Some Melodies Have Soul In Them, Don't They? What You Listen To In Instrumental Music Or Classics That

how i spent only $34 to purchase $1,000+ worth of school supplies for college

One thing I’ve found that many college freshmen do is they purchase everything at the school bookstore, shelling out more than $800 for what they think is the cheapest deal possible. Let me tell you now, that you’re doin’ it wrong if you think paying hundreds of dollars is the best you can do. 

To put it into perspective, for this past year, if I purchased all of my required textbooks from my school book store I would have had to pay $1,466 (tax not included)–and this is the total calculated if I bought used textbooks only. If I wanted brand new textbooks, it would have been over $2,000 (tax not included). In the end, I only spent $34 to purchase an entire year’s worth of supplies (that’s a 97% discount!!!), and I will tell you how. Of course, how low you can go will depend on the type of textbooks your professors require you to have and if you need any online access codes.

1. Email your professors

A lot of professors receive compensation from publishing companies to include their books in the curriculum, so many professors will say a book is required when in reality, you probably read 4 paragraphs from that text in the course of a semester. Always e-mail your professors beforehand about the list of required texts and other required items so see how many times you really need that book or item.

For example, at the beginning of fall semester last year, one of the required items listed for lab was lab cartridges which cost $88. Before making the decision on whether to purchase that or not, I e-mailed the lab coordinator and asked about what the cartridges were, which labs they corresponded to, and how often we would need to use them. The response? We didn’t need them at all for lab. If I didn’t ask my professor about it beforehand, I could have potentially paid $88 for something I didn’t need. 

2. Join your school’s Facebook network.

Most, if not all, colleges will have a network on Facebook. Whenever you get your admission e-mail, or in your school’s portal, there should be a link to join the main Facebook group. Through there, once you’re accepted, you should be able to access many other Facebook groups within the school network. Many colleges will have a group dedicated to students who are selling their old stuff, and many will sell their textbooks on there as well.

Freshman year, I paid $150 for my general chemistry textbook, the solutions manual to the chemistry textbook, general biology textbook, lab manual, lab goggles, and clicker by purchasing them from a student who took those courses already and had no use for them anymore. To put into perspective how much I saved, the general biology textbook itself retailed for $150 in the campus bookstore; and the total amount I would have had to pay if I purchased all those books from the bookstore would have been more than $560. I basically purchased this at a 75% discount! 

I would consider that purchasing from students at your university is generally a safe transaction, as most people meet up on campus to exchange the cash for the product, but remember to always exercise caution. You can always ask the seller to send you more detailed pictures if you want to know more about the condition of the item, and most of the time, you can also try to haggle the price of the item down. 

3. Try to find online PDFs

One of the biggest reasons why I was able to save so much money this year with my textbooks was because of online PDFs (bless those uploaders). I was able to download my organic chemistry textbook and solutions manual, and molecular cell biology textbook online for free. If I had to purchase them from the campus bookstore, I would have had to pay $917. That’s a lot of money I saved!

Generally speaking, textbook versions don’t really vary much. For the organic chemistry PDF I mentioned, I actually found the previous edition of the one we were required to have for the course. I e-mailed my professor and asked if there was any particular difference between the 3rd and 4th edition, and he responded saying that other than the fact that some content in one chapter was moved to the next, there was no difference, and there really wasn’t. Even the chapter problems were the exact same. 

If you’re the style that likes to have a paper copy in their hands, you can always print out the PDFs. 

4. Share with friends

As a biology major, we have many labs, and for those labs, we’re required to purchase a lab manual. This past year, I took orgo lab, and the lab manual for that was $143. I couldn’t find this online as a PDF because A) it was the newest edition for this year, and B) it was written by our lab coordinator so it couldn’t be found anywhere else. So I chose option C instead: share with a friend. One of my friends compared the previous year’s edition with the edition we were required to have to see if there were any big differences (such as different experiments), and there weren’t really, so she purchased last year’s lab manual from an upperclassman for $25 (I paid $12 since we were sharing). Since we had lab on different days, we were able to share the manual. 

I also made scans of the manual as well so I wouldn’t hog it when she needed it to complete her conclusions, and she could use the scans for her pre-lab while I was using it to write my conclusions.

