Dorms or Commuting. Sometimes the costs of living on campus seem obvious and yet, when it comes to commuting, there could be hidden expenses such as parking permits and available parking costs which might translate to gas spent on circling parking trying to find a spot. Online classes are a great way to cut down commuting costs.

Academic services. You should always ask whether your school has a career counseling center and free tutoring. Even if you don’t think you’ll require the services, you might be surprised to learn that your needs may change over time. If you’ve done your homework and asked the right questions from the get go, you stand a better chance of picking a school with the services you might use later on.

Talk to those tour guides. Campus tour guides can be walking plethoras of information. It can’t hurt to ask them what their take is on the college you’re visiting and why they chose this particular college to work for.

Where’s the Wi-Fi? While you may assume the entire campus is one giant Wi-Fi hot spot, that’s not always the case. Ask where the signals are and find out if the college you’re checking out is Internet friendly. With e-learning becoming more and more popular, you’ll want to know if you can access a tutorial or check Blackboard anywhere on campus.

Extra fees. Just how much is college going to cost you? In addition to tuition, meal plans and living on campus, you’ll want to have a good idea about just how much registration, books and sports or clubs are going to impact your bank account.

Internships or study abroad. Ask whether or not your school has opportunities to learn overseas or participate in varied internships. You shouldn’t rule out the benefits of learning in Europe for the summer or engaging in an internship that could help your career once you graduate.

“Your brother works harder in school than you do.”

“My mom doesn’t let me stay out that late. Your mom is way cooler.”

“My boss never nags him.”

So what does this mean? Well, Dr. Orloff doesn’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing when you are pragmatically looking at “similarities or differences.” Another time it can be a great tool is when you’re viewing someone as a positive role model and you want to follow in their footsteps.

The negativity jumps in when comparing makes you feel jealous or like you’re not as good as someone else. On the flip side, you may see yourself as better than another person. Dr. Orloff wants you to think about something. If there was no comparing, you couldn’t feel jealous!

Hmm—sociologists often refer to this phenomena as “othering.” Othering is when people compare themselves to others and find the “others” to be of lesser value. Think Ireland and Protestants vs. Catholics or apartheid with white vs. black. Our history is littered with comparisons AKA othering and so there seems to be a need for more awareness about this issue.

The following are some tips to help reverse envy or jealousy. Orloff says that “the more you practice it, the easier it will get.”

Pick a person. Specifically, someone you feel jealous about. It could be your wealthy boss or annoying coworker who is always bragging about her fiancé. This person represents your test subject.

Stop comparing. Now is the time to act differently towards your “subject.” The next time your coworker begins her litany of amazingness regarding her lover, don’t take it to mean she’s just rubbing it in your face. Even if she is, you’re not going to feel inadequate. You’re going to look here in the eyes and tell her that you’re happy she met him. If you can’t do it, at the very least you will focus on all of the positives in your life and be grateful.

Treat others the way you want to be treated. Pay it forward. If you want employment success, help someone out who needs a hand. If you want a meaningful loving relationship, give love to receive love! This mantra is a simple yet powerful one! Sometimes the answers aren’t as complicated as we make them out to be!

Think from another perspective. Learn something new in terms of self-improvement—we all can. Look at your test subject and pick an attribute you can admire. While her going on and on about how wonderful her fiancé is might be annoying, you could recognize that you’d hope to be in a relationship with someone who thinks so highly of you that they want to broadcast to the world how much they think you’re awesome!

Greely, along with 28 other scientists from around the world, is on the JOIDES Resolution—a research ship being used in a 6 week scientific study to gather samples from the ocean floor. The samples are expected to be used to better understand volcanos, tsunamis and earthquakes. For USF students, they have the added bonus of seeing their professor on Skype sharing all kinds of cool oceanography equipment.

Greely says that her “job is to translate the science that is happening on board” and it seems she is doing just that. Greely is a marine biologist and head of outreach at USF’s College of Marine Science. She is also part of an international venture called the Ocean Drilling Program and she, along with scientists from 22 other countries, studies world ocean basins and the subsea crust. It is such an important project that it is often called the “ocean’s version of the Hubble Telescope program.”

