University Tales

A blog full of college students who wish to tell their stories.

[tastefullyoffensive]

(via rebellenoire)

[cosmicwizdom]

[university-tales]

I feel like I should post this here- I graduated today. 🎓❤

[lampurple]

Actual good first-time college student advice:

Wear jeans/pants that “breathe” and bring a sweater, even if it’s scorching hot out, until you know which building blasts the AC to 60 degrees F and which feels like a sauna

Backpacks with thick straps are your friend!  Messenger bags are cool and all but if you’re commuting with a lot of stuff, symmetrically styled backpacks are better for your back

You are your own person and you can walk out whenever you need to or want to, so long as you’re not disrupting the class.  Meaning you can go to the bathroom without permission, take a breather if you’re anxious, answer an important phone call, etc.

If you don’t like the class on the first day, if you can- DROP THAT CLASS AND TAKE ANOTHER ONE!  It’ll only get worse from there!

If you can, take a class outside your major; it’s a good break from your expected studies.

You are in charge of your schedule.  Your adviser and guidance counselor is there to ‘advise and guide’ but if you don’t like certain classes and you can substitute for others, that’s your choice.

Consequently, if you are changing anything drastic in your plan, talk with your adviser and instructors.

Pay attention to your credit hours and grades.  Never leave this to the last week of school, you will be sorry and stressed beyond belief!

Unless it’s a lab book or otherwise specified, go to the class for a week or so before buying an expensive textbook.  Some classes, while having it on their required list, do not actually use the textbook a whole lot and you might find some of it scanned online.  Rent if you can or buy used online (schools actually don’t give discounts).  Use your best judgement on what you think you need.

Tell the people who go up to you selling or advertising things you are not interested in that you are in a rush to class and don’t have time to listen to them.  It’s less rude and they’ll leave you alone.

The smaller the class, the better it is to have some sort of acquaintanceship with a couple classmates.  They might save your ass if you are absent one day or need to study.  And talking with them makes the time go by faster without it being so insufferable.

You don’t need to join a club or sport, but internships are cool and useful!

If you can afford it, take a day off once or twice each semester if you’re too exhausted.  Just be aware of what you missed and if it was worth missing!

Your health is the most important, this goes for mental health too!!  Note: College-age/upper teens is when mental disorders like depression and anxiety are most commonly diagnosed.  Most schools have therapy services, especially during exam time.  Look into it if you need to!

Communicate with your professor if you are having trouble with something.  Anything.

Eat and stay hydrated.  Bring a water bottle and snack to class.

All-nighters will happen but never go over 36 hours without sleep.

It’s going to be hard and there will be times you might think about giving up.  This WILL happen.  You just have to make sure what you’re doing isn’t making you absolutely miserable and/or there is something rewarding and positive to look forward to at the end!

[saintmosshart]

I did none of this and it bit me in the ass every time so this is EXCELLENT ADVICE.

ADDITIONAL ADVICE

Don’t let a mental health day turn into a mental health week because you will be so screwed.

Pay attention to the syllabus and do not lose it. A lot of professors put all of the assignment due dates in there and ONLY in there.

If your school has blackboard or moodle etc. CHECK IT. a lot of professors will only post certain info there and not talk about it in class

Check your student email account weekly. A lot of it will be unimportant junk but sometimes it’s the only way professors will communicate.

[beauty-and-learning-blog]

Check your student email multiple times DAILY. 

[fightostudy]

THANK YOU. I’m so glad i have resources like this queued up in my ‘college’ tag bc honestly i was so stressed before

[studyingallnight]

Advice from someone who really fucked up their freshman year:

READINGS ARE NOT OPTIONAL.

I REPEAT. READINGS. ARE. NOT. OPTIONAL.

Put them in your schedule, read BEFORE class. And summarise it. For bonus points, come up with some questions about the text and go introduce yourself to your professor either after class or during office hours, and ask them about it. This will make them much more likely to remember you in a positive light (and possibly bump your grade up if you hit a hard patch.)

Your library will have a copy of your textbook. If you cannot afford to rent it, you can go to the library and borrow it from the front desk for a few hours whenever you need it. It is there for you, okay? 

SO DO YOUR READINGS.

[franzurapika]

COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR PROF!! Most of us do not want to screw you over, but cannot usually do very much after the fact.

[wittacism241253-deactivated2016]

It’s essay writing season for tons of students!

After being a college writing tutor for over a year, I thought I would share my advice with all you awesome people on tumblr. This is how I write essays, but if you’ve got more tips, feel free to add them below. 

Happy writing. You can do it!

[preeoz]

So your SCHOOL LOANS are in DEFAULT and you are too scared to do anything about it

ON GOVERNMENT LOANS: 

Things have changed.

When you call your loan servicer, they  won’t treat you like shit anymore. They won’t threaten you or harass you or insist you pay half your paycheck to get out of default. Here is what I’ve experienced while dealing with defaulted government loans. 

