#collegespo

[mercifulstudie]

— i saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked

[humeruspremed]

O. Chem 2 is kicking my butt. This class is so hard and taking it in the summer, accelerated is information overload. I have two exams in the final two weeks of this class, so I'm grinding out these chapters with a lot of cold brew. Loving my Rocketbook and how easy it is to upload my notes to Google Drive. Also it's so much more renewable then a bunch of notebooks that I just use once. What are you loving in your school supplies?

[anthropologystudies]

[29 December 2017] || bullet journal spread featuring my 2018 goals and a “thug life” banner illustrated by my coworker!

[maddichondria]

college dorm: what to get!

Here’s a list of things to pack, bring, or have on hand in your dorm room, based on my experiences (hyperlinks show products I have particularly enjoyed or recommend):

appliances:

fan

mini vacuum cleaner

microwave

mini-fridge + freezer

water kettle or coffee maker (water kettles are significantly more versatile...mac n cheese, anyone?)

crock pot (check with your school’s policies--although this is dandy, this may not be allowed!)

power strip with surge protector

bathroom:

towels (3-5 towels will suffice)

toothbrush

few tubes of toothpaste

packs of floss

shower caddy and other things you’d need (shampoo/conditioner, body gel, loofah, etc)

shower shoes

contacts/contact solution

bed:

bed set (check measurements listed on your university’s website!)

bedside caddy

“chair” pillow

having this and a mini lamp desk to clip on the lap desk is nice, but not a pain to live without (although it’s nice for those days when you want to work on your bed)

cleaning/laundry

disinfecting wipes

laundry bags/basket

one tip to separate dark clothes from light clothes: put the light clothes in the bag and put the bag in the basket, and put the dark clothes outside of the bag but inside the basket.

laundry detergent (pods are the bomb)

fabric softener

trash bin

tissues

desk:

notebook paper/notebook

I prefer loose-leaf versus bound notebooks since I can rearrange pages or add pages as needed, but do whichever works for you!

binder + divider tabs

Group subjects however you wish--since my schedule was the same every other day (i.e. my Tuesday and Thursday schedule was the same, and my Monday, Wednesday, and Friday schedule was the same), so I grouped accordingly.

note-taking app (e.g. OneNote)

check out my Apple-specific productivity app compilation here!

colored pens/everyday pens/#2 pencils/erasers of choice

sticky notes

these can also be very convenient bookmarks!

pen case

desk lamp

mini stapler

split these with a few friends!

3-hole punch

pencil cup

paper clips (I particularly enjoyed giant paper clips!)

food/food storage (check with your university’s guidelines!)

mug (one or two will do)

disposable silverware (washing dishes will get tedious really fast)

napkins

storage

plastic drawers

under-the-drawer boxes

other tips:

The university bookstore is convenient, but that convenience comes at a price. Try buying your books through websites such as CengageBrain, Chegg, or Amazon.

Amazon Prime for students is 50% off. It’s definitely nice to have, but it’s not a necessity.

Communicate with your roommate(s) so that you can split up some of these things.

This bears repeating: check university guidelines! For example, some campuses allow crock-pots, some do not. 

If there’s a shopping center nearby and you arrive on campus early, you can always go back and buy things you don’t have, thus having a lighter load when you travel to your campus.

That being said, congratulations for entering this part of your journey, and best of luck!

[aliiestudies]

Introduction Post

Hello everyone!

I'm glad to say I'm finally joining the studyblr community. I have been lurking the community for a while but I decided to get my ass on check and be productive for once.

I'm Allie, I'm 19 years old, and I currently am attending college.

I'm planning on getting my transfer degree to try and go to a four year university.

My career plan is to try and be a service dog trainer!

My classes this term are:

•My College Newspaper Class

•Health Basics

• 3D Animation

• Midi Music Production

Please follow me if you post/reblog these topics:

• Studyblr/Studyspo

• Art

• Music Production

• Collegespo

• Journalism

• Service Animals

• Disability Awareness

[studylaurr]

i just realized that there's so many new accounts in this community, so here's a proper hello and welcome from me! xx ( ；∀；) ☻ ☻ + ive been gathering some studyspo and collegespo for this upcoming year °Д° what are your best tips for staying productive?? lemme know heh

[shanpaistudies]

Hi studyblr community! This is my first original post; I hope it serves you well! I got my research position through a program in my school, so the process was a little more formal at first (I had to write essays), but I still used these when it came down to communicating with my PI (principal investigator). Good luck!

THINGS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER BEFORE LOOKING FOR A LAB

1. Do you have time to do this? Don't just think about gaps between classes in your schedule. Think about how hard your classes are and how much time you need outside of class for homework and studying. Orgo and psych might both be one hour classes, but they are definitely not going to require the same amount of time outside of class. You need blocks of time (3 to 4 hours at a time) to spend in lab.

2. What kinds subjects are you interested in? Those departmental websites are where you're going to be looking. (Don’t be shy about looking into research that isn’t within your major. You never know what kind of answers you’ll get!)

3. What kind of work are you expecting to do? Do you want to do benchwork (wet lab)? Or do you want to do things that are more computational (dry lab)?