5. Don’t buy, rent instead

If you absolutely have to have a book and you can’t find it online as a PDF, see if you can rent it instead. Although your campus bookstore will also have rental prices, 3rd party rental prices are almost always cheaper. Two sites I highly recommend are Chegg and Bookbyte. Although I haven’t used Chegg personally, many of my friends do and they say Chegg’s prices are lower. I’ve personally used Bookbyte, and although their selection is a tad smaller than Chegg, they have great customer service. In addition, if you need your rental for a couple days past the rental date, you can send it back late (up to 12 days I believe) without being charged any additional fees or paying for an extension. 

For example, if I were to rent the anthropology textbook from my bookstore would have costed $40, and renting from Amazon would have cost $35, however, Bookbyte had my anthropology textbook listed for $12 to rent. They actually sent me 2 copies of it (I was only charged for one), and both were in excellent condition. When the time comes for you to return your textbooks, just print out the pre-paid shipping label Bookbyte sends you and you can ship the book from your campus mailroom.

6. Ask upperclassmen

Second semester this year, I was able to get my hands on a hard copy of the newest edition of the orgo textbook and solutions manual for free, because one of my upperclassmen friends passed it down to me without asking me to pay, so she’s basically the nicest person ever. You can always ask upperclassmen friends first for textbooks and such if they’re the same major as you because chances are, they’ll still have their old textbooks and would most likely be much more willing to help out a friend than a student they don’t know. 

7. DON’T BUY “USED” ONLINE ACCESS CODES

The only thing you cannot get a discount on are online access codes. Any sites that are selling “used” online access codes are fake, and you should not purchase from them. Online access codes are associated with specific professors and courses, and e-mails as well. In addition, most have a set expiration date (usually a year or a semester), so any “used” online access code will most likely have expired by the time you try to use it. 

What I usually do if I have to have an online code is accept their free trial. Companies such as McGraw Hill’s Connect have a 2 week free trial, and since my professors put up all the assignments in advance, I complete all the assignments within the free trial period. When the free trial expires, I can’t access the module again unless I pay, but the records of me completing my assignment still exist and I still get my homework points. I was lucky enough that our professor assigned online HW as easy gimme points, so I didn’t have to wait until he taught the material to finish it. The only online homework I paid for was Sapling, which was $10 since the free trial was only 6 days and homework assignments were uploaded weekly. 

Some useful phrases for discursive/persuasive essays in Spanish!! [french here]

INTRODUCTION 

Voy a escribir sobre el tema de… — I am going to write about the topic of… 

Voy a discutir — I am going to discuss 

No hay [noun] que se pueda comparar a [noun] — No [noun] can be compared to [noun] 

Debido la influencia de… — Due to the influence of… 

En nuestra sociedad — In our society 

Hoy en día — Nowadays 

Como nunca antes — Like never before 

Ha desarollado considerablemente durante los últimos # años — Has developed considerably over the last # years

Ventaja  — Advantage

Desventaja  — Disadvantage

 ANALYSIS 

A raíz de — As a result of 

Se extienden desde … hasta … — Range from … to … 

La razón por la que… — The reason why… 

 Algunas investigaciones han mostrado que… — Some studies have shown that… 

Formar parte clave de — To form a key part of 

Esto apunto a — This points to 

Las tasas de — The rate of 

Aumentar  — To increase

Se caracteriza por — Is characterised by 

Se fundamenta en — Is founded upon 

Un repunte de  — A rise in/surge in (the quantity of sth)

 EVALUATION 

Estoy de acuerdo — I agree 

Si tuviera que decir, diría que… — If I had to say, I’d say that… 

Si debiera elegir, elegiría… — If I had to choose, I’d pick… 

 Que yo sepa — As far as I know 

Que yo recuerde — As far as I remember 

Si yo fuese ell@s — If I were them 

Si estuviese en su pellejo — If I were in their position 

Vale la pena agregar que… — It’s worthwile adding that… 

… aparte, — Aside from …/…aside

 CONCLUSION 

Para concluir — To conclude 

En suma — To summarise 

Es (crucial/esencial/importante) que [+subjunctive] — It is (crucial/essential/important) that 

Lo ideal sería que [+imperfect subjunctive] — Ideally

ADJECTIVES

Expressing importance and benefit: Importante, crucial, esencial, vital, influyente, concluyente, decisivo, beneficioso, eficaz (plural: eficaces)

Expressing risk/disapproval: Peligroso, perjudicial, erróneo, arriesgado, equivocado  

How to Read From a Textbook

Hi guys! So I’ve noticed that a lot of people, including myself, struggle with reading directly from a textbook and actually retaining all of the information. 