This college classroom is far from ordinary and yet, because of technological advances, it could become a more regular occurrence in your educational future. The ability of professors and students to connect with one another from remote places is a unique experience that may translate into enhanced learning. While Greely probably never imagined she would be teaching a course from near the Caribbean in her early years growing up in Michigan, she is now able to give her students a ‘virtual experience’ and amazing online education they will never forget.

Networking. You’ve heard how important it is to network when job hunting. The same applies to internships. Who you know—or don’t know—when searching for the right internship can make or break your opportunities. So get busy! Make sure you’ve employed social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook to connect with friends and possible future employers. Remember to keep the sharing tasteful and, while it’s okay to engage on a personal level, don’t slam others or badmouth your current boss.

Active waiting. By active, I don’t mean hounding the company you’ve applied to by inundating them with an email a day—more like, sending them a thank-you note or emailing them after your interview. Then wait about a week. If your wait extends way beyond the time frame in which you should have heard back—for example, 2 weeks later—it’s okay to check on the status of your application. Do it in a way that is professional and classy—something like “I am still very pleased to have interviewed with your company and I’m getting in touch with you to find out about my application’s status.”

Don’t complicate matters. In other words, keep it real—and simple. When following up with a potential internship employer, use proper grammar. Also, address the person you are writing the email to using “Dear” instead of “To whom it may concern.” It’s best to compose the email when you are sitting in front of your computer—hastily typed emails on smart phones may be subject to autocorrect and you know how disastrous that might be!

Be prepared to ask questions. Take some notes and come up with a list of questions for the various internships you have applied to. That way, if you hear back quickly, you have already prepped, can grab your list and ask pertinent questions. In addition to revealing that you took the time to prepare, you could also show that you are taking the process seriously. Peruse the company’s website you have applied to and be sure to review all available information.

Believe it or not, being single and living alone are trending right now. Many of us turn to technology and social media to fill in the gaps. Sometimes it helps, other times, it can have the opposite effect—heightened loneliness. Even if we are networked online and have many Facebook “friends,” there are times we need to communicate with others by simply talking.

Craig Kanalley, senior editor of Big News & Live Events for the Huffington Post, performed an experiment inspired by The New Yorker article he read. He posted a message—similar to ‘if anyone wants to talk about anything, call me’—on Facebook and Twitter. He gave out his Google number that rerouted phone calls to his ‘real’ phone. If anyone wanted to text him, they could do so as well.

The results? 118 messages in 3 hours—7 phone calls, the rest texts. He was contacted by people from all over the U.S. and even Puerto Rico and Canada. The female/male ratio was split. He spoke with others about jobs, relationships, the United States, faith and more. Kanalley realized a few important things:

Connections are important to people. While he didn’t know all of the reasons why people got in touch with him, Kanalley did notice that a large number weren’t intimidated by contacting him and that had to account for something.

The phone is important for openness. More people opened up to Kanalley when texting or calling him directly than he probably would have seen in Facebook updates or tweets. He discovered that a large number of messages he received privately were more personal than most messages conveyed through mass social media.

Text messaging might be underestimated. Texting is referred to as the ‘people’s medium’ yet it’s often underutilized by media sources as a way to connect with others. Kanalley’s experiment revealed that many people responded positively to texting as a way to have more personal conversations. This is one trend that is popular among college students and—besides the negative information we hear about such as bullying—it could pave the way for authentic immediate connections.

Serendipity. Kanalley realized that there is something about connecting personally via the phone that isn’t as fulfilling when just using Facebook or Twitter. Because of character restraints on Twitter, he feels that the phone and texting permits more of an unrestrained and natural form of communication.

Maybe it’s time to conduct some experiments ourselves. We could try and go “old school” and call our friends directly to have conversations instead of just tweeting at them. We could text instead of posting random Facebook status updates. Who knows? We may be surprised by the responses and, like Kanalley, find that we feel less lonely and experience more serendipitous moments because we took the time to reach out in more personal ways. If, however, we suspect depression and/or feel sad most of the time, we need to reach out and get help—whether it’s through our college counseling centers or private therapists. Don’t go it alone!

