Studying Abroad: Your Options

Another perk of studying abroad? The sightseeing! Photo courtesy of ChrisYunker. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Thinking of taking some classes abroad?  Studying abroad is a rich and rewarding experience for many college students. I know many people who say that their time abroad was the most valuable (and fun!) part of their college experience. Studying abroad is a great resume booster, a way to advance your academic and career goals, and an opportunity to learn to be truly independent, among other things. Should you choose to pursue global study, there are several avenues open to you. When deciding on the perfect study abroad program, you will have to consider many factors including academic requirements, language differences, and cost. If you think studying abroad is something you might be interested in, read on to find out what type of study abroad program is right for you!

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Deals of the Week: 10/10/11 - 10/16/11

Macy's is one of many places you can save this Columbus Day! 

Columbus Day sales (today only):

• Get 15% off your order at Macy's with code: SAVEMORE 

• Get $15 off your order of $60 or more with code: 1411 at Express. 

• Get 20% off your order at JCPenney's with code: BESTCROP.

• Belk is offering 20% off of your order with code: 21077575.

• Take an additional 50% off all clearance items at American Eagle, plus get free shipping with code: 82476531.

The rest: 

• UberStrike HD is free for a limited time on the Mac App Store, normally $9.99. 

• iCursor if now free in the Mac App Store, previously $1.99 

• EasyRingtone for Mac is free for a limited time as "a tribute to Steve Jobs," normally $1.99.

• Alarm Clock for iPhone/iPod Touch is free for a limited time, normally $1.99.

• Nitro PDF Express for Windows is free after rebate through 10/13, normally $39.99.

• Get 10% off any order at Costume Kingdom with code: CK10 through 10/31. 

• New customers get 15% off their drugstore.com order by clicking on this link.

• PCMicrostore is offering an extra 20% Off Purchases of Apple iPhone 4 Accessories w/ Coupon Code: 20OFFIP4G. 

Deals of the Week: 10/3/11-10/9/11

Find out how to get a year of Evernote Premium for free and more in 'Deals of the Week!' Image from Evernote.

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Intel Core i5-powered Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Welcome to the third week of "Deals of the Week," a new series where we will be giving you the inside scoop about the hottest bargains on the web. The deals we feature will be relevant to college students in some way or another, whether it's a price drop on a note-taking app or a coupon for groceries. We will focus on online promotions and discounts so that everyone can take advantage of them, no matter where you attend school. Keep looking out for new "Deals of the Week" every Monday!

• Get a free year of Evernote Premium when you buy any Livescribe Smartpen. 

• iPhone/iPad TV show tracking app TV Schedules is now free, previously $1.99. 

• MyContactsKeeper, a utility to back up your contacts to your DropBox account, is free for a limited time in the iTunes App Store, previously $0.99.

• KitchenPad Timer is now free, previously $1.99.

• For Androids, Finger Dance Revolution is free on the Amazon App Store, previously $0.99. 

• OtterBox is offering 10% off + Free Shipping after code: AMTB201109 through 10/31.

• Slysoft, which makes Windows utilities for DVD's, CD's and games, is offering 20% off on all products until 10/9.

• To-do management service Producteev is offering their premium plan to college students with a valid .edu for free. 

• Get $5 off any order of $30 at AccessoryGeeks with Coupon Code: TECHGEEKOCT, through 10/31.

• Looking for a Halloween costume? Buycostumes is offering 10% off any order over $40 with code: HALLOW10 through 10/31. 

A Guide to Facebook's Recent Changes

"Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper," says Facebook engineer Mark Tonkelowitz in a blog post.If you've been on Facebook in the last couple of weeks, you've probably noticed some dramatic changes in your newsfeed's layout. What with the ticker, revamped friends lists, subscribe button, and more, Facebook has been rolling out new features at a dizzying pace-- it can be hard to keep up. Here's a guide to get you up to speed. 

