Three Ways to Take Advantage of Summer School

She read the tips, and look how happy she is. Image courtesy of Flickr user Città Di Modena. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Summer school is a weird time. A lot of folks are there because they more of less have to be--they failed the class before, they need it for their major, or it's a general education requirement--and don't want to be there. The pace is insane. It's school, but... not.

It doesn't have to be like that, though. I'm in summer school now, and though it is a strange environment, it's not a bad one. Here are three ways I've taken advantage of summer school--it's not too late for you to do the same.

Get closer to your professors: I'm in the process of moving from a campus where classes max out at about 33 students to a campus where intro lectures can easily be 150 students large. The class that I'm in, an intro chemistry section, would normally be on the large end for my school. However, because it's a summer session, there's only about 40 students. Because of the smaller class size, I actually have an opportunity to form a relationship with my professor by going to office hours and speaking up in class. Since summer session can be pretty brutal as far as pace goes, make sure to make an impression so that the professor doesn't just think of you as a name come exam time.

Make class friends: If you're feel like it's hard to meet new people in class during the school year because you're always running off to your next class, summer school's for you. Most folks are only taking one or two classes, so they're not as immediately busy once class ends. If you're having trouble and want to talk to a student who knows what's up, or you just want to make a new friend, summer school's great--people actually have time. This is particularly helpful if you're taking a summer course in your major area, where you're likely to see the same people again--summer school ups your chances of seeing a friendly face come the regular school year.

Learn a subject without lapsing: If your school requires you to take multiple semesters of a language, or you're in a series course (chem I and II, for example), it can be helpful to take at least one of the courses in the summer. For languages in particular, you can speed up your learning process by taking the first course during your second summer session and enrolling in the second course come fall semester. Unlike a fall/spring course pairing, you don't have a month between courses to forget things. This means that you'll retain knowledge without having to relearn it, which can be a lifesaver during the school year. You already have enough to worry about without having to relearn old material, so take advantage of the summer session to make that happen.

Summer school has its downsides, but on the whole it can be a pretty rewarding experience (and it certainly beats sitting on the couch, if that's your other option). Do you have any summer school tips that you've found helpful? Let us know in the comments!

Incoming Freshmen Series: How To Stop Partying Like a Freshman

This isn't your momma's party anymore. Photo courtesy of decafinata. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.This is the third post of the Incoming Freshmen Series. Read our introduction and our first post on style and second post on finance for more information, and stay tuned this week for our upcoming posts.

What better day to talk about partying on Wasted Wednesday? For most freshmen, alcohol is a foreign object. It'd be naive to pretend partying doesn't happen in high school, but it's certainly a different breed. There are much more people who drink in college, partially because Mom and Dad aren't over their shoulder, and usually because those who are legally able to drink become legally able while they are in college.

Partying is an odd animal - unlike style or spending, having experience partying pre-college is actually a detriment. In fact, high school partying is a close cousin of partying like a freshman - the intentions are not to enjoy the company of friends and others while enjoying a nice adult beverage, it's get as blitzed as quickly as possible. The more you don't remember, the better your night was. Total freshman move.

In large schools like mine, reputation doesn't spread as quickly as it does in high school. But if you were that kid who passed out in the quad and was woken up by the University Police that one night, it probably won't be the best way to start college. After the jump, there's tips on how to start your college experience on the right foot while partying - the right way.

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How To Prepare for Post-Graduation Now - Establish Who You Are

Before you can spread your wings and take flight after senior year, take time to prepare for it now. Photo courtesy of mikebaird. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.On Monday, I wrote about how to prepare yourself for life after senior year of college by building up your network of contacts. Today's post is about establishing who you are to make yourself stand out in a pool of applicants. By doing this before your senior year starts, you can really build up the brand of who you are.

Create an Online Presence

It is becoming more and more common for hopeful future graduates to create for themselves an online presence. This presence embodies all that you are and what you want to be. It can include your LinkedIn profile, Twitter, your own website, etc, etc. Take a few moments to research your name and see what comes up. Do you have a web presence? If you do, does it say what you want it say? Because of the increase integration of technology and social networking with professional industries, it is important to be present online. I have been told by several people that they don't even consider job applicants if they don't have some kind of online presence.