Well my friends I am here to change that [queue the victory music]. Recently I discovered a reading strategy known as the SQ3R technique. It stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. I’ve found this technique to be extremely helpful when it comes to reading through textbooks, and so now I’m passing this information onto my dear followers.

1. Survey

The first step in this process is to get a basic idea of what you’re going to be reading. Most textbooks have chapter outlines or a brief summary at the beginning of each chapter. Take about five minutes to skim through these. By doing this, you’ll have the basic structure of what you’ll be learning in your head. 

2. Question

This step will be repeated multiple times throughout your reading, so pay attention! Within each chapter, there are section titles that give you a vague idea of what the next few paragraphs will be about. This step asks that you turn the section title into a question. For example, we’ll say that our section title is “The Changing Role of the States.” You can turn this into questions such as “how did the role of the states change” and “which states changed and how.” When you turn the titles into questions, you end up looking for the answers while you’re reading rather than simply reading. This stops you from reading the same line over and over again.

3. Read

This one’s the obvious one. Read your textbook. Take notes while you’re reading. Write down all the important definitions, concepts, names, dates, etc. But remember to take breaks! Taking a three minute break for every twenty minutes of reading allows information to settle in your brain. It also helps with memory retention.

4. Recite

I’ll admit I’m still a bit uncomfortable with this step but it’s helped me a lot with remembering what I’ve read. Basically, this step asks you to summarize what you’ve just read out loud. I do this after each section, and then I summarize the whole chapter once I’ve finished the chapter. (Pro Tip: If you’re uncomfortable with talking to yourself, try talking to a recording device or summarize to a nearby friend.)

5. Review

Review, review, review. I cannot stress this enough. Read over your notes the day after, then the week after. Studies show that you remember 60% more of the material you learned when you review it the next day. Don’t forget you can review with more than just your notes! Make flashcards or foldables with the most important information in the chapter and quiz yourself! So many textbooks have quizzes online for each chapter, so use them!!!! I find mind maps to be super helpful in studying too. Reviewing is a super important step, so don’t think that you can forget about studying just because you’ve read through a chapter!

I might include that, as of recent, many professors have been saying that there is a fourth ‘R’ to this process: Relate. With this step you simply relate the information you’ve just read back to something important in your life. When you make connections with your reading, it becomes easier to remember the material. 

Well that’s all I’ve got for you guys for now. I hope this helps at least a few of you. Keep on studying guys, and good luck on finals!  ╚(•⌂•)╝

hello! for your college prompts, what advice would you give the students who don't really have any outstanding achievements? the ones who didn't join any contests or have any notable experiences to write about :(

Hi, thanks for the question! 

Honestly, every experience can be written as notable. It really depends on how you word your answers. Personal stories, like caring for ill siblings can be described as inspiration for students going into the medical field or school art projects, like painting self-portraits can be described as an eye-opening experience in self-reflection for students planning to study arts. 

It’s really important to remember that even though high achievements and notable experiences contribute to an individual’s application, it does not necessarily make or break an individual’s profile. This might sound deceptive, but honestly play up your strengths. (You might not think you have any really good ones, but trust me they’re there!) I’d recommend doing a bit of research of your field of interest’s general responsibilities and focusing on any transferable skills that you currently possess that can be detailed in a college essay or application form. Many scholarship and college committees are looking for students willing to think outside the box, identify transferable experiences for field compatibility and show a clear interest in studying at the school of application. The experience is not the important thing, the reflection and lessons learned are what’s most important. If you show evidence of your ability to commit and work diligently, while showing clear signs of potential; schools will definitely be interested in taking you under their wing. 

