I Want to Sleep

If you saw me on a daily basis, you would know that as soon as you asked me how I am I would reply with: I’m tired, I’m sleepy, and I want to go home.

The thing is that on most days, even if I go home, I don’t sleep. I get distracted on Facebook, watch E! News and completely disregard time and end up going to bed at around 2 or 3 am.

And no, pulling all nighters are not an excuse this early in the semester.

In fact, according to a 2001 Brown University Study, only 11 percent of college students get their beauty sleep. Unfortunately, I think I’m part of that other 89 percent that doesn’t.

In high school, I used to sleep a lot. I went to school at around 7 am, got home at 3 pm, took a nap and went to bed at around 10 pm. I always had energy in class, kept up with my homework, and I actually enjoyed the time that I spent in school.

But in college, things are a little different.

7:00 a.m.: Go to school

6:00 p.m.: Get home

1:00 a.m.: Homework

3:00 a.m.: Sleep

This shows that on average, I’m probably sleeping somewhere around four hours a night... not good.

Not only do I look like crap the next day, but it’s not a healthy thing to do. I’m not 100 percent alert in class, I can’t pay attention for long periods of time, I’m tired and grumpy, and I’m not enjoying my time in school as much as I should.

So in response to my lack of sleep, I thought I’d put together a few causes and solutions to get us 89 percent back on track.

• Problem: We’re partying too much. Yep, I know I’ve said this an endless amount of time, but partying is a factor in our lack of sleep. It certainly does wonders for your social life, not to mention the free amounts of alcohol from those new friends you made, but partying seven nights a week is not healthy.


• Solution: Cut back on the partying and leave it for only Fridays and Saturdays. Forget about partying on Sundays. You will be hung over on Monday and won’t pay attention at all in class and you will basically lose the money that you’re paying for your education.
  



• Problem: Spending too much on Facebook or related websites. I know I’m not the only one that spends hours lurking other people’s profiles and reading the little newsfeeds.


• Solution: Unless you really need your computer to do research or write a paper, my suggestion is to turn your baby off. I know it’s hard, but love hurts sometimes. If you keep wasting time online, you’ll never get anything done and leave everything for the last minute.
  



• Problem: Overwhelming amounts of work. Yes, we do have to study after all... that’s what we’re in college for. But we cannot let ourselves lose so much sleep over homework.


• Solution: Two words: time management. Don’t let your homework stack up over the weeks and do it the day before the test. Write yourself a personal schedule in which you make time for afternoon naps, homework, and an early bed time. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it is possible to go to bed before midnight.
  

Hope these tips helped. Please, do yourself a favor and hit up your sheets more often. Trust me, they miss you.

Freshman Rumor Control

Attention!

This is the freshman rumor control—a compilation of all the things that I’ve found to be true (or false) since I’ve been in college.

1. Freshmen are virgins: TRUE

Well I guess American Pie was wrong (whatever happened to getting laid on prom night?) because according to an article on CollegeHumor a Web site that dedicates its time to cover all things college, a whopping 46 percent of college freshmen are virgins. In fact, 38 percent of incoming freshmen lost their virginity on campus – no wonder everyone wanted to have a single room.


2. Freshmen fail College Algebra: TRUE

According to an article on Red Orbit only half of FAU students pass freshman level math courses, which is lower than the state’s passing rate of 62 percent.

The problem that I see with math classes at FAU is that, often times the classes are too big and for some reason the material is more difficult to understand. Not only that but the pace of the class is too fast, making it harder to fully focus on what’s been taught. Slow it down FAU!

3. Freshmen are alcoholics in the making: TRUE

You might be failing college Algebra, but damn you’re good at making that shot in beer pong. Yep, according to ABC news 45 percent of college freshmen are heavy drinkers. Alcohol is easily the most accessible thing to get on campus so it doesn’t surprise me that we’re the next generation of alcoholics in America.

I personally have friends who keep alcohol in their dorms and drink at least a couple of beers before the night is over – and that’s nothing compared to Friday night parties, where there’s no limit as to how much you can drink.

Partying is fun, but we have to start learning how to hold off on the shots…and the beer pong playoffs.

4. Most freshmen live on Campus: FALSE

When I first got accepted to college, the first thing that came to my mind was: “Let me see the dorms, I want to live on campus!” But after seeing the residential life at FAU, I had to think twice about where I wanted to live my first year of school.

It’s not that FAU is ugly, is just that most people don’t live on campus. Most students are commuters and prefer to live in the comfort of their homes, which makes it difficult for FAU to have a traditional “dorm life.” In fact according to FAU’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Analysis only nine percent of the student population lives in the dorms, which is not much compared to other big state schools.

Besides the fact that FAU is practically dead after Friday classes are over—leaving students that do live there with nothing to do. I rather live at home.

5. Freshmen gain 15 pounds: FALSE

Apparently, I was the only freshman who gained 15 pounds during the first semester – I really have to stop going to Wendy’s – because according to a report by CBS in 2006 called “Healthwatch” only six percent of freshmen gain 15 pounds. In fact the famously called “Freshman 15” are in reality an average weight gain of about six to seven pounds.


