Broke Grad Student » progress

March 2009 In Review

Broke Grad — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:30:39 +0000

Goodbye winter, hello spring. The transition from short days with crappy weather to long days with awesome weather is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s great when the sun is still out when you leave work or get out of class.

Besides talking about the weather, I’d also like to share some stats from the past month.

17,045 Unique Visitors

For the second month in a row, this number has gone down, so it’s a little disappointing. Oddly enough, the number of comments on my posts are increasing even though fewer people are visiting, which is cool. To put things into a little perspective, at this time last year, I was getting less than 3,000 unique visitors per month.

626 Subscribers

Sweet! I reached my goal of breaking the 600 mark by the end of the month. What next? Try to take over the world (or make it to 700 subscribers).

February 2009 In Review

Broke Grad — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:30:40 +0000

February was an interesting month. It’s March now, and I’m still not sure whether to be honored or embarrassed that one of my articles was included in a College Candy roundup. In case you’re wondering…

CollegeCandy.com is the glass slipper of the blogosphere – a veritable portal into all things college, be you a Sorority Sister or Women’s Studies Student. Compulsive updates written by and for college women will keep you abreast of awesomeness even when a Russian history paper has you caged to the computer.

It was just a link to my article, so it’s not like they were implying that I’m a woman, right? They just felt like my article would appeal to Sorority Sisters and Women’s Studies Students. That’s how I see it. (I’m a dude if you haven’t figured it out.) If I were a woman, I’d definitely check out College Candy though, because it’s a great site for women.

Finally, one last thing before I get to the stats. Congrats to Squawkfox for writing a book!

17,675 Unique Visitors

My unique visitors fell like the stock market in February. Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but the numbers did go down. It also doesn’t help that February has fewer days than any other month.

586 Subscribers

It’s always exciting to see my RSS subscribers grow. I’ve got my eyes set on breaking 600 by the end of March.

Top 8 Referring Blogs

5 Perks Students Don’t Take Advantage of In College

Broke Grad — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:30:13 +0000

One of the reasons college tuition continues to rise at alarming rates is competition. Universities are constantly competing with each other to attract new students, and they go to great lengths to do it. Whether it’s building a state-of-the-art recreation center or giving out laptops to students, colleges and universities have to spend more and more money to encourage new students to enroll.

The result is that it costs a lot for us to pay for college, but it does come with some great perks. When I think about my college years though, I start to wonder if most students even take advantage of these perks while they’re in school. You’re paying for these perks with your tuition and fees, so you might as well make the most of them. Here are 6 common perks that students don’t take advantage of in college.

1. The Gym

At practically every public and private university, a membership to an on-campus gym or recreation center is included in your tuition and fees. Depending on the size of your college, the facility could be anything from a small single building gym to a massive recreation center filled with basketball courts, racquetball courts, a swimming pool, a weight room, a rock climbing wall, beach volleyball courts, badminton courts, soccer fields, etc. Do you realize how awesome this is? (You will once it’s gone, but then it’ll be too late.) So use it now!

2. The Library

Imagine a place where everything is free, and there are countless shelves filled with books, CDs, DVDs, and other media. Then imagine that there are even people there just to help you find what you’re looking for. Well, it really does exist, and it’s called the library. You know, that ominous building that you’ve avoided like the plague because you see people going in to study but never coming back out. Forget Netflix and Blockbuster, you can have a free movie night by checking out DVDs from your campus library.

3. The Student Health Center

After getting sick or injured for the first time at college, your first instinct may be to run to Mom, but suddenly, you realize that you can’t. If you live close to home, you could drive all the way back home, but there’s an easier solution. Colleges and universities typically have a Student Health Center with physicians on staff and specialists that come in a few times a week. The best part is that you don’t have to pay anything for the office visits.

4. Discounted Movie Nights

Both of the universities I attended offered discounted movie nights on campus a few times throughout the year. Typically, they would show relatively new movies before they were released on DVD. The price of admission was only a dollar or two for students and slightly higher for non-students. Of course, you get what you pay for, so don’t expect the optimal theater experience when watching a movie in a campus auditorium.

5. Educational Discounts on Software

Never let yourself or your parents pay full price for essential software while you’re in college. Whether it’s Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, or anti-virus software, you can get significantly discounted, or sometimes free, copies of these programs through your university’s software store. You’ll most likely find a few other useful programs that are available at really cheap prices, so take advantage of them while you still can.

What Are The Best and Worst Valentine’s Day Gifts?

Broke Grad — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:30:59 +0000

Are you single? Have you checked the calendar lately? It’s almost time for the holiday every single person loves to hate — Valentine’s Day.

As someone who has gone through this holiday both single and in a relationship, I have to say that being single really isn’t that bad on Valentine’s Day. Why?

Singles don’t have to worry about planning a nice dinner, searching for a romantic card, or finding the perfect Valentine’s gift. That’s right. To a single person, February 14th is just like any other day. Or, if you live near San Francisco, it’s a day for a massive pillow fight.

With that being said, I’m not saying that it’s not awesome to have someone to spend Valentine’s Day with. It can be kinda fun seeing how romantic you can be without getting too cheesy. Of course, you won’t realize how cheesy something really is until months or years later, so my advice is to just go for it.

The best Valentine’s gifts I’ve ever given or received have been personalized and homemade. Whether it’s a cheesy love poem or making your special someone their favorite food, the fact that it’s homemade shows that you put a lot of thought and effort into the gift.

The worst Valentine’s gift I’ve ever given was when I tried mixing things up with my girlfriend at the time. Instead of including the usual flowers and chocolate, I went with a more functional gift and left out the chocolate all together. Big mistake, but lesson learned — chocolate should always be part of a Valentine’s Day gift to your girlfriend.

What are some of the best and worst Valentine’s gifts you’ve ever given or received?

January 2009 In Review

Broke Grad — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:00:18 +0000

I have trouble staying in one place for more than a year. Ever since my first year of college, I’ve lived in at least one different apartment/dorm/townhouse/house per year. Whether it has been moving somewhere halfway across the country or simply moving into a bigger unit in the same complex, I have never stayed in any place (except my parents’ house growing up) for more than a year. I have no idea why, but it seems to happen like clockwork every year.

Last month, the alarm went off in my head, so it was time to move again. After successfully negotiating lower rent, I signed a lease for a new place and made the move over this past weekend. After living at a place with cable internet already setup for the past year, I forgot how much of hassle it is when you have to get it setup yourself. Mainly, it’s the waiting that sucks. I should have my internet setup by next week, so my blogging should return to its regular schedule shortly.

Anyway, enough of that nonsense, here are the stats from the past month.

19,247 Unique Visitors

Broke Grad Student made a pretty good recovery after getting hacked at the end of December. Apparently, Google is nice and puts you right back into their search results even if your site goes down for a few days.

517 Subscribers

Woo hoo! I finally broke the 500 subscriber mark. Next goal? 500 million. Plus or minus a few hundred million.

Broke Grad Student » progress

March 2009 In Review

Most Popular Articles

17,045 Unique Visitors

626 Subscribers

February 2009 In Review

Most Popular Articles

17,675 Unique Visitors

586 Subscribers

Top 8 Referring Blogs

5 Perks Students Don’t Take Advantage of In College

1. The Gym

2. The Library

3. The Student Health Center

4. Discounted Movie Nights

5. Educational Discounts on Software

What Are The Best and Worst Valentine’s Day Gifts?

January 2009 In Review

Most Popular Articles

19,247 Unique Visitors

517 Subscribers

Top 8 Referring Blogs