until Mom makes that sly
Photo credit to Flickr user Qinn remark at Thanksgiving. Here’s a simple way to keep an eye on your weight so that you can make the appropriate changes before your jeans begin to feel a little snug.
1. Buy a scale.
Dorms don’t typically come equipped with scales, however this simple piece of equipment will give you a huge advantage over your classmates in the fight against flab.
2. Track your weight.
This step can be as simple or elaborate as you like. For most, knowing your current weight is enough to keep the pounds off. By keeping track on a daily basis, you can adjust the variables in your lifestyle quickly and effortlessly to resist drastic weight fluctuation. Personally, I use a neat little iPhone app called Weightbot to record my weight each morning. Rotating the phone brings up some cool little graphs displaying your weight over time. Keep in mind that you should record your weight at the same time each day.
Tracking your weight on a daily basis is by no means the absolute solution to keeping the weight off at school. It’s simply a tool to keep you in control and give you the power to make changes before it's too late.
Freshman, I wish you the best of luck.
Saturday, May 23, 2009 by Chris Lesinski 
Image courtesy makeyousayhmm via FlickrWe know you love that cold pizza for breakfast -- but what if you want to get a little classy? Let's make that pizza hot!
Putting pizza in the refrigerator will break down the chemicals inside the dough, which gives it that bummer, tough texture the next day. (I know what you're thinking: Do not attempt to leave pizza out at room temperature. That's gross.) You're only going to make it even more rubbery by putting it in the microwave or oven, which zaps the moisture inside.
As ridiculous as it sounds, the best way to reheat pizza is over the stove. Put a burner on very low heat and throw a slice on a griddle pan or even a plain old skillet. Think of it like a one-sided quesadilla. The bottom will get nice and crispy while the cheese melts to a perfect state of matter on top. Crank up the heat or cover the pan if you're willing to forfeit quality for speed.
If you live in a place without the luxury of a stove, you might be better off just leaving it cold.
Thursday, May 21, 2009 by Kelly Sutton I just came across this rather disturbing article on the LA Times. HackCollege mentioned the loan crisis last summer when an out-of-court settlement was made regarding big lenders and schools being in bed together.
This article shows how big lenders try to blur the lines between privately- and federally-backed loans. Read the article and try to not shit your pants.
Student loans turn into crushing debt for unwary borrowers [LA Times]
Sunday, May 17, 2009 by Kelly Sutton 
Sometimes we wish HP would just give us all the gear for us to keep.Hello everybody! So we're really excited to be working Hewlett Packard and the NBA in promoting HP's newest student-friendly laptop, the HP dv2.
To kick things off, HP and the NBA are running 2 contests.
The first contest is a doozy, the winner will get to travel with the Kevin Garnett as he plays a game at home in Boston and on the West coast. Oh, and some goodies from HP. You can sign up for that one by entering at a landing page that they've set up: http://hp.com/go/nba3
The second contest is exclusive only to the HackCollege loyal and other blog readers. You've got the possibility of winning either
To win this second one, you just have to spam your friends on Twitter. (That link will fill out a pre-made tweet with some default text.) To be entered, all you have to do is mention @HackCollege, @NBA and HP in a tweet. We'll randomly select a winner from our Twittarmy.
Thanks for entering and this is only part one of this promotion... stay tuned for more.