There’s about one month left until the end of spring semester, which means on top of everything else it’s time to start thinking about what to do this summer. Applications for research positions at your university, internships at local businesses, and businesses looking for summer help are likely to give a handful of extra weight to those folks who start talking to them this week, rather than this time in May or even June.

But consider using your skills to start your own summer project – something related to your desired profession that capitalizes on a skill you already have and will make you look different from all the other kids when interview and application time rolls around next year, or for grad school.

I personally believe that every student should start a business over a summer, if only to learn something outside the rigid confines of school and your major.

There’s a great article by Ramit Sethi that points out a simple fact – everyone knows something they can leverage for profit. Just imagine how impressive is it if you take something you already know how to do, make a business out of it and get to add “entreprenuer” or “business owner” to your resume?

As a college student, it would be fairly easy to tutor highschool kids algebra, biology or physics. Hate teaching? Try another route – web kids can run their own development company, while artists could start an Etsy store. Just do whatever will take advantage of what you’re already good at.

For the rest of March and into April I’m going to provide you with tricks and tools on how to get organized, get on top of your mountain of schoolwork and survive the last half of the semester.

It won’t be easy – you’re going to have to cut down on partying, start studying smarter (not harder) and learn how to learn. Yes, I said learn how to learn.

If you can tough it out through the semester and use these tools, then you can turn a failing E into a passing C, or better.

Two weeks of folding bike bliss have gone by. Overall, the Dahon is a great investment and a serious time saver, especially during my longer days or when I have weird situations that require getting across campus in short time spans. There are a couple annoying issues, but nothing’s perfect.

THE PROS:

• SUPER MEGA ULTRA EASY to fold & unfold
• Easy to pick up out of the car, not too heavy even for a weakling girlie girl.
• Rides pretty smoothly, even over the cobble-stone style paving in some areas of campus.
• Excellent hand brake has prevented several near-collisions with oblivious text’ing students, both walking and in cars.
• Small wheels mean I have to peddle more, giving me a good mini-workout.

Dahon gets a grade of B-, but I wouldn’t trade mine for anything less than a jet-pack.

THE CONS:

• The center metal joint of the frame is the highest point when standing up in the car – and scratched some tint off my hatchbak.
• If  the “latch” for the seatpost is not latched straight-on, or isn’t fully latched, the seat will lower as you ride, which is fairly terrifying.
• The folded configuration is not particularly stable, and can rock back and forth in the hatchback area.

CONCLUSION…

I’ve made accomadations to overcome the Dahon’s issues. First, I practiced using the seatpost latch until it was second-nature to do it right and avoid the seat-drop problem. To handle the rocking, I resorted to laying the Dahon on it’s side, but that same metal joint mentioned above somehow tore into the rear-side of the seat pad. So I keep a full size flannel sheet in the car, which keeps muck from the wheels from getting all over the back, and place a folded corner between the seat and the metal joint to prevent further damage.

I wouldn’t ride this bike for excercise or pleasure purposes. The seat is not comfortable for more than 10 minutes of riding, for one thing. However, as a means of transportation on campus, it’s saved me tons of time. On a short day I save 10-15 minutes per trip, giving me 30 minutes to have lunch when I get back to the office. On my longer days it’s a blessing to have a little bit more time to be still and study, then trudging across the campus.

Dahon gets a grade of B-, but I wouldn’t trade mine for anything less than a jet-pack.

Wednesday I spent the hour before my physics lecture in the math tutor center on campus. It’s a class-sized room with round tables that have different signs on them, such as MAT171, and you can go in for free and share the tutor at your class’s table with any other students in the same course. Sometimes, however, there isn’t a tutor schedule for that time period, or they’re out sick. Yesterday that was the case, and the two students already at my course’s table were having a discussion that shocked me.

One was teaching the other how to store notes in the program section of their TI-83 calculator, in order to cheat on the upcoming exam.

They discussed strategies for avoiding notice by the testing center proctors, as well as ways to represent mathematical ideas and saving the data for easy retrieval. I was appalled.

Today, I walked from the tutor center to my class with two other students, and mentioned the incident. Not only were they both totally unconcerned by it, both had done the same thing on their calculators! One intends to be a dentist, the other a psychologist. And they are oblivious to the ethical failure of their actions. When pushed, both said “Everyone on campus does it” and told me I should, too.

I chose not to do so. Instead, I studied twice more today before going into the testing center and taking my exam. It felt easy – and I am NOT a math person. In fact, I had to drop the class last semester because my courseload was so difficult that I’d fallen about 3 weeks behind the coursework. Yet I got a near-perfect score on the first midterm for this course, and expect another great score on this one.

So… should we worry that these future dentists and therapists suffer from a lack of morality or ethical understanding?

The past few weeks have been pretty tough – being sick and trekking back & forth across campus five days a week, on top of regular stress, had really worn me down. Most days aren’t too bad, but Tuesday and Thursday are the days I have a class which is about a 30 minute walk from where I can park. If I walk briskly (slash run like a lamed animal) I can make it in twenty minutes, but then I’m winded and sweaty, and just feel rubbish. In addition, Thursday’s also the day I have only 15 minutes between two classes that are almost on opposite sides of the campus, and end the day at 6:30 with a half-hour walk back to the car. Ugh.

