How to Build the Ultimate Beer Pong Table: Part 3

We're almost done building the Ultimate Beer Pong Table, all that’s left is to apply the varnish. Just to recap, in Part 1 we assembled our beer pong table from a sheet of plywood and set of folding table legs. In Part 2, we designed a stencil and used it to paint a design onto our beer pong table.

Today’s portion of the build is arguably the most important part, by applying a protective coat to our tables, we protect it against the elements. Without varnish, any beer spilt on our tables runs the risk of ruining the paint job or the wood for that matter. From an aesthetics point of view, varnish gives our tables a glossy look and a smooth feel.

Let’s finish our tables.

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How to Build the Ultimate Beer Pong Table: Part 2

Beer pong HackCollege style at the 2010 Summit in New York.In Part 1 of our Ultimate Beer Pong Table build we learned how to turn a big piece of plywood into a regulation size playing field for the best party game in existence, beer pong. Today in Part 2, we’re going to learn how to turn our generic tables into beautiful works of art. I’ll be honest, this part of the build is pretty tedious, but after amazing your friends with the finished product, it’ll all be worth it.

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Don't Buy a TV for Your Dorm, Buy a Home Theater PC

Need a laptop? Our Back to School series is brought to you this year by Intel. We've teamed up to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

A tiny PC and monitor will get you way more bang for the buck than a TV and standard dorm cable.It might be tempting to spend hundreds of dollars to have the biggest TV in your dorm, but you might get more bang for your buck by buying an external monitor and small home theater PC (HTPC) instead.

First, the monitor. Large HD monitor prices have plummeted in recent years, and you're missing out if you haven't picked one up yet. The extra screen real estate can increase productivity by letting you do things like work on your essay on one screen, while viewing your research on the other. More importantly, having a monitor will encourage you to get work done at your desk with proper posture, rather than in bed. A quick Amazon or Craigslist search should turn up a number of affordable options, so even if you want a dedicated TV, you'll want to pick one up. 

So how can you turn your beautiful new screen into a full-fledged television? Well, for just a few hundred dollars you can pick up a small nettop (the desktop version of a netbook) to act as your HTPC. This tiny and attractive Lenovo will get the job done for about $300, and won't take up much of your room's precious space. Just hook it up to your monitor and start enjoying Netflix, Hulu, iTunes rentals, or whatever else your entertainment needs require at any given moment. If your dorm includes cable, you can even tack on a USB TV tuner for around $50, and use your new setup as a full-fledged TV and DVR. Try doing that with a run of the mill TV set.

Did you skip the TV when decorating your dorm? Let us know how it went in the comments. 

Back to School: How to Start Your First Week Off Right

Your first day of school isn't like this anymore. Photo courtesy of Flickr user woodleywonderworks. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.

Need a laptop? Our Back to School series is brought to you this year by Intel. We've teamed up to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Sometimes it's hard to get back into the mentality of going to school again. Your brain is still resisting thinking about those complicated equations and theories, and wishes it was back in bed in summer. In order to get you back into the right mind set, HerCampus wrote a great article about how to start off your first week of college right. These are great tips for freshmen and upperclass students alike because everyone needs a little reminder of what it takes to be awesome your first week. You can check out HerCampus' full article here, and here are several of the tips that I thought are the most helpful.

Map Out Your Schedule

There is nothing worse than having no idea where you're going on your first day of class. I am extremely directionally challenged, and so it makes me incredibly nervous to not know where I'm going. To prevent a panic attack in the ten minutes between classes where I'm supposed to find my next class, I map out my schedule ahead of time so I know exactly where I need to go. I write down exactly when each of my classes are and what room they're in. Obviously, being me, I color coordinate this too.

The next thing you should do is go to every classroom that you'll be in that semester. You may know kind of sort of where the room is in that building that is possibly over there, but in order to make sure you're not late for anything, you're best bet is to actually go to the classroom so you can be absolutely sure you know where you're going on your first day of classes.

Get to Class Early

This may seem like a super nerdy, brown-nosing technique, but it is actually a really good tip. You will make a good impression on your professor if you show up early. Also, you'll be able to settle yourself into your surroundings if you get there earlier. Take out your notebooks, your notes, and maybe your laptop so that you're ready exactly when class starts. It really sucks when you slip in the door at the last minute, and you're still pulling out your belongings as the professor starts his or her lecture.

Getting to class early also ensures that you'll have your ideal pick of seating choices. Sitting in the front is often a good choice because you'll be able to make sure you're not sitting behind a guy on the basketball team who completely blocks your view of the board. Sometimes it also helps to sit at the front because professors can be hard to hear, especially if they have accents or are just soft-spoken. Adjust yourself in the classroom to make sure you are getting everything out of class that you can.

Keep An Eye Out for Potential Study Buddies

It may seem early in the semester to be looking for someone to study with, but it's never too early in fact. You may already have a friend in the class. If you don't, make conversation with the people next to you. Try to gauge what kind of student they are. If you notice them taking extremely detailed notes, be friendly to them and then when it comes time to study, you'll already have a relationship built so that you can form a rocking study connection that will help both of you ace the test.