1. There's no longer separate feeds for "Top News" and "Recent News." Instead, all stories will show up in a unified newsfeed, but top updates will be designated by a blue upper-left corner. If you haven't logged in to Facebook for a few days (gasp!), you'll first be presented with a list of the top stories since you last logged in. Otherwise your newsfeed will display stories in chronological order. You can tell Facebook if you disagree with its ratings; just click in the top left corner to mark or unmark an item as a top story. Taking a cue from Twitter's timeline, a refresh button at the top will update automatically to show you when you have new stories. 

2. A new real-time "Ticker" will show you all of your friends' activities, live. All "lightweight" activities (liking a status, joining a group, listening to a song, etc.) go to the Ticker. Click on a story in the Ticker to see a pop-up with more details and to interact with a post without leaving your current page. Also, when you are using an app or playing a game, a special app ticker will appear showing you updates relevant to the game or app you are using.

3. A number of new features have been added to Friends Lists. First, everyone has three default lists: Close Friends, Acquaintances, and Restricted. Add someone to "Close Friends" to ensure everything they post shows in your newsfeed. If you want to limit the updates you get from a person, add them to Acquaintances. Finally, friends in your "Restricted" list can only see posts you make public-- the perfect spot for parents, old teachers and employers! Facebook has also added "Smart Lists," which take information that you've added to your profile to create lists of friends who go to school or work with you, live near you, or are family. For example, if you list "New York, NY" as your current city on your profile, a list called "New York Area" will be created for you, which initially will include all friends who also list New York as their current city. You can manually add and remove friends in smart lists. You can also merge lists, so your old lists can transition to the new smart lists with ease.

4. You can now "subscribe" to a person or a fan page's public updates, and people can subscribe to you, all without adding you as a friend-- if you allow it. This sounds like a feature geared more towards public figures than the average Facebook user, but if you want to opt in, you can do so here. When you subscribe to someone, you can choose what kind of updates from them you want in your news feed. Since you are automatically subscribed to your friends, you can go to their profile, click the "Subscribed" button in the top right and filter the updates you see from them as well. 

So, what do you think of these changes to Facebook? Love them? Hate them? Let us know in the comments!

Deals of the Week: 9/26/11-10/2/11

Try Lastpass Premium for 6 months, free of charge! Image from Lastpass

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Intel Core i5-powered Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Welcome to the second week of "Deals of the Week," a new series where we will be giving you the inside scoop about the hottest bargains on the web. The deals we feature will be relevant to college students in some way or another, whether it's a price drop on a note-taking app or a coupon for groceries. We will focus on online promotions and discounts so that everyone can take advantage of them, no matter where you attend school. Keep looking out for new "Deals of the Week" every Monday!

• Cross-platform and cross-browser password manager Lastpass is giving university students 6 months of Lastpass Premium. 

• Mac note-taking app NoteLook is $1.99 for a limited time, previously $9.99.

• Photo Frame Calendar is now free in the iTunes app store, previously $0.99.

• Calendar app Agenda is now $0.99 for a limited time, previously $1.99.

• Read it Later Pro is 40% off in the iTunes app store. Previously $4.99, now $2.99.

• Get 10% off e-Textbooks at Coursesmart with code RETAILMENOT10 through 9/30.

• Get 20% off one item at Barnes and Noble with code P7E8H9K.

• Get $10 off your order of $50 or more at HP with code HPSAVE10 through 10/31.

• Save $10 off your online purchase of $50 or more at Foot Locker with code LKS1SR23 through 9/30.

• Get 15% off all orders at Perfumania with code STUDENTRATE.

Deals of the Week

Get 50% off of 1Password for Mac and more with Hackcollege Weekly Deals

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Welcome to "Deals of the Week," a new series where we will be giving you the inside scoop about the hottest bargains on the web. The deals we feature will be relevant to college students in some way or another, whether it's a price drop on a note-taking app or a coupon for groceries. We will focus on online promotions and discounts so that everyone can take advantage of them, no matter where you attend school. Start looking out for new "Deals of the Week" every Monday!

• 1Password is 50% off for a limited time on the Mac App Store. Previously $49.99, now $24.95

• AlbumTrackr is free for a limited time on the Mac App Store, normally $1.99. 

• Buy.com has the Microsoft Office Home and Student 2011 Software for Mac (1-License) for $88.99 Free Shipping. Normally $119. 