1.  Find out who owns all your debts right now. It may be early enough that your most recent loan servicer could still be the owner. If it’s been over a few months, or years, it will be a collections agency or several agencies. Check your snail mail. Their policies usually dictate that they send paper mail. Once you find the collections agency, ask for “proof of debt.” By law, they must provide you proof that they own your debts so they can’t scam you.

2. Once you establish that this agency owns your debt, tell them that you can’t afford much but would like to “rehabilitate your loans.” This means you will make a payment for 9 consecutive months. The agency, by law, must use a government formula to figure out how much you pay each month. If you make around 40K, you will be asked to pay somewhere around $100-150/month. If you are unemployed, you can rehab for as little as $5 a month. Ask them to autodebit so you don’t accidentally miss a payment. If you miss one, your 9 months starts over. 

3. Once you finish your 9 months, call the collections agency to make sure they won’t autodebit anymore. They will hand your debt back over to the loan servicer you worked with before they got the loan. Most likely, you have Great Lakes, Nelnet, Navient (formerly known as Sallie Mae), or one of these loan servicers. Then go to this studentloans.gov website and make an FSA ID and PW. 

4. Begin a consolidation through the student loans website. The consolidation form will ask you to write in every loan. It might be on the website already, but check this NSLDS.gov site to be sure. This website has an up-to-date account of all your outstanding loans. Consolidating is a tedious and boring process. Make sure you have a few hours free to do this. 

5. When you consolidate, the form requires you to fill out a payment plan. You want an IBR plan, or Income Based Repayment Plan. This plan will allow you to make minimal payments according to your income for 20-25 years. Then, the government will forgive your loan. Consider it 25-year mortgage for your college education. Also, the IBR will re-evaluate your income every year in order to adjust the monthly payment. If you lose your job, your monthly payment will reduce dramatically, and if you find a better paying job, you may have to pay a bit more. 

6. Also while consolidating, you must choose which loan servicers you’d like to work with. I work with Nelnet. Nelnet was difficult to work with for years, like not allowing you to email in documents–only mail or fax. You can email scanned documents to them now. Remember, you can download free scanning apps to use with your smartphone camera. Remember to keep a log of every time you call, whom you talked to, and what you talked about. This is an important lesson I learned while calling companies for my immigrant parents. Anyway, because of government regulation, they are actually nice to you and available 24/7.They can’t pull their bullshit anymore because they use government calculations. I’m sure it’s the same with all the other loan servicers. As I said before, I work with Nelnet, but it really doesn’t matter which one you choose. 

7. When you finish with consolidation, wait a few days and call your loan servicer. Ask them if they’ve received the request for consolidation. Then, check in with them every week for the next six weeks to hear the status of the consolidation. They are not good about emailing you updates, i.e. never. I did my consolidation wrong the first time, and they just rejected it and never notified me. I found out when I made my weekly Monday night call. Had to fill out the damn form all over again. It’s finally been accepted. 

8. They will then set up you up with an IBR plan. Your payments will most likely be the same as what you payed the collection agency because they’re using the same government calculator. Autodebit those payments. 

This is all I know so far. This is far better than defaulting and having the government garnish your wages. And once you begin the IBR plan, there is an end in sight!

—

ON PRIVATE LOANS: 

I don’t know much about these, but I know private is much harder to deal with. 

1. It’s not great to default with these loans either. Defaulting and declaring bankruptcy does NOT absolve you from the loan. Your wages can still be garnished if the collections agency sues you and wins. 

2. If you make regular payments, the loan servicer will not settle your debt with you. Because they’d rather have your interest payments. If you default in order to settle with the collections agency who buys your debt, you’d better have enough cash to pay them off in one lump sum. They will bargain with you to get you to pay between 50-60% of your loan. If you own 100K, do you have 60K in disposable income? If so, you shouldn’t ruin your credit!  

3. You can now refinance your loans! Due to new legislation (I think it’s Elizabeth Warren’s doing), you are allowed to consolidate all your private loans under one bank and get a lower, fixed interest rate. I’m willing to bet your interest rates are at 8% or higher. You can consolidate all these to under 5%, or even as low as 2%–the better your credit, the better your rate. I would consider perhaps working with the credit unions instead of a bank.

—

I hope this helps you. If you have any questions, please send me a message and I’ll do my best to help you figure it out.

[dagwolf]

thanks, Praise. 

We’re most of us working people with little to no extra income. Purposefully defaulting on your loans only works if you can settle. Don’t listen to bourgeois debtors praising purposeful default as some sort of useful and progressive direct action. You will end up with garnished wages. The stories Praise and I hear are always the same. 

