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Congratulations on making it through the week to another lovely Friday.  As you get ready for an awesome Independence Day weekend, check out a new list of Stuff We Like!

Also, give it up for Chandra Robrock and Katisha Sargeant, winners of this week’s giveaways!  Chandra will be receiving a cool and useful ceramic travel mug and Nalgene bottle, courtesy of Organize.com, while Katisha will enjoy a Safe Home value bundle from EcoSmart! Hooray!!!

1. First off, in honor of our nations independence…

…a short commercial that aired during the United States first 2010 World Cup match, versus the British.

2. For those of you who love food as much as we do, it will be hard for you to break away from FoodPornDaily.com

No, you didn’t read it wrong, this site is dedicated to turning on your taste buds!

3. If you want more visual stimulation, but you’re stomach is already full, turn your attention to Imagespark or Ffffound

These sites compile fabulous imagery from around the Internet, from beautiful to downright hilarious.

4. But you shouldn’t browse these sites in silence…

your ears deserve some stimulation too.  For new tunes, you can’t miss the HypeMachine , an MP3 and music blog aggregator.  Discover something new amongst the best songs and music blog posts on the Internet.

5. Magic Mirror

If you’re less concerned with outside stimulation, and would look inside yourself for inspiration and entertainment, then make sure you see yourself as everyone else does.  We don’t give it much thought, but every time we look in the mirror, we see ourselves…backward.  This mirror, found on dornob.com, magically shows your reflection as if the mirror were looking at you.  You are no longer backward!

Enjoy! And stay tuned for more great give aways next week from DesignYourDorm.com!

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College admission may sound easy but it’s no walk in the park! There’s a ton of work to be done and a mile of paperwork to fill out. Not to mention college prep companies constantly bugging you! Take some stress out of your life by knowing what to do during the college admission period.

Do the PSAT

You may have heard people saying that college application starts during freshman or sophomore years. If your child thinks he or she is done with Math and English; well they’re in for the shock of their life! English requires four years, three or four for math, two science, three history, and two years of a foreign language, and depending on the college, a year of visual or performing arts. The rest of the schedule can be filled with things he enjoys, whether it is wood shop, music or more of any of the above courses.

Make a list of Colleges

It’s not advisable to just check the school based on personal wants. Chances are, your child might not get in and run out of options in the end. Try researching for at least 6-8 universities your child likes and gather information about them. This is best done during their late junior or early senior years. Just keep in mind to make your list realistic; something you know you can afford or is easy to go to.

Exams

Some colleges still requires SAT or ACT exams for entry. At least let your child take these exams during their junior year. That leaves extra time to retake this in the fall, if necessary.

Write essays

Since colleges require students to write essays as part of their exam, the summer between junior and senior year is the best time for your child to practice his or her creative writing skills.

Application Time!

This is actually the most taxing part of college admission process. Just make sure that your child has fulfilled all the requirements and their high school grades are good. Try to be a sort of “stage mom” during this time, as not to make the process intimidating for your child.

Wait for the results

Nothing stresses anyone more than waiting and here you’ll learn that patience is a virtue! Most college applications are due between mid-November and January 10. So while waiting for the results, try to make your child’s time productive and ensure that all requirements have been completed.

The Decision

There are times that he might be accepted to more than 2 colleges at once. If this happens, the important thing is to acknowledge your child’s decision. After all, they’re the ones who’s going to be stuck there for four years; not you! Once everything is all set, your child must notify the school of his or her choice by the deadline, typically May 1, in writing. Also be courteous enough to inform the others schools your child decided not to go to. Then, just write out a deposit check and there you are!

Congratulations! Welcome to college life!

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Upon moving to the dorms, most students make the mistake of packing things that they really don’t need. Sometimes, this happens at the expense of the essentials. Here some useful things that you or your college student may have forgotten to bring to move-in day:

First Aid Kit

You don’t know when an accident will occur, right? A dorm room must always have a first aid kit in case emergencies. So make sure that at least one of you or your dorm mates have this item.

Under the Bed Storage

In college life, there will come a time that lots of things will be stored in your room. Some of them might even be useless and it crowds in your room. A small under the bed storage is perfect in organizing these “forgotten” things and will keep the room a little bigger than usual.

Extra Sheets

Sometimes, kids have this tendency of just bring a piece of bed sheet when moving. As stated in number 1, you won’t know when an accident will occur. It’s better to have an extra than sleep “sheetless”

Shelves

There would be numerous time that you’re going to need a stapler. College life means making paper works that are more than 1 page. You don’t want to walk around asking for staplers when doing such troublesome paper works, do you?