• EasyTether for Android is available for 50% off. Previously $9.99, now $4.99. 

• Save 50% off all in-stock products at Belkin with code FB50 until 9/30/11

• Jamba Juice has printable coupons for $2 Slow Cooked Steel-Cut Oatmeal, $2 Fruit & Veggie Or All Fruit Smoothies and $1 Baked Good With Purchase of Any Menu Drink good through 9/27/11.

• Domino's is offering $6.95 for any large pizza (pick-up only) with code 52090 through 9/30/11.

• Save 10% back-to-college gear at Radioshack with code BTCAUG2011 through 10/1/11.

• Get $5 off orders of $50 or more at Target with code PCODES5.

• Cengage Brain is offering $10 off an $80 purchase with code FBTS10 through 9/30/11.

• OfficeMax is offering 20% off any purchase with code SURFMYADS20 through 9/24/11.

Let us know in the comments what you think of "Deals of the Week" and what kind of deals you want to see in the future!

10 Free Mac Apps You Won't Find in the Mac App Store

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

I'm a big fan of using the Mac App Store for finding, buying and installing apps, but being relatively new, the store's collection is limited (although growing). And for those who like free stuff, a lot of the best Mac freeware programs haven't made their way into the App Store yet. Last week, we showed you ten great Mac App Store freebies. Now, here are ten awesome free apps that are missing from the Mac App Store.

1. Handbrake - An open source multithreaded video transcoder that you can use to rip DVD's or Blu-Ray discs and convert videos to and from a variety of different formats. Lifehacker has an excellent guide on how to rip your DVD's with Handbrake. 

2. Transmission - An extremely lightweight yet powerful and fast bittorrent client. One of my favorite features is the way download/upload rates will show in the Transmission dock icon, so you don't have to open a window to see how your downloads are doing. Transmission integrates brilliantly with your Mac, with useful options to watch a folder for .torrent files, trash the original file after your download is complete, and set speed limits globally or for individual torrents. 

3. Netnewswire - A fantastic RSS and Atom reader that can sync your Google Reader feeds. It works with other Mac apps such as MarsEdit and Twitter for Mac, is scriptable, and has lots of keyboard shortcuts. Technically, Netnewswire can be downloaded from the Mac App Store, but the Mac App Store has the "Lite" version, which is different from the free version you download from their website. The App Store version of Netnewswire does not allow Google Reader syncing, which is an automatic dealbreaker for most RSS power users.  

4. Adium - An instant messaging application that lets you aggregate all of your messaging profiles into one app. You can connect to and chat with your contacts across Facebook chat, Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and more. Adium's universal contact list allows you to merge contacts across different accounts. Other standout features include tabbed messaging windows and support for themes. 

5. Growl - An uber-customizable control center for notifications on your Mac. Growl is a system preferences pane that is integrated into countless Mac applications (including many on this list!). Get notified when a download finishes in Transmission, when there is a new article in Netnewswire, when you receive a message in Adium, and much more. Choose themes for all your notifications and make them show as frequently or infrequently as you wish. Once you discover how useful Growl is, you'll wonder what you ever did without it.  

6. Appcleaner - The process of uninstalling an app on a Mac was designed to be simple-- just move the unwanted app to the trash. The problem with this method is that applications create a lot of extra files on your hard drive, and deleting an application doesn't get rid of that extra clutter. Appcleaner helps you trash apps properly and completely. When you drag an app to the Appcleaner icon, it finds all those loose files and deletes those as well. You can also select apps, preference panes, and widgets to uninstall from the Appcleaner interface. 

7. Seashore - If you are looking for a fast and easy to use image editor that has more than enough power for most beginner to intermediate users, Seashore will fit the bill. Seashore has a solid set of advanced features such as multiple layers, individual primary and alpha channel editing, and anti-aliased brush strokes. Seashore was inspired by the GIMP, another popular image-editing app that is more powerful but less user-friendly than Seashore and not a native Mac app. If you're not sure whether Seashore is right for your needs, this helpful table compares Seashore's features with other image editors. 

