Drinking in College

Matt Martz

College has always represented a time for discovering yourself and having the best times of your life. However, often partying and drinking become the center of college life instead of getting an education. College kids are at a very influential point in their lives and they need to be led in the right direction. There need to be stricter guidelines towards drinking in college for students. Currently, college is just an unsafe place for students to drink and party.

I’m not saying that drinking should be banned at colleges I just feel better guidelines could be set forward for college kids to help keep them safe and happy. According to studies, 1700 college students die each year due to alcohol related injuries. That number seems way too high to be something colleges ignore. Cutting down on unofficial parties and helping students with transportation would save multiple lives every year. Also, providing support and valuable information about drinking and how much it takes to become unsafe would be helpful to students. Many college students come to college without knowing their limits and often exceed them multiple times while they are here.

Here at Georgia Tech, there is actually a pretty good system as far as parties go. Many parties have police outside and are often monitored to make sure nothing goes too far. The Stingerette and the police both look out for college students and make even downtown Atlanta a fairly safe place. Keeping college kids is the highest priority when it comes to drinking, and having a safe school means less deaths and injuries due to alcohol.

How to Escape the Pounds

By: Alexander Merriweather

There are many problems when transitioning from high school to college. One of them is maintaining their weight. Once students are away from their parents and off to college, they will have access to many kinds of foods. These foods can be healthy or unhealthy, but they would not know unless they look at the nutrition facts or know about the food. They will just be focused on which foods would look or taste good. Usually these foods contain greases and fat that can cause an unhealthy weight gain in the student.
Laziness can cause a lack of exercise. A lack of exercise can cause an unhealthy weight gain. By looking at the two senteces, it's heavily implied by laziness can cause an unhealthy weight gain. It causes the student to become inactive and lower their metabolism. The decrease in metabolism is the reason that causes the weight gain in the student. With the added weight, the student will experience a more inactive lifestyle.
There are ways to prevent this before this unhealthy habit even starts. Part of it is knowing your food. Even though this is told often, students need to eat their correct servings of food a day. There is also exercise. Running outside can help reduce body fat. Also the gym can help lose fat and build muscle, causing the body to burn more fat cells with more muscle. This is all a part of keeping a healthy and active lifestyle. The combination of the two will cause the student to live a healthy life.

Assumptions toward College Athletes and Academics

Seth Reeves

There is a norm that has drifted across many college campuses across the country for many years that college athletes do not care about academics. They are all just there for there sport and that's it. Many students get upset because they assume that the only reason why athletes are at their university is because they can throw a ball well or run fast. There are many assumptions when it comes to athletes and their academics, but I wish to clarify some of them, and try to let everyone know what a typical student-athlete goes through.

Many people do not realize how tough a college athlete's life can be. There is a NCAA rule that states that there can only be 20 hours of offical practice for college teams a week (Click here to learn more about student-athletes). However, in a study, college athletes have reported spending an average of 40+ hours a week practicing, preparing, or playing their sport. Now, most of the extra hours are probably done individually, but that is what separates good from great. So while college athletes are spending as many hours a week as they would a job, they also have to spend 15 hours a week in class plus the time it takes to study. Many students do not actually realize how demanding it can be while being an athlete in college.

Also, a lot of the assumptions that are made across college campuses are that athletes don't care about their school work or grades. Although, the truth is that a lot of athletes do really care. However, there are always the few who don't, but I think there are just as many students who don't try in class as there are some athletes who do not put forth a valient effort.

In conclusion, there are many assumptions made towards college athletes, but I propose one thing for students and observers to consider before making their opinion. I believe that no one should judge any athlete before getting to know them. Many will find not only a love for their sport, but also an interest and desire to learn just like any other student at a university.

Eating healthy, something to take into account

By Gerardo Alfaro


Eating healthy is something which is extremely important even though it is overlooked very often and by many people. Eating healthy is one of the most important factors in staying healthy. If you give your body the nutrients it needs to function without giving them in excess then you will be healthier. Additionally to helping fight off diseases it is a great preemptive measure to decrease risk of such illnesses as heart failure.

In addition to these benefits it will also make you look better as body fat will be lost. This can be a huge self esteem booster which will also increase your mental health. If someones self esteem is high then they are likely to accomplish more things and in general be happier with themselves. This translates to confidence not only when it comes to relationships with other people but also in terms of confidence regarding academic work.

In college this is of great importance but eating healthy is one of the many balances a student must keep, and by doing this it will help the student work more effectively and will allow him or her to better function and learn. In doing so making academic life and college life in general easier.