Shower Shoe

When you go to college, you may be unfortunate enough to have to share a bathroom with many more people than you ever thought you would. And with countless feet walking here and there in the bathroom, you won’t know how “dirty” the floors are.

Yeah, maybe these things are not super popular among college students. But, they are some of the items you will need to survive your college life.

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“What if I can’t stand my roommate?” “How will we deal with dormroom hookups?” “What’s it like to shower in co-ed bathrooms?” These are some of the many questions you’ll be faced with as you move out from under your parents’ roof and into a hall packed with dozens of other freshmen with little to no experience living away from home. How can you make sure you get along with your new neighbors? Unigo asked dozens of college students what they wish they’d known about living in a dorm before they showed up on campus freshman year.

Read on for behind-the-scenes dorm tour videos and real advice from real students on college dorm life.

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You won’t always have time to go enjoy a delicious gourmet meal in your residence hall, and studying in the dorms can make you hungry! Snacking is important, but the difference between healthy snacks and junk food could help you avoid the freshman 15. Here are some healthy snack ideas.

	Pretzels	Contrary to popular new trends and the South Beach diet, carbs are not the devil. Pretzels are a good source of energy. Having these in your arsenal assures you of some healthy and low fat carb intake.
	Fruits	Always a good source of energy and nutrients, you can’t go wrong with fruits. Dried fruits for the dorms are also a good alternative, and won’t go bad on you before your first set of exams.
	Air popped Popcorn	With a whopping 31 calories and 0 saturated fat per serving, not only does this popcorn taste good, its healthy as well. A small bag should fill your cravings without the high fat found in regular bagged popcorn..
	Nuts	Nuts in general are rich in nutrients making these one of the best healthy dorm snacks available. Almonds specifically are extra healthy, and if you’re not eating for a while, the healthy fats in nuts are the best way to hold you over until your next trip to the cafeteria. Chocolate covered or candied nuts don’t count!
	Vegetables	We hate to sound like your mother, but EAT YOUR VEGETABLES! Carrots, celery, cucumbers, radishes, and broccoli are all great choices. Try to avoid rich and creamy dressings like ranch or blue cheese, and stick with either vinaigrette or low fat dressings.
	Whole Grain Cereal	You can eat out of the box (wash your hands!) like shredded mini wheats (not frosted) or any cereal from the brand Kashi, like Go Lean Crunch! These snacks contain lots of nutrients needed by your body and also go great with a bowl of low fat milk.
	Oatmeal	One of the easiest to make and healthiest foods available. You can pick up packets of instant oatmeal to make on the go for class. Again, oatmeal on its own is ok, but watch out for flavored oatmeal with too much sugar. For extra nutrients and great taste, try adding a spoon full of peanut butter!
	Yogurt	Yogurt contains live and active cultures, meaning it has live nutrients that aid in digestion for better health. In addition, yogurt is found in a large variety of flavors besides plain vanilla, like strawberry, chocolate and raspberry. Perfect for a midday snack or an early morning energy breakfast!
	Low Fat Cheese	While typical natural cheeses like cheddar are about 30% to 40%, cheese from skim or partly skim milk have fat contents between 7% to 15%. Harder cheeses usually contain more fat than soft cheeses, but you can cut back on your fat intake by choosing brands labeled “low fat” or “fat free.”
	Water	Not because it’s liquid it doesn’t mean you can’t consider it as snack. Remember that 2/3 of the human body is water, so hydrating yourself is one of the most important things for your health. Water will also increase your metabolism and energy levels to keep you going all day…and night!

Now you know the exercises, and the snacks to help you stay fit freshman year. Staying off the beer and avoiding late night fast food trips will also help keep away the freshman 15.

Tell us your favorite dorm room snacks in the comment section below, and we’ll feature our favorites it in an upcoming post.

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What would you do if you went online and ventured over to TechCrunch and saw a story about Design Your Dorm? Well if you don’t know, then maybe you should click here and go to TechCrunch and see for yourself.

We know that the reason TechCrunch has featured us is because they have been hearing about us from many of their readers. So to all of you who wrote to TechCrunch about us, we appreciate it.

However, we were also featured on another enormous tech blog. It is actually one of Japan’s largest tech blogs, we just wish we could figure out what they were saying about us.