This is also a really good thing to do even if you don't like studying with people, like me. I like to keep my eyes on who takes good notes in case I fall sick later in the semester. It's good to know who you can trust to take good notes so that you know what was going on in class while you were gone.

Explore Other Buildings on Campus

This is a really great tip that HerCampus gave and that even as a senior I plan on using this semester. Once you know where all your classes are, you might feel that you don't even need to go into the other buildings on campus. For example, as a Communication and Classics major, I don't think I've ever even set foot in the engineering building. But it is actually a good idea to just go explore the other buildings on campus. You'll get a better sense of where everything is and you might even see some really interesting things that will encourage you to try out a class you never though you'd try. You might see an flyer for an event that sounds interesting to you. Get out of your comfort zone and see everything your university has to offer.

What tips do you have for rocking your first week back to class? Let us know in the comments!

[via HerCampus]

Use TextExpander to Supercharge Your Notetaking

Need a laptop? Our Back to School series is brought to you this year by Intel. We've teamed up to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Taking notes in class can be  stressful. A lot of brain power is required to simultaneously listen to the professor, observe the blackboard or projector, integrate the stimuli and transcribe notes onto a literal or figurative page. I’ve always got my eyes open for any tool that’ll make taking notes during lectures a little easier. Recently, I discovered TextExpander, a small Mac utility by Smile Software that expands abbreviated words into any kind of text.

I’ve always admired the students that can write in shorthand, it makes sense to replace common conjunction words with single letters and symbols, but I just find the fractured text difficult to read after the note has been taken. Using TextExpander is kind of like typing in shorthand, except the shorthand words you type are automatically replaced by snippets of text that you setup in advance. Efficiency gurus often use TextExpander to insert long pieces of text that they type frequently by simply typing a single word and allowing TextExpander to handle the rest. For example, to type your full address you could type hhome and have TextExpander expand it for you. The beautiful thing is that you can make your own snippets for anything that have to type often.

So how do you put TextExpander to work in a lecture environment? Perhaps there’s a word that is used frequently in one of your classes, but it’s long and you can’t spell it to save your life. Personally, I find typing atherosclerosis super difficult, so instead of racking my brain on the word, I just type asvd and let TextExpander take care of the hard work for me. With respect to = wtr, low socioeconomic status = lses, you get the idea.

TextExpander can take some time to integrate into your note taking arsenal. For one, you have to remember to use it in the first place. Typing is a pretty mindless task that is reliant on a fair bit of muscle memory. You’ll need to train your hands to type in snippets, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to keep up with the professor and relax a little in class.

TextExpander is $34.99 in the Mac App Store, but as part of our Back to School Week, we're giving away three TextExpander licenses! To enter, simply tweet the word you stumble on the most when take notes in class followed by the hashtags #HackCollege and #TextExpanderGiveaway. The contest closes at 12PM EST on Sunday.

Use Foursquare to Explore Around Your Campus

Check-in your way to a great school year! Photo by foursquare.

Need a laptop? Our Back to School series is brought to you this year by Intel. We've teamed up to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

A big part of going to college is trying new things. It's how you meet friends, discover passions, and become a more well-rounded, cultured person. Whether you go to school in a college town or a major metropolis, there are guaranteed to be interesting places and activities you have yet to explore. So this year, make it a goal to step outside your dorm room and visit a local park, popular restaurant or art museum every once in a while.

With it's robust social features and growing presence on university campuses, location-based social network Foursquare is the perfect tech-friendly way to create and keep track of a list of cultural experiences you want to try this school year. Foursquare recently announced the launch of a custom badge program for participating universities this fall, which sounds neat, but will initially be available at a limited number of schools. All users, however, can access and edit their personal to-do list through foursquare.com or on one of the Foursquare mobile apps. You can use this feature to compile all of the places you'd like to explore. Add a venue or a cool tip someone left for a venue. For example, if a friend left a tip for a restaurant suggesting a certain dish, you could add that tip to your to-do list as a reminder to yourself to order that dish when you go. 

If you need some ideas to get you started, try going on the Foursquare mobile application's Explore tab for popular locations around you. Also, Foursquare Lists just rolled out this month for personal users and business pages, so you might try seeing if your friends or popular local businesses have curated their own public lists. As you complete each item on your to-do list, mark it as "Done" on foursquare.com or on the app. 

Foursquare is a great tool for college students who want to make the most of their college experience by breaking out of their comfort zone and going to places they've never been. What places are on your Foursquare to-do list this school year? 

Back To School Podcast: Stand Out in Your Department

Getting good grades is only half the battle. You still want to stand out to your professors who can help you score internships, research opportunities, and even jobs after graduation. Today, Laura, Emily, and Shep share some advice on how to stand out in your major.

Note: we're using the html5 <audio>  tag for the media player, and it should work fine in Chrome and Safari. If your browser isn't supported, go ahead and download the .mp3 file here, or subscribe on iTunes.  

Video: Maximize Your Mini-Fridge Space with Common School Supplies

Can't fit all those beers in your tiny dorm fridge? Shep has a few tricks for maximizing your space using a few common school supplies.

If you don't have time to cool drinks down in the fridge, check out Kelly's tips for chilling a beer in less than five minutes