Hobbies can also play a key role in applications, even non-school or organization held ones. As long as you can show evidence of progress (i.e. photography, videos, maybe a participation certificate) for an activity, self-taught instruments or languages are very impressive. Other hobbies such as crafting, machinery or creative writing can also be assets! I suggest making a list of your daily activities and going from there. Sometimes activities that you may not have considered (i.e. cooking, baking, etc) can greatly contribute to an application. Here’s just a couple examples that could possibly be helpful in the formatting of this sort of writing:

Baking (Have you considered baking something for a charity event? Baking a cake or a tray of cookies can add to your application because you can include the title of charity event volunteer and contributor or that you’ve baked to support charity events.) 

Blogging (Even Tumblr blogging! As long as you can show evidence of original posts with a socially acceptable theme (I’d recommend “educational (meaning anything you can learn,)” current-event or literature-based content) you can say that you enjoy writing articles in your spare time and host a blog where you contribute original content.)    

Travel (Travel a lot with your family or friends? Spin this experience into a cultural exploration activity and focus heavily on personal reflections of your trip. By doing this, you can say that you have a strong interest in sociology, modern anthropology and ancient anthropology.)

It’s never too late to pick up new skills! Keep an eye out for new opportunities to expand your abilities and community involvement and who’s knows maybe you’ll even find an activity you become extremely passionate about! Here’s some other tips to show off your skills:

Use a higher variety of language in writing: This means, use a thesaurus for application writing! A higher language variety shows that a student has a higher linguistic interest. In saying this however, do not change every word in sentences or an obvious pattern such as one-change-per-sentence! Contribute where you feel you can be fancy. 

Name-drop: By that meaning, cleverly mention the names of organizations and companies you’ve been involved with. Involvement refers to any sort of assistance with physical evidence. (Remember that baking example I mentioned earlier? Say that the organization in question was Free the Children - you could add Free the Children charity event volunteer and contributor to your application.) Do not call out organizations randomly but strategically - if it just so happens that the charity in question was present and involved then it doesn’t hurt to add that to your application. This shows that a student is well-connected in their communities as well as being apt at networking.

Strategic self-reflection: In detailing how you felt and what you learned, include references to any historical/current events, academic curriculum or personal interest educational content! For example: 

As I explore the streets of Greece, I cannot help but appreciate cultural identities that are in constant evolution. Greece, once a centerpiece of economic power now lies in a new era; one of economic uncertainty in the shadows of the growing strength of several new power players - the United States and China. 

This shows that a student has high intellectual ability, is good at problem solving and applying their knowledge where it can be used.

Medical School Resources! (and other human biology,physiology,biochemistry-related resources)

Hi Everyone! 

Update: I am now officially done with my second year! I know i’ve been MIA on here for a while now - but that’s only because I was drowning in textbooks and assignments! I will be writing a whole other post on what my second year in medical school was like - so watch out for that :)

I, for one, can not just rely on one method of learning. Meaning, I’ll jump from videos, to textbooks, to flashcards. In this post I’m going to list some of my holy grail youtube channels that have helped saved me. 

1) Handwritten Tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/user/harpinmartin

Every video in this channel is short, but not so much that you feel like you’re missing out on information. Definitely one to save as a favourite!

2) Armando Hasudungan

https://www.youtube.com/user/armandohasudungan

The best thing about this channel is the fact that there are over 300 videos, covering a wide range of core topics in endocrinology, neurology, physiology and pharmacology. Another pro is the presentation of topics (otherwise considered snooze-worthy) in an artistic manner!

3) Speed Pharmacology

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-i2EBYXH6-GAglvuDIaufQ

Raise your hand if you’ve ever fallen asleep trying to read about the mechanism of action of opioids, their side effects and contraindications. I know I have. Fret not, for this youtube channel will introduce you to a world where pharmacology is actually interesting.

4) Wendy Riggs 

https://www.youtube.com/user/wendogg1

Wendy Riggs is a very down-to-earth professor in Northern California, and she covers a wide range of  topics in Anatomy, Physiology and General Biology. 

5) Anatomy Zone

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAnatomyZone

A better way to learn anatomy is to supplement your textbook information with videos from this channel. The explanations and visuals provided are absolute gold.

I hope you all find these channels as helpful as I did!

