Styling your hair can seem like a total hassle when you are juggling ten different tools at once, scrambling to tame your locks and get out the door before class. Fumbling with a blow dryer, flat iron, curling iron, round brush and comb all before you’ve had your morning cup of coffee is not only inefficient, it’s downright stressful. Luckily, we’ve got a solution for you. That one tool every girl’s got in her arsenal, the flat iron, is all you need for great-looking hair. Your straightener can do so much more than you ever thought, so forget the ten-tool-trauma and embrace the flat iron.

Crimp Your Hair

Give your hair a total transformation with a simple flat iron trick. Starting at the roots of your hair, guide the flat iron down while twisting your wrist back and forth every inch. An extra hot iron and persistent pressure will ensure that your crimps are clean and even. You can also increase the spacing between crimps for a loose, subtle interpretation. Either way, this look is no '80s throwback. It’s an updated take on an old trend and definitely much improved. 

Color Your Hair With Chalk

Brightly colored locks are all the rage right now, but you don’t have to go to a pricey salon to achieve the look. Hair chalk or even soft chalk pastels from an art supply store can give you a whole new do for a fraction of the price. First, run the chalk over strands of hair in thin sections, building layers until you have reached the amount of color you wish to show. Be sure to apply an extra thick layer of color to the tips of the hair to achieve an even finish. Then, lock in all that color by running your straightener over the strands of hair. Your color will be set and looking salon-worthy until your next shampoo!

Lock In Hair Extensions

If you want a dramatic change for a night out or special event, hair extensions are a great solution. Rather than dropping hundreds of dollars on salon extensions though, you can easily get a short-term version of the same look right at home. DIY extensions can come in many forms, but you will often see options that are heat-reactive or that can be supplemented with extension tape. A safe, glue-like substance is activated with the heat of the straightener to seal extensions in at the root of the hair. It’s a great alternative to clip-ins and an easy way to change up your look in a flash. Look for products labeled “fusion” extensions, like these from Sally Beauty. Depending on the nature of the extensions, you may also be able to style your temporary locks with the flat iron. Short-haired girls can now experience the magic of cascading curls too!

Create Perfect Curls

That’s right, your good old flat iron is multitalented. Simply wrap 2-inch strands of hair around the iron plates and pull the iron up or down at a 90-degree angle from your head. Give each strand a twirl with your finger at the end to reinforce the shape. For tighter curls, use smaller sections of hair at a time or for a more subtle effect, start the iron three inches down from the roots keep the top bit of hair smooth and straight. For a tutorial on achieving the perfect flat iron curl, check out a video from beauty vlogger Shelley Cohen.

Build Instant Volume

Flat, lifeless hair can be instantly revived with an easy flat iron trick. Whether you’re already straightening your hair or just want a two-minute makeover, this move will give you a fresh boost. Simply section your hair off and starting as close to the roots as possible, lift your hair up and run your straightener up toward the ceiling. Once you get about half way down the section, switch directions and run the flat iron down toward the ground, curling in slightly at the ends. By lifting hair away from the roots, you’ll lock in volume at every layer. For step-by-step instructions, check out Tiffany Ish's guide on her blog “I am Stylish-Ish.”

Get Beachy Waves

This may be the ultimate hair hack. When time is short but you want a hairstyle to mask that bed head, a simple maneuver with your straightener will do the trick. Simply twist sections of hair into tight swirls and then run your flat iron over top to lock in a soft wave. You could also braid your hair and then follow up with the flat iron for bouncier, larger waves. Use a texturizing spray before applying heat, and follow up with a gentle hairspray to ensure your waves don’t crash before the day is out. 

We love to see our friends in happy and healthy relationships. But, sometimes, couples can be a little too much. Check out some of the most annoying things couples can do- and make sure you and your SO aren’t guilty of  any of these!  

1. Playing tonsil hockey in public.

A quick peck is fine, but too much PDA leaves everyone else grossed out.

2. Only hanging out with each other.

Suddenly everyone else is a second priority.  

3. Coordinating their outfits together.

Is it really necessary that his tie matches your dress?

