Roommate Contract

When you first move in with your roommate you may have to make a roommate contract. If not, you should still make one. A roommate contract outlines the rules that you two both agree on. Having and following your ground rules will help avoid conflict.

 Here are some things to take into consideration:

• What time will quiet time be? 
• Quiet time could be during the day for studying or naps or for going to bed
• What can you do while your roommate sleeps?
• Will we sleep with the TV on, music playing, or in silence?
• What temperature should we keep our room?
• Do we expect the room(s) to be completely spotless?
• How long is too long to leave chores undone? Includes:
• Doing laundry 
• Doing dishes
• Taking out the trash
• Who gets control of the TV and when?
• Can I borrow your stuff without asking or should I ask first?
• What can NOT be shared?
• Can we share clothes? Shoes? Food? Snacks?
• How long can we borrow it before we HAVE to give it back?
• Can we have parties in here?
• When we bring someone (romantic) back to our room, how long can we have the room to ourselves? 
• How should we tell each other we’re going to have guests (romantic or not)?
• How many days before I have an planned overnight guest should I tell you?

Promise to ask nicely for things you would like, whether it be silence, food, or clothes.

Agree to say something right away about a person your roommate spends time with in the room or something your roommate does that bothers you. DO NOT BOTTLE IT UP! It helps out a lot. You should not be uncomfortable in your own room.

Is there anything else that you would request of your roommate? Or is there something you would expect your roommate to request of you?

Roommates

"As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen." - Winnie the Pooh

Roommate Contract - What to think about while making a contract with each other

The MAJOR Choice for Roommates - Choosing your roommate based on her major

12 Questions to Ask Your Roommate - What to ask your roommate before you move in 

Packing

"You're off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... Get on your way!" - Dr. Seuss

Packing List - A real list of things to pack for school  

What Clothes to Pack for College - How to fill your closet right 

Food to Bring to School - How to satisfy your tummy at school

6 Must Knows Before Heading Off to College - Important things to succeed in life

12 Questions to Ask Your Roommate

Before you move in with your roommate, you should ask her some questions that'll make your life easier. If you do some of these things without asking beforehand, you may end up with some unnecessary conflict. 

**** These are great questions to ask someone you are considering as your roommate. ****

There are some things you should ask your roommate before you move so you can get to know each other a bit better and so you can prepare yourself.

• Do you watch TV or listen to music to fall asleep?
• Do you need some light or pitch black to fall asleep?
• Do you go to bed at a certain time each night?
• Are you a heavy sleeper or light sleeper?
• Do you study in silence or do you need noise?
• Are you a messy person or a clean person? Or somewhere in between? 
• Give a scale with 1 being hoarder-like messy and 10 being incredibly too clean. And when they ask you, answer honestly! 
• What are you bringing to the dorm?
• Are you bringing a mini-fridge? A microwave? A TV? A broom or vacuum? A rug?
• Are you comfortable sharing:
• food and drinks?
• clothes and shoes?
• Do you smoke? 
• What are some ground rules you want to set?
• Are you allergic to anything?
• ~If you’re comfortable asking/they are comfortable responding~ Do you have any health concerns I should know about? If so, how do I help you with that?

These are some questions that you should ask to avoid conflict with your roommate. You don't have to be best friends with your roommate, but knowing these will make for a much easier time living with her. 

7/16/14

Food to Bring to School

Whether your meal plan allows you to eat in the dining halls for every meal, you are not going to want to. Here is a list of some foods you'll want to bring along for early mornings, late nights, or snacks on the side. 

First, determine how many meals you have with your meal plan. Do you have enough to eat almost every meal in the dining halls or do you have to fend for yourself sometimes?

Second, will you get up each day for breakfast?

• No - Get some breakfast bar and juice for your room.
• Yes - You may want cereal and milk in your room or eat in the dining hall

Pack Snack Foods!
In case you missed dinner (or are having a midnight meal) you may want some microwaveable meals like Easy Mac or Digeronos personal pizzas.
Water bottles are a must or get a reusable one with a water filter

Here is a list of foods you may want to bring to school:

• Cereal
• Breakfast bars
• Bagels
• Cream Cheese or butter
• Microwavable pancakes/waffles
• Bread or Tortillas
• Lunch meat
• Nutella
• Jelly
• Peanut Butter
• Fruit – Bananas, Apples, Oranges, Grapes
• Pasta
• Shredded cheese
• Spaghetti sauce – jarred or in resealable container
• Microwavable pizza or pasta
• Pretzels/Chips
• Salsa
• Water bottles or water bottle with water filter
• Drink Mixes (Mio, lemonade)
• Soda
• Coffee/ Hot Chocolate, Tea
• Juice
• Milk - Quart
• Condiments (salt, pepper, mayo, ketchup, mustard)

Hope this list helps you decide exactly what you'll bring to school this fall! What else would you bring?

