Never Give Up

College life can be hard. Working on papers in the middle of the night, studying for tests, completing duties in organizations, you name it. It can all be taxing on you and sometimes you just may want to quit. I am telling you to not give up. You can make it to another day. In fact, you can make it to another month. Keep reaching for excellence. Don't let peer pressure make you give in to what you really want. You have worked so hard to get to this point in your life. Don't let a set back or hard work do you in. You can do this! You can make it and finish the semester/quarter strong. Yes, people are counting on you but that's not why you want to finish strong. You want to do this because of you. You are stronger than your problems. You can complete what you set out to do. You can finish strong!

Easy Bibliographies

Is it time to write that research paper? Don't wait until the last minute to get started on the paper. To help you write and keep track of your bibliographies for the paper, there's a tool to help you manage this. Visit Ottobib.com and just enter in your book's ISBN. The website does all the rest. So go to http://ottobib.com.

Free Money for College

We all know college is getting expensive. Well, it's always been expensive, but in these economic times, its getting even harder for a person to pay for college. Don't despair. Here are some sources to free money that help you fund your collegiate dream. Visit http://mycollegesuccess.com/money.html for a list of money sources.

Feed the World by Getting Smarter

Here's an interesting site. The site, FreeRice.com states that they will donate a grain of rice for every word definition you get right on their site. It's a great way to learn new words (that you can use on that college paper) and help feed someone at the same time. Try it out and get smarter. www.FreeRice.com.

Great online note taking/research tools

This is a quick note about two free tools that you can use to help you retain notes while you are working on your research paper.

Google Notebook (http://www.google.com/notebook) is a great tool to use help you keep track of notes and links. You can organize your links by topics and you can install the Notebook in your web browser. So when you need it, it accessible.

I really like the Yahoo Search Pad tool (http://tools.search.yahoo.com/SearchPad/Video.html). While you are searching Yahoo is paying attention to your search and after a few messages Yahoo asks you if you want to record and save your search topics. You can save your search topics and links and organize them. It's really a great feature to help you keep track of topics when you are writing a paper.

There are other tools that do similar things as the two listed above. Some may even be better. Just remember, with all these tools, don't copy someone else's work. Yes, take notes, but write your own paper!

Start Thinking about Life After College

I know you may just be a freshman, but now is the time to start thinking about what major you want to focus on while you are in school. You don't want to wait until the pressure is on to then decide to choose a major. Use this time in your freshman year to investigate different career paths. Visit different departments on campus. Talk to the dean or a faculty member in those department to get a feel for what those majors are like. Make a visit to the Career Placement Center to research the outlook on jobs in various fields. Also take a look at your skills. What are you good at? What do you like to do? Don't be afraid of hard work. The work you have to do in a chosen field may seem hard but you can do it. You made it through your high school years didn't you? You can do this. But make sure you research what you want to do after college. And start early, not later.

Talk to Your Instructor

What to be successful in college? One of the best ways to do this is to talk to your instructor. Get to know your instructor, let him/her put a face to your name. This is especially true if you are a student in one of those large lecture halls. By getting to know the instructor you are showing that you are interested in the class and that you really want to learn. Talking to your instructor means more than just showing up once during office hours. You want to geniune learn what your instructor is teaching so make the most of the office hour by knowing what to say and what you need to truly understand the student. Most instructors will know your effort come grade time and it can affect your grade. Tip for today is get to know your instructor.