Posts filed under 'College Trends'
We’ve made your list and we’re checking it twice. We’ve scoured the sites and stores to find dorm room gear, media accessories, books, and more that’s perfect for the future college student, or as a fun surprise for your favorite college student who is home for the holidays.
The best part? Each one of the 10 items on our gift guide is less than $50!
Listen in Style
Ear buds are essential, especially when you’re on the bus around campus and want to avoid hearing people talk loudly about their crazy weekends. Among the many choices is Wicked Audio’s candy-colored Jaw Breakers line, for $19.99. They’re available at stores such as FYE, Fry’s Electronics and Verizon Wireless.
Bath Basics
Liven up your bathroom, especially if you have to share with someone, with this Roxy Go See Dots Bath Rug ($19.99) from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It’ll give any dorm room a more modern and mature style that is still really fun. There also are bath accessories, towels, and bedding in the same line, if you want a look that’s all put together.
Non-Required Reading 
Two books caught our eye on this year’s holiday must-read list. One is all about Lady Gaga – titled simply Gaga (by Johnny Morgan, $24.95) – filled with photos of the pop star and her jaw-dropping outfits.
Then, your favorite “The Hills” fan might love to get Lauren Conrad Style, in which the student-turned-clothing designer shares tips about her trendy looks (by Lauren Conrad with Elise Loehnen, $19.99).
New Notebooks 
Sure, you may do most of your studying and socializing on the computer, but embrace paper a little bit, even if it’s just for doodling or jotting down quick notes, or if you want to journal about your freshman year. Moleskine’s collection of soft-cover notebooks comes in sets with two different shades of colors (like green and lime, blue and navy, pink and rose, etc). Its Volant line of notebooks range from $5.95-$17.95, depending on the size.
Lunch Box
The childish superhero and Barbie lunch boxes need to remain at home. But this stylish Bento Box ($14) from London-based black + blum provides a sleek way to carry your lunch to campus, especially if you’re watching your budget or trying to keep away from the Freshman 15. It will hold sushi as well as pasta, rice and other favorite foods, and the fork clips on, too.
Pillows with a Purpose 
The Giving Collection Pillow Covers feature inspiring phrases and come with a charitable effort. For every one sold, PBteen will donate $5 to a variety of organizations, from Do Something to the Student Conservation Association to the Surfrider Foundation to the Special Olympics. Our favorites are XOXOXOXO, Dream Big, and Love Your Ocean ($29).
Save Some Space 
Neat freaks can’t resist plenty of items from The Container Store, and we know college is all about making the most of a small space. So one useful but chic item is its flip flop and sandal holder ($12.99) that uses a grosgrain ribbon to hold your spring and summer footwear.
An Adult Sippy Cup 
A must-have college accessory is a reusable water bottle like that from Camelbak, sold at Dick’s Sporting Goods, REI, Bass Pro Shops, and bookstores around college campuses. It’s an eco-friendly and healthy decision all in one, especially if you want to stay hydrated during back-to-back classes or on your hike through campus. The limited edition bottles for Water.org – co-founded by Matt Damon – cost $18.99-$24.99, and about $10 of every purchase goes to provide clean water for people worldwide.
The Ultimate Drink Holder 
Target’s beverage tub is perfect for late-night parties and study sessions, or honestly, if you just need something to throw your clothes or other items into if all you want to do is fall into bed. The steel tub ($14.99) comes in a variety of colors, such as red, pink, teal, and green.
–Lori Johnston
December 8th, 2010
If you’re asking for an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad for Christmas, or if you already have one of those, you’ll want to check out the college-focused phone apps to make your college search, application process, and even waiting to hear about admission a little easier.
Here’s a look at just a few of the types of apps colleges and companies are creating to get their information into your hands.
Campus Tours
No more pulling out a big ol’ campus map and making it known to everyone on campus that you’re a lost little high school student. Schools like University of New Haven (see screenshot at right), College of Charleston, Stanford University, University of Florida, and University of Oregon put campus maps and contact info available in a free app. The virtual college tours offer a great way for juniors to get their feet wet or for seniors to reaffirm their choice.
Also, maps of more than 400 campuses are available by Logical Dimension, for 99 cents on iTunes. You can find out how long it takes to drive, walk or take public transit to spots on campus with the apps as well. The popular University of New Haven app was created by YourCampus360, which also has apps for Syracuse, Wellesley, University of North Dakota, and many other schools.
