Weekend Fun: We're Famous!

This past weekend, the Target back-to-school circular went out. Throughout the catalog, snippets of college blogger wisdom were sprinkled in. Two members of the HackCollege staff were featured in the catalog--Laura's piece about sleep can be seen here, and my piece on student blogging is here. We even got strange-but-cool drawn headshots--mine's the one on the left.

If you would like to see the actual catalog and, y'know, buy things, it's online here. I can personally recommend the phone the Target people placed nearest my head, as it's the same one that you might remember from this review.

The ladies on staff aren't the only ones who've been up to interesting things, though. Our very own Shep went planking (planked?) with the Spurs coyote. We're very proud.

Incoming Freshmen Series: Introduction

Make this your best s-t-a-r-t yet. Photo courtesy of Flickr user . Licensed under CC-BY 2.0It's just like the first day of kindergarten all over again. Your parents drop you off, there's an emotional (sometimes tearful) goodbye, and the brave new educational world stands before you. Granted, it's not a perfect parallel - there's the stressful move, you share a room instead of a cubby, and there's no pick-up line at the end of the day. College is the best time of your life, but for freshmen, it's also a scary new frontier.

But here at HackCollege, we're here to help. Over the next week, I'll be doling out tips for some of our newest college students on how not to be mistaken for a first-year in the Incoming Freshman Series. In no way should any first-year student be ashamed of their freshman status, but this will help avoid common mistakes that could derail one's personal and professional growth in college.

So what's in store? Monday I'll be telling freshmen how to dress so as not to be confused for a freshman. It might be a good idea to leave the Class of 2011 shirts and your letterman jackets at home.  Tuesday I'll be focusing on the new financial independence that college grants and why that "free" t-shirt might not be the greatest idea. This Wasted Wednesday, we'll be talking about how to party. Spoiler alert: blacking out every time is highly discouraged. Thursday, we'll hit the books and talk about how to study smarter, and Friday, we'll be focusing on the involvement and employment side of college and how freshmen students can hone their networking skills.

The Incoming Freshman Series is meant for the newest pupils in our university halls and quads, but it is a valuable refresher course for all college students. See you on Monday for a phrase I never thought I'd utter - HackCollege's best tips on college fashion. 

Budget Booze for Both Price and Calorie Content

Budgeting is fun! Image courtesy of Flickr user Chris Waits. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.This week on Lifehacker/Mr. Money Mustache, folks have been discussing the idea of creating a dedicated alcohol budget. The suggestion in the article breaks down to an idea that most people should be getting drunk once a week, and so should budget six units of alcohol at about $1.50 a unit, leading to a budget of about $9 a week. The six drinks can be consumed as you wish (one a day or all at once), and they roll over. Good times!

The basic principle behind the article is sound. I've started doing something similar during the summer in an effort to lose some box wine weight.* However, the amount that it takes to get drunk and the per unit price of alcohol are perhaps off, particularly since the article's directed towards the middle aged and not college folks. If you're interested in doing a similar alcohol budgeting plan, here are some ways to modify the plan for a college student.

First, figure out a realistic drink budget and how much you would like to be consuming. (A good place to start is getting pretty tipsy twice a week--adjust as needed.) The six drinks a week in the original article probably aren't going to cut it, and you may wish to spend more or less than $9 a week depending on your budget.**

Second, figure out the number of calories you would like to come from alcohol in your weekly budget. Again, this is personal preference--if you're trying to lose the freshman 15, this will change things. Divide your weekly calorie allotment from booze into the number of drinks that you've decided on. This is the number of calories you should be aiming for as a maximum per drink. Use something like this handy tool to find out what booze is in your calorie range, and pick from among that list in order to figure out what you can afford. This way you can avoid the excess spending in the original article and the extra alcohol calories that are a worry to heavy-drinking college students. Cheers!

* Don't judge me.

** That being said, if you're looking to spend less you might want to explore homebrewing. It's fun and allows you to make booze in your closet!

Guest Post: Warning Signs of an Expensive Roommate

 If your roommate pinches pennies at Costco, he may save you money on bills and expenses. Photo courtesy of Flickr user David McKelvey and licensed under CC by 2.0

Today's guest post is from Kiley Theiring, a student at Chapman University majoring in Film Production and minoring in Japanese. She like to write and play video games in her sapre time. Give her a follow on Twitter at @loveglitterart

As if college tuition wasn’t already high enough, living on campus can mean paying astronomical prices for your sub-par college housing. Even if you like the dorms on campus, you’re definitely not going to want to stay there all four years of your college career. Depending on your school, living off campus can end up being much cheaper, especially if you play your cards right. Finding cheap places to live shouldn’t be too hard, but if you really want to slash costs, carefully consider who you’re going to be living with for the next few months. There are many reasons why choosing good roommates can save you money.