Scans of the inside covers of Strang’s Calculus, which you can legally-download for free here from the MIT website. This is my all-time favorite math or physics textbook. Scanned it so I could cut and paste it into my new sketchbook, wanna try and make a ~cool artistic~ reference poster out of it, ‘cuz I’ve been real into that idea since I took notes about rings for the algebra midterm on a big piece of watercolor paper.

15 things I tell myself when I don't want to work/study

1. You are very lucky and privileged to have access to almost unlimited knowledge and you should appreciate that. 2. Be one of those rare people who step over their insecurities and succeed. 3. Only 5 minutes. Only today. (Repeat it 5 minutes later and every day). 4. You will know what to do as soon as you start. Ideas never appear from inactivity. 5. Make yourself proud. 6. One hour every day doesn’t feel much but it’s 365 hours a year. You can’t not succeed after so much work. 7. It’s not supposed to be easy. Nothing good is easy. 8. If you had a child to look after, you’d make them study because you want them to accomplish something. Don’t you love yourself? 9. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear” George Adair 10. Every mistake increases our chance to make progress. 11. If you give up now, you’ll have to return to this later anyway but from the very beginning. 12. Let the process be your result. 13. Every moment you thought your fears would suppress you has become the time you made it. 14. Maybe you think you can never find something to use your skills and mindset for. But if you continue investing in what matters to you, it will find its way out there. 15. I allow you to think globally. You have a right to the boldest dream.

14/03/19 - Some more technology notes and diagrams. A slow but productive day today! 

151129 ; german grammar is killing me ( 11/100 )

In the wise words of ABBA, “money money money, must be funny in the rich man’s world.” Unfortunately most students are hardly part of the rich man’s world, so here I’ve compiled a list of tips regarding how I personally manage to save and budget my money!

general tips

ask yourself: do you really, really need this, right now? my parents make so much fun of me because i will spend half an hour in a store and end up not buying anything, but this is a really important and effective way to prevent purchases that you could justify, but don’t actually need. i LOVE christmas shopping and gift shopping, but i have to limit myself to one gift per person. do they really need a second gift? even if it seems cute and perfect? no. you want a second or third vest, but do you need it? you have a washing machine and you can wear that vest more than one time before washing it.

keep money in perspective. if you see something that you think is a good price, check yourself by measuring it against a practical essential. for example, you could get that $20 top, OR you could get 9 toothbrushes for the same amount of money. (that’s kind of a lame analogy, but you get what i mean)

do not spend unnecessary money just because it’s a sale! make sure to still ask yourself if you need it. even if it’s a great sale, remember that it’s still money that you’re spending. spend it wisely! it’s better for your purse if you spend nothing because you don’t absolutely need something than if you spend even a little bit on something you don’t need.

BUDGET/TRACK YOUR SPENDINGS. (see below)

budgeting

download money-saving apps. I keep track of my spendings by keeping a binder full of all my receipts, taped to paper and inserted chronologically. And I use spending tracker by MH Riley Ltd (free on the app store), which allows you to log expenses and income, set budgets, and create categories. You can see pie charts for a breakdown of how much you spend on each category as well! I’ve used it for a couple months now and it’s been really useful because I can also see how much I spend in a big spending month (December) vs a normal month. I honestly spend a lot less money than I feel like I do - so it helps me stress a little bit less about money - and when I know that I log every purchase, it helps me save more and be more conscious of what I’m spending (similar to the effect that paying with cash instead of card has).

budget before each month/semester/season. You’ll have a general plan of what’s going to happen in that time frame (trips, classes, weather) and can plan expenses accordingly - estimate how much you’ll spend on whatever you’re planning to do. Leave yourself a cushion (I usually overestimate by a lot on purpose haha) and allow for food/leisure/shopping expenses. It can also help to work backwards, starting with a baseline amount of money you want to spend and either dividing it up by week/month (spend x amount of money per week), or breaking up the sum into categories as previously mentioned.

shopping tips

sign up for rewards at pharmacies. i am a hardcore CVS customer and saver, and i’m not sure about other pharmacies (from my experience, they aren’t nearly as good when you need to save). one time i saved 52% on my purchase! they’re great with giving you extrabucks and with a card, you can often take advantage of a LOT of deals.

