Tag Archives: College
The advantages of joining a college sports team
Going to college is one of the most exciting times in a person’s life and it can provide the platform for what an individual goes on to achieve in the rest of their life. College life is primarily for the acquisition of knowledge and the development of personal skills to help with a future career, however, there are other ways in which college life enriches people.
College is a time to make new friends and develop relationships that last a lifetime, and yes, further education is about developing skills but it should also be a fun time, and students should get a lot out of the experience. There are many ways in which you can enjoy college life to the full but joining a college sports team should be near the top of the list because it is a great way to make the most of this time of life.
There are many reasons to join a college sports team:
- Being on a sports team encourages health and fitness.
- You develop a strong bond and friendship with teammates.
- Working as a team or acting as a leader can develop you for your future career and life.
- Sports players are respected within the college.
- Being on the sports team should be fun.
A great reason to join a sports team or be physically active is to stay fit and healthy; being on a sports team will definitely benefit you with regard to your health and appearance. Students can grow in confidence and boost their self-esteem by being part of a sports team.
College sport friendships can last a lifetime
You’ll regularly see former students talking about the friendships they developed in a college sports team and how they still stay in touch with their teammates. College can be a daunting challenge for many people and a lot of new students wonder how they’ll make friends. Joining a sports team and having a common goal with people is a fantastic way to create a bond with your peers. There is also the fact that college team players are well respected on campus, which is always something that can help people feel happy in their surroundings.
Lessons learned through sport can shape your life
While playing sports is good for your health, you can develop aspects like teamwork and self-discipline, and learn some leadership skills. Many business experts and people who are happy in their personal life have achieved these goals through the lessons learned when playing sports at college.
It is always important to remember that sport should be fun. If you’re looking to enjoy yourself during your college years, joining a sports team, training and playing games will give you a lot of enjoyment.
There is a wide range of sports you can enjoy at college, including:
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Boxing
- Fencing
- Football
- Gymnastics
- Hockey
- Lacrosse
- Soccer
- Tennis
- Track and Field
- Volleyball
The diversity of sports to be enjoyed at college should ensure there is something for everyone. No matter what sport is played, it is important that people buy and wear the correct equipment when taking part. Take Tommie Copper as an example; clothing and fitness gear from the Tommie Copper compression lines assists players and athletes to enjoy their sport and minimize the risk of injuries. Before playing any sport, always warm up properly, focus tightly on your goals and wear the proper clothing.
Colleges want their sports teams to do well
You’ll also find that colleges are keen to encourage sports teams. Anything that fosters a sense of school spirit and helps people to feel as though they belong at the college has to be seen as a positive thing for the educational institution. A good sense of school spirit can help people to feel happier, it can reduce negative emotions in students, and it can make people want to achieve more with their academic results.
There is also the fact that college sports teams can often bring in money for successful colleges. Whether this is through alumni donations, partly due to the great time they shared on the sports field, or because local businesses and suppliers want to be seen as backing a good local team, colleges can benefit financially from sports teams. Most colleges create a platform that encourages people to enjoy sports, something that should be considered a key component of student life.
5 Ways Smartphones Are Changing the College Experience
It’s hard to miss the ubiquity of smart devices when walking through modern cities. And if you walk across the campus of any university in America, you are sure to see hordes of students interacting with their phones as they hurry from building to building. They are likely doing more than just looking at funny cat videos on YouTube, however: Smartphones are transforming education. Here is a list of some of the most important ways that is happening.
Education Apps
Many students now use apps on their phones to prepare for class and enhance their learning. Specialized apps like Coursera offer free or low-cost online classes and course materials, though wise students use these apps to supplement, not replace, their efforts in the classroom. Other apps let students take notes and record sound and video in their classes. Of course, the teacher might have something to say about that; most instructors don’t want students distributing recorded lectures, whether to their peers or to the wider Internet. Be sure to ask before you record, then respect your teacher’s wishes.