1.  More roommates mean less rent. Sometimes, it pays to dish out extra money for a larger two bedroom apartment. While it may be pricey to upgrade to a more spacious living area, a large two bedroom floor plan can easily house four people, which means you can potentially save more than the upgrade costs. Right now I’m living comfortably with three other roommates in a two bedroom apartment, and we’re all only paying $370 a month each!
2. Find a roommate who frequents Costco. Keeping enough food in the house for four people is much more challenging than just shopping for yourself. Initially when I moved in with my new roommates, we would find our entire pantry empty after just refilling it a few days before. I soon found out that one of my roommates had a Costco membership, and we have been saving money ever since. Buying in bulk at Costco is much more cost effective than trying to make frequent, inexpensive trips to the local grocery store. With four people footing the bill, our wallets can escape our shopping trips relatively unscathed.
3. Don’t live with party hosts. Everyone can appreciate a good college party, but make sure you don’t live with the person who loves to host them. Frequent crazy college parties at your place will inevitably lead to damages to your house or apartment. Damages could result in pricey fixes, especially if it’s something your landlord will have to take care of. Not to mention, your landlord may not let you sign the contract next year/month if they get fed up with your constant parties and repairs.
4. Room with busy people. If your roommates are constantly out at school, work, or whatever it is they do, it means that they won’t be sitting at home racking up utility bills. Choosing a roommate that is prone to sit around and play video games all day long will undoubtedly drive up your electricity bill. You can’t just let your apartment climb to 100 degrees or drop to 60, so whoever stays home will end up cranking the AC or the heater. To avoid paying big bucks for things you aren’t even using, try finding roommates with busy schedules or at least schedules similar to yours so you won’t be paying for nothing.
5. Find out what you need, and then find a roommate that has it. When you move in to your own place, you quickly discover lots of things that you need that you didn’t even know about. Some apartments don’t come with fridges, microwaves, or even lighting. Other things you’ll need - whether you think you will or not - are things like tools, cleaners, and storage. Costs for all this stuff can add up quick. Buying these items by pooling everyone’s money isn’t a good idea either because when you move out, there will certainly be fights about who gets what. The best thing to do is try to figure out who has what and choose your roommates based on who will bring the most diverse selection of stuff you’ll need.
6. Financially responsible roommates save you from headaches. Finding roommates who are very money conscious can help you save a ton. Late fees can put a huge dent in your monthly budget, but financially responsible people are much more likely to make their payments in time. They’ll be more careful about spending too when you are out on shopping trips, which makes it even easier for you to keep your spending down.
7. Eco-friendly roommates are your friends too. Eco-friendly roommates are great to have around. They love recycling, so they can help keep you from having to buy things new over and over again. They probably won’t want to waste electricity or water either, so they can help keep your utility bills low. Chances are, if they’re that concerned with the environment, they are probably also more responsible fiscally as well.

How to Get a Spotify Invite, Today

If you've been on a computer today, you've probably heard about Spotify's long-awaiting arrival on US shores. Spotify has long been the most popular online music service in Europe, and it's easy to see why. Social playlists, streaming and offline access to over 15 million songs, and a great mobile app make the app well worth $10/month (though there is a free and $5 tier as well).

As of now, the service is invite only, but luckily there are a few ways around the access wall.

Klout

This is how I got on the service earlier this morning. Klout has 100,000 invites (hurry!) to give away to online influencers based on their Klout score. I'm not sure what the threshold is, but I got in with a 38 (though that was recently buoyed by my social media whoring in New York). Anyone with a few hundred Twitter followers should be able to nab an invite, so check your status here.

The British Ex-Pat Method

Adam Dachis at Lifehacker came up with this brilliant method. I won't copy all the steps, but basically you will need to sign up as a citizen of the UK, and then change your country in the settings after you've downloaded the client. Not sure how long the loophole will be open, so hurry!

Update: The Coke Method

Coca-Cola is giving away invites now too. Grab them here!

Imagine Cup 2011: What Hacking College is All About

Imagine Cup wrapped up with a lavish awards ceremony Wednesday at Lincoln Center.