So there you have it, my official rumor control for all freshmen at FAU. Hope I’ve helped clear some doubts.

Pill Pill Poppin'

When I was back in high school, I was really good at reading textbooks and instantly memorizing all the facts. I could read a chapter and still manage to remember everything I had read the next day. But in college, things are a little different.

For one, I can’t concentrate at all and I’m actually starting to think that I have some kind illness or that I just simply suffer from ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) — like everyone else.

Second of all, whenever I read something, it feels like I’m not reading it at all. I’ll spend hours at the library trying to concentrate and I still can’t remember what a paragraph is about.

Some of my friends, who also suffer from concentration problems, have turned to drugs such as Adderall — a drugs that’s supposed to help you concentrate and keep you awake for hours — or other stimulants for the mind such as Focus Factor to keep them focused, and as a freshman in college, I have actually never been exposed to those kinds of things, until now, and they sort of freak me out.

In high school, some students did suffer from things like ADD or ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) and were prescribed Adderall to help them with their respective disorders. In college, it seems everyone takes it for the hell of it - not just to concentrate but as an actual drug.

The thing is, there are so many other things students could do to help them with their concentration when it comes to school work or when it comes to cramming for an exam. What ever happened to good old Redbull or simple cups of Joe? Back in High School, that was cooler than popping pills.

Students are not realizing of the effect of what Adderall or other similar drugs can do to them. Not only are they getting their bodies used to constantly have a substance in them to "help" them study or "help" them stay awake, but they can easily use Adderall as a step stone for illegal drugs.

My point is that there are other ways and other things you can do to do well in class and to cram up when it’s final’s season.

1. Study ahead. Read your lecture notes everyday after class. It’ll help keep the material fresh in your head and you won’t have to study as much when the test comes around.

2. Sit up front in all of your classes. Sitting in front of the teacher always prevents you from sleeping and it helps you be more alert during class discussions.

3. If you really feel like you need some sort of stimulant to try to stay up and study for longer hours then hit up your local Starbucks and get yourself a good cup of coffee — caffeine is not great for your system either, but hey, it’s a lot better than becoming the local "pill popper" of your floor.


If you are taking Adderall and don’t have ADD then take a look at this video and tell me if you act anything like these freaks.

RateMyProfessor is a fraud!

At the beginning of my first semester at FAU, one of the first things I remember students telling me to do was to go on RateMyProfessors - a Web site that’s supposed to encourage students to rate their teachers — to check out the professors I would have and to get an idea of what their classes would be like.

Well, I checked it out.

It didn’t work.

For those who don't already know, I took an astronomy class last semester and completely hated the class. It wasn’t as easy as I thought, and the teacher, for the most part, couldn’t speak English and could not be understood no matter where you sat in the auditorium.

Most of my friends and the people I know who have taken the class would agree with me that this class sucked and it was a complete waste of time and energy. But when you look on RateMyProfessors this is what it says about my former professor from hell:

“Really easy going teacher, I really loved his lecture and the quizzes and exams were too easy. Too much extra credit in exams,” said an anonymous student.

There is no such thing as "too much extra credit," and that’s when I realized that RateMyProfessors isn't as accurate as I thought it was.

For one, students have different perspectives of a professor. We can’t all possibly have the same opinions about a teacher. That anonymous student loved his class but I completely hated it. Are the ones who love it the only students who know about that Web site?

Second of all, I’m beginning to think that RateMyProfessors is also a way for teachers to promote their classes by writing the ratings themselves and praising their work. For example, everyone who has ever taken astronomy knows for a fact that Mr. Martinez doesn’t speak perfect English and that he makes very obvious mistakes.

Now look at this review of the class on “ RateMyProfessors:

"He is very understanding and will curves the grades when need. He likes to she his kids do well."

Call me crazy, but I don’t think a student would write such a "great" review with such bad grammar. Please...

The point is that RateMyProfessors is not an accurate source of information for anybody to use. But it is even more useless for freshmen because we don’t know anything when we first start classes. We’re freshmen, and we think that Web sites like that are the coolest thing since MySpace. We get tricked into thinking that it actually works.

But if you get really desperate and want to know what a class will be like without using RateMyProfessors, here are some tips to help you out:

1. Plan your next semester’s schedules ahead and pick a random professor that you’d like to take the class with. Then, either sneak into the class one day and see what he/she is like, or personally meet him/her during office hours and try to get a feel for what the class might be like.

2. Ask around, call your friends, talk to random people in the breezeway and ask them if they’ve taken the class that you want to take. Most of the time they will either recommend a teacher or tell you who not to take.

3. If you like surprises, then you can always wait until you go to class, check out the teacher yourself and see if you like him or her. If you don’t, then drop the class before the end of the drop/add period, which is usually the duration of the first week of the semester.

I hope you found these helpful and I wish you all luck with your spring semester schedules. I know I’ll definitely need it.