It's Back-To-School Week with Lifehacker and HackCollege!

Wow, summer seems to go by faster every year.  Most of you should probably be in the midst of packing your things and getting back on a semi-healthy sleep schedule, because back to school season is here again!  For the third year in a row we're working with Lifehacker to share our back to school tips to the masses, so be on the lookout for some of our content over on their site all week.  Here's an up-to-date list of all the articles we've contributed this week:

• Spend a Semester Without Microsoft Office
• Build an RA Relationship for an Easier School Year
• Build a Sick Day Kit to Stay in Tip-Top Shape
• Break Free of Your School's Crappy Email Client
• The DIY Ultimate Note-Taking Notebook (Read Luke's follow-up here)
• Use Multiple Google Calendars to Balance Your College Life
• Being a Good Roommate and Dealing with Those Who Aren't
• Use a Weekly Review List to Stay a Step Ahead This Semester

If you're coming to the site via Lifehacker for the first time, feel free to look around; the keg's in the back.  You could also find us on Facebook or Twitter, if you're into that.  Below are a few posts from the summer that may suit your fancy.

• Picking a Landing Page: Flavors.me vs. Google Profile
• Idiotproofing your Facebook Photos and Videos
• Use a Hair Straightener to Combat Wrinkles
• Delete Your Middle School Self from the Internet
• Make the Most of Your Boring Internship
• Treat Your Wounds with a DIY Hotpack

Announcing CourseBoss: Easy Assignment Management for Professors

Hey Guys, remember me? It's been a little while since I've written here. I've been working away at blip.tv for almost three months now and it's going great. My co-worker Allan (who actually helped with the new site redesign) and I also have a nifty side project we just put online. It's called CourseBoss. CourseBoss makes it easy for professors to post and collect assignments online, all through a tried-and-tested technology: email. We're pretty proud of it.

Best of all, we've got a little referral program in place. That means that if you recommend your professor to the system, we will give you $10. Yep. $10. That's about 32 PBRs. When your professor is signing up for the system, make sure they type in your email address into the referrer field. We'll get you squared away right away. Thanks so much for your support.

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Students Now Compete with 50-Year-Olds for Internships

How could we ever hope to compete with the coffee-fetching ability of older generations? Photo courtesy of Flickr user Qole Pejorian and licensed under CC 2.0 And you thought your biggest obstacle to getting an internship was finding one that pays.  It turns out that as the economy bounces back and people start to re-enter the workforce, adults and highly-skilled workers are willing to work internships for minimum wage or less.  According to this CNN article, 23% of resume applications on Careerbuilder.com are now from workers who either have 10 years of experience, or who are 50 years old or more.  

I don't resent anybody, be they old or young, for applying for an internship.  Adult interns are indeed following a logical path back to full-employment and I applaud them for their initiative. That being said, this really sucks for college students.  When we apply for internships now, we aren't just competing with our peers; we're competing with 40 year olds who have complete resumes.  I do sympathize with experienced workers who are looking to land a new job, but it seems almost wasteful that people with decades of work experience might take opportunities away from 19 year olds who are desperate for their first foothold in the job market.  

Internships are unique in that relevant work experience isn't always a prerequisite to landing the job.  That said, my gut tells me that most employers want to give these opportunities to young people, so be sure to use youth to your advantage when interviewing.  I wouldn't directly address the issue of older applicants, but it can't hurt to highlight the fact that you have a unique perspective as a college student that could be a real asset to the company. 

Have you worked alongside any highly-experienced interns, or even lost out on a job to one?  Let us know in the comments.

[Via CNN]

Facebook Releases Mobile Check-Ins, Officially Abolishes Privacy on Earth

Think about that one friend of yours that uses Foursquare.  You know, the guy who whips out his phone every time you enter a new building to check in and share his location with the world.  Okay, now imagine that he's not only checking himself in, but he's checking you and all your friends in with him, sharing your current location against your will with all of your friends.  Yeah, that's basically what Facebook did tonight.

