Need a break from all those college or scholarship applications? Get in the holiday spirit by checking out our annual list of the coolest stuff, all with campus life in mind.

School Pride

Collegiate Beanbag Toss: Especially if you’re going to a school where tailgating before football games is a part of student life each fall, a beanbag toss game (also known as cornhole) is a must. Target is among the stores selling the games with school names and mascots on them; you can also find them offered by your potential school’s bookstore. $69-$99

Collegiate Wallet: One of the first thingscollege freshman was a faux-leather ID holder/keychain with my university’s logo on it. But the Pottery Barn Teen wallets are so much more stylish, with the logo and school colors stitched in needlepoint. $55.

Dorm Room Stuff

Door Organizer: In college, you’re going to be so busy that anything that can help you remember important items (like those keys!) is awesome. The Doorganizer from The Container Store is one of those items, staring you right in the face as it hangs from the door knob. It holds phones, keys, glasses, pens, flash drives, and other stuff that you need on a daily basis. $11.99.

Cool Tools: Show your independence by asking for some tools, even starting small with a hammer, screwdriver, and wrench set. But girls can still be cute, such as the Tools for Her set. $19.99.

Tech tools

Mophie Juice Pack Air: Here’s a common Facebook status update: “My battery died so don’t call me. Just FB me!” Don’t let your cell phone die and disconnect you from your friends and worried family. This iPhone case, available in red, black, and white, has a rechargeable battery. $79.95.

Pandigital Frame: Remember your high school friends – and have room for photos of new college friends, too – with a digital frame. There’s a ton on the market, but you’ll want to see how many images it stores (this one from Bed, Bath & Beyond can hold up to 4,000), the frame’s size, and if it comes with a remote (just in case you want to skip past any of those embarrassing photos). $59.99.

Traveling Around

KAVU Keeper: Look all laid back, but organized, with the five compartments in this slender bag to hold your cell phone, keys, and anything else you’re likely to lose while on campus or hanging out with friends. We love the pattern names, like Fireworks, Wallpaper Stripe, Licorice, and Arctic Bloom. $30.

Car Trunk Organizer & Cooler: If those busy weekend trips make it seem as if you are constantly living out of your car, you can get organized with this car trunk organizer. It may join the wooden bar you may have affixed in your car to hang up your clothes too. But this organizer also comes with a cooler, making you a popular person when on a road trip with friends. $49.95.

–Lori Johnston (Delaney Young contributed)

Here’s some news to made you smile on a Monday: President Obama met this morning with a small group of college and university administrators to discuss the soaring costs of higher education. Although this close-door meeting is considered an unusual one, not to mention a last-minute one, it couldn’t come at a better time, as student debt is quickly heading towards the $1 trillion threshold.

While the complete list of those invited to this meeting is unknown, Inside Higher Ed is reporting that the following colleges were being represented, and it’s quite a cross section: State University of New York, University of Texas System, University System of Maryland, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, California State University at Long Beach, Ivy Tech Community College (Indiana), Carnegie Mellon University, Berea College, and Western Governors University.

It should be interesting to see what comes of this meeting, but for now, it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Join us today at 4pm ET for a Twitter chat on this and other hot topics in higher education.

–Barbara Bellesi

Our hearts are with the Oklahoma State University community today as it mourns the loss of women’s basketball team coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna. Both were on a recruiting trip and were killed when their single-engine plane crashed near Perryville, Arkansas.

Also killed in the crash were pilot Olin Branstetter, a former Oklahoma state senator, and his wife, Paula. There were no survivors.

Oklahoma State’s president Burns Hargis was quoted at a news conference: “This is our worst nightmare. The entire OSU family is very close, very close indeed. To lose anyone, especially these two individuals who are incredible life forces in our family, it is worse beyond words.”

–Barbara Bellesi

By now, you probably already know if you thrive on stress in school, and if so, going to a college known for being a stressful environment is perfectly OK with you.

If your personality doesn’t handle stress well (with results ranging from stomach aches to depression), considering the stress level at a college could be really important in your college search. A school’s competitive environment is something to look into as you weigh other factors, like tuition, before sending in an application. Your choice may be a prestigious school, but a pressure-filled one, too.

Not surprisingly, costly private schools top a 2011 list of most stressful colleges. At the top is Columbia University in New York City, followed by Stanford University in California, and Massachusetts’ Harvard University (first in The Daily Beast’s competitiveness rank and acceptance rate rank).

The 50 schools on the list got the highest rankings in categories that the American College Health Association finds contributes to stressful college campuses: tuition, acceptance rate, overall academic competitiveness, crime, and the difficulty of its academic programs.

From the moment you send in that college application, stress can rise. But it could be even greater for students applying to schools on the list, since so many high school seniors want to get into those universities.

Is a college’s stress-inducing environment something you’ve considered during your college search or should consider? Let us know in the comments section below!

–Lori Johnston

Comedians are known for finding humor in virtually everything, which is why it’s refreshing to see both “The Daily Show” and “Saturday Night Live” take the high road with the Penn State scandal.

