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A lot of people wonder, “Should I join a Fraternity”? Whether the Fraternity is socially or academically based, it is something that a lot of people do once going to college. Ultimately, it depends on your interests and if the University you are attending has a large “Greek” population.  It is important to ask yourself what your ultimate goal is and then go from there. Check out the following paragraphs to determine if joining a fraternity is right for you!

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/sisters in the house, these people want to meet you and you want to meet them (after all, they are your potential future brothers/sister). 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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Alright, we wanted to make this contest as simple as possible! For the past few months, you have been playing around with the 3D-designer in order to create your perfect dorm room. You should hopefully have one dorm room design finalized if not more. All you have to do is submit your designed dorm room onto the DesignYourDorm.com Fan Page and we will pick a winner based on the most people that “like” your room design. So…tell all your friends once you have posted your design onto the wall and tell them to like it! If you get the most likes, you will win a $100 gift-card to Organize.com.

The deadline is Friday August 20th. Please have all your submissions posted by Friday at Midnight.

In order to submit your design, please follow these steps:

1) Log-in and go to the “3D Designer”. If this is not the dorm design you would like to submit, please go to “Manage My Rooms” and choose the room from your list.

2) Once you have selected the room that you would like to use for the contest, click on the “Share Room Design” at the bottom of the page.

3) Your room will then appear in a thumbnail and simply drag it into the Facebook “F” Icon.

4) Once dragging it into the Facebook icon, share it on your “wall”.

5) If you click on the picture of your room, you will get a custom URL that corresponds to your room. Simply paste that URL onto theDesignYourDorm.com Fan Page’s wall.

6. Once it is on the wall get all your friends to click “Like”. The most “Likes” wins the contest! It’s that easy!

Please e-mail info@designyourdorm.com if you have any questions!

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With summer just around the corner, DesignYourDorm.com wants to hear all about your awesome summer plans!  Follow the simple steps below to win fantastic dorm room prizes!

How to enter contest:

1) Create an account at DesignYourDorm.com

2) Click the “FB Fan Page” tab at the bottom of your browser window

3) Become a fan, then head to the Facebook page

4) Post a comment sharing your awesome summer plans!

5) Winners will be chosen from people with verified DesignYourDorm.com accounts.

*Bonus points for those who post photos along with their plan or share contest with link: http://www.designyourdormblog.com/?p=609

Grand Prizes!

Win a brand new SlouchBack, the perfect accessory for your dorm room or house.

The Slouchback automatically inflates in 30 seconds, instantly transforming your bed or floor into a comfortable couch.  When deflated, it collapses to the size of a briefcase, perfect for dorm storage.

Check it out for yourself at www.slouchback.com

Other top plans will be prominently featured on the DesignYourDorm blog

Share the contest link with your friends for an even better chance at bringing the prize home!

Contest Ends Friday, June 18th

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Big City University:

A large university in a big city provides a ton of resources and options.  First of all you’re sure to find a crowd within the student body with which you feel right at home.  Whether that crowd is the Greek system, the engineering club, the modern dance team, or the volunteer club, there will likely be something for everyone.

Big universities often also come with high profile research, professors, and athletics.  Don’t be surprised to have your friends from high school messaging you on Facebook when your top-ten football team loses, or when they read a book in class written by your teacher.

Big cities also come with amazing avenues for fun away from campus.  Again, options galore can afford you with anything from a headline concert tour, to chow mein in China Town, to a museum exhibit or art gallery opening.  Don’t be afraid to turn to websites like yelp.com for advice on things to check out, and things to avoid, for that matter.

Small Town College:

If you feel more comfortable knowing exactly what you’re gonna get, go for the liberal arts college.  In this environment, you won’t have to deal with picking out the bad from the good, because you probably won’t have many choices.

It is likely that everyone on campus will know THE best pizza place and THE best movie theater.  There may only be one of each.  As long as you choose a school with a student body that fits your style, you’ll probably call everyone on campus your friend sooner than you think.

Your professors may or may not have the fame afforded by breakthrough research, but that might mean they dedicate more of their time and effort to giving you a great education.  And though your football team might not draw 100,000 fans per game, you’ll stand a much better chance at making the team.  Division 3 athletes don’t live in the national spotlight, but they get a chance to do what they love at a high level.

Each option has a ton to offer, and it’s hard to know exactly which will fit your ever evolving personality.  The best news is that it’s your choice to make!  Learn as much as you can about the schools on your list, and follow your heart!

Give us your input in the comments section, from experiences in college, or from experiences as you search for your dream school

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In an attempt to make Design Your Dorm more social and user-friendly, we have added the Meebo Bar to our site! This tool enables our users to instantly connect, share and communicate with all of their friends while remaining on our site. Because Meebo integrates all social network and communication channels into a single, simple-to-use interface, users can easily share content and communicate in real time with the people who matter to them.

For example, if you are designing your room on our site and would like to show your friends what you have created, simply share your room design with all your friends on Facebook and many other social networks with the click of a button. Also, users have found it useful to communicate with their new college roommates via our site, so you can get to know each other and decide who is going to bring what for the upcoming school year. Try it out and we would love to hear your feedback!

