Use Foursquare to Explore Around Your Campus

Check-in your way to a great school year! Photo by foursquare.

Need a laptop? Our Back to School series is brought to you this year by Intel. We've teamed up to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

A big part of going to college is trying new things. It's how you meet friends, discover passions, and become a more well-rounded, cultured person. Whether you go to school in a college town or a major metropolis, there are guaranteed to be interesting places and activities you have yet to explore. So this year, make it a goal to step outside your dorm room and visit a local park, popular restaurant or art museum every once in a while.

With it's robust social features and growing presence on university campuses, location-based social network Foursquare is the perfect tech-friendly way to create and keep track of a list of cultural experiences you want to try this school year. Foursquare recently announced the launch of a custom badge program for participating universities this fall, which sounds neat, but will initially be available at a limited number of schools. All users, however, can access and edit their personal to-do list through foursquare.com or on one of the Foursquare mobile apps. You can use this feature to compile all of the places you'd like to explore. Add a venue or a cool tip someone left for a venue. For example, if a friend left a tip for a restaurant suggesting a certain dish, you could add that tip to your to-do list as a reminder to yourself to order that dish when you go. 

If you need some ideas to get you started, try going on the Foursquare mobile application's Explore tab for popular locations around you. Also, Foursquare Lists just rolled out this month for personal users and business pages, so you might try seeing if your friends or popular local businesses have curated their own public lists. As you complete each item on your to-do list, mark it as "Done" on foursquare.com or on the app. 

Foursquare is a great tool for college students who want to make the most of their college experience by breaking out of their comfort zone and going to places they've never been. What places are on your Foursquare to-do list this school year? 

How to Build the Ultimate Beer Pong Table: Part 1

Beer Pong, also called Beirut, is a popular drinking game that is played by throwing a ping-pong ball into one of the oppositions beer-filled cups located on the opposite end of the table. The preferred target, plastic red Dixie/Solo cups are arranged in a pyramid formation of 10. Upon sinking a ball into the oppositions cup, your opponent must drink the cup’s contents. The first team to sink all the opponents cups wins.

It’s been a dream of mine to build a custom beer pong table. Sure, a dining room table will usually suffice for this frat-tastic drinking sport, but you must admit, there’s just something about playing on a table designed for the sole purpose of playing beer pong.

With some spare time on my hands, I set out build my own table. This three part guide will show you from start to finish how to turn a sheet of plywood into a beautiful beer pong playing field.

Today in Part 1, we’ll cover the table assembly and staining.

Click to read more ...

Back To School Podcast: Stand Out in Your Department

Getting good grades is only half the battle. You still want to stand out to your professors who can help you score internships, research opportunities, and even jobs after graduation. Today, Laura, Emily, and Shep share some advice on how to stand out in your major.

Note: we're using the html5 <audio>  tag for the media player, and it should work fine in Chrome and Safari. If your browser isn't supported, go ahead and download the .mp3 file here, or subscribe on iTunes.  

TweetMemeFace+: Being Friends with Professors

For instance, don't post this on Facebook. Image courtesy of Flickr user Jake The Snake. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

For me, the weirdest part of the transition from high school to college was that it suddenly became socially acceptable to be friends with professors on Facebook. I'm now privy to political links from my old academic advisor, the relationship status of the professor I TA'd for last semester, and 80's photos of my favorite English professor (which are hilarious). Having a small glimpse into the personal lives of my professors is amusing, and it allows them to keep track of what I'm up to, if they would like--useful for making sure they don't forget who I am.

But, with great power comes great responsibility. Here are some rules for keeping social media relationships with professors useful, amusing, and not-creepy.

Put them in their own group: I'm talking specifically about Facebook here--the public nature of Twitter should mean it's professor-safe already. Professors and other school administrators should go in their own Facebook group so that you can give that group custom privacy settings. If your Facebook is mostly populated by occasionally-stupid twenty-somethings (which it should be, since you're in college), make sure that they cannot see any content that is created by someone other than you, like wall posts from friends.

Don't complain about class where they can see you:  Professors should never let them see you criticize another professor personally, and they really shouldn't see you complaining about themselves. When it comes to negativity, hide the professors on status updates that are just complaining, and allow them to see ones where you're proposing action (like a petition or a protest). You don't want to seem annoying or put them in an awkward position--then they'll hide you.

Don't comment on their old photos: I find those 80's Miami Beach photos of my English professor that I mentioned a few paragraphs ago deeply amusing. However, I'm not going to comment on them because that is incredibly creepy--just like it would be if he commented on the photos I have posted of my recent beach trip. If the interaction could even possibly be misconstrued, don't do it.

Do comment on appropriate shared links: My old academic advisor is a southern historian. This spills over onto her Facebook page, where she posts pop commentary on the same subjects she does academic work with. The links are usually interesting, and I wouldn't have seem them without being friends with her. If a professor posts something like that, feel free to comment on the article--it makes you look engaged.

Wait until they're no longer evaluating you: Don't friend anyone--TA or professor--who is still in a position of power over you. All of the professors I'm friends with on Facebook (with the exception of one professor who friends all of his students) were added after I was done with whatever courses they were teaching. Academic advisors have some leeway, since they're unlikely to be grading you, but anyone else should be done teaching you before you start social networking--it saves hurt feelings and an appearance of impropriety.