It doesn’t make you less radical or something to fill out this shit paperwork and receive a long term IBR plan. The payments for us are low. We’ll never pay off the majority of our loans before they’re forgiven. I don’t do it because of some ridiculous principle. I do it because it’s better than having my wages garnished.

If you need further help, I know Praise will answer your asks. She’s kind of become an expert on this process. Send her a message. She’s super cool.

[leuc-anthemum]

Timely

[university-tales]

Officially had my worst semester grade-wise here at Kent State and I’m not exactly feeling too great right now.

No where to go but up? 

[university-tales]

teachers trying to impose responsibility

freshman year: "this isn't middleschool anymore"

sophomore year: "you're not a freshman anymore"

junior year: "you're almost seniors now"

senior year: "college isn't going to be like this"

College: "Sorry guys, class is cancelled because I'm super hungover. Just do the reading"

[university-tales]

Filled with panic and excitement…at the same time. 

[university-tales]

Tip: Put the date on your class notes! It'll come in handy later.

[tukut]

college tips 

- do  not  take  8 am classes

- dont take 3 hr classes that only meet once a week

- sleep 

- when u write an essay pick out the quotes/examples u want and write the essay around it

- email ur teachers and meet with ur advisors regularly

- quizlet

- TRIPLE CHECK YOUR ALARMS 

- bring tupperware to the dining hall to smuggle out extra food

[fkhjsafjkl]

- dont wear your lanyard around your neck

- try to group your classes together in back-to-back time blocks. you wont want to go back to class once you get home

- STAY ON TOP OF YOUR HOMEWORK EVEN IF THERE ARE OPEN DUE DATES

- when walking on the sidewalk keep all the way to the right especially if your pace is slow

- yes, sometimes we can hear the music through your earbuds. we really don’t care or mind

- try not to eat a whole bunch after 10PM, especially fatty foods like pizza or lots of pop. you’ll get stomach aches in the morning

- nerd clubs are 100% okay and there are tons of students who share your interests with you, you just have to look

- take out the fucking trash

[fortheloveofmish-deactivated201]

-if you’re in a completely silent library, be courteous of others and don’t blare your music through your earbuds PLEASE

-always sit by plug outlets

-enjoy your time off

-keep a log of all passwords and usernames for online homework (YOU WILL HAVE ONLINE HOMEWORK)

-get a planner

-geT A PLANNER

-GET A PLANNER

-USE the planner

-ps 8ams aren’t that bad if it’s not every day

[postmarq]

College Packing Index Cards: Use these index cards as a college packing guide — you don’t have to bring everything on the list.

[tattooturlet]

Holy shiiiiit. This just saved me so much time.

[wrenwhite]

i thought about litwick breeding variations and decided i wanted to draw some. turns out, designing candles is hard. i did lampent instead. no pure bred for comparison, sorry.

[university-tales]

Last night was great! First, a date night with Courtney where we saw Paper Towns. Then, we ran into Carrie, Amy, and Kenny and went midnight bowling. Then we battled it on Mario Party 10.

[novr-deactivated20190712]

[murphylandyn-deactivated2018060]

20 Things I’ve Learned at Kent

Two years down, two years to go & I am severely upset about it. Why am I old & why am I half way done with my college career? I’ve definitely learned some pretty valuable things I am not talking about in the classroom.

20. You will not get anything done on the fourth floor of the library. Go there for a study break or to talk to your friends but a paper you waited the last minute to do isn’t getting done in club lib.

19. The Kent Chipotle will never be as satisfying as Stow. Make the 10-minute drive. It’s worth it. 

18. Beverly Warren does in fact read your snarky emails.

17. When you have a chance to sleep, do it.

16. I don’t care that you felt perfectly fine before you got on the PARTA, you’re going to feel like you have to puke when you get off.

15. That black squirrel does not want to be your friend.

14. Slice has cannolis. Eat them.

13. Franklin Hall is freezing. That is never going to change.

12. It doesn’t matter how “quick” you’re going to run into that building. Parking services is going to find you & ticket you & you will cry.

11. Just avoid the wind tunnel. At all costs. Really, why do we have that. 

10. There is a 90% chance you will get a flat tire on College street.

9. There’s never a bad time for Hungry Howie’s. 

8. No matter how good of an idea it seems at the time to walk home from University, you will hate yourself in about 5 minutes. Call a responsible friend with a warm car.

7. An icy esplanade is a perfectly good reason to not go to class.

6. Take advantage of all there is downtown. There’s a lot to do down there.

5. There will always be at least five cars in front of you at Dunkin.

4. You are bound to choose between going to class or staying home to do work for another. Pick your poison.

3. Just because it looks warm outside, it doesn’t mean it is. Put a coat on.

2. When no one else is there for you, Boars Head always is. 

1. No matter how much you complain about the place, when you’re not there you’re dying to get back.

With much love, L. Xx

[bringbackmy-gorls]

This is perfect, bless you 

[deftonesqueen]