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Applying to college is a very stressful process. Even with the help of a college counselor, it is not easy for students to decide what school is the best fit for them.  Ultimately, you just need to apply to several schools that seem like a good fit and wait to see the results. Once the applications are all done, there is a long wait until you find out what school(s) you have been accepted to…

The waiting period to receive college acceptance letters might be even more stressful then the application process! If you are curious to find out what your chances are to getting into the universities you applied to, you might want to check out one of the following sites:

www.mychances.net
www.campusexplorer.com
www.Go4College.com

Each website takes into consideration different statistics in order to determine the chance you have in getting into a specific college. Mychances.net and CampusExplorer.com are two free services. You must pay for Go4College.com, but it claims a 94% accuracy rate. While these are simply tools to predict your chances, it may give you a good idea of the practicality of getting accepted into your dream school. Enjoy!

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For many people, 2009 was a great year and for many it was a bad year. Have you sat down and thought about how it could have been better or what you could do to make 2010 better?  Some questions to ask yourself might be: Did I work as hard in school as I should have? Did I get the grades I wanted to? Did I join some sort of organization/club? Did I make as many friends as I wanted to or put myself out there to meet new people? Did I save any money? Am I happy with what I did this year? These are just some of the many questions you can ask yourself.

Whether or not you like to set goals for yourself, it is helpful to sometimes take a look back on the past and see how you would like to see yourself progress into the future. The problem with many individuals is that they set unrealistic goals that are not practical to achieve. A great way to set goals is to use the “SMART” method. The website explains ways to achieve your goals by using the acronym Smart: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.

Take the time to think of what you would like to do differently in 2010. Make the list as short or as long as you would like. You will find that once completing your goals, you will feel accomplished and at ease knowing exactly what you want to accomplish!

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The typical “dorm” has changed quite significantly over the past two centuries. Previously, dorm rooms looked similar to jail cells and there only functionality was to sleep. Back in the early 1800’s, only men were in residence halls and had to follow a strict dress code, attend chapel service, follow a fitness program, and even adhere to a strict curfew! A century later, more and more women started applying to Universities and getting accepted. Soon enough, women only Residence Halls were built and the rules were twice as strict as the males’ halls.

In order to communicate, the men and women would often send messages in morse code through flashing lights back and forth throughout the campus. As time evolved, so did the dorm rooms. Now, there are Co-ed Residence Halls that have fitness centers, restaurants, tanning salons, and even rock climbing walls! Numerous schools offer “suite” style layouts that have a traditional bedroom, but also offer a living room and kitchen area.

In the past few decades, the dorms have evolved more into “living learning communities” where students can truly call their dorm their new home. Students bring all kinds of furniture items/decorations to make their new living environment as comfortable as possible. Student’s don’t just go back to their room to sleep, but go back to hang out and socialize with their friends. Due to the change in the living facilities, various school administrators have had a recent push to have students call their “dorm” their “residence hall room”, but students still continue to refer to living quarters as their “dorm”.

Living in the “dorms” is an integral part of the freshmen experience. You have the ability to make friends easily, study with large groups of people, stay up late eating, and always have someone to hang out with no matter what time it is. You can’t beat it! Throughout the course of the year, you will become close friends with everyone in your hall and even begin to know the names of most of the people in your building (depending on the size of the building). As always, you have to remember to balance your social life with your schoolwork. Many people that live in your building may eventually dwindle away because they couldn’t seem to find a balance. If you plan on attending college next year, you should definitely plan on living on campus in a dorm. If you’re already living in a dorm, make sure to: talk to anyone you don’t recognize coming in & out of the building, involve yourself in building activities, and make the most of every experience possible.

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You may think that college is all about studying and debating with professors in class. Well, let me tell you there’s more to that than you may think. I will always relish the social life in high school but college is in a world of its own! The social life is much different and much more fun. There was more to do socially here than ever before.

You’ve got your garden variety club activities and civic groups, if you’re into that kind of thing! However, dorm events and parties were always the best! They were wilder and more adrenaline-packed than high school. Not to mention that alcohol flowed like rivers at every party I went to and I’ve never seen people that thirsty before in my life! High school had kiddie parties compared to what we had now!
Being new to the state I was in, I made sure to grab every opportunity I had at an adventure which would help me warm up to my surroundings. I went hiking, kayaking and involved myself in other activities that would increase my familiarity with the state that would be my home for the four years. Adventures during the day and parties at night; what more could anyone ask for? Unfortunately, this was where my problems began. Too much play actually made me a dull boy!

Back then, I always had my parents around to remind me if I was partying too much and a dip in my grades was enough to have me grounded for a week or more. Now, I’m thousands of miles away from them and no one was going to tell me what to do! Despite that sense of bravado; my grades were taking a major hit! Suddenly, I was losing my zeal for knowledge and diverted my attention to everything else other than academics.

It was a hard lesson in responsibility that I learned! Keeping that balance was more difficult than I imagined! I certainly did not want to be called “the geek” who spent most of his time in the library; yet reading is, undoubtedly, the most essential part of a college education. It came to a point of time when too much partying actually made me feel bad! Call it guilt, if you want, but all I ever thought about from that point on was getting my grades back on track.

This has been the dilemma of every student who ever wanted to succeed in college; when is too much fun actually too much? College life presents itself with its own set of temptations and challenges. It is the transition stage from childhood to adulthood. This is the time to determine your path and write your own destiny. Do you want to be remembered as someone who dropped out of school for partying too much or as the person who graduated with flying colors because he had the right balance in his life? That choice is ultimately yours.

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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.