That College Kid

Shopping on Black Friday

Black Friday is notorious (in America) for great shopping deals and extreme crowds. The day after Thanksgiving stores stay open all night or open at midnight and millions of people actually go shopping at those odd hours just for the low prices. I hate shopping in crowds and used to avoid Black Friday, Sundays, and Tax-Free Weekends like the plague. But if you’re on a tight budget, you might just want to venture out to see what kind of deals you can get.

BlackFriday.info posts leaked ads for big retailers in the U.S., including Target and Best Buy. After browsing through the incredible list of ads, I’ve decided I’m going to hit up Big Lots! and Office Depot, my two favorite stores. If I go to my mom’s for Thanksgiving, I’m going to go to Ikea.There’s also has a list of great deals, including a nice leather chair from Office Max for only $80.

The website is affiliated with Keep Cash, which is another great coupon resource.

Posted in Money with 5 comments

Calculate your GPA

Surprisingly, a lot of students don’t actually know how to calculate their own GPA. I’ve included a small tutorial and a link to a calculator because it is much easier just to plug it in and be given an answer. For those of you who are seriously clueless, GPA stands for grade point average and is an important factor on your transcript.

To calculate your GPA you’ll need to know your average and the weight (number of hours) for each class. You get a certain number of grade points for each class, depending on your grade. Points are awarded according to the chart below.
A=4 points
B=3 points
C=2 points
D=1 point
W/F = 0 points

Multiply the grade points by the weight of the class. For example, if your biology class is 4 hours and you made a B, you get 12 points for that class. Find all the points for every class and add them up. Then add up the total hours of all classes. To find your GPA, you divide total grade points by total number of hours

Here’s an example transcript:

GPA = GRADE POINTS / TOTAL HOURS
3.3125 = 53 / 16 –> This student has a B.

If that’s just too complicated and time-consuming or you’re lazy (like me), here’s a GPA calculator for you provided by Back2College. It makes everything wonderfully simple.

Posted in Academic, Tricks with 8 comments

Repaying student loans

I’m still four years away from having to repay my student loans, but I know I should start thinking about it now. Get Rich Slowly posted a great guide to repay student loans.

If you have federal loans, your options are much simpler. The interest rate is lower, so it’s usually best to just pay them as scheduled. Private loans are a whole different ball park and very confusing because terms usually vary from provider to provider, while government-backed loans are stuck with the federal terms given, no matter who your lender is.

One option is consolidation, which is not the best option unless you seriously can’t afford the monthly payments. Consolidation leads to a higher interest rate because you’re extending the life of the loan and there are more complications with private loans. Depending on your financial plan, consolidation can be a good or a bad option.

There are also options for loan forgiveness if you are going to be joining the Peace Corps or the military (or other programs that are listed on the FinAid website). I personally don’t qualify for any of this, so I hope I’ll get a high-paying job with my really expensive fancy degree so I can pay my loans off quickly.

Also, you can’t simply just declare bankruptcy anymore and be done with your loans. Certain federal loans will go away, but not private loans. The government decided on this a few years ago because too many students were coming out of college and declaring bankruptcy right off the bat. There are certain circumstances surrounding the issue, which are covered in more detail here.

The FinAid website also has a Loan Calculator that just made me feel very sad about the amount of interest I’m going to pay just on my freshman Stafford loan. Bring on the next three years worth of borrowed money.

Posted in Financial Aid, Money with 5 comments

Readers, what can I do better?

I know I have readers, at the moment there are 75 people with my feed in their reader. I want to know what you, as a reader, want to see more of on this site.

More posts related to money? Financial aid/student loans? Entertainment?

What do you like best? What do you want me to stop posting about? How do you feel about weekend links posts?

I created this blog to entertain myself, but it’s turned into a blog with a pretty good following and I want to keep my readers happy. I have some current ideas and I’d appreciate some feedback on them, as well as anything else you want to say.

To Do List

• Upgrade Wordpress
• Change the nofollow plugin to Link Love plugin
• Add more plugins, such as DomTab for recent comments/top commentators/something else
• Add MyBlogLog readers widget

I was also toying with the idea of changing the layout. I get bored so very easily with my layouts and always want to change them, but I was thinking for this site, I’d just change the sidebar area around a little.

Please, readers and new visitors, would you please give me some feedback. Thanks.

Posted in That College Kid with 7 comments

8 tips to save your battery

My MacBook’s battery lasts ages, even when I’m running ten programs and watching a movie. But my Gateway laptop’s battery lasts about an hour, and it’s new. PCs generally have very limited battery life and here’s some tips I’ve gathered to help keep your battery lasting longer.

Make your battery last longer now

• Let your laptop control the battery. They usually have default settings that will minimize battery usage and when you need the battery to last through an entire flight, keeping it on those settings will help.
• Don’t multi task. Running just one program at a time can seriously help.
• Power down when necessary. If you’re waiting in line or otherwise can’t use your laptop, turn it off to avoid battery drain. It’s small, but it still helps.
• I know laptops are called that for a reason, but avoid putting it on your lap unless you have to. There’s plenty of tables and other flat surfaces that will help keep the heat down.

Extending battery life

• Don’t leave your laptop on a bed, couch, or pillow for long periods of time. Your computer is unable to breathe, which leads to higher temperatures, which lead to battery death.
• Don’t leave it in a car on a really hot day (90 degrees Fahrenheit or more), if it’s hot enough to kill a dog, it can kill your battery.
• Don’t expose most batteries to extreme cold temperatures either (Lithium Ion batteries, however, are best stored at freezing temperatures.)
• If you aren’t going to being using your laptop/cell phone/ipod for a month or longer, take out the battery and store it properly. If it’s a Lithium Ion battery, you can freeze it at a 50% charge.

For more battery related information, check out the Battery University.

Posted in Computers with 4 comments