4. Asking each other permission before you do everything.

They pretty much become the same person. 

5. Using “we” instead of “I”.

This is when you know it’s getting bad.

6. Going everywhere with each other.

Suddenly girls night became girls night plus one.

7. Ignoring everyone else to respond to their text.

There are other people in your life other than your SO! 

8. Talking about their future babies.

This just makes everyone around you very uncomfortable.

9. Feeding each other.

TBH, this is just not cute. At all.

10. Comparing themselves to celebrity couples.

We get it- you really want to be like Beyoncé and Jay-Z!

11. Sharing a desk in the library together (while cuddling).

How do you even get any studying done?

12. Trying to get their friends to go on double dates with them.

They’ll find you a date if you don’t have one!

13. Using every conversation to talk about each other.

Their “how we met” story is their favorite one to re-tell.

14. Bragging about each other all over social media.

We get it- you guys are totally in love! But you don’t need to constantly remind us on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Insta.

15. Making every argument seem like the end of the world.

There’s enough drama to fuel a season of Keeping up with the Kardashians.

16. Finishing each other’s sentences.

This can be adorable at first, but then it just gets annoying.

17. Always having to go shopping with each other.

You should wear what you want, not what you SO wants.

18. Ditching their friends to hang out with each other.

Not cool, guys, not cool.

19. Telling their single friends they’ll find someone eventually, too.

Have you ever thought maybe they’re not looking for someone?

20. Only referring to each other with pet names.

“Babe”, “love”, and “honey bunny” become synonymous for the real person’s name. 

21. Fighting in front of friends.

This just puts everybody in an awkward positions.

22. Constantly talking about their sex lives.

Suddenly you know all the good and bad of their sexscapades.

23. Telling all their friends secrets’ to each other.

That’s a big no-no.

24. Always referencing inside jokes no one else understands.

Let everyone in on the joke please!

Don’t be an annoying AF couple, so please refraining from doing any of these! We love that you found someone you love, but sometimes you’ve just got to tone it down a notch (or two). 

A senior at the University of California, Berkeley, was removed from a flight from Los Angeles to Oakland on April 6 after another passenger reported him to crew members him for speaking Arabic, The New York Times reports.

Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, 26, was waiting to take off when he decided to call his uncle in Baghdad. He wanted to tell him about an event he had just attended in LA where United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was speaking.

This when he noticed that a woman sitting in front of him had turned around in her seat to stare. Makhzoomi ended the phone call. “Inshallah,” he told his uncle, a common Arabic phrase meaning “God willing”, The Washington Post reports. After hanging up, he noticed that the woman going to the front of the plane. Makhzoomi told the Post that he thought to himself, I hope she’s not reporting me. Unfortunately, that's what she was doing—she apparently told the crew she heard Makhzoomi making "potentially threatening comments," according to the Times.

Makhzoomi was then escorted off the plane by a Southwest Airlines employee who asked him, “Why were you speaking Arabic in the plane?”

“I said to him, ‘This is what Islamophobia got this country into,’ and that made him so angry. That is when he told me I could not go back on the plane,” he told the Times.

Law enforcement officials arrived shortly after this, and Makhzoomi was then brought into the terminal and searched in front of a crowd of people and police officers. Then three FBI agents questioned him in a private room.

In a statement, Southwest said, “We regret any less than positive experience a customer has onboard our aircraft. Southwest neither condones nor tolerates discrimination of any kind.” But Makhzoomi wasn't convinced.

“I came here to the U.S. because I believed in the values of this country,” Makhzoomi told the Post. “Islamophobia does not serve to fight terror. It plays right into the Islamic State game of striking fear among us.”

More than 400 people have died and over 2,000 were injured after a major earthquake hit Ecuador's central coast on Saturday, the BBC reports.

The magnitude-7.8 quake, the worst experienced by the country in decades, struck near the town of Muisne, roughly 250 miles from Quito, Ecuador’s capital.

BBC News reports that a state of emergency has been declared and approximately 10,000 troops and 3,500 police have been sent to affected areas.