7/15/14

What Clothes to Pack for College

College is a time to develop and grow. One of those ways is with your style. While I give you this list, shape it to your personal style! This list is just a guideline. Take what you find comfortable and wear it! Your closet isn’t going to be that big, so take what you want to bring, and cut that much in half! Bring what you know you’ll wear! Don’t bring that shirt that you never wore in high school but might wear someday. You won’t wear it.

My style changed each day. My nursing specific classes were on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and my GenEd classes were on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. So for my GenEd classes, I wore a t-shirt and jeans or even t-shirt and leggings. But for classes with my nursing professors I wore jeans and a nice sweater. I would even do my make-up and hair.

The way you dress gives an impression to your professors. While my GenEd professors would be very helpful for schoolwork, my nursing professors are the ones that will be seeing me more often as a student and as a prospective nurse. If I dressed well, I would give off an appearance of having my life together, so if they want to recruit students for an internship or research, I could be more desired than a classmate who looks like she doesn't care because she rolled out of bed before class. Now your grades have to show that your appearance isn't just an illusion, and you have to get to know them, but the way you dress will help you a lot!

Pack:

• 2 pairs of PJs 
• Underwear Galore! Socks galore! Bras Galore! (You can never have too much underwear)
• Winter coat, 2 pairs of gloves, scarf, winter hat/earmuffs, snow boots.
• Bottoms:
• 1 pair of dress pants
• `3 pairs of jeans
• 2 pairs of shorts
• Leggings
• Skirts
• 

   Tops:
• 3 Blouses
• 3 T-shirts
• 3 Sweaters
• 3 Cardigans
• 2 Long Sleeved Shirts
• Camis
• Denim Button Down
• Blazer
• 2 Sweatshirts
• Jean Jacket
• Leather jacket
• Dresses
• 1-2 sundresses
• Semi-formal dress
• Professional dress (for church, presentations, or job interviews)
• Workout clothes – if you work out, you know what you’ll wear!
• Belts, Scarves
• Bathing suit
• Shoes: Flats, converse, sneakers, work out shoes, toms, heels, boots, flip flops.
• Small purse
• Wallet
• Something to make into a costume (80s with neon leggings & cut off sweatshirt; black dress with cat ears, jersey with eye liner to be a football/soccer player)
• 2 or so cute but cheap shirts to get paint, sharpie, and anything else on. (Wet Seal’s 5/$20 sale is awesome for this)

A lot of people I know (that includes me) brought too many clothes or shoes to school! I really only wore about 1 pair of flats, my converse, 2 pairs of boots, rain boots and snow shoes. I used my heels a couple of times. In total, I brought triple the amount of shoes I wore. I did NOT need all of that. I also accumulated a t-shirts and went shopping a couple times so I left school with a lot more clothes than I came with. Limit your clothes to mainly your favorite clothes. You know you'll wear them & you'll have room for it all.

For a full packing list, check out my packing list post!

7/10/14

The MAJOR Choice for Roommates

Everyone is different when they choose a roommate, some people choose randomly, others choose based on tidiness, friends from high school, or majors. Choosing by major is an interesting one. There are different points to take into consideration when choosing your roommate by their major, whether it be the same as yours or a different one. I collected a bunch of pros and cons from friends of mine to come up with this list.

“It doesn’t matter [their major] as long as they are an open-minded person and you can get along with [them].” –Aketzalli

Pros of having same major

• Same sleep schedule
• Same class schedule
• Can relate to you about classes and difficulties
• Someone to study with & help you understand
• More motivation to study/do work cause they are working & you are not - Healthy Competition
• Similar friends
• Familiar face in class
• Understands your breakdowns due to stress - supports you through them
• Helps you with homework
• Easy access to missed notes due to not going to class
• No worries of waking each other up in the morning when getting ready

Cons of having same major

• Too much competition & comparisons that could lead to jealousy
• Clash with viewpoints on major
• Clash with time management
• Different schedules
• Tired of being around them when you have the same schedules
• Unhealthy Competition - Comparing grades