Take control. Create your own website and craft it to display your greatest achievements and professional strengths. Sites like Wordpress or Tumblr are probably the best to start out on, but there are other landing page sites that you might prefer. Use this page to show off the best parts of yourself-- photography, video, writing, etc.

Use your Twitter to follow professionals from your industry. Talk to them, engage in conversation to get advice or just to establish yourself in that field. The more you are geared towards your professional in your online presence, the more respectable you seem. It may take some trial and error to figure out where you want to be, but an online presence can get you noticed by other professionals in your field. Start building it up now so it will be strong once you enter your senior year.

I'm still working on my own website, but for an example, check out HackCollege's Shep McAllister's website that sets out his achievements and general awesomeness.

Start or Become Involved with Side Projects

When you graduate college and begin to search for life afterwards, you want to be able to walk away with more than just a degree. Build something, expand on something already established that shows off whatever skills you have. For me, it's writing. I write for this site, I write for myself, I write about things that matter to me in my own time. Whatever your passion is, even if it's not necessarily related to what you want to do professionally, go for it. Make a project, even if it's just little. Do something outside of school that shows that you are capable of executing something on your own. 

Polish Your Resume

We've had many, many posts on how to improve and polish your resume. This is, however, not a one-and-done thing. In college, you need to be constantly updating and reviewing your resume to make sure it is at its absolute best. Read up on a variety of resume-related articles to get a well-rounded idea of what professionals are looking for. Keep it simple, but make it stand out. Do not include anything from your high school years. Include only the most important and significant achievements to keep from clogging up your resume and taking away from your truly remarkable ahcievements.

Your resume will always need several extra pairs of eyes to look at it. Ask your boss or coworkers to look over your resume and give you suggestions for what a resume in your industry should look like. Ask your professors, your advisor, or your university's guidance counselors to review it. The more people who look at it and approve it, the more polished it becomes.

Look for Part Three of how to prepare yourself after graduation on Friday.

What other tips do you have for preparing yourself for life after college? Let us know in the comments!

[via USAToday College and HerCampus]

Guest Post: Broke, But No Time For a Real Job? Create Your Own!

Zac made a business out of rooting Android Phones, and says you could do the same with almost any skill. Photo courtesy of Flickr user Pittaya and licensed under CC by 2.0

Today's guest post is from Zac Sweers, a rising junior at the University of Texas in Austin. Zac loves tech, especially Android, and even made a business out of his ability to root Android phones. You can check out his popular how-to videos at his YouTube channel.

So you're in college, and you need cash. Unfortunately, most of your fellow students are in the same boat as you. Enough to safely say your boat is more like an unpleasant cruise ship full of broke people. Jobs are the easy solution, but sometimes you don't have time for a real job with all of your partying and gaming "studying", right?

I was in a similar position coming into the fall of last year. I had the near-obligatory tanked GPA from freshman year, and subsequently no time to get a real part-time job. My parents send me a monthly check for rent and bills, with some extra for food and leisure, and I was essentially living from check to check.

I had an HTC Evo 4G, and around October I researched how to root it, and subsequently ROM's and all that jazz. Now, for those of you that have attempted this yourself, you know researching this is ridiculous kinda hard. After I got the hang of it though, it was easy. I was still an economics major at the time, and so my thought process was:

"Man, this was hard ----> I bet other people have trouble with this too ----> *with arrogance* I'm really tech-savvy, and if I had trouble with this, then most other people probably REALLY have trouble with this ----> I bet people would pay me to do this for them."

Read on to hear about Zac's experience in the rooting business.

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LinkedIn Quietly Adds Student-Tailored Profile Options

Several new optional sections for LinkedIn profiles are designed to make students feel less inadequate.

I'd imagine that most students savvy enough to read HackCollege have a LinkedIn profile set up, but if you're anything like me, you don't check it particularly often.

LinkedIn isn't really designed for students; it's all about showing off your work history and accomplishments in the business world. But beyond the odd internship or summer job, most college students haven't yet built a robust resume. Sure, you may be president of the student counsel, and you may have won a prestigious scholarship to your school, but there hasn't been a great place on LinkedIn to highlight these scholarly accomplishments.

This has changed with the addition of five new profile sections designed to put your in-class achievements front and center.