8. Onyx - Onyx is a maintenance and optimization utility for your Mac. It lets you verify and repair your hard disk, delete caches, logs, and temporary files, and configure the parameters for the Finder, Dock, and other Apple applications. Onyx is a great way to keep your Mac running smoothly.

9. Tinkertool - There are a lot of built-in settings in Mac OSX that are hidden from the user. Tinkertool gives you access to these preferences. Some examples of things you can do with Tinkertool include enabling the “Quit” menu item of the Finder, adding a stack for Recent Items, and disabling the Dashboard. Here is a list of all the settings available in Tinkertool.

 10. Appfresh - One advantage of installing apps from the Mac App Store is that you can easily view and download software updates from one place. Appfresh brings this feature to all of your installed apps, system preference panes, widgets, and plugins. Appfresh also checks for system upgrades and updates to Apple's built-in software, so you don't even have to run your Mac's "Software Update" separately!

10 Awesome Free Apps on the Mac App Store

Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

The Mac App Store is a great way to discover new apps for your Apple computer. We already showed you the best apps to buy with your $100 Apple Student credit, but there are tons of great free apps to download as well. Here’s a look at ten fantastic offerings from the Mac App Store that won’t set you back a dime.

 1. Alfred - This robust productivity software will make getting around your Mac so much easier. Granted, a lot of the really useful features are only available with a Powerpack purchase (£12), but the free version still lets you open applications and files without lifting your hands from your keyboard. 

2. Calendar - Manage your iCal calendars and Facebook events all from the menu bar. View your schedule at a glance, without the need to open iCal or any separate program. 

3. Cloud - Cloud App offers quick, intuitive DropBox like file sharing. You can drag images, documents, web pages, and even entire folders to the Cloud menu bar icon and Cloud App will put a link to the file in your clipboard so you can send it to your friends. Bonus: when you’re sharing a folder, Cloud will automatically compress it into a .zip archive for you!

4. Caffeine - Are you tired of the screen dimming every ten minutes when you’re trying to watch a movie on your Mac? Caffeine provides a simple fix for this problem. Clicking the Caffeine icon in your menu bar will prevent your Mac from going to sleep, dimming the screen, or starting any screensavers. To go back to normal, just click one more time.

5. iMedia Browser - Don't want to launch iPhoto every time you need to view or select an image in your library? iMedia Browser lets you instantly browse your iPhoto images, your iTunes videos and audio files, as well as Safari bookmarks in a Finder-style interface. 
 

6. Skitch - This fantastic screen-grabbing/image editing tool just recently went free after it was acquired by Evernote, another must-have Mac App. (Evernote is also free, but I intentionally left it out of this list because I wanted to talk about less well-known apps that you haven't as likely been introduced to.) You can annotate your screenshots, flip, rotate, crop, and resize them, and even upload them online for free to Skitch.com.

7. MPlayerX - MPlayerX can handle almost any video file format you throw at it, plus you can use trackpad/mouse gestures to control it. Unlike iTunes or Quicktime, it is compatible with Lion full-screen mode even when you are on a multi-monitor setup. So you can watch a video in full-screen on one monitor while, say, writing your research paper on the other. (Not that we recommend this!)

8. Wunderlist - A lot of to-do list apps are so bloated with unecessary and confusing features that many corporate users don't even need, let alone college students. Wunderlist is a simplistic and easy to use yet powerful task management app with a gorgeous interface and a free iOS app that syncs wirelessly with the Mac app. 

9. Color Tag Gen - Your Mac comes with a great built-in color picker. It can retrieve the hex code for the color of any pixel of your screen. However, this tool is only available in certain applications. Color Tag Gen is basically the Mac OSX color picker wrapped into its own application, so you can bring it up from anywhere on your Mac.

10. Bowtie - This attractive application lets you control iTunes from any application with customizable keyboard shortcuts. You can choose from a variety of user-submitted themes or, if you're feeling extra adventurous, make your own. Last.fm scrobbling included! 

Would you have added anything to this list? Would you have taken anything out? What are your favorite free Mac App Store apps? Let us know in the comments!