A lot of students decide to spend a summer, semester, or even an entire year studying abroad. Many students do a foreign exchange program through their home university; others travel with a private company.

Studying abroad can be a wonderful learning experience. I spent a summer abroad in Costa Rica when I was 19. While abroad, I learned a new language and a new culture, among other countless things I learned about myself as a person.
If you are planning to study abroad, try to keep the following tips in mind in order to get the very most out of your experience.

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Guest blogger and co-founder of Girl, Get Strong! Women’s online fitness magazine, Melanie Berezan is a fitness fun-addict, adventure seeker, boundary-pusher, writer, traveler and mum of four amazing little people. Contributor to Galtime.com, Momcentral.com and DietsinReview.com. Melanie is currently training for the BMO Vancouver (half) Marathon, raising funds to support Girls on the Run.

Hitting the beach for spring break?

After a long winter of studying and dorm room snacking some of us are wishing we’d spent more time working out at the gym and less time working on textbooks. 

But if that’s you, don’t panic. There’s still time to make some quick, easy and (almost) painless changes that will get you on track for your spring break bikini – without cutting into studying time.

Sound good? Read on.

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Our friends over at Online University Review have compiled “The Ultimate Dorm Room Dieting Guide: 100 Tips, Tools & Tricks” to help you avoid college weight gain, including the avoiding the Freshman 15.

Since listing the entire guide might overwhelm our blog column, we have selected our favorite ten dorm room diet tips in no special order.

1. Too Much Sugar Makes You Crazy: Can’t eat a grapefruit without a packet of sugar? Try and do it anyway. That little extra flavor gives calories, crashing energy, and even tooth decay. Diet sweeteners aren’t much better either.
2. No Bedtime Snacks: Because your parents didn’t want you bouncing around during bed time, they wouldn’t let you eat two hours before bed. Because bedtime snacks can both add to stored calories and restless sleep, they should be avoided.

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 Grockit is an online test prep and collaborative learning tool that allows students to practice tests in the three ways they naturally study – alone, with peers, and with experts. This guest blog was written by Jordan Schonig, a writer for Grockit.

It’s the ultimate showdown between the frightening acronyms: SAT or ACT? Which test should you take? On which test will you score better? You may and should have a lot of questions like these as standardized testing seasons rolls around.

First, find out which tests are accepted at the schools you’re applying to. You will rarely find a school that only accepts the ACT; the SAT is still the more standard of the two, and nearly all colleges accept it. Most colleges on the east and west coasts still require the SAT, though the acceptance of the ACT is steadily increasing.

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Maybe the two of you met at summer camp just before eighth grade. Maybe you met at a high school football game or at a party, a coffee shop or at a political rally. It isn’t important where you met, but that you met. And that the sparks flew.

One of you asked the other out on a first date, where you discussed literature and movies and each other’s interests. It was a lot of fun, and you agreed to go on another date. And another. And then another.  Before long, he asked you to put your relationship on Facebook.

It was a big deal, because we all know it’s not official until it’s Facebook official.

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Dating can be a lot of fun. You get butterflies in your stomach when you think about him or her. You look forward to the text messages and phone calls. You spend a lot of time together, laughing and talking about whatever comes to mind.

But then, when it ends, it can be pretty upsetting. And even if you are not too upset about the end of the relationship, it can take time to move on and get over that person. So here are some tips for moving past a failed relationship.

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Sometimes it can be quite tempting to change your major. Like when you’re pulling an all-nighter for the second night in a row, studying for finals. Or when it takes all of the strength you have to not fall asleep during a required class that only meets at 8:00 a.m., three times a week.

Yes, these situations are not a lot of fun, but they are not reason to change your major.

Changing your major is a big decision. It can keep you from graduating on time and it can end up costing a lot of money since you might not be able to transfer your credit hours from one major to another. There can be a lot of obstacles to changing your major, and it’s not a decision to make lightly. However, it can be a really good decision if you put enough thought into it.

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With flu season in full force, students are some of the most at-risk individuals for getting sick because of their constant close contact with others.

Rather than reaching for the cold medicine when illness strikes, avoid getting sick altogether by protecting yourself and eating your way to health.

Food can provide significant benefits in building up the immune system, which can then help to fight off infection-causing viruses and bacteria.

So whether you live in the dormitory or in a college apartment, these three immune-boosting foods are easy to find in the college cafeteria or at the campus grocery store.

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Sometimes I get a really strong urge to help others. The problem is, I don’t always know how to go about doing it. Sometimes I volunteer in my community, but other times I simply make a donation.

How to choose which organization to donate to though? That’s another problem. Man, who thought trying to do a little good in the world could be so difficult?

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Winter break is amazing. We sleep in until noon every day, catch up on the list of books we have wanted to read, spend most of our days with family and friends, and have absolutely no responsibilities. It’s the second best time of the school year, second only to summer break because summer break lasts three months instead of one.

Sadly, winter break comes to a screeching halt in late January and we have to go back to school. It can be quite a shocking experience. Sunday you are still sleeping in until noon and spending your days completely carefree. Then Monday rolls around: Your alarm goes off at 8:00 in the morning, your first professor passes out the thickest and most demanding syllabus you have ever seen, and you are left wondering what happened to your life?

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