The Care and Keeping of College Clubs

College clubs need two things: people and pizza. Image courtesy of Flickr user Silveria Neto. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.College clubs are like butterflies: beautiful to behold and terribly, terribly fragile. Because of the high turnover rate of club leaders and the fickleness of college students, clubs can be quick to die. There are, however, some things that you can do to make sure your club survives the summer season and flourishes in the coming school year.

Make sure people know who runs what: This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s possible that in the rush to head back home for the summer, club members may have forgotten who exactly is the president or the PR chair. If you’re an old club executive, make sure this is squared away. If you’re newly elected, make sure your school and your student government knows who you are and how to get in touch with you. This way they’ll let you know about those all-important club registration meetings with the Very Important Paperwork. As an added bonus, knowing who’s responsible for what will make it much easier to assign tasks to club leaders once the school year starts.

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Discuss Campus Weekly Roundup - July 9, 2010

Ramen is obviously a perennial favorite for campus culinaries. Photo courtesy of Flickr user crazytales562 and licensed under CC 2.0 The Discuss Campus roundup is back! If you haven't been to the site lately, you're missing out on some great discussion.  The free netbook is still up for grabs, so get in there and start answering questions!

Easy lunches that can be made in a dorm

What are some easy lunches that can be made in a dorm room? We only have a microwave and a mini fridge. It has to be something we can throw in our backpack and eat cold.

What is your worst Facebook mistake?

Let's share some mistakes and maybe some shameful events over here. What did you do on facebook what you really, really regret?

Did you send a message when you were drunk? Did you dump somebody?

And more important, how did you fixed it? Cause that is what may be useful!

What skill/hobby should I learn this summer?

I am going to have a lot of free time this summer. I wanted to learn some new skills. I can already unicycle and juggle (highly recommend people learn) and I'm looking for something new like dancing or anything really.

What is a skill you think everybody should learn?

There are plenty of questions over at Discuss Campus just waiting for your input! While you're at it, why don't you ask some of your own?

Summer Internships: Coveted, Elusive, and Achievable

Now THAT's relevant work experience. Image courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory and licensed under CC by SA 2.0.The One Ring. The Holy Grail. UFOs. Bigfoot. Loch Ness Monster. And that internship you're trying to get for the summer. If you believe this past Friday's headline in the New York Times' fashion section, you would believe that summer internship might be as hard to obtain as information about Area 51.

Over here at HackCollege, it's safe to say we've got internships covered. We devoted a whole week to tips and tricks on obtaining and excelling at internships and Kelly recently discussed why unpaid internships might be as relevant as the dodo bird soon. Not to mention the internships some of our own editors have ended up nagging. 

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Renew Your Passport Now, Spend More on Beer Later

The oft-overlooked passport cost can be a real killer for college students. Image courtesy of Flickr user Bryansblog and licensed under CC by SA 2.0Traveling abroad is an increasingly common part of the American college experience, be it a semester in Europe or a crazy spring break week in Mexico.  If you see yourself leaving the friendly confines of the US any time in the near future, now may be the time to renew your passport.  The government has generously given us a week's notice of the impending jump in passport fees: from $75 to $110. 

If you're feeling thrifty and see yourself staying on the continent, the fairly new passport card is good for all land and sea-based border crossings from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Bermuda.  It's only $30 if you already have a passport, making this the perfect Spring Break ticket for cash-strapped students.  Just remember that you'll need to pony up for the real thing as soon as you find yourself flying internationally.

Update: Emily made a good point in the comments that passports usually take a long time to arrive. It seems like as long as you fill out the paperwork before the 13th you will still be charged the lower rate, but keep in mind that it could be weeks or months before you actually get your passport.

The Art of Waking Up

Clocky is just one way to motivate yourself to get up in the morning. Image courtesy of Flickr user Mahalie and licensed under CC by SA 2.0All of us have our own style of waking up and getting ourselves out of bed. Some people are early birds, popping out of bed like pieces of toast out of a toaster. Others can sleep through the apocalypse. People like me have no problem waking up but fail miserably at motivating our sleepy bodies to crawl out from underneath our cozy blankets. But no matter what your sleeping style is, we've all got to get out of bed in time to make it to our classes or, in the case of summer, jobs and internships. If you're particularly sleep-gifted, there are a few things you can do to make sure that you'll make it to all of your early morning destinations.

Set multiple alarms

I've been using this method recently to make sure I'm not late to my summer internship and have found it very effective. There's nothing wrong with snoozing a little bit after your alarm. It's just not possible for me to get out of bed immediately after my alarm goes off. I have to come to terms with the morning, if you will. Snooze is a fabulous invention, but I have been known to hit "off" instead of "snooze" when my alarm goes off. Whoops. In order to avoid this mishap, I set at least two alarms every morning, about ten or fifteen minutes apart. If I accidentally dismiss the first alarm, I have a back up alarm that will still wake me up on time.

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Imagine Cup Day 1

Upon landing in Poland I was quickly whisked away to an immense hotel in Downtown Warsaw. I knew the second I entered the lobby of the hotel that this competition was a big deal. Students of all nationalities were mingling, flip cams in hand, excited about the journey they were about to embark on. Each elevator ride had it’s own story; a young Chinese student whose travel had literally taken her around the globe or a Nigerian whose smile had you convinced he had already won. In fact, all those who had made it  it this far, were winners. The 325,000 starting field had been reduced to only 400, with 69 countries represented at the World Finals.

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Introducing Our New Writers!

We recently put out a call for some new writers, and the applications we got confirmed our suspicion that HackCollege has an incredibly intelligent and talented audience.  There wasn't a bad application in the bunch, and we couldn't be happier with the team we've put together for the upcoming school year.  

Emily Chapman

Emily comes to us from Oxford College at Emory University in Atlanta, and expects to graduate in 2013.  She has an enthusiasm for getting the most out of old-school tech (as you can see in her first post), and is a frequent commenter on Jezebel and Lifehacker.  She's also an RA, so she should have no trouble keeping the rest of the team in line.  You can email her at Emily@hackcollege.com or find her on Twitter.

Laura Schluckebier

Laura (whose last name means "drinker of beer" in German) is a junior at Trinity University in San Antonio where she double majors in Communication and Classical Studies.  Her passion for TV has landed her a job as a producer for "Studio 21" at the school's in-house TV station, and her life's ambition is to meet Joss Whedon. Feel free to shoot her an email at Laura@hackcollege.com.

Sean Quinn

Interestingly enough, Sean is still over a month away from starting his freshman year at the University of Florida, so I guess that makes him our pledge. He likes sports, reading, and Apple products, and was the VP of Marketing and PR at Teens in Tech while in high school.  You can reach our young wunderkind at Sean@Hackcollege.com, or on his Twitter profile.

We're expecting big things out of this new crop of writers, so be on the lookout for their posts.

TripIt Combines Social Networking with Travel Planning

TripIt removes stress from travel plans. Image courtesy of Flickr user Robert Bruce Murray III. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.One of the perks of being a college student is travel flexibility--especially during the summer months. For those of us jet setting this summer (or who need to organize trips to and from school during the year), TripIt allows for easy, at-a-glance trip organization combined with some interesting social networking aspects.

TripIt's major selling point is its ease of use. You simply email your flight, hotel, or rental car confirmation to TripIt, and the site assembles all of them on a single, easy-to-read page. In addition, it provides handy links to check in to your flight beforehand and contact information for hotels and rental car companies. It even adds city maps and the weather report for the length of your. Traveling companions can all be added as travelers on a specific trip simply by adding their email addresses, allowing them to see and edit the itinerary--including adding daily activity plans.

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