The College Lifestyle

Make Smart Decisions and Have the Time of Your Life

College will require you to make any number of independent decisions about how you spend each 24 hours, so it’s a good idea to acquire some background on the various lifestyle options available to you when you reach your new living space.

For example, you’ll want to know how to put money aside for the frivolous expenses that leaven the academic routine. You’ll also benefit from investigating your social choices, because college offers countless ways to occupy your free time.

Greek or Geek

Many campuses offer the fraternity and sorority experience in addition to the other wealth of on-campus activities like sports, theater, volunteer efforts that take you into the local community, and the numerous special-interest clubs every college fosters. It’s useful to consider the contrast between the Greek system and the independent path, because they are mutually exclusive to a certain extent. Knowing your goals will make it clear which is right for you.

Whichever route you take, it’s wise to vary your social experience by acquiring friends who have made different choices, because you’ll gain much-needed perspective.

Spring Break

This traditional rite of spring can be the highlight of your campus year, and you’ll find people decide to spend it in a wide variety of ways. You’ll always be able to gather companions to share the classic two-week beach party that’s the usual concept of spring break, but there are new definitions to choose from. Try joining a volunteer group or signing up for a quick internship to explore a different side of leisure time.

Saving Money

In the context of a lean student budget, saving money is less about retaining cash month to month and more about spending as little as possible in order to maximize your discretionary income. Here are 118 clever tips on how to do just that. Some of these ideas are obvious (selling your used textbooks online), and others are remarkably creative (collect financial sponsors for a running event).

Remember, the less money you spend on essentials like food and textbooks, the more you can devote to the activities that please you as a person.

Student Credit Cards

Properly used– that is, sparingly and wisely used – a student credit card can be a financial asset. However, not only students but people of all ages are very rarely able to achieve that aim, because of the overwhelming ease of paying with plastic rather than cash. For students, though, it’s especially easy to misunderstand how quickly credit card debt can spiral out of control, and how much extra money the bank will charge you when that happens.

Ideally, a student credit card permits you to build good credit, which will make your post-college life simpler and cheaper. Make sure your credit card does that for you.

Electronics

Everyone at college will be attached to an array of electronic devices, so you’ll need some preparatory advice on how to equip yourself. Cellphones, computers, and flash drives are de rigueur, peripherals like scanner-printers not only make your term paper production easier but also save you money, and you’ll probably feel incomplete without some model of MP3 player.

Don’t forget to back up all your academic files to an external medium, because you don’t want a hard drive failure to destroy weeks of work on important projects.

Travel

Traveling can be the perfect antidote to the inevitable tedium of campus life, but many students have never before planned entire trips without family input and financing. These handy tips give you information on how to travel on a student budget (by exploiting student discounts), how to plan and pack, and what’s new for those who wish to study abroad.

There’s an art to traveling cheaply but well. Taking some time to review the subject can help you obtain the priceless experiences and memories you can’t get by staying home.

Student Health Insurance: Don’t Leave Home Without It

But what happens when you decide to travel? Some insurance plans follow you abroad, but if yours does not you can buy student travel insurance. If you’re confused about whether you have the appropriate coverage for all places and occasions, you can find a few guidelines here that will let you determine whether you’ve found the best way to meet your needs.