So, in the spirit of not being beat down and getting back some time every day, I picked up a Dahon Boardwalk yesterday. It’s a bike that can be folded down and easily stowed in your car, which my lovely Cruiser cannot. I gave it a five minute test-ride at the bike store yesterday, and I’m looking forward to putting it through it’s paces this week.

Expect a more detailed review after a full week of folding, unfolding and riding!

For the first two and a half years of college I averaged 35 hours per week at work, in my office, running a business, while taking 12-14 credit hours at a time. Last semester I learned that combining that workload with upper-division courses is a recipe for burn-out and depression. In the end, I had to withdraw from two of my four classes at the last minute, and re-arrange my plans for the next two years to accommodate falling behind.

That was the bad news. The good news is that I have learned from my mistakes, and now you can as well. I followed advice from family, friends and the webernets in setting up this semester’s course and workload.

How’d I do it? By following these rules:

1. Don’t overload your schedule. Taking 12 credits to maintain loans or scholarships? Fine, do it. But only two get to be difficult courses. My tough classes are Calculus 251 and Physics 112 (and lab), both heavy on the logic and working out problems and doing tons of practice.
2. Balance out the hard stuff with something fun! An online religions course (counts as Upper Division Literature for my major req) and an UD UNI course to mentor fellow students are fun for me. These both require blocks of dedicated time, but the online one can be squeezed in with some flexibility each week, and they’re both really interesting, so doing the homework is a pleasure.
3. Create a work schedule and post it on your office door. Your co-workers will not remember your schedule, so it’s your job to make it easy for them to know when you’ll be there. This will make it easier for important meetings and events to be scheduled, and for others to plan when they want to talk to you about various projects.
4. Create your own schedule, and set hard deadlines for arrival and departure. This is meant more for work, because it’s so easy to stay “just one more minute” and end up working two hours into your study time. By planning your day (or even the whole week) ahead of time, you tend to work more efficiently. Quite simply, knowing you need to be out the door at 4:30 to review for next week’s exam ensures you spend less time chit-chatting by the water cooler and more time plowing through your work.
5. Plan to relax! It is very, very, VERY easy to spend the entire week in a work-school-homework-sleep grind. It’s even easier to lose your Saturday to “making up” time at work, squeezing in required family events and housecleaning. Give yourself at least two hours each week, entirely to yourself, to do something that is an enjoyable, non-stressful event. Read a book, go bike riding, play Halo or go out to the theater and see a movie. But do something for yourself.

The majority of resources online are aimed at full-time students, FT students with part time jobs, or part-time students with full-time jobs. Other than myself, I haven’t yet found a resource for those who do both work & school full-time, or even for student’s who’s part-time job is a real responisiblity with limited flexibility.

So, for part-time students, some more tips can be found here “Hacks for Part-Time Students” and on Helium’s Tips for Success As a Part-Time Student.

I’m in a program to become a student mentor, and immediately after Spring Break I will be assigned several students who are bombing half their classes. My goal will be to get them to pass their classes, and teach them how to organize, prioritize and still have a life. This is great, because this is the whole point of this website, and I have tons of advice to pass along.

However, we’ve all just finished our third week back on campus, and everyone I pass or see in class is talking about one thing – what they’re doing for Spring Break. Surprisingly, many are discussing the same locations they would have considered last year, with no regard to the current economic situation. And while this is a subject I intend to discuss further, for now my point is different.

Stop thinking about break and start thinking about the 3 or 4 exams you have right before it.

Honestly, I don’t want to have to explain to a sobbing freshman why she shouldn’t attend a sorority event in order to get her grades back up to C-level. So spend this weekend wisely my fellow college kids…

1. Get caught up on everything you skipped out on this week. Take a page out of Cal Newport’s book and do an Early Mid-Semester Dash.
2. Create a “semester at a glance” calendar and plan for future papers and exams. Having a big calendar with the big stuff written in bold, red Sharpie ensures you notice the looming deadline with a decent couple of days to procrastinate, or bolt through the work.
3. Wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to check out airfare for Spring Break – the best deals tend to be offered during the middle of the week.

I’m a big fan of blogs about productivity, and read them occasionally to the point of being unproductive. One of my favorite such blogs is one called Study Hacks, as you may have guessed from previous mentions. The author of this blog really gives a lot of great advice each time he posts. This semester I’m trying out several of his suggestions, but the best so far is the “Saturday Morning Project” – spending a set amount of time each week, on the same day/time each week,  on an ambitious project.

This blog, and the few other websites I occasionally write for, are that project for me.  With PirateDoctor, I really want to provide insight related more directly to day-to-day issues and very specific ways to deal with them. In essence, I’ll be providing a source to find info and tools ideal for today’s students to succeed.

Here’s to a successful start at blogging in 2009!