Storage Apps
One variety of app deserves closer examination: cloud storage solutions. Rather than worrying about keeping track of memory sticks and other physical hardware to transfer and manage data, users of apps like Dropbox move files between devices with minimal worry about compatibility and other issues. Modern students often access their work across many platforms, including school-owned desktops and their own laptops, tablets, and smartphones. With information stored in the cloud, students can always rest easy knowing that their notes, projects, papers, and other vital information are safe and available to them on any computing device.
Books and e-Books
College education means textbooks, and textbooks mean a big pain in the bank account. Many professors think little of asking students to buy hundreds of dollars’ worth of pricey books, which is rough on a student budget. Online shopping services like Amazon are a great way to track down discounted versions of the course materials, but smart devices can let you go a step farther. Rather than buying a physical book, you can get an electronic version and just read it from your devices. E-readers work best with this kind of content, of course, but any table or smartphone such as the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, will work. Indeed, the Galaxy’s large HD display lets users read large blocks of text without sideways scrolling. Since many professors are now posting articles and other supplemental materials online as well, a good e-reading solution is convenient and can save you a lot of money.
Course Communications
New technologies bring new ways to communicate, and those channels of communication are useful for imparting class-related information. Social media outlets such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter make it easy to stay in touch with members of group project teams and others among their classmates, coordinating work and meetings and getting notes for missed sessions. Some classes even have their own pages or forums on social platforms or proprietary school software, giving students a space to discuss and plan. Smartphone technology gives students access to this information without having to set up a laptop and find a Wi-Fi signal.
Social Life
But coursework isn’t the part of college most students are looking forward to. Prospective students are often more interested in social life on campus. Here smartphones are also useful, letting you tap in to social calendars of organizations on campus and make sure you can attend any event of interest. Using social apps like Facebook, you can follow your favorite clubs and get notifications of anything they have going on during the week. This applies to nonacademic activities as well as official school clubs. Organizations like fraternities, sororities, and the school athletics department put out invitations and information through their social feeds, so if you are following, you’ll always be in the know.
Smart devices are changing every segment of American life, and higher education is no exception. Find the best smart device for you and tap in to the power of pervasive mobile computing to make your school and social life the best they can be.
6 Tips for Choosing the Right College
Picking a college can feel like deciding the rest of your life, but with all of that pressure it can be difficult to fully consider all of your options. Breathe, relax and follow our tips on how to pick the right college for you.
Image by Moyan Brenn used under the Creative Commons license.
Tip 1 – Ranking
There are a number of factors that go into choosing the right school, but one of the first ones that many students look at is the college’s ranking, both nationally and internationally. If you want to go to one of the best schools or find a school that specializes in your study area, rankings can be an easy way to narrow your search. Just remember that the higher the school is ranked, the more competitive it is and plan accordingly.
Tip 2 – Program
If you already know what you want to do, choosing a school based on the program of study it offers in your field can be a huge draw. Most universities have online directories where potential students can look at specific classes on offer, as well as teaching staff, alumni in the field and any connections to businesses that a school may have. Taking your program into consideration is a great way to help you choose the right school, especially for those who are already thinking about their after-college careers.
Tip 3 – Social Scene
While no one is suggesting you choose a school solely based on the clubs and intramurals offered, the social aspect of college is an important one for many students. As you embark on a new journey, usually living away from your family and friends for the first time, it’s nice to know that there are societies or clubs that you can join where you can feel accepted.
Tip 4 – Diversity
For many students, the element of diversity is very important. Whether you’re coming from a small town and want to meet people from different places or you’re from a big city with lots of diversity already, checking the diversity of each college before applying can be a big help in avoiding disappointment.
Tip 5 – International
Some students will be looking to study abroad during their time at school, so being aware of what options there are for international travel could also be a deciding factor in choosing a college. Simply doing your full four years abroad in locations like the UAE, Europe, China, Australia, South America, etc. is also a possibility. You’ll want to set yourself up for success, so double-check any language requirements, international rankings and the program you’re interested in to make sure the school fits all of your needs, not just your wanderlust.
Tip 6 – Location
Location is a key element that many students don’t think about before choosing a school. Of course, there is the proximity to home to consider, but students should also think about their new location and the opportunities it affords. For instance, if you are doing an agricultural degree, studying in a big city doesn’t make much sense. Keep in mind that if you’d like to do internships or get work experience while in school, the location of your university has to be somewhere that facilitates those desires.