Application Status
Instead of waiting by the computer for an e-mail acceptance notice (or by the mailbox, like I had to do), there are no-cost admission apps offered by schools such as the University of Georgia. Participating schools allow you to check your application status and more from the palm of your hand, but you’ll need to resist the temptation to do it every minute!
Campus Life
Newsweek’s list of cool apps for college students includes Apartments.com, a free app which can help make the rental search easier.
Interviewing Help
If you’re preparing for college or already in school, an app by Career Services at Texas Christian University provides career-focused assistance related to interviews, etiquette, and more. And some of the information could help as you’re going through scholarship interviews, too! The TCU app has more than possible interview questions and possible responses, along with a breakdown of dining etiquette, too (remember, no elbows on the table!).
Expect more apps to be more available as more schools try to get information out to students in as many ways possible.
—Lori Johnston (Delaney Young contributed)
November 24th, 2010
Sustainable choices are as close as your college parking lot.
Continue Reading November 10th, 2010
I’ve been noticing more and more college students updating Facebook by letting their friends know whether they’re at a local Mexican restaurant, a certain campus building, or elsewhere around town.
It turns out that one college is promoting the use of Facebook Places on campus, and it’s not just because it wants friends to hang out together.
Instead, the University of Kentucky wants students to check in to spots on campus in hopes that the name of the school will keep popping up on the Facebook news feeds of friends and family members in high schools, a school official told Advertising Age. The school has placed wooden pointer signs, resembling the tab in the Facebook Places logo, on campus to encourage students to check in.
The school’s Facebook Places info page also focuses on how it wants to protect students’ privacy and shows students how to adjust their settings to that only friends know. The privacy issue has some students and even groups like the ACLU concerned, however.
University of Kentucky student Kelsey Hayes, vice president of the student body, says: “I think the way UK is promoting Places is pretty cool. It’s unique, and it will hopefully get students, especially freshmen and those new to campus, to engage with each other. It’s also a great way to help get them acquainted with campus.”
You have to give University of Kentucky credit for noticing another Facebook trend and trying to use it to reach out to potential students. The main question is: Will seeing a school’s name on your Facebook news feed make you more curious about the university of college?
–Lori Johnston
November 9th, 2010
Turn up the volume and tune in to the coolest college YouTube channels and viral videos.
Continue Reading November 1st, 2010
Happy Earth Day!
I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying Earth Week at The CollegeBound Network. We’ve been hearing from our friends all across the higher education universe about the great things colleges and universities are doing to preserve Mother Nature.
While it’s not necessary to break the bank when it comes to initiating greener living on campus—after all, recycling paper and plastic is a cheap and easy way to begin—a growing number of colleges and universities are setting aside a good chunk of their budget for eco-friendly initiatives, which include constructing LEED-certified buildings and dorms.
What’s LEED, you ask? It stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a designation that means the building in question meets the strict green standards as set by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)—the same organization that recently teamed up with The Princeton Review to produce the Green College Guide.
Check out these dorms that LEED, um, lead the way in greener living:
The Eco House at Westminster College in Fulton, MO is not just a place to live, but to learn. It houses three to five students who are chosen to live there for a year based on their personal commitment to the environment. For one of the two semesters, each student must complete an internship that requires them to maintain the house and design an environmentally focused program that can be employed by the campus.
At Meredith College in Raleigh, NC, The Oaks, a suite-style residence hall, opened in time for Fall 2009. It was the first new dorm to be built on campus since the 1970s, but boy, did they catch up quickly with the times. The building, which features four-bedroom and two-bedroom suite layouts, earned LEED Silver certification. It’s pretty cool to know that a building with such traditional architecture on the outside could have such a great environmentally friendly space on the inside.
Emerson College’s Piano Row Residence Hall and Campus Center, is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise bustling city. There’s a lot going on in this building that’s located on the corner of the Boston Common, but it’s all environmentally friendly; in fact, the “Living Green” learning community calls Piano Row home. Also at home in Piano Row are the men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams, who play in the Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gym located on one of the floors of this LEED-certified structure.