Projects: - Every student churns out several projects each semester, both independently and as part of a group, and occasionally they are actually impressive. The new projects section is perfect for showing off the best of them

Honors & Awards - Between scholarships, Dean's Lists, and departmental awards, college can sometimes feel like an end-of-season pizza party for a middle school soccer team, but still, it's not a bad idea to brag about your most important honors to potential employers.

Organizations - Practically every school has a few hundred student-run organizations. Stick with it long enough, and you'll probably be an officer in one. Bonus points if you start your own.

Test Scores - It seems silly to me to put your SAT or GRE scores on a public resume, but LinkedIn's description though mentions that this would also be a good place to add your GPA.

Courses - Not so much a place for an exhaustive course list as a way to highlight the most rigorous classes you've attempted. I'd probably skip this one along with test scores, but it may come in handy for science majors looking to stand out.

While hardly game-changing, the new sections are nice for students who feel self conscious about their barren LinkedIn profile.

[LinkedIn Blog via USA Today College]

HackCollege-pocalypse is Coming to an End

Sorry about that! You may have noticed the site was down for a good part of yesterday, and may actually still be down in a few corners of the Earth. There was a screwup when we tried to transfer the domain to a new registrar, and the result was a lot of frustration. Here's a quick rundown of what you missed yesterday.

• Sean wrote about how to stop spending money like a freshman
• I gave my take on Amazon's new textbook rental system
• Laura told a harrowing tale of being overly-reliant on your smartphone

We don't anticipate any more trouble going forward, but Tweet at us if you notice anything amiss. Love you all!

Incoming Freshmen Series: How To Stop Spending Like a Freshman

Hopefully you'll have more than just $2. Photo courtesy of Molly DG. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.This is the second post of the Incoming Freshmen Series. Read our introduction and our first post on style for more information, and stay tuned this week for our upcoming posts.

If your college experience was anything like mine, it was like hitting the big time. I didn't work in high school until my senior year, and those last few months were torturous knowing college was on the horizon - especially when some of my friends were already there. So when my parents told me they'd provided a monthly allowance for me, I was pumped. Granted, I needed to pay for food, but I finally had money of my own to spend as I pleased, without someone breathing down my back.

College is a brilliant place where some bright lights never burn out - especially those of Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, and McDonald's. Not to mention those late night diner runs and bar runs. Whether you're up late studying or partying, there's always late-night pizza in the back of your mind. Food is just the beginning - not to mention costs for entertainment like sports packages, HBO, Netflix (price hikes and all), and of course those fun random road trips. College is a beautiful place, but damn, can it be expensive.

Let's not forget to mention those credit card scams and companies who live to prey on college students. It's a hard world out there for a college student trying to practice frugality, but it can be done. After the jump, some tips on keeping your hard-earned (or not-so-hard-earned) dinero in your wallet.

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Amazon Offers Kindle Textbook Rentals, Selection Underwhelms

Your Kindle textbooks will sync between all your devices...if you can find your books in the Kindle store.Amazon has made a semi-surprising jump into the textbook rental market, offering some of their textbooks as rentable downloads for the Kindle and Kindle apps. The announcement would have been more exciting had it been in conjunction with the release of the rumored Kindle tablet, but it could still come in handy when buying books for the upcoming school year.

Amazon's big advantage in the race is their wide assortment of Kindle access points, with apps available for Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7 (not to mention, you know, the Kindle itself). Since the service syncs your notes and highlights between devices seamlessly, you could cram for a test on your PC in the dorm, and double check vocab on the way to class on your iPhone. No competing service can offer this level of ubiquitous access.

Another great feature is the ability to set your own rental period, paying for anything from 30 days to an entire year. Most e-textbook services offer rentals for an entire semester, but there are plenty of times where you may only need the book for a month or so. Amazon claims up to 80% savings on the list price of the print edition if you only rent for a month, but obviously your mileage will vary.

Of course, the Achilles Heel of e-textbooks to this point has been availability, and so far the selection looks pretty grim. An Amazon search for the word "textbook" returns almost a half million print titles, and only 1,876 Kindle titles, and not all of those offer rentals yet. In my experience, it's been the same story for everything from CourseSmart to NookStudy, but if anyone can twist the publishers' arms it's Amazon, so hopefully this will prove to be the breakthrough moment we've been waiting for.

[Via Techcrunch]