Do you have any tips for being Facebook friends with professors? Do you have any topics you'd like to see in TweetMemeFace+? Let us know in the comments!

Video: Maximize Your Mini-Fridge Space with Common School Supplies

Can't fit all those beers in your tiny dorm fridge? Shep has a few tricks for maximizing your space using a few common school supplies.

If you don't have time to cool drinks down in the fridge, check out Kelly's tips for chilling a beer in less than five minutes

Back to School: Discriminate Your Social Life with Facebook and Twitter Lists

Lists are a good thing. As long as you know what they mean. Photo courtesy of Flickr user CC BY-2.0.From your residence hall floormates to your student organization compadres, college is not a hard place to meet friends. Leaving your hometown for the summer usually means your interest in your hometown friends' activities begins to wane - and isn't worth cluttering your News Feed or Timeline for the upcoming year.

That's where Facebook and Twitter lists come into effect. Don't want to hear about what's going on in Kalamazoo when you're in Ann Arbor or in Charlotte when you're in Chapel Hill? Technology has your fix.

It's worth noting that this can be a time-intensive project. I've got over 2000 Facebook friends and follow over 1000 people on Twitter, so discriminating people into lists by their location took a gigantic chunk of time. If you're in a similar boat, I recommend splitting this up over a couple days.

To create a friends list on Facebook, go to "Account" then "Edit Friends" in the top toolbar, then "Create a List", and select users for your list. It could be location or organization-based. On Twitter, it's a bit more complicated. Go to "Lists > Create a List" from your timeline. After adding a name and description and deciding whether or not you want to share this with the world (protip: if you debate it, go private), you'll go to your list of followers, click the gears icon, and add each user to your list individually.

Discrimination isn't ALWAYS a bad thing.

Back to School: Great On-The-Go Snacks for Your Busy Schedule

Trail mix is an awesome snack for super busy students. Photo courtesy of Flickr user ilovemypit. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Sometimes our college class schedules are too busy for us to even just sit down and spare a few minutes for a bite to eat. Or sometimes those lines in the dining hall at lunch time are way too long. At HackCollege, we love on-the-go snacking and have written posts about what the best snacks are. This year, I'll be adding a couple of things to that list so that you have a wider variety of snacks to choose from as you start off your busy year.

Trail Mix

Duh. Trail mix is the most awesomest thing ever when it comes to eating on-the-go. It's salty, it's sweet, and if you make it just right, it's chocolatey. The best part about it is that nuts are a great source of protein, so it won't just give you something to eat, it will actually hold you over until your next meal. College campuses usually have a great selection of trail mixes, or you could make your own by combining your favorite nuts, chocolate pieces, and dried fruit. Or you could check out former HackCollege writer Chris's own trail mix recipe.

Roasted Chickpeas

This is a really great alternative for those who have peanut allergies. Chickpeas are also a great source of fiber and protein, so they're a healthy choice as well. To roast chickpeas, simply rinse and dry them, toss them with olive oil, mix with your choice of seasoning, and bake them in the oven. Check out more about chickpeas here.

Whole Fruit

Fruit is not only good for you, it's a delicious and sweet snack. Pack an apple, banana, or my personal favorites little clemmentines. They're such a fresh break from processed food, and fit perfectly in a bag inside my backpack. The best part about whole fruit is that it takes about two seconds to put in a bag-- no prep time!

Sliced Vegetables

Just as healthy as fruit, we've got your vegetables now. Grab a cucumber and slice it into little chips, and hey,  you've got yourself a delicious, healthy snack to munch on as you hurry between classes. Baby carrots are my personal favorite quick veggie snack, but you could also have some celery, snap peas, and sliced bell peppers. To make the vegetables a little more filling, pack a small jar of peanut butter to add some protein to your snack.

What on-the-go snacks do you eat when you don't have time for a normal lunch? Let us know in the comments!

[via Wise Bread]

Back to School: How to Use Facebook to Master Drop/Add

My two friends with odd names who volunteered to be my test case. Screenshot taken by author.Ahh, the sight of parents lugging large items across campus and the parking situation a nightmare again - it must be time for college students to be heading back for the fall semester. And with heading back for the fall semester, the inevitable drop/add period for students returns. Now, it is the mighty warrior who masters this period - getting the class at the desired time right as another student drops it or dropping their class due to disinterest or difficulty - and we here at HackCollege like to equip our collegiate warriors with the beast weapons they can muster.

Enter Facebook. You've seen him around town before, usually prodding with notifications for FarmVille or The Sims Social and occasionally displaying that not-so-flattering picture. But did you know that Facebook, current sovereign king of social networking, can also help you get that easy 1000-level class you've always dreamed of?

With Facebook's new group chat feature, students can link up through mutual friends when they intend to drop a class and another friend wants to add it. I connected two random strangers who happened upon this state, and the drop/add was done as quickly as it was planned. Presto.

The recent changes to Facebook Chat have mixed reviews, but this solution easily provides students an outlet to enhance their academic experience.