The California Golden Bears can no longer crack the national rankings in football, but its dorms are definite contenders for the BCS national title game for most expensive near-campus lodging. [More]
college
KFC Expands On-Butt Ads For Double Down
By 10.12.10
A few weeks ago, we wrote about KFC trying to add some sex appeal to their fried-chicken-as-bun Double Down by paying college coeds to advertise the sandwich on their butts. The guerilla marketing campaign must have had some success, because it is now widening. [More]
College Kids Get Hooked On Debit Cards Connected To Student Loans Rather Than Credit Cards
By 10.5.10
Credit card reforms may have made it more difficult for banks to exploit college students, but it turns out there is more than one way to turn an unsuspecting post-adolescent into a debt monkey. The trick is to issue students debit cards that run up their student loans rather than over-regulated credit cards. [More]
Federal Student Aid To For-Profit Schools Has Tripled In Recent Years
By 10.4.10
Back in August, the Government Accountability Office released the findings of their hidden-camera investigation that caught employees at several for-profit colleges encouraging applicants to lie in order to get more federal financial aid. Today, the GAO released a report that sheds some light on just how much money these schools have been getting from the government. [More]
College Kids Buying Credit Card Cosignatures
By 10.1.10
Tell a college student they can’t do something and someone will figure out a way to monetize it. Thanks to the CARD Act, makers of fake ID’s on campuses may now have a new sideline business: selling real credit card cosigner signatures. [More]
Colleges Reap Big Bucks Selling Student Addresses To Credit Card Companies
By 9.24.10
Colleges are making bucket-loads of cash selling their alumni mailing lists to credit card companies. In some cases, they’re even getting a cut on every credit-card purchase or debit-card transaction a student makes. [More]
Student Loans, Gateway Drug To Debt Slavery
By 9.2.10
One of the most important lessons students learn in college is how to get into debt and stay there. It’s crucial to the success of the Republic. An indebted population is easier to control; needing to pay off crushing debt – a debt that if defaulted on has been stripped of many normal consumer protections and rights – graduates more willingly shuttle into cubicles, becoming the square pegs demanded by the square holes. After a few futile years of floundering idealism, their souls have been successfully jackbooted into powder and they’re ready to keep the thumb on the next generation of would-be drones so as to protect their empire of matchsticks. But how did we get here? This chunky infographic examines the origins and (d)evolution of the student loan leviathan. [More]
Sonic Alert Doesn't Want You To Sleep Through Class, Sends Free Alarm Clock
By 8.26.10
Justin writes that he is a college student and a heavy sleeper. Ordinarily, these are not a good combination, but he has a special weapon in the war on slumber: the Sonic Bomb alarm clock from Sonic Alert. The product is designed for the hard-of-hearing as well as sound sleepers. He explained his issues with the clock that led him to sleep in, and suggested some ways to improve the product. Instead of brushing off his concerns, Sonic Alert expressed concern that he was sleeping through class. They sent him–for free–a different clock with one of the features that would help Justin actually get up in the morning. [More]
Kaplan Giving Away 90 Study Guides To iDevice Users
By 8.24.10
If you’re in the market for high school or college study guides and you have access to an iDevice from Apple, Kaplan is giving away 90 different titles between now and August 30th through the Apple iBookstore. Sadly, you can’t access the iBookstore on iTunes, so you’ll have to get to it through an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. [More]
For-Profit Colleges Caught On Video Encouraging Financial Aid Fraud
By 8.4.10
According to the Dept. of Education, enrollment in for-profit colleges has exploded in recent years, growing nearly 500%. Last year alone, students at for-profit colleges received more than $4 billion in Pell Grants and more than $20 billion in federal loans. With all that money floating around, the Government Accountability Office was asked to investigate — and their findings will probably not please taxpayers. [More]
Colleges Are Now Required To List Textbooks During Class Registration
By 7.31.10
Finding the best textbooks prices just got a whole lot easier now that colleges are required to provide students with a list of required textbooks when they register for classes. The requirement was mandated back in the 2008 as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, but only took effect this year. [More]
Students, Your College May Be Selling Your Info To Banks
By 6.18.10
Just in case students don’t slog through college with enough debt hanging over them, their colleges and universities have cut semi-secret deals with banks to share personal info meant to market credit to them afterward. The Huffington Post says Bank of America has such deals with 700 schools. [More]
Aetna Will Never Forget You – Or Your Old Policy Number
By 5.28.10
D. has a warning for people who are attending college after a stint in the grown-up workforce. She tells Consumerist that if you had health insurance through Aetna at your job, and your university provides student insurance through Aetna, this change will confuse Aetna’s system so thoroughly that everything you do will be billed to your old account number, forever and ever. [More]
Start A Tiny Awesome Garden
By 5.10.10
Just because you live in a small space doesn’t mean you can’t wiggle your greenthumb. WikiHow has some great suggestion on how people living in less spacious quarters, like students and urbanites, can still let their garden grow. To create the illusion of depth and space, put more eye-grabbing plants closer to where they’ll be veiwed, and put more muted plants farther away. Go vertical! Use an open structure with lots of shelves to stack lots of plants on top of each other. Start a Window Farm! Gardens are pretty, give you oxygen, and sometimes even low-cost fresh food. Do you garden in a shoebox? Leave your tips for maximizing your space in the comments. [WikiHow] [More]
College Professor Outsources Grading Papers To Asia
By 4.16.10
As you struggle to repay your student loans, you can at least comfort yourself with the knowledge that your papers were graded by qualified professors and teaching assistants, and not by housewives in Bangalore. Students attending college today… may not be so lucky. [More]
Should I Keep A Free Cell Phone Line That I Can't Actually Use?
By 4.8.10
John has a mobile phone service dilemma. He writes that he’s not able to get any reception in the dorm room where he lives. Even his carrier, AT&T, seems to have admitted defeat and has offered to waive the bill for his line for the next six months. John wonders whether he should give up on AT&T and change to a carrier that actually works. [More]
Art Institute Of Pittsburgh Decides You Need To Buy One More Class To Graduate… After Graduation
By 3.22.10
Update: The school saw our post and has been in touch with Daniel. Here’s what happened. [More]
Young, Dumb, Full Of Risk For ID Theft
By 3.17.10
A new study finds that the young and the feckless are the most at risk for identity theft. 18-24 year olds are more likely to be victimized because they don’t check their accounts frequently or thoroughly enough. You can beat the statistics, though, if 1 in 20 times you’re tempted to check your friend’s Facebook updates you instead scrutinize your account statements. [WashingtonPost] (Thanks to Timothy!) [More]