The death toll has continued to go up.

"I fear that figure will go up because we keep on removing rubble," President Rafael Correa said in a televised address, according to the BBC. "There are signs of life in the rubble, and that is being prioritized."

The earthquake hit Saturday around 7 p.m, BBC reports. The tremors buckled large overpasses, trapping drivers. Several buildings were completely flattened and a shopping mall partially collapsed on customers.

Since Saturday, displaced people have been sleeping in the streets, relying on government and Red Cross workers for supplies such as bottled water, medication, blankets and food, Reuters reports. More than 600 people have been treated for injuries in a makeshift hospital in Pedernales’ football stadium, which is also being used as a morgue.

“It looks like a war zone,” Portoviejo resident Viviana Baquezea told The New York Times. “It’s incredible what was happened to us — that our city is destroyed and we’re experiencing such anguish and pain…We don’t have food or water, there are no supermarkets, and we’re surviving with what we had in our homes.” 

As much as we love to hate her at times, we can all admit that Paris is right about so much. And most of her best quotes sound like something right out of our own heads. So which of her quotes most accurately sums up your life? Take our quiz to figure it out!

When it comes to sexual assault, many students feel a lack of support as they try to fight rampant rape culture on college campuses. This was addressed during a town hall meeting with Republican presidential candidate John Kasich, according to CNN. A female student from St. Lawrence University asked the Ohio governor what his plans were to make her “feel safer and more secure regarding sexual violence, harassment and rape.”

Kasich answered by mentioning Ohio’s efforts in supporting sexual assault victims, including testing rape kits and providing access to confidential reporting. He also expressed fear for his own teenagers, "I have two 16-year-old daughters and I don't even like to think about it," Kasich said. He then relayed some controversial words to the student who originally asked the question: "Well I would give you, I'd also give you one bit of advice. Don't go to parties where there's a lot of alcohol. OK? Don't do that.”

Kasich’s “advice” drew ire from many, who said that he was victim-blaming in his comments, perpetuating the common argument that by getting too drunk, the victim put herself in a situation to be raped or taken advantage of sexually.

“[Kasich’s] flawed logic should not be surprising. After all, Kasich’s comments are only the latest in a long tradition of Republican victim-blaming, which includes Todd Akin’s idea of “legitimate rape” and more recently, Ben Carson’s opposition to abortion for sex assault survivors,” says Angelina Chapin in a op-ed for The Guardian. “Yet the fact that so many influential men still fail to grasp the basics of rape culture is both intellectually baffling and incredibly dangerous for women. To decrease the rates of sexual assault, we need men to fight misogyny.”

However, Kasich defended his comments and his confusion as to why they were seen as offensive. “Actually, I don’t know how anybody would take it that way,” he said. “I don’t care if there’s a party with alcohol. I’m just saying be careful! That’s what I would tell my daughters.”

While Kasich may not have meant any harm in his advice, telling victims what to do to avoid getting raped—while not saying anything about the perpetrators—sends the wrong message.

In college lecture halls, the sound of fingers typing on laptops, iPads and smartphones is starting to drone out the actual lectures. More and more students continue to rely on technology to take notes, rather than writing them by hand. According to NPR, in a new study conducted by researchers Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of UCLA, both methods of note-taking were compared, and hand-written notes came out on top. 

College students were shown numerous TED talks and asked to take notes, finding that those with laptops wrote down many more words than the handwritten group, but that when asked “conceptual” questions, the laptop group performed worse than the handwriting group. The second study found the same results—When students tried to take notes verbatim on their laptops, they performed worse when asked about the actual ideas presented in the talks. In the third study, when students were allowed to look at their notes before the test, the laptop group still lost to the hand-written notes group.

Their study found that those who use hand notation were more precise and engaged with their notes than those who typed them. "When people type their notes, they have this tendency to try to take verbatim notes and write down as much of the lecture as they can," Mueller told NPR. "The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective — because you can't write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing of the material that they were doing benefited them."