Pros of having different majors

• Unbiased viewpoint when you complain about professors or school work
• No competition, just support
• Some similar classes
• Same sleep schedule
• Meet different people than those in your program
• Never tired of seeing him/her because you only see them in passing and during the evenings
• Different friend groups
• Can learn about their majors to become more well rounded
• Help each other in school work
• Hear about more things that are going on around campus
• Outside perspective of school work

Cons of having different majors

• Different stress levels
• Completely different schedules
• Different sleep schedule
• Wake up roommate in the morning if you have different schedule
• Can’t get help with/borrow homework
• Workload debates
• (S)he doesn’t relate to you when you’re having a mental break down

As you can tell, there are a lot of pros for having a roommate of the same major, but the cons can be more trying than the cons of having a roommate of a different major. Who you room with should come down to more than just similar or different majors. 

Most colleges now have a Facebook page for each class. Join it and get to know people there. Make friends with people on there and then decide from there. Take into account how tidy (or messy) they are, if they smoke or not, and their sleep schedule! If you’re a tidy, non-smoker who goes to be early, you probably don’t want to room with someone who makes a mess everywhere they walk and stays up all night long smoking.

Know yourself and go from there. 

How will you choose your roommate? If you already have your roommate, how did you choose them?


***Special thanks to Emily, Aketzalli, Kim, Maggie, Rhi, Irene, Brynne, Tori, Rachel, Kayla, and anyone else I forgot to list who helped me make this list!***

7/9/14

9 iPad Apps for Success in Class

If you have an iPad you know that it can be extremely distracting with all the games, Pinterest, and Facebook? Who knew, but you could actually use your iPad to take notes and do well in school!  Here are some apps that I think everyone should use! These apps are also available on your iPhone but I prefer my iPad because it is bigger.

Notability – $4.99 

Basically Notability is a notebook on your iPad. You can make different notebooks to put your notes in. When you make a note, you can change the color of the paper and add lines or grids. You can type, draw, highlight, and erase all your notes. It works wonderfully as a notebook. If your professors give you a PDF, PowerPoint, or another document to download and read, you can download it onto the app and read it from there. You can record your lectures or even add photos to your notes. You can send the notes to people who missed class or to yourself through email, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Honestly, this is the best app for school!

myHomework – Free 

This is a planner on your iPad. First, you add your classes. If your professor has an account then you can find your class with that, but you can also add your class manually. You put in when you have the class, the building, and teacher. Then put your homework in with its due date and priority. It will give you updates on when your homework assignments are due next time. When you’ve finished, mark it off. It’s great for planning your time out for projects.

Flashcards by NKO – Free

This free version of the app is great. You can buy different notecards and make your own ones. When you go into “My Decks” you are shown all your different notecards that you have made. Click on the deck you want and you are offered the basic notecard style of testing along with games, and quiz. It offers you many different ways to study with notecards. Also, it saves paper and money because you don’t have to keep buying notecards.

Penultimate – Free

This is an app similar to Notability. It is connected with Evernote so you can send your notes to your Evernote account. This app is even takes into account on how you hold your stylus and hand as you write. You can make different notebooks and these are just like paper notebooks where you flip between papers.

Google Drive – Free

This app is just the iPad version of Google Drive from Google. It keeps all your documents that you have created or downloaded in one place. You can create new folders, documents, or spreadsheets. You can even upload photos. It connects your iPad to your Google account.

Chegg – Free

This is an app for reading e-textbooks. You can buy or rent a book from the app and from Chegg.com and access the e-textbooks with the app. Chegg really has the best prices.

Microsoft PowerPoint & Word – Free

Both apps are free however the only problem is that you need to have a Microsoft account and have Microsoft Office attached to the account. But after that (which in my opinion EVERYONE should have Microsoft Office) it makes writing papers and making Powerpoints so much easier. Send the Powerpoints and Word documents to yourself with the use of OneDrive (which comes with Microsoft Office) and you’re good to go with all your work.

Quizlet – Free

This is another flashcard app. It is connected with Quizlet.com. The app has the notecards, learn, and matching modes. Notecards is simple flashcards. Learn gives you the definition and you have to type the answer of the first side of the notecard. Matching is the matching game.

**I paid for these apps by myself. These are my own reviews.**

All these apps are fantastic and incredibly helpful apps. Are there any apps that you have used to help you in school?


7/1/14