This week the U.S. Department of Education gave us an excellent example of what NOT to tweet out to the many college students who will be hoping for student aid this school year. It also showed it’s about as good at social media as the average “cool” parent.

In what can only be described as an attempt to be hip gone awry, Federal Student Aid, @FAFSA, tweeted to its followers a still from the movie “Bridesmaids” accompanied with the quote, “Help me. I’m poor.” While a funny quote that I’ve often used myself when feeling particularly broke, it’s probably not appropriate when coming from the Education Department. Especially when sent out with the caption, “If this is you, then you better fill out your FAFSA: fafsa.gov.”

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It’s no secret that college admissions officers are allowing more creativity in the applications that they will accept. Last year, YouTube application videos were all the rage. This year, some schools, like the University of Iowa, are incorporating Twitter into the decision-making process.

The University of Iowa is offering a full scholarship to their business school. This means that around $37,000 is hanging on a 140 character tweet. This tweet is being used by the school to replace the second essay that is normally required in their application.

Some critics think that incorporating Twitter in the college application process is a bad idea.

“They’re devaluing their future,” said Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto. “They’re identifying themselves with a fad rather than something more long term. It comes off as a school trying so hard to be cool.”

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The Team at YourCampus360 are New York City-based experts in higher education marketing technology. The company leads the industry in creating virtual experiences that connect schools with prospective students across all of the most popular platforms: EDU websites, mobile devices, Facebook, YouTube, and more.

Higher education institutions have always been trailblazers of interactivity in marketing. In fact – yes, it’s true – colleges and universities adopted social media (Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter) into their existing marketing plans at an even faster rate than most traditional Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 companies. Marketing to teens, theirs is a perpetually changing landscape. So what’s new on the scene?

It should come as no surprise that these places of learning are filled with great learners, researching, testing and adapting as each new generation’s needs and expectations change. With so many college-bound high school students researching colleges online, from their laptop, their iPad, their smartphone, schools are learning to meet prospective students where they tend to spend most of their time, and integrate this message across platforms. Interactive maps, virtual campus tours, high quality video, and mobile and Facebook applications have become the new hot higher education marketing tools.
But it’s also easy to get too bogged down in the details: whether Android is beating Apple this week; whether teens care about Twitter; which gadgets are giving students online access in a newer, sleeker skin. It’s not that the details are disposable…it’s just that they’re more malleable than you might think.

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A survey from Pew Internet & American Life Project announced eight percent of American adults who use the internet are on Twitter, but the number is much higher among college students. Eighteen percent of college students who go online (which we may be able to assume is the vast majority), are twitter users. This includes both full-time and part-time college students.

Pew is a nonprofit organization that aims to study how internet usage affects modern life. The extensive study of Twitter use was released on Thursday. Over 2,257 people were surveyed for the project. The percentage of college users was not included in the survey, but Aaron Smith pulled the figure at the special request of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

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If you love to tweet and you need money for college, then look no further. KFC will give $20,000 in scholarship money to a high-school student with the best tweet.

With a character limit of 140, applicants must write a short statement to explain why they are worthy of such a scholarship.

“It’s judged based on quality, creativity, ability to tell a story on why they should receive the award, and the entrepreneurial drive and desire to pursue a college education,” Rick Maynard said, a KFC spokesman.

The contest started on Nov. 17 and will end on Nov. 26. The winner will be revealed on Dec. 1. To apply, tweets must include the hashtag #KFCScholar.

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An experiment conducted at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania showed that students who were asked to use Twitter as a means of discussing assignments were more engaged in their classwork than those using more conventional means. Two groups of students in pre-health professional programs were asked to share their experiences during a day spent job shadowing and to comment on reading assignments. The first group served as a control group, while the second group was asked to use Twitter to complete the assignments.

The study used a 19-question survey based on the National Survey of Student Engagement, to measure student participation once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end. All the students were first-years enrolled in seminar-style courses. Not only did the students engaged in Twitter discussions show more engagement, it also improved their grades. The Twitter group on average earned a GPA of .5 higher for the semester than the control group.

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Everywhere you look today in America, there is pressure or encouragement to vote.

Facebook.com, the popular social networking page has an application on the homepage asking if users have voted today. Google.com has a map option to see where the nearest voting facility is. Twitter is trending #govote. MTV is still sponsoring their political involvement campaign ‘Vote or Die’.

It seems political activist groups and parents at a Cincinnati high school are not happy about the one place they feel students should not be discussing politics: their school.

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YouTube is an integral part of entertainment and education. It’s a fabulous concept, really: average people taking moments out of their lives to tutor the masses and make others laugh. From makeup tutorials, to business promotion to hilarious home videos, there’s something on YouTube for everyone.

Do you feel like you have something to add to the world of viral entertainment? Well, so does everybody else. If your intent is to post a video or two for your friends and family to enjoy, then none of this information applies to you. Aunt June will love the video of Baby Tommy sneaking treats out of Rover’s bowl, regardless of how you approach it. On the other hand, if you wish to get hundreds, thousands or millions of views, then you might want to start paying attention. Why do some videos ’go viral’ and others barely get any exposure at all? Read the rest of this entry »

Just a couple of days away from Halloween, the campus of the Catholic private college Notre Dame du Lac is being haunted by an eerie chill and tragic death that occurred last night.

Notre Dame is quite well known for their football team, immortalized in the movie Rudy, but now LaBar Practice Complex is sealed off with yellow police crime scene tape as students gather to extend their condolences to junior Declan Sullivan a member of the “team”.

While Sullivan wasn’t an actual player on the football team, he contributed to the sporting events by videotaping practices, and that unfortunately cost him his life when the scissors lift that he was filming from toppled down after 50 mph winds. Read the rest of this entry »

Finding a roommate when you lived in the dorms was so simple. Your school probably assigned you a roommate, you lived together, and that was that. But once you move out of the dorms, things get a little more complicated.

Having a roommate while you are in college is beneficial for a number of reasons. For example, a roommate will split the bills with you, so it is financially responsible, and a good roommate can provide social interaction, and if you’re lucky, can turn into a good friend. Read the rest of this entry »