Bonus scenario: your friend is very drunk, and checks in you and the boys at the strip club. Your girlfriend logs into Facebook and sees this at the top of her news feed.  Keeps getting better, right?

There really isn't much else to say about this. It integrates with Foursquare and Gowalla, and right now it's only accessible through the iPhone app and touch.facebook.com. The only good I can see coming of this is that you can see which parties your friends are hitting up on Friday. It should be interesting to see how college students react to this as we roll back into campus this month. 

[Via Ars Technica]

So what do you all make of this? Are there any applications for the service that could make up for privacy concerns? Let us know in the comments.

The Printer Dilemma

Printers: The Bane of College Students' Existence. Image courtesy of Flickr user WilliamHook and licensed under CC by SA 2.0As everyone is gathering up their belongings to get ready to go back to school, there are a few things that students debate about bringing. Your gaming system? Hell yes. Your entire DVD collection? Probably just a few of your absolute favorites. That horribly ugly sweater your weird aunt gave you for Christmas last year? Pass.

But what about a printer?

Honestly, just about every college student can survive without a personal printer. In fact, for most, it’s easier and less expensive to use the university printers. Colleges should (I say “should” since I have, in fact, only printed at one college) have a fairly good and reliable printing system. They’re well-aware that students are printing all kinds of review packets, homework, and papers. Printing with university printers will cost you a small sum, but it usually isn’t a terrible fee. At Trinity, it costs about $.09 per page, so unless I’m printing a twelve page essay (which I occasionally do), it’s not even going to cost me over a dollar.

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HackCollege Summit 2010: Mission Accomplished

The first ever HackCollege Summit has officially wrapped up, and to say it was successful wouldn't begin to do it justice.  In addition to actually bringing our far-flung writers together for the first time in the site's history, the summit gave us the chance to make future plans for the site and, of course, have copious amounts of fun.

None of this would have been possible without the support of Intel, and we had a blast shooting videos for their YouTube page. Be on the lookout for them!  We also spent an afternoon in the Blip.tv office talking about where HackCollege has been, and where it is going.  Our eager freshman Sean even joined the table via Skype!  I probably can't share too many details at this point, but trust me, it's going to be a great year.

When we weren't at the conference table, there was no shortage of awesome stuff to do.  Mike and I saw a taping of the Jimmy Fallon show, we all checked out the offices of Squarespace and Blip.tv, and we ate at some of the most delicious restaurants I've ever experienced, just to name a few things.  If you would like to experience acute jealousy, then by all means check out the photo gallery below.

All-in-all it was a fantastic kickoff to the Fall semester, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy the site this year.  We're already making plans to get together again in Austin for SXSW, so hopefully we'll see some of you there.  

Has Your Computer Replaced Your "Stuff?"

How long could you function with a computer and nothing else? Image courtesy of Flickr user Johan Brook and licensed under CC by SA 2.0

It's been a pretty incredible few days over here at HackCollege.  A bunch of us got together in New York for a weekend, we're working with Lifehacker for their back-to-school week, and now our founder Kelly is the talk of the internet after the BBC featured him in this article.  

It's a great read, and Kelly's segment is all about one of his side projects, the Cult of Less. Kelly's used the site for the past year or so to get rid of everything he owns by cataloging all his possessions, and then (unless he wants to keep it) giving them away or selling them.  Having seen his apartment this weekend, I can vouch for the site's effectiveness.  His rationale is that the devices we carry around these days -- laptops, smartphones, tablets -- can do most of the things we used to rely on standalone items for.  

So what do you think?  What physical items have you replaced with apps and programs?  What can you still not live without?

Communicate Effectively at School to Get What You Need

Good communication will help you get what you need at school. Image courtesy of Flickr user Joss Fassbind. Licensed under CC 2.0 by-nc-nd.It’s nearly move-in week, and for most students, that means that they’re about to have to get to know a whole new slew of teachers, maintenance and custodial staff, IT people, and residence hall coordinators. These people are united by a common theme: they work for your school, and--at some point during your years there--you will need something only they can provide you. That’s where people skills come in.

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