Check out what Jon Stewart had to say about Penn State:

And look at Jason Sudeikis’ funny bit during “Weekend Update.” I’m giggling, but there’s a serious message here:

When comedians aren’t finding any humor in the situation, you know it’s bad. Join me at 4PM ET today on Twitter to discuss the Penn State scandal.

–Barbara Bellesi

I’ve been trying to figure out all week how to best write about the Penn State sex abuse scandal. As a higher education blogger, it’s natural for me to focus what the allegations hold in store for the future of the university; however, in doing that, I realize that I am not focusing on what should be the bigger picture: the alleged victims of football coach Jerry Sandusky’s horrible misdeeds.

College football is a kind of religion to some people, and I can understand the fierce loyalty that students, alumni, and fans feel for Joe Paterno, head coach of Penn State’s Nittany Lions. At the same time, if allegations are true, then Paterno is indeed very much at fault for not reporting the sexual abuse to the police. Penn State itself is certainly acting as though they are true, and Paterno, as well as college president Graham Spanier, have been dismissed for participating in the coverup.

Penn State is obviously a sports-minded university. But it is, first and foremost, a university. The majority of students who attend Penn State do so to get an education. In that light, the football team is a very small part of the school as a whole. Which is why it’s so terrible that the school’s 156-year-long legacy is being so tarnished right now.

I’d like to think that coverups of this magnitude are not the norm; that we will not see a rash of similar allegations on campuses across the country, in a similar way to what happened with the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis. Therefore, if I were a student entertaining the idea of attending Penn State in the fall, I might seriously reconsider my application.

Penn State’s executive vice president and provost, Dr. Rodney Erickson, said in a statement posted on the school’s website: “This is one of the saddest weeks in the history of Penn State.” This might be true–but it’s nothing compared to the emotions felt by the abuse victims and their families.

–Barbara Bellesi

What’s scarier than the Saw series? More frightening than Freddy Krueger? For colleges and universities, it’s…DISGRUNTLED ALUMNI!!!

(Cue the Psycho music.)

College rankings, like those issued by U.S. News & World Report, have always held a controversial spot in the higher ed world, usually because no one but the staff of USN&WR truly understands the basis of those rankings. That’s why entrepreneur Tom Benghauser has decided to go rogue with College Straight Talk,  his unprecedented system of university rankings that involves input from college alumni. And as a result, college administrators across the country find themselves foolishly running back into their houses as the crazed killer is on the loose.

Why are colleges running scared? Well, for one, it makes SENSE to ask the opinion of recent graduates. Most will probably have at least something good to say about their home campuses, but unfortunately for colleges, there will always be alumni who will hold grudges about something during their college years–not to mention that unemployed graduates may hold their alma mater in contempt for their lack of jobs, rather than the depressed economy.

Benghauser himself is a graduate of Princeton University and The University of Pennsylvania, so he got started by using his own alumni databases. UPenn noticed the inordinate amount of searching he was doing, found out why, and so the alumni office shut him down. (Boo, UPenn.) Benghauser labels himself a consumer advocate, but so far, colleges and universities aren’t buying it and are refusing to work with him.

Provided that Benhauser can access alumni to get their feedback, College Straight Talk will plan to calculate the results of its extensive surveys and put the data on one website for college-bound students and their parents to access.

Just like car shoppers can look up ratings on Consumer Reports, it seems as though college-bound students will soon be able to look up ratings from alumni on College Straight Talk. Good idea or ghastly idea? Leave a comment below.

–Barbara Bellesi

So many people admire Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who passed away last week, for his innovation and impact on our culture and even education. And though he didn’t finish college himself, he had a connection – through his wife – to helping students make it to college.

Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, is a co-founder of College Track. College Track is an after-school program that since 1997 has helped more than 1,100 high school students in California, Colorado, and Louisiana get into college. The first group of minority students it worked with headed off to college in 2001, and hundreds have followed since then.

The organization even drew Justin Bieber, who performed at a College Track benefit concert in June 2011 (that event and other fundraisers helped College Track raise $2 million). Will.i.am also spoke in May 2011 to graduates assisted by College Track. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Jobs family provided “significant” financial donations to found and run College Track. Jobs’ wife remains chairwoman of the board.

College Track assists mostly low-income students who would be the first in their family to go to college. The organization starts working with students before their 9th grade year in these cities – California’s East Palo Alto, Oakland, and San Francisco, as well as New Orleans, and Aurora, Colorado. It provides all types of resources – academic, social, and financial (student earn up to $1,400 for each year they participate to go toward college) – to help students find a way to go to college. Here’s how it has succeeded:

• 100 percent of its seniors graduate high school

• 90 percent go to a four-year college

• 85 percent are the first person in their family to earn a college degree

• 70 percent graduate from college within six years

Many college students helped by College Track (see these videos with students’ stories) are serving as interns and volunteers, sharing their knowledge with current high school students.

Of course, many people are wondering which philanthropies or organizations will receive some of the billions of dollars that was part of Steve Jobs’ fortune. We’ll see if College Track is a beneficiary. In the meantime, if you know of someone in any of those cities in middle school who want to commit themselves to graduating and going to college but need a little assistance, they can apply online.

A student who graduated from high school in 2007 posted a comment on College Track’s website: “To succeed, you need to find something to hold onto to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you. That place for me is College Track.”

–Lori Johnston