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Figuring it out
First off you need to figure out why you are joining a fraternity. This helps because it gives you an idea of what kind of fraternity you want to join. Some fraternities may put a greater emphasis on social life while others may put a greater emphasis on GPA, although most have a balance between the two. There are also fraternities that oriented towards certain religions or ethnicities. So think long and hard and try to figure out exactly what you are looking to get out of fraternity life.

Ask around
Now that you know what kind of fraternity you want to join, you should get opinions from people you meet about which fraternities may suit you best. Beware of people that slander certain fraternities, as they may either be incredibly uninformed or a member of a rival fraternity. Do not make your decisions based entirely off of what you hear about a fraternity, but do take what you’ve heard into consideration.

Rush
During rush go to all the houses that you would consider joining, and then go to a few that you don’t think you’d join (because you might end up changing your mind). Make sure that you meet as many of the brothers in the house, these people want to meet you and you want to meet them (after all, they are your potential future brothers). Also make sure that you ask questions: ask about membership dues, ask how long the chapter has been around, ask about alumni relationships, etc… These factors should come into play into your decision.

Making your decision
At this point you should have all of the pieces of the puzzle, but its time to put them together. Questions to ask yourself: Where did you feel most comfortable? Where do you feel you could see yourself being life long friends with the brothers of the house? Which house do you feel would best meet the needs of your college experience? Most importantly, you need to understand that nobody can make the decision for you. Ultimately it comes down to you and where you think you’ll be happiest.

So…. Good Luck!

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Sure, you got to eat right, watch the beer intake (especially if you are under 21) and avoid late night snacks, but here are some easy work outs to do in your dorm room to keep you in shape. Now drop down and give me 20!

1	Stretches	Use what you have. Most stretches can be done while sitting or standing. Use your dorm furniture to increase your stretching capacity. Prop up foot up onto your chair, desk, or bed to stretch the hamstrings more deeply; use the walls for stretching your arms, chest, and calves.
2	Jumping Jacks	A couple hundred of jumping jacks will definitely make your heart and lungs work. Try them for a warm-up, or they can be done as sets between other exercises.
3	Standing Rows	These are done from a standing position. Loop a towel around a vertical pole or column or another fixed object that can hold your weight. Have your feet close up to the pole and lean back gripping on the ends of the towel, keeping your body stiff and straight. Row yourself up with both arms. Keep your back arched and row with your back.
4	Squats	First, stand with your arms raised above your head like you’re signaling a touchdown. Squat as deeply as you can with your back straight, and then return to the starting position.
5	Push Ups	Easy and effective. For side-to-side pushups, use a desk in your room and lean your hands against the edge of the desk with your feet placed firmly on the floor and repeating side-to-side movements.
6	Crunches	All you need is a matt and you’re all good to do crunches. Just make sure not to force it if you can’t do more crunches…and don’t strain your neck.
7	Presses	MUse something around the house for weight, e.g. soup cans or milk jugs with water in them. From a seated or standing position, hold the weights just above your shoulders. Push them up overhead slowly.
8	Curls	Stand with your knees slightly bent, arms at your sides, holding your resistance bags or two dumbbells in your hands. With your upper arm pinned at your side and bending only at the elbow, lift the weight up to shoulder level. Do the same with the other arm, alternating back and forth.
9	Lunges	This exercise is even more effective with dung bells. Start with 10 lunges a day, keeping the weights at your sides. If you feel that you can do more, do it, just make sure to stretch before and after to avoid soreness.
10	Calf Raises	This is done by standing behind the chair with both hands on the back of the chair. Keep your legs straight and body upright. Slowly move onto your toes lifting your heels off the ground until you are on tiptoes. Hold yourself up on your toes for 3-4 seconds. Then go back to your position.

Be careful when you work out, in your dorm or the gym. Asking for advice from a trainer at your school is always a good way to start. Next post will feature more tips for avoiding the Freshman 15.

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Update: 5/13/2010: Pimp Dorm is no longer running and now contains adult content. We have removed the link from the post.

Here at Design Your Dorm we like things that are new (even if they are only new to us).  Today’s new thing is Pimp Dorm, a dorm oriented website whose name says it all.  Pimp Dorm offers visitors advice on how to Pimp your dorm (a.k.a. make your dorm room way cooler).

They also have a contest section in which visitors can submit pictures of their dorm room and the owner of the coolest dorm wins the $500 cash prize.  So, after you’ve designed your dorm using DYD, and put everything up on the walls and whatnot, you can take pictures and send them to Pimp Dorm.

However my personal favorite section of their website is the Dorm Pranks section, but that’s only because I’m a prankster at heart and I never get sick of a good prank.