At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, six out of 10 freshmen dorms are LEED-certified. An ongoing project at Vandy involves building brand new buildings that are LEED-certified, as well as embarking on renovations of older buildings to make them greener. Vanderbilt was one of 10 schools recognized by U.S. News & World Report for having green dorms, which is sure to attract future environmentally minded students.
If the school you are attending in the fall doesn’t have any LEED dorms to choose from, don’t fret: you can still make your own dorm eco-friendly. Check out these three green ideas courtesy of Planet Green:
- Use a BPA-free water bottle to stay hydrated.
- Plug all dorm appliances and electronics into power strips.
- Opt for fragrant plants rather than air fresheners that plug in.
How are you celebrating Earth Day today and (hopefully) every day? Leave a comment below.
–Barbara Bellesi
April 22nd, 2010
Hi CollegeBounders!
We’ll be attending the 140 Conference today at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The 140 Conference all about the social network phenomenon that is Twitter. More specifically, it is a two-day conference packed with engaging speakers and events that allow Twitter users to listen, share, and interact with others.
There is a long list of great people lined up for tomorrow, but we’re especially looking forward to hearing Ann Curry, Donny Deutsch, and Ivanka Trump. We’ll also keep an eye out for MC Hammer, who will also be in attendance. (Yup, that’s how we roll at The CollegeBound Network).
We’ll have a lot of fun networking at the conference tomorrow, but we’ll be thinking of our college-bound readers out there, too. So please log on to Twitter tomorrow and follow our tweets, which will feature the hashtag #140 conference. We’ll be live tweeting from @CollegeBoundNet and @CollegeSurfing, as well as from our own personal accounts: @GinaLaGuardia, @DawnPapandrea, and @TheWriteWoman (Barbara had the nerve to go ahead and be different with her Twitter handle).
Tweet ya later!
–The CollegeBound Network
April 20th, 2010
Earth Day is this Thursday, and during the week, we’ll be spotlighting some colleges and universities that are doing great things to preserve our environment. (Except for tomorrow. We’ll be at the 140 Conference in NYC. More on that later…)
Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA. With a name like Evergreen, it’s difficult to think that this Washington State college could be anything but BFFs with Mother Nature. The good news is that ESC does live up to its name, thanks to its 100 percent commitment to green power usage on campus. It’s even listed as one of the top 20 colleges and universities that are part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership. The commitment to sustainability came about in December of 2004, when Evergreen students voted to make the campus green. Students pay $1 per credit which goes toward the purchasing of green power from renewable sources throughout the state. So if a student takes 15 credits per semester, $15 goes towards the bill. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but this plan actually foots the bill in full. Maybe politicians need to take a page from EGC when it comes to balancing the budget…
University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH. UNH has long been a friend of the environment, no doubt spurred on by the fact that New Hampshire has some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. Which is interesting, because UNH’s Durham campus is fueled by pure garbage; that is, a man-made landfill about 10 miles away that produces methane, which is then purified and sent to UNH’s power plant. It’s hard to believe that the smelly pile of coffee grounds and fruit peels can amount to much of anything, but it does add up to 85 percent of the campus’s power. Those New Hampshirites are wicked smaht.
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AK. We love a school that helps students go green AND stay fit. At the University of Arkansas, there is not only an active ride share program on campus, but also a Razorbikes loaner program. The program allows U Ark students to sign up—for free!—for a passcode that will unlock any of the many bikes located throughout campus, making it easy and green to get anywhere on or around campus.
What does your school do to stay green? Leave a comment below and let us know how you make Earth Day every day on your campus.
–The CollegeBound Network
April 19th, 2010
The iPad made its debut this weekend, and although I am an Apple fan (this blog is brought to you by a MacBook Pro, after all), I was not waiting in line to buy one of the more than 300,000 units that were sold this weekend. Don’t get me wrong—I also have an Amazon Kindle, so I do like tech toys to some extent. But the fact that the iPad has a whole new wave of people—including college students–poking, swiping, and staring at a thin handheld screen begs the question: what ever happened to an old fashioned pen and pad of paper?
Now, I am aware that an iPad can do much more than the old spiral-bound notebooks that I used in college ever could. And even though the iPad can’t multitask—a fatal flaw for some users—what it can do one step at a time is quite amazing. Still, if I were a college student, paying upwards of $40,000 a year at a private institution, I would want to make sure I squeezed out every dollar I could in the classroom and not ruin it all by being distracted by a $500+ piece of equipment.
Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, however, does not share my opinion. This fall, all full-time freshmen will receive not only an iPad, but a MacBook Pro. Seton Hill feels that by arming students with the latest in portable technology, they will create a digitally interactive learning environment, as well as get away from traditional textbooks by paving the way towards eco-friendly e-books.
Perhaps they didn’t read my blog about professors banning laptops in the classroom.
Nevertheless, I think that Seton Hill’s endeavor is great in theory. The potential for using the iPad as a learning tool is simply phenomenal, with lightning-fast capabilities for file sharing, textbook downloads, and note taking. However, as someone who has taught Freshmen English, I fear that students will be spending more time downloading cool apps and catching up on episodes of “Glee” than they will spend actually paying attention to lectures and discussions.
So go ahead–make fun of my old-fashioned notebook and pen, but aside from doodling in the margins and the occasional paper airplane, that’s about all the distractions I’ll have. I’m toying with the idea of going for my PhD one of these days, and unless I’m working on a research paper in the library, my Mac will stay home.
–Barbara Bellesi
April 5th, 2010
While some professors are looking to ban laptops in the classroom, others are making technology a requirement. To keep pace with the student-on-the-go, colleges are going mobile and making iPhones a mainstay of college life – and education.
Pioneering Mobile Learning
As the first university to announce distribution of iPhones and iPod touches to students, Abilene Christian University (ACU) has become a pioneer in mobile education. The one-year-old pilot program has been thriving so far – 89 percent of students and 87 percent of faculty polled called it a success.
The comprehensive mobile learning initiative isn’t just a gimmick designed to lure students to the school – though all the press has certainly put the Texas university on the map. At ACU, profs across all disciplines are integrating the devices and their tools into the way they teach.
One chemistry professor, for example, experimented by delivering lab prep and safety lectures to a special section of students via podcast rather than in the classroom. Outcome: the prof determined that there was no loss in mastery of content.
iPhones Required
Of course, ACU isn’t the only college in the mobile learning universe. Some schools are making the smart phone a must-have school supply. The University of Missouri School of Journalism strongly encourages students to purchase an iPhone or iPod touch and plan ahead by including the costs in their financial need estimates. For now, the school’s iPhone push seems to be focused on increasing utilization of iTunesU, which offers free content (e.g., recorded, downloadable lectures) hosted by individual universities.
At the University of Florida’s College of Pharmacy, students are required to have an iPhone or iPod touch for the purpose of interactive classroom polling, looking up drug information, listening to lectures on iTunesU, and more. The college is also working with a company that’s developing electronic medical records for the iPod touch.
iPhones for Free
And then there are schools like ACU that put their money where their mouth is by providing the Apple handhelds they recommend. Through Freed-Hardeman University’s iKnow Initiative, every student who wants an iPhone or iPod touch can get one, along with 3G services. The Tennessee school is currently developing a “green” app that will measure waste on campus.
Select freshmen at the University of Maryland have been given an iPhone or iPod touch to assess its college campus and education value. The goals of the school’s mobility project are to enhance the classroom learning experience, promote interaction between faculty and students, provide a tool for students to manage their time, and improve campus safety.
As part of its mobile computing initiative, Oklahoma Christian University not only gives an iPhone or iPod touch to incoming students, but it also provides a laptop. About $400 per student each semester is built into tuition to cover the devices and upkeep for the campus network. The mobile technology allows students to do everything from checking course schedules to finding available washers and dryers on campus.
Apps for All
There’s just no telling how iPhone apps can be used in the classroom. A theater prof at ACU has used a calculator application to determine square footage of set pieces, the searchable Shakespeare app during the school’s annual Shakespeare Festival, and even the Pitch Pro app in lieu of a piano during rehearsals.
And of course, apps get even more education-specific: the University of Utah has created apps like AnatomyLab, which allows students to view a body in 40 different stages of dissection. Students can even access apps that allow them to refer to their e-texts during class.
In my opinion, the true beauty of the iPhone is that you can enjoy an outdoor class and still take notes, photos, and look up information online. And if you (or your prof) ever want a break from the ubiquity of technology, you can just put it in your pocket, and move on.
–Robyn Tellefsen
March 16th, 2010
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