FINDING OPPORTUNITIES

1. If you were really interested and did well in one of your classes this semester, look up that professor's website. Read about their areas of research, or...

2. Go to your major's website (or website of any other department you were interested in) and find the faculty list. Start reading everyone's research interests.

3. For the professors whose work catches your eye, go to their lab websites and do some more reading! (Better learn to love it now; research is a lot of reading.) Look up journal articles authored by these professors (pay attention to the year they were published. More recent ones will give you a better idea of what could be going on in their labs right now). You don't have to understand everything in the article. At the very least, read the abstract and skim through the introduction and conclusion. This will give you a better feel of the problem and what was accomplished in the project. It's important to know this stuff because you’re going to...

3. E-mail the professors! And don't write cookie cutter e-mails. Individualize each e-mail and make sure to voice your genuine interest in that lab's work.

THE E-MAIL

1. Be concise. Ain't nobody got time to read your perfectly crafted 5-paragraph essay on why you should be taken into the lab. 

2. Introduce yourself, your year, and your major. If you've taken relevant coursework, you could mention that too.

3. Mention that you came across the professor's research and be specific about what caught your attention.

4. Say that you'd like to talk to them about their research (this is code for “Please can I work with you?”)

5. Only send a few e-mails at a time. If you don't get a reply after a couple of days, you could send a second e-mail as a follow-up. If you get a no, respond courteously. You could ask one more time and insist that you really loved their research, or you could just politely thank them for their response and wish them the best. If you get a yes (congrats!), find a time and place to meet the professor, and ask if there's anything they'd like you to read in preparation for the meeting.

6. DON’T BE DISCOURAGED IF YOU DON’T GET AN ANSWER OR IF YOU WERE TOLD NO. KEEP LOOKING!

THE “INTERVIEW”

1. I've been told that the meeting is basically like an interview, but my “interview” was really casual and not something I should've stressed out about at all. I still wore something nice (casual dressy).

2. If the professor gave you something to read, do your best to read it. Don't freak out if you don't understand, but don't just read it without trying to understand. Google any recurring words and phrases that you don't know (odds are that if they appear often, they're probably important). Write notes and questions down (even if it's more technical ones like “how does this work?”).

3. If you didn't get anything to read, try to look up past papers again and skim anyway. Take notes and come up with questions. Don't go in there without having anything to say or ask.

4. When reading scientific literature, don't dwell on the details of the methodology. Go for understanding the big picture: what kind of work came before this paper? What were the findings of the paper? What are the implications for future research? What's the next step?

5. At the meeting, admit that you didn't catch much of what you read (it's humbling and very likely to be true). Ask questions and talk about what you did understand.

6. At the end, thank them for meeting with you and ask about openings in the lab. If they have one and offer it to you, thank them and say that you'd like a few days first. Ask if they could talk to other students in the lab so you can get a feel for the environment. Also ask about who you'd be working with, what their project is, etc. You want to know what you're getting into.

7. Once you've made your decision, e-mail the professor.

IN THE LAB

1. ASK QUESTIONS WHENEVER YOU'RE UNSURE OF ANYTHING. If you have anxiety like me, it’s scary. Admitting you don’t know something is anxiety-inducing, especially when you’re in an environment where everyone has tons more background knowledge than you. THAT’S OKAY. You’re new. You’re an undergraduate student. Of course you don’t know as much as everyone! You are here to learn and you learn by asking questions. SO ASK!!! 

2. If you’ve made a mistake, don’t try to cover it up. TELL SOMEONE ASAP! Be honest and responsible! 

2. Keep a notebook with you so you can take notes on lab procedures. Be diligent! 

3. If things aren't going well (you've lost interest, trouble with your mentor, etc.), talk to your PI. It's not fair to you to be doing work you're not excited about (this is an extra-curricular activity, after all), and it's also not exactly productive to the lab to have someone who doesn't really like being there anyway. You have to love research to do it well!

4. Do your best. People are using their time and resources to train you. In return, you should dedicate yourself to it! (Doing your best does not mean sacrifice your emotional, physical, and/or mental well-being. Understand where your boundaries are and stick to them.) 

5. If you're pre-med, this is a way for you to illustrate your passions. Research can end up being a talking point for you if you end up dedicating a lot of your time and energy into it!

[mercifulstudie]

— on campus

[humeruspremed]

I've just had the hardest time studying lately... With some family stuff going on, I've been a little emotionally preoccupied and it's making studying a challenge. Today I'm trying to crank out some biochem revisions at work since it's been pretty quiet. The different synthesis and degradation pathways are interesting, but very hard to remember what's what

[anthropologystudies]

[15 december 17] || A little reading for fun from the Human Bone Manual! This is part of my osteology prep for next semester, because I know the class will be very tough!

[littletinydoom]

Attention studyblr followers!

I decided to take a whack at running a studyblr/studyspo/studyaesthetic sideblog so have a look over here if you want to see more color-coded goodness

[federicalearns]

Friendly reminder of the day:

A grade does NOT define who YOU are and your self worth. You ARE WORTH IT, no matter what is written on that paper. You have so much potential, no matter what everybody tells you. Listen to your heart and to your instincts. Follow your dreams.