Let’s take a look!

The Cost of a Public College Education for 16,651 students. Yep, $1 billion could pay for you and 16,650 of your friends and your friends’ friends and your friends’ friends’ friends to attend a public four year college of your choice. The National Center of Education Statistics estimates the average cost for one student to attend a public university is $15,014 so this sounds like a deal to me. Where would you go?

769,230 MacBook Pro laptops or over 2 million iPad 3s. It never hurts to have the latest technology at your fingertips as a college student so why not a MacBook Pro or iPad 3? iPad 3s could come in handy for checking in on your online courses from anywhere!

Over 12,000 university professors. Come on, don’t be greedy. What would college be without great professors? A billion dollars could take care of 12,113 professors’ annual salaries. Think about how much more fun learning might be if your professors weren’t concerned about how they were going to pay their living expenses—especially in the current landscape of slashed university budgets uncertain job security.

333,333,333 TV dinners. We can’t forget about food, right? All that studying and learning makes us hungry. You know you’ve been spotted in the frozen food aisle of nearby grocery stores scanning the Hungry Man and Lean Cuisine prepackaged dinners. If they’re priced anywhere from $2 to $6 and we estimate the cost for one meal at $4, you’d better make sure you’ve got a super humongous extra-large freezer in your dorm.

According to the Huffington Post it is estimated that “American consumers spend 35.3 hours per month online” and they are on social media sites “one out of every 5 minutes.” The other 4 minutes they are assumed to be gaming, shopping etc. Wow—that’s a heck of a lot of waking time spent on the net! Since most of us are sharing personal information with the world, here are some tips about what we should know when we’re online.

“They” know what you’re going to purchase—before you’ve clicked on that jean ad. Not too long ago, Target was in the hot seat for its ‘pregnancy prediction.’ A dad found out about his daughter’s pregnancy because Target mailed the girl something for expecting moms, whoops! It happens, though, and it has to do with the reality that most retailers use high tech methods for putting people into certain customer profile categories. Hmm—have you searched for information about a particular college degree program recently? Could that be why you’re now seeing ads for “Get your liberal arts degree—online” or “You can go to college in your PJ’s!”

Financial issues or life changes—beware. Have you just been accepted into the college of your dreams and you’re applying for school loans? If you’ve tweeted about your 420 credit score and were bemoaning the fact in your Facebook status update, check your mail for thank-yous from banks and other lenders. Recent marriage or divorce? Did you share your “life event” with your Facebook friends? Again, keep a look out for the thank-you notes! Okay, not really, but you most likely will be “thanked” by becoming the recipient of lots of ads for secured cards. While lenders aren’t supposed to use this information against you, you could be impacting future job opportunities—remember the article about employers asking for your passwords? Word to the wise—what you think you are sharing privately really isn’t “private” in the land of cyberspace.

Feel special—the net is personalized just for you. It’s true. We’ve heard the stories about how the Internet has changed over the last decade and now we know that retailers and businesses target us according to information we share on various social media sites. While there are downsides, like information never being truly “private” and searches turning up different results for different people when they type the same term in the Google box, as it relates to applying for online schools and earning our degrees, the information targeted to us about loans, scholarships or specific universities can be useful—possibly downright helpful!

Think realistically. While being waitlisted doesn’t mean you are completely rejected, you have to know your odds. Take Duke University 2010, for example. The school found themselves with 3,382 students who were waitlisted. How many of them did Duke think would actually be fully admitted? Only 60. Not trying to be a buzz kill here—just want you to know what you’re up against so you can be prepared for whatever your future holds!

Checking it twice. Once you’ve heard from the colleges that have waitlisted you and you’ve compiled your list of potential schools, it’s now time to ponder. Remember this—you’re only going to reply to universities you know you could attend! Sounds simplistic enough but you’d be surprised have many students stall here! If the school is halfway across the country and you know you can’t afford to be flying back and forth, check it off the list! Don’t waste your time or the school’s time! You’ll thank yourself in the long run!