clip coupons to your heart’s content! seriously. coupon clipping is nothing to be ashamed of. i am that person that shows up to the counter with a stack of coupons #noshame.

settle for non-brand name products (sometimes). this isn’t a foolproof rule; there are some items where the less expensive version is actually bad compared to the more expensive brand names, but usually the cheap brand of food is okay/tolerable too, and can be significantly less expensive, and if you go with the generic brands, the savings stack up. 

shop online. look out for in-store deals. old navy is my all time FAVORITE to online shop. they have excellent deals, esp around the holidays. stores have sales relatively frequently; if they don’t have any sales going on (other than their sale rack, which is always a good place to check first), go back again later.

go straight to the sale section. this is pretty obvious.

look at unit prices. the best deal is really based on the unit price. i get that sometimes you just want the least expensive item, but if it’s something like a baking essential and you want to get the best quantity for the price, check the unit price first.

if you are small enough, check the kid’s section. kid’s clothes and shoes are generally less expensive. an adult small is usually equivalent to a girl’s L or XL, and a boy’s M or L. an adult size 6 shoe is usually a girl’s size 3. they make some wicked cute sweaters and t shirts and shoes for kids, and you can save up to 50%! especially on small things like flip flops, plain t shirts, etc.

tell stores when your birthday is if they ask! i know a few stores do ask for your birthday (vera bradley is the one that jumps to mind first), and if they do, TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT! i got a legitimate coupon from vera bradley for the month of november out of it and was able to get a wallet at a great discount!

‘checks and balances’: college student style

shop with cash. when you pay with cash and not a card, you see how much you’re spending. i get paid in cash when i babysit, and that’s usually my spending money for the week. if i’m out of cash and i’m going shopping, i’ll withdraw like $40-60. when i have the physical money in my hand it’s easier to reality check and budget than if i swipe a card, even if i have a number in my head already.

take your time. okay, this isn’t always an option, but impulse buys are what often get people - those little things at the line in forever 21, or the candies by the cash registers at k mart. take time to deliberate over whatever it is that you’re buying.

saving on practicalities

rent textbooks. i know there are a lot of websites out there where you can supposedly download books. i haven’t looked at any of them (here’s a masterpost by @blogresources that includes a section about free textbooks), but i know i prefer having a physical book. you can rent most textbooks (i can’t make guarantees, but from what i’ve seen/heard) on amazon for a fraction of the price, and they will give it to you for the entire semester. for example, i need a textbook, and i could buy it for $143 or rent it for $22.

don’t buy fancy stationery. use that as a major splurge, but honestly, you can get by just fine with $1 notebooks from the pharmacy and pens and pencils that will do the job. i have found plenty of pens that cost less than $3 that i love.

carpool / bike / walk / take PT when possible. it depends where you live; i know that sg has an amazing PT system. it takes longer to get places, but costs like $3 from one side of the island to the other. if you live in boston and places are available via the T, take advantage of that, and so on with all the cities out there. if you can reasonably bike to somewhere, do it. walking is always best. but don’t let yourself get hypothermia! if it’s cold, take a taxi or car. gas prices stack up big time, and it doesn’t really make sense to have a car in college anyway! 

don’t eat out. don’t go to starbucks. these are small things that chew up a LOT of money each month. i limit myself to eating out once every 1-2 months, and set a $10 limit when i do so. starbucks/dunkin donuts = splurge. bring water/drinks and snacks with you, especially if you know that you’re going out and will likely get hungry!

disclaimers

REMEMBER TO TREAT YOURSELF SOMETIMES. set a budget each month and if you come out under the budget, it’s okay to treat yourself! don’t use up all the deficit if you can, but treat yourself to something nice that you don’t explicitly need but that you’ll use.

make allowances for social events! if you are hanging out with a friend, going to the movies, going out to eat, etc, be mindful of your money but don’t turn down an invitation just because you don’t want to spend the money. going to a movie once every 1-2 months is okay! you can find someplace inexpensive to eat, or agree to eat before going and just get ice cream (less expensive) after.

moderation is key. this all sounds really restrictive, but do remember that moderation is okay here. you shouldn’t sacrifice your comfort and health just to save some money. everything will be okay in the end, and stressing about money isn’t good for anyone.

please message me if you have any other specific questions!