Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/380472284/hackcolleges-back+to+school-essential-student-know+how
Editor's note: It's been awhile since anyone on staff here has been a fresh-faced undergrad bustling off to school, so we asked the savvy students at the HackCollege blog what you need to know before hitting campus this fall. Here's what they said.
Students going back to school can be overwhelmed with new responsibilities, party obligations, and piles of homework. The HackCollege team has compiled our essential tips for going back to school. Read on to find out how to hack everything from beer pong to class registration.
A good to-do list is a must for any student that wants to keep on top of her course load. HackCollege is a big fan of Remember the Milk; it's free and online. It's great for those one the GTD wagon, but it also works for students who don't use GTD. Click through for some tips on how to apply RTM to student life.
It is indeed possible to ace a final without ever studying. To do so, a student must implement "stealth studying," a method created by Cal Newport. It involves creating study guides immediately after you learn the material. Continuously check up these study guides and you'll ace your! finals.
Registering for classes always seems to be more difficult than it needs to be. You want the best schedule possible, but also don't want to miss that killer class. This post might just be for you.
Hulu and Joost are great, but they still aren't up to par. What if you want to watch your shows offline? Or in HD? You'll need something like Miro and tv-rss.net. Take control of your TV-watching. If you're really fancy, you can plug your laptop into your TV. Your roommate will never know the difference. (Here's Lifehacker's guide to using Miro as your internet TiVo.)
College students are broke. College students also like to party, with alcohol. Booze isn't as cheap as it could be, but it's possible to stock a bar for a party with just a $100. It will be a little slim, but you will be able to make your killer strawberry daiquiris for your cocktail soiree. Image by OctopusHat.
Well, almost. There's a strategy to spending as little as possible on textbooks. It is possible to spend nothing, but usually you'll end up spending a few bucks. It still beats the the $900 textbook bills we're seeing these days.
The first few weeks at college are probably the most important for a student's social life. Partying hard the first few weeks is not only without consequence, but you will learn more than any MATH 102 course could ever teach you. Photo by mcclave.
Cool Beers in Five Minutes or Less*
As the time differential between beer run and beer drinking decreases, the ingenuity of beer-cooling methods increases. Check out this video for three methods of cooling beer quickly.
Yes, even drinking games can be lifehacked. Eliminate your variab! les. Con trol your form. This post quickly details the 3 games you will need to know for college social life. Image by HotDirt21.
Use the Beer Can Slip Cover to Inconspicuously Drink Beers in Public*
The debate is raging over the drinking age at universities, but HackCollege likes to circumvent any possible trouble. Whether you think your school's drinking policies are too strict or you just want to sneak a beer at a tailgate, this video will equip you for the sneakiest of beer drinkings.
There's a great site out there called Student Bloggers tracks many of the student blogs out there. It's a great resource for keeping up to date on student news and opinions around the globe.
Mac users have it so easy. There's a nifty little program out there that cuts down on extra junk in your room. You can use your Mac computer as a robust alarm clock. You'll never set your alarm for 7PM again.
You university is charging you a flat rate for tuition, but you're still shy of the recommended credit load. You're ahead on your courses in the big picture. What do you do? You read this post.
There's a dreadful time in every college student's life where he must do the inevitable: he must ask his parents for money. To make it worse, there's a science to it.
Macs are pretty sweet machines. It's possible to make them even sweeter using Quicksilver, a robust launching program. While Lifehacker's covered it up and down, HackCollege has a few tips for student Quicksilver users.
When you're jamming out and hammering out a paper, sometimes you'll need to pause your music quickly. Unfortunately you have 41 Wikipedia windows open for your "research" and you can't find your iTunes window fast enough. You just might need SizzlingKey! s.
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Ok students, what else do you need to know before classes get underway? Tell us in the comments.
Kara at All Things D and Phil at Google Blogoscoped predict a Google Browser soon, maybe as soon as tomorrow, that is open sourced, with an intelligent "omni" search/address bar, a multithreaded javascript engine called v8, and tabs on the top of windows. Part of their source material includes a comic which explains its design. [
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