The 2011 Microsoft Imagine Cup has come to a close, and while there may have been some surprises at the final awards ceremony, the podium order isn't really all that important.

It may sound cliche, but every participant in the Imagine Cup Finals is truly is a winner. Out of nearly 400,000 participants, only 400 made it to New York for the final. Team OneBuzz, hailing from New Zealand and hoping to defend last year's title, shockingly was left out of the top three in software design. Even so, they are already fieldtesting and raising funding, so an Imagine Cup award would have been the icing, not the cake for this talented bunch. Team Note-Taker from the U.S. on the other hand finished second in the category, taking home a cash prize and another feather for its cap.

Of the other teams I covered, Team Lifelens finished third in mobile development, Team Dragon finshed third in mobile game design, and WickedTeam finished third in XNA Game Design. I didn't get to see Lifelens' competition, so I can't say how I feel about their ranking, but to be frank, I'm a little shocked that the two game entrants I covered didn't finish higher. Still though, I have little doubt that they will all be wildly successful in the years to come. If you want to see the complete list of winners, you can check them out on the Imagine Cup site.

Imagine Cup was the best possible showcase of all that HackCollege stands for. These students all looked beyond the classroom and created projects that are far more unique and impressive than the degrees they work toward. Many will go on to create businesses out of the work they did for Imagine Cup, and others will use the exposure and experience to land dream jobs. Many will use what they learned to overcome their nation's societal burdens, and a few will build solutions for their own physical limitations. Whether they won or lost, all will leave New York knowing they can make the world a better place, and they can even do it between classes. Imagine Cup is a lesson to all of us that college, while difficult and time consuming, is not an excuse to avoid doing something else; it's an opportunity to do whatever you dream.

Czech Students Develop Graphically Stunning Game for Forest Fire Awareness

WickedTeam from the Czech Republic developed a commercial-grade RTS firefighting game to raise awareness about fire safety. I wish I could buy it today!

Though it may not directly address an issue like Team Dragon's asthma treatment game, WickedTeam's entry into the XNA Game Development competition was certainly the most technically impressive game on display here at Imagine Cup, particularly coming from a team of only three students.

FireFighters: Whatever it Takes is a real time strategy game for Windows designed to raise awareness about forest fire safety. While the educational aspect is important, what's particularly impressive is the fact that it looks like it was developed by Blizzard, not a group of students.  While FireFighters might not reach as many hearts and minds as Smokey Bear, it looked to be by far the most commercially-viable game at the competition.

The goal of the game is, unsurprisingly, to put out a forest fire using the myriad of tools at your disposal. The player can deploy firefighters, firetrucks, paramedics, retardant-dispersing planes, and even Chuck Norris in an attempt to stop the flames, and purchase upgrades using in-game currency to give them a fighting chance. By the time the game hits the market, the team hopes to have incorporated helicopters and paratrooper-style smokejumpers into the game, which is nothing if not badass. All the while, the player must be finding sources of water, building firebreaks with abandoned bulldozers, and rescuing helpless campers surrounded by the flames.

The game is built on a custom 3D engine, and the graphics are drop-dead gorgeous. The advanced water effects, flame animations, and lighting details are on par with big-budget RTS games like Starcraft, which are developed over several years by hundreds of full-time employees. In fitting with the theme of the competition, the game features an expansive educational section with information about firefighting techniques, historical forest fires, and even realtime updates of ones currently burning. 

I highly encourage you to check out their two minute video on the Imagine Cup website, because  unfortunately I can't embed it. Keep an eye out, because this one may very well be on store shelves soon. 

UPDATE: WickedTeam finished third in the XNA category. Have to say I'm surprised they weren't higher.

How To Nail Those Tough Interview Questions

How are we supposed to answer those goddamn questions?! Photo courtesy of Horia Varlan. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.

Interviews can be stressful. A fabulously wonderful job can await for you on the other end, and sometimes the only thing that separates you from that job is an interview. The toughness of an interview obviously varies from job to job, from interviewer to interviewer. However, there are always those couple of questions that many people often find difficult to handle. This article from Passive Panda gives hopeful interviewees great tips on how to handle interview issues, including those hard-to-answer interview questions.

What Are Your Weaknesses?

I hate this question, even though I know it's an important question to ask and answer. It's a tricky question because if you just say something like "I'm a perfectionist," it seems as though you're not taking the question seriously enough. And of course, no one actually wants to say a real weakness because then you come off as a bad candidate. The trick that this article suggests is to say a real weakness, but one that is not necessarily related to the job that you are applying for.

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