Basically, even if it seems better to write down every single word the professor is saying, it's actually hurting you in the long run. When you're forced to only write down a few words, you have to think more about how to summarize what you're hearing—and that's good for your learning and recall.

While the results of this study won’t stop the digital age, it should make you think twice about your note-taking strategy. “Note-taking is a pretty dynamic process,” cognitive psychologist Michael Friedman at Harvard University who studies note-taking systems, told the The Wall Street Journal. “You are transforming what you hear in your mind.

Austin Peay State University, in Clarksville, Tennessee, is currently investigating a truly alarming disturbance on campus.

According to WKRN, on Monday, several students complained to the university about the appearance of nooses near the fine arts building. As if the presence of nooses isn’t creepy enough, each one was a different color and ultimately created the colors of the rainbow.

As reported by the Daily Beast, Tennessee lawmakers had recently been focusing on a “bathroom bill” that targets transgender students. On Monday, this bill was pushed out and left to be debated next year, but it made sense that some may have connected this disturbing display to the bill.

The nooses were immediately removed by campus police “out of concern of hate symbolism and it’s potential impact to the campus,” as stated by campus officials. 

The university’s president, Alisa White, was quoted by WKRN, saying “this incident is deeply disturbing and is hurtful to our University community.” She continued by explaining that “Regardless of the intent, the display has no place on our campus. I am saddened, and I am sorry for the hurt and offense this has caused and want our students, faculty, and staff to know that it will not be tolerated.”

On Tuesday, the university discovered that the nooses were part of a student art project, WKRN reports. The student apparently said there was “no intent for any statement regarding or representation of LGBQT or racially-related social issues." Well, sorry if that's hard to believe. For all art students—Unless you want to have to do some serious explaining when your art project becomes national news, maybe try not hanging anything that could be interpreted as a noose anywhere around campus.

After months of agony and apprehension, the day is finally here. Your heart is racing faster than it ever has before, and your parents are eagerly peering over your shoulder as you log into your email, all in the hopes that a “CONGRATULATIONS!” email will be waiting from your first choice college.

We’ve all been there. Whether it ended in celebration or calamity, as college women, we can all related to the unique anxieties of college acceptance season. For an unlucky 5,109 applicants, the restlessness and stress of college admissions season was taken to a whole new level this admissions sesaon.

According to the Huffington Post, the State University of New York at Buffalo mistakenly sent out over 5,000 acceptance emails to hopeful applicants. After receiving an acceptance email, the joyous relief was cut short when the applicants received emails several hours later explaining that there had been a mishap and they had not actually been accepted to the university.

As stated by CNN, the university claims that these e-mails were sent out using an “incorrect email list was generated from a database of applicants.” This statement was released by the university’s associate vice president for media relations and stakeholder communications, John DellaContrada.

Although this is pretty bad, it gets even worse. Apparently, the university is not yet finished going through all of the applications. What does that mean? Well, some of the students who have already had their emotions toyed with by this brutal mistake could have been accepted after all.

This seems crazy, right? How could colleges accidentally send out acceptances when they know what we're going through? Surprisingly, this type of thing has actually happened quite a few times. The absolute winner in the category is UC San Diego. In 2009, they sent out 28,000 acceptance emails to students who had not been accepted to the school, according to the Huffington Post.

After seeing all of the chaos that these email acceptances have caused, maybe snail mail is the way to go when it comes to college acceptance letters? 

I love TV. I love the stories, the drama, the complexity, the cheap entertainment — any and all of it. But as much as I love TV, I realize that it keeps me from living my own life. I get so excited to watch other people’s (real or fictional) lives that sometimes I get more excited about their lives than my own.

But not this week. For better or for worse, this week I turned off the TV.

Okay, so it wasn’t that dramatic, but there’s more. In its place, I cracked upon some real, physical books. Oh yeah, the kind of thing you have to actively engage with to fully immerse yourself in. Like Game of Thrones (I’m talking both the TV show and the books).

There were some interesting discoveries made in my TV-less week that I want to tell you about. So without further ado, here they are.