The Contribution of a Professor on your GPA

Abhinav Sawhney

Often one may wonder why there's so much commotion a day or two before classes for the next semester are opened. Is it really that important to do a certain class with a certain professor? Aren't all professors in college equally capable of teaching a certain course? So the question is, why do professors play such a big role towards our final grade? If they do then is the current grading system in colleges fair on all students?

Hopefully I will answer all these questions in this post. Different professors employ different approaches towards teaching a course. Some approaches may be more effective on students than others. As a student you can only hope that your professor will be effective in communicating his point to the class. In colleges, especially research oriented ones like Georgia Tech, not all teachers are at the same level when it comes to effective communication. An individual may have a phD in Math but may not be fluent in the language and hence the knowledge can not be shared as effectively as one may like. A lot depends on the luck of a student when it comes to teaching abilities of a professor.

As exams and assignments for different classes of the same course vary, so does the level of difficulty. Some professors tend to have much easier quizzes and exams than others. This is unfair on the students that have to work twice as hard to get the same grade or even lower. So if GPA's are to mean anything in college there is a serious need to standardize the exams or level of difficulty across a course.

Another area where the professor plays a major role in the grade you get at the end of the semester, is the different policies in place for being late or absent. For example a professor may have a policy that your final grade drops by one if you miss more than three classes. In another class such a policy may be non existent. In some cases this policy may exist for an 8am class and also for a 1.30 pm class, obviously the latter are at a huge advantage. Yet again some students are at a disadvantage.

So with so many discrepancies between the professors I think it is fair to say that the GPA system that we have in place today is not at all efficient. It is a measure of how favorable a certain professor was towards a certain class as opposed to the performance of a student in that class.

The link below takes you to a website that actually demonstrates how different professors have hugely varying average GPA s for a certain course. Now I will let you as the reader decide whether a student who gets an A with a professor with an average GPA of 3.8 is at the same level as a student who gets an A with a professor with an average GPA of 1.8.

Click here and make your own choice.

Saving Money is one of the Keys to Surviving College!!

By: Jasmine Blain


Many students in college all share one problem and that is money. Most students dont realize that they are on their own now and that their parents arent going to give them money for everything and anything. They are spending money they dont even have, and becoming broke or cant pay for books and school supplies. There are many ways to fix this problem.

Students should start saving their money or buying their needs before all of their wants. A good way to save your money is to pay credit card bills on time. Companies charge late fees, sometimes as much as $50 per month. And do not go over your credit limit—that offers just one more way for your credit card company to get rich off your poor judgment. Students can aslo lay off the drinking for a whilke until they have more money, but for those who cant stop then they should buy the cheap stuff, drink where the specials are, or just dont bring alot of money with you; so you can limit yourself.

For the whole book situation, students can save money by asking friends if they had the same class you have and if it is ok to borrow their book. If that doesnt work and you have to pay for books then try to get the hard cover ones because they are the cost- saving choice. Students can also just go ahead and get the used book instead of the brand new ones that cost so much. Now for food, students can easily stop buying out all the time and go to one of the diner halls around the campus and eat there, or you can just simply go grocery shopping and get enough food to last for a while and eat that, instead of buy fast food all the time. Just remember, by not using money on everything and anything, you can have alot more money.

The Importance of Parent Visits

Jorge Castillo

When most students enroll in college, they are faced with the dilemma of living far from home. In these cases, parents are the ones most worried about their kids and the ones that suffer the most from this separation. After watching your kid grow and seeing him every day of your life, suddenly being miles apart is very difficult for most parents to deal with. Occasional campus visits may help relief parents that their kids are safe and are doing good in school. But along parents, students also benefit from these visits since they get to see that their parents care for them and are there support them in any matter.

Being away from home is many times a difficult thing to deal with. When students who enroll in college decide to live on campus, they leave all their friends, family, and everything they possessed behind to start a new life. They are forced to adapt to a new place and a new system which will not always be so pleasant. One has to make the best of it and in the toughest times, a call from people back home can make the worst of days a little better. A simple phone call has the power to remind students that they still have people caring for them, hoping for their success, and waiting for them back home.

Even so, after a couple of months in college, there is nothing more reassuring than a surprise visit from your parents and siblings. As Michele Van Pelt, journalist of Helium, state that parents are the most important ingredient in overcoming homesickness and adapting to college life. Parents have the ability to reach their sons and daughters, calm their fears, and reassure them that college is another step in life which must be accomplished in order to have a successful future.

A couple of visits through the school year will only strengthen the parent-son/daughter relationship and will give students and parents time to catch up on things back home and at college. It also provides an opportunity for parents to see how well their kids are doing in college and for the students to feel a sense of comfort that nobody has forgotten them.