Quick! Respond! Now you have your realistic list in front of you and it’s time to act. Some schools do look at response time so be sure to get right on it! Besides, since you have been contacted by the school, it could be the ideal time to write that follow-up letter. Again, if you are sure you will not be able to go to a certain school, even if you were accepted, notify them that you won’t be attending and thank them for considering you anyway.

KIT don’t CTA. Keep in touch but don’t chase them away! There’s a definitive line between harassing college administrators with “reminders” and occasionally dropping them a line. If you find yourself emailing the dean of admissions weekly, it’s time to relax! Your actions could have the opposite effect you hoped for! Remember, they still have your application but they are assessing where and when they can admit students. Overdoing it is not the answer!

Take a free college class. Say what? Check out Test Drive College and find out how you can take an online college course—for free! You will have to pass a short assessment and there are guidelines you will need to follow but you could be on your way to enrolling now! In fact, if your wait extends from days to weeks to months, it could be a sign to try a new avenue. Review the list of schools you were accepted to and be sure to look into online education. For many students, the flexibility online universities offer is unrivaled by traditional schools!

• Get in touch with a professor. If you will be attending a traditional campus, ask to sit in on a class. You may often find the names of professors who teach in the department you’re interested in so why not shoot them an email and make your request? Even if you’re considering e-learning, sometimes a professor who specializes in your desired major can answer a question or two!

• Inquire about adjuncts. Of course many schools hire adjuncts to help out in various departments but when a tour guide brags about the low student-teacher ratio, it’s time to pop the question. Ask how many adjuncts are in your potential future department. While there are many great adjunct professors, you just want to have an idea if a large percentage of professors are full time or not. Same goes for online education.

• Find a tour guide. If you’re planning to visit a campus in person, be sure to ask around before your arriving. Find a friend who already attends the school and ask if you can tag along. Check out the cafeteria, peruse the bookstore and look at the dorms. If you will be attending a virtual school, take a virtual tour! Get online and familiarize yourself with the website. Check out the various links and see what the school has to offer!

• Don’t get carried away by the number of schools you plan on visiting. You know if it’s feasible or not to attend a school that requires plane rides or has tuition costs you might not be able to swing. Plan accordingly and be selective about the schools you will spend time researching! Lay out your career goals, know your SAT and ACT scores and speak to someone you trust to be objective. While family and friends might have good intentions, you are the person who will be ultimately selecting your school. It can’t hurt to receive some advice but remember you have the final say—especially if you’re going to pay.

• Keep some type of notes. You might even take a camera with you when looking at schools so you can take some pictures and make a kind of visual file. Add some notes, whether handwritten or tapped onto your iPad, and later, when you return home, your brain won’t be as fuzzy. If you are researching online schools, save pertinent information to your hard drive or print out hard copies. The more organized you are, the easier admissions will be when you make your final decision!

Basically, words formed by letters found on the right side of your computer keyboard are tied to nicer emotions than words comprised of letters from the left side. LOL. No, seriously! Back when language was spoken and typing and texting weren’t standard ways of communicating, the “QWERTY effect” couldn’t be known. As technology has advanced our ways of staying in touch and “speaking,” these new tech methods “shape the language they are designed to produce” and, consequently, the ways we can go about studying these changes.

Using three experiments, Casasanto and Jasmin found a way to determine differences in typed words—depending on which side of the keyboard they were typed on—and how they were interpreted. They learned that it didn’t matter if they words’ meanings were in Dutch, English or Spanish—the meanings were linked to positive emotions if the words were typed on the right side of the keyboard and more negative associations surfaced if the words were spelled using the left side!

Even more interesting was the finding that the “QWERTY effect” even came into play when coined or “fictitious” words were used like ‘pleek.’ These researchers suggest that the reason QWERTY may be seen as affecting language and how words are interpreted is because words on the right side of the keyboard midline could be easier to type. Consequently, this ease might lead to more positive emotions.

This research flies in the face of traditional science where linguists have asserted that “the meanings of words are independent of their forms” AKA ‘arbitrariness of the sign.’ The “QWERTY effect” suggests otherwise. Trying to come up with brand names for your company? Think right side. Baby names? Same thing. Who knows, maybe if you use the right side more often, writing that English composition paper may not be so brutal. This knowledge could transform our world—or just put you in a better mood!