TV is an addiction

Turns out, I had an addiction and I didn’t even know! The first day all I could think about was the fact that I couldn’t watch TV that night, and it bummed me out. My palms were itching to grab the remote, click on the power and hear the low buzz of the TV, if anything just to know it was there. This sounds absolutely ridiculous, I know. But I’m telling you, I was addicted. The thought of reading without having the TV on didn’t even sound pleasurable; it sounded like homework. And I think that speaks loudly to the kind of world we’re living in. So many of us, myself included, want easy stimulation — to scroll through our social media feeds, watch One Direction’s Tattoo Roulette video on YouTube for the 12^th time, or flip on the TV. In our downtime, most of us want to relax by having some sort of passive entertainment, not to become actively engaged in another thing when we’ve been actively engaged in life all day. Now, looking at this from a new perspective, I think that’s kind of sad.

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As much as I love it, TV makes me feel complacent

I didn’t realize how much I truly cared about what the Kardashians are doing until I stopped watching TV for a week. Actually, I didn’t realize how much entertainment as a whole ruled my life, until it didn’t. Just to give you an idea of the amount of TV I watch in a week, here are a few:

Dance Moms

New Girl

Catfish: the TV Show

MTV Suspect

The Amazing Race

How to Get Away with Murder

Sherlock

I Am Cait

American Horror Story

Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Hollywood Medium with Tyler Henry

Pretty Little Liars

E! News

…and any number of movies on Netflix or playing live on TV

The worst part? This isn’t even all of them. I’m telling you, I get roped into TV so easily and it makes me so complacent. I should tell you, this is something I knew before this week. But, it was a thought I didn’t care to entertain. Like I told you before, I love TV. And you never want to face up to the fact that something you love is also something that holds you back, something that has you cancelling your Friday night plans…

RELATED: Quiz: Can We Guess What Your Favorite TV Show Is?

I read my textbooks more thoroughly

One of the most productive parts of resolving to read more meant that I read more of my assigned readings for class. It’s no secret that most people don’t read all of their assigned reading for class (and if you do, know that I genuinely admire you and am proud of you). With all that time I had spent watching TV, I could now use it to better myself by actually reading my textbooks. Now, I’m not going to shit you, I didn’t read everything. Just because I wasn’t watching TV didn’t suddenly make my textbooks more exciting. But there was a 31-page reading assignment I was given for one of my journalism classes that I read all the way through, which I never do. Typically, I just read the first ten pages of these 30+ page assignments and call it a day. But this time was different. The story was one that had run in the New York Times in December about a transgender woman and her transition, along with the difficulties she had been having because of it. It was a moving story Seriously, I got a lot out of that reading. So much so that it’s still on my mind; it’s still something I find myself thinking about — this woman and her struggle. A phenomenon I rarely experience with TV: having my thoughts significantly provoked.

Reading makes me feel really good about myself

Perhaps the greatest thing I learned in this time is that reading makes me feel so good about myself. It makes me feel strong, intelligent and empowered. Like I’m doing something to better myself. Instead of paying attention to the actors and reality stars on TV, I’m paying attention to myself and to my life. I read a mix of nonfiction and fiction books along with some magazines, including:

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (author of Gone Girl)

God No! Signs You May be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales by Penn Jillette (actually a really funny read)

Man Up! Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence by Ross Mathews

Binge by Tyler Oakley

Seventeen Magazine (one with Fifth Harmony on the cover, and another with Ellie Goulding)

The Woman I Wanted to Be by Diane Von Furstenberg (she has led one of the most interesting lives)

Condé Nast Traveler Magazine

Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth beyond Blackfish by John Hargrove with Howard Chua-Eoan (I’m low-key obsessed with the 2013 documentary Blackfish)

RELATED: 17 Times Watching 'Friends' Feels Better Than Having Real Friends

It’s a shorter list than TV, but it’s a more profound list. By nature, books allow us to go deeper into a subject than we *typically* can with TV and movies. For me, this allows for a better sense of achievement once I’ve finished a book. When I finish a TV show binge, mostly I just feel like what have I just done with my life? Which, admittedly, aren’t my proudest moments. Also, I just want to note, I didn’t finish any of these books, yet. But I will.