We hope this has helped, just remember to research the schools you are interested in, and you will be halfway to narrowing down that exhaustive list!
What Your Dream Student Party Needs
University is about finding out what sort of person you are, learning more about the subject that is your passion, and making plans for how you want to live the rest of your life. Of course, it’s also about having lots and lots of parties. The trouble is that the parties you have at university often end up being pale shadows of the parties in your imagination. You may plan the sort of neighborhood destroying catastroparties you saw in campus comedies growing up, but all too often you end up in a small house just off campus drinking cheap lager out of a bath full of ice cubes.
But what if money was no object? What if the only limit to how awesome your party could be was your imagination? What then?
Throwing a television into a pool
I’ll be honest with you. There will come a time in your life when throwing a television into a swimming pool seems stupid. One day you will see it as a terrible waste that ruins a perfectly good TV and a perfectly good swimming pool, aside from the (enormous) health and safety issues it brings up. But that day is not today. Today is the day that you know that ruining a perfectly good TV and swimming pool aren’t unfortunate byproducts, but the entire point of throwing a TV into a swimming pool. Future you may not understand, but they don’t have to.
Singing waiters
There are many ways in which real life does not live up to the world of movies, and student parties are just one of them. In reality, violence is horrifying and scary rather than ultra cool. In reality if two people of opposite sexes meet and immediately don’t get on, the odds are they will learn to sincerely hate each other rather than falling hopelessly in love. But worst of all, nobody ever spontaneously bursts into a fully choreographed song and dance number, even during times of high emotion or great parties.
Fortunately, science has now found an answer to this final tragedy with the help of singing waiters. You can hire Singing Waiters and have them simply walk around your party, serving drinks like regular waiters, and then on cue, WHAM! There’ll be jazz hands everywhere.
Mud Wrestling
As with throwing a TV into a swimming pool, mud wrestling is an activity that may not make sense at a distance. Okay, so it’s supposed to be sexy, you get that, but nobody actually looks any good covered in mud, so what’s the point? The point is that you’re really over thinking it. Just print invitations that say “This party includes mud wrestling” and let destiny do the rest.
Have any other crazy ideas for a student party? share them below!
College Interview Tips to Land an Acceptance Letter!
For high school students—or anybody for that matter—trying to get into that dream college of theirs, the admissions process can be quite hectic; especially the college interview. From elite Ivy-league universities, to online colleges such as National University, and even community colleges, most will have some sort of admissions procedure. With that in mind, most potential students awaiting their interview become nervous with anticipation; mainly because the whole process can be quite intimidating as well as the mystery surplus of questions that are going to be asked. The good news however, is that a college interview is really nothing to worry about if gone about properly.
The very first thing you need to do is to know the college that is conducting the interview; study the courses, campus and every other important aspect. Once you feel as though you have a generally perspective knowledge on the college or university, you can begin to think of some of the obvious questions that may be asked; some of which may be, “Why do you want to attend our university?” or “What do you plan to do with your future?” Write all the questions down that you think you may be asked and then simply answer them. Study your answers until you know them inside and out; you could even have a friend or sibling conduct a mock interview.
Once the night before the interview rolls around, simply prepare for it the way you would a typical test. Study the questions and answers that you have come up with (add or make changes if needed) and try to memorize them. It is always important to get a good night’s sleep, but that importance only grows the night before your interview. You want to get enough sleep so that you are able to wake up early, get ready, eat breakfast and travel to the perspective college or university in time for your interview. Make sure that you dress for success as college officials always want their students to look professional and built for success.
Once you arrive at the interview, take a deep breath before entering and make sure that you remain confident; if you do not remain confident then you may end up putting yourself into a dilemma. One thing the interviewer will look for is whether or not you are engaged completely into the interview; you can look more engaged simply by asking questions back. That’s pretty much all there is to it; prepare for the interview like listed above, remain confident and excel through the interview. Good Luck!
Do you have any more college interview tips to share?