I wrote this whole article not to say that TV sucks the life out of you and you shouldn’t watch it. I wrote this article to say that I think reading is really underrated. One of the most interesting things I found was that when I stopped watching TV, I stopped giving concern to it. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that Kim Kardashian is still living with Kris Jenner, or that yet another person found a way to catfish someone who was just trying to find love in this big, bad world. No, I was concerned about the connections I was making to the authors of these books and articles I was reading. From what I read, I came away with the hard-won lessons of these writers and a sort of relationship with them and the other characters they introduced in the book, whether they be fictional or nonfictional.

All in all, I’m still going to watch TV, but I’m going to make more time for reading and limit the amount of TV I watch in any given week. Because I deserve my utmost attention, not the people living in my TV. 

For most people––including myself––there were so many moments in high school that felt completely useless to my future. Algebra? No thank you. But now, as a current sophomore in college, there are a few things that happened in high school that prepared me for life at college––even if I definitely did not realize it at the time.

1. It’s okay to be alone

When you are in high school, you are constantly surrounded by people all the time during the day. But for most of you, you went to school and then at the end of the day you went home without your friends. This meant that you got pretty used to spending even just a few minutes by yourself and embracing that.

When you get to college, it is pretty likely that you will have roommates (especially your first year). High school really taught me to take advantage of those moments of peace and quiet. This independence is super important in college. Personally, in college, I was already prepared for an independent lifestyle because of high school. So, whether it means going on spring break or even just grabbing coffee alone, because of high school, I can be independent with no worries. 

Sarah, a sophomore at Cornell University, agrees that high school taught her the importance of spending some time alone. “I was always super busy during the day and weekends with sports and clubs so when I got stressed out, I would go for a walk with my dog or just watch some TV," she says. "I realized that I needed alone time to decompress after a long week of socializing and when I got to college, I was easily able to find that again.” Sarah has the right idea!

2. Slow and steady wins the race

There are always going to be people in life who move at a faster pace than you do. For example, someone may get a better grade on a test than you and you find yourself comparing yourself to them––it all goes downhill from there.

“Slow and steady wins the race,” says Alexa, a senior at Mount Holyoke College. “Don't compare yourself to your friends because everyone moves at a different pace and will go in different directions. If you have to be a late bloomer, so be it, it'll pay off if you take your time—that goes for schoolwork, extracurricular, careers, relationships, everything.” Focus on yourself, because you are most important.

One of the biggest moments in a high school student’s life is when they find out where they are going to college. But, if you spend too much time looking at those around you and wondering why you didn’t get into that school that your friend did, you are going to waste a lot of time that could be spent developing your own skills and talents. College is all about individual growth and while competition is important, no good comes from dwelling too much on that.

3. Go with the flow

For me, high school was anything but organized. I was always running late because of car pools, joining new clubs and dealing with last minute plans and it stressed me out. However, looking back at it, the chaos of the drama, the grades (and everything else), all prepared me for the life of being a college student.

Bad days may have felt awful at the time, but now you must be so glad that you experienced them. Rachel, a junior at James Madison University, agrees. She says, “In high school, I learned that things aren't always going to go your way, and that's okay! Life is all about going with the flow, and that's [especially] important in college.” Things may not always go according to plan and the better you are with dealing with those kinds of situations, the happier you will be.

Related: 4 Things I Would've Done Differently During My College Search

4. Be tough

Do you remember ever having a terrible day where someone upset you and you went home and got a nice pep talk from your mom? She would say things like, “Ten years from now those people aren’t going to matter.” Well, she was right.  

Looking back at high school, everyone went through a bit of a tough time at some point, even if they didn’t show it. The bullying, the teasing and the being pushed down helped each of us grow up and prepare for the real world. Sydnee, a first-year graduate student at Florida Atlantic University, thinks the same. She says, “High school was more about growing up (maturing emotionally and mentally) than it was about college-prep academics.” Yes, the social studies and math classes were fundamental in preparing you for the life of college academics, but the bigger lessons were learned in the hallways. People can be mean, but as long as you hold your head up and remember that things will get better, everything is going to be okay.

5. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best

When I was a little kid I always saw the big kids, a.k.a. college students, at the local Jewish community center talking about how stressed out they were from school. Whenever I would wait until last minute to study for an exam, my parents always warned me that my “kind of work ethic" wasn’t going to fly in college. My parents' goal was not to scare me (I hope), but it was to make sure I knew that college was going to be harder than high school.

Olivia, a senior at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, says, “I feel like [high school] teachers always said that you couldn't get away with things in college that you could in high school, even for silly things like not stapling your essay.” Olivia explains how the teachers made college seem a lot more daunting than it actually was, just as my parents did.

However, Olivia does have one piece of advice for high school students. “I would tell current high schoolers not to stress over it, because you get used to college pretty quickly,” she says. By having some of our teachers tell us that college would be WAY worse than it actually is, most of us were slightly surprised with how college actually turned out. By preparing for the worst­––a.k.a. 10 hours of homework a night––when you find out it actually is not that bad, I bet you will thank your teachers back home.

Although most people don’t use Beowulf or have to say all the states capitals on a day-to-day basis, there are some things all collegiettes definitely took away from high school. The experiences, the friendships, the growing up, all of it allowed us to become the students we are today, wherever we are. So, even if you look back at those four years of your life and wonder when you are ever going to need to use the Pythagorean theorem, try and remember all of the other important things that you learned instead. It will make your high school experience seem a lot more valuable than you may have originally thought.

Studying for finals is undeniably one of the worst parts of college. On top of the fact that you have tons of tests to study for and papers to write, you can practically taste summer, and it makes you want to be anything but productive. At this point, you'd rather do anything than sit down and read your textbooks. Here are a few things we're all guilty of doing to avoid it.

1. Refreshing Twitter even though you just checked it three minutes ago

You can't miss out on stuff like Kim K's selfies or Anna Kendrick's Tweets, duh. 

2. Spring cleaning

The only time it's fun to clean is when you could be studying for psych.

3. Sending a Snapchat to at least 10 different people to start conversations

Someone is bound to reply and give you an excuse to put off studying until you run out of faces to make.

4. Catching up on Shonda shows

Warning: This will cause more procrastination as well as emotional trauma.

5. Taking spontaneous naps

Oh, look, it's nap o'clock!

6. Getting sucked into a black hole on YouTube

One second you're watching Nicki Minaj's new music video, 30 minutes later you're learning how to play the clarinet… without a clarinet.

7. Making elaborate snacks

No one can study without brain food. No one.

8. Facebook-stalking your sister's friend's hot cousin who apparently lives in Spain and has a fabulous life

Seriously, someone should hire you to be a private investigator.

9. Casually checking to see what's new on your favorite stores' websites

It's not your fault your professor scheduled your final the day after Anthropologie's summer catalog came out.

10. Telling yourself you'll start studying at the next half-hour mark

*2:30 passes*

"Okay, 3:00 it is, then."

11. Planning out your entire life

Why do you always come to the same conclusion??

12. Re-organizing your entire desk to make sure it looks perfect for an Insta of your study environment

Your new post gives you an excuse to check your phone every two minutes to see who's liking it.

13. Having an impromptu karaoke session

Bonus points if you can get friends to join in.

14. Taking a zillion online quizzes to find out things like what your aura is and which Disney princess you really are

Turns out your aura is blue and you're Mulan through and through.

15. Working out

LOL, JK. We might actually rather study.

Our Stars Hollow-bound hearts have suffered through the whole week without one peep from the Gilmore Girls set. Well lucky for all of us, the wait is over. The Twitterverse is reeling over pictures posted by both Milo Ventimiglia and Scott Patterson. These tweets are all you need to get your Jess and Luke fix.

And um, hello Luke's Diner. How we've missed you.

Kayla-Simone McKelvey, an outspoken activist for racial equality, pleaded guilty earlier this week to posting anonymous, racist tweets threatening fellow Kean students and faculty in November.

NBC New York reported that the 24-year-old former student from Union Township, New Jersey faces up to 90 days in jail and a fine of $82,000 for creating a false public alarm.

“As a diverse academic community, we wholeheartedly respect and support activism, however, no cause or issue gives anyone the right to threaten the safety of others,” Kean University said in a December statement. “We hope this information will begin to bring a sense of relief and security back to the campus community”

According to theIndependent, McKelvey attended a rally at Kean in solidarity with the University of Missouri protests that had sparked student movements across the U.S. Prosecutors said that Ms. McKelvey left the rally early, went to the university library, and used one of the computers to tweet from an anonymous Twitter account.

One of these messages posted to Twitter threatened to “shoot every black woman and male,” according to NBC New York. The university took down the Twitter the next day, but students remained afraid of walking around campus and even leaving their dorms.

McKelvey was the president of the Pan-African Student Union, and apparently used the tweets to rally the protesters further. However, the issues at Mizzou were more than enough to spark hundreds of protests across the country—there is definitely no need and no good reason to falsely scare your fellow students and threaten their safety. 

A group of activists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are calling for the suspension of two Greek organizations over a party they deemed “culturally insensitive.”

According to USA Today, the fraternity Acacia and the sorority Alpha Phi held a “Spring Break” themed party this month. Afterwards, photos surfaced on Facebook showing students wearing Arab keffiyehs, a sombrero, and Native America headdress.

This brought on a wave of students from various minority action groups at the university, including Students for Justice in Palestine and Black Students for Revolution, joining forces. The result was “Not Just a Party UIUC” or NJAP.

In response to offending many members of the campus community, Acacia and Alpha Phi at UIUC also teamed up to form a Facebook page responding to the issue and the complaints involved. NJAP and these organizations have been at the center of a heated university debate ever since.

The Daily Illini reported that Muhammad Yousuf, one of the activists in NJAP, was not convinced that the racism in the photos was accidental. “Until I see various substantial proof that it wasn’t, I have no reason to believe they’re telling the truth and they’re not trying to cover it," he said. "It very well could have been an accident, but I don’t see substantial proof wither way.”

One of NJAP’s issues was with the students wearing keffiyehs. However, Acacia and Alpha Phi corrected them, saying that the students wearing the traditional Arab garb were of Syrian descent, and were celebrating their heritage at the party.

Once again, Yousuf was critical. The student said, “When you see people dressed up in Arab garb next to TSA agents, people don’t know that’s an accident.” However, the statement released by the Greek organizations said that the two individuals wearing keffiyehs simply squeezed into the picture, unaware of the costumes of the girls behind them.

Similarly, one NJAP member Rose Rodriguez told USA Today that the photos of the party were “concrete examples of how organized events take place on this campus that continue to appropriate cultures, especially when it’s groups with individuals who are predominantly white who are choosing to wear offensive stereotypical costumes of cultures that are…historically marginalized.”

The NJAP apparently thought that the Greek life apology was inadequate—calling for the university to instill much stricter punishments. These included a three-year suspension of Acacia and Alpha Phi, minority general education requirements, and mandatory diversity training for Greek life there. It's now up to the university to decide whether or not the situation really was "just a party."

British model Olivia Campbell is embracing the word "fat" in a personal and emotional video where she talks about body image.

Campbell filmed an episode of the What's Underneath Project and named it "I'm Not Curvy, I'm Fat." In the video, we see Campbell telling a story about herself as she sheds her clothes in a physical display of shedding the emotional weight she's had to carry. With this, she teaches women to find empowerment within the term "fat," as opposed to being ashamed of their bodies or sugarcoating things by using terms like "curvy" and "thick."

"I describe myself to people as fat and they say, 'You're not fat, you're curvy,'" she explains. "I think: 'No... I'm fat.' Why is it such a bad word?"

Her story is just as powerful as it is emotional and it's very inspiring to see someone embracing the term, especially when you consider her journey to self-acceptance. Campbell faced bullying at the hands of her classmates and a battle with depression before she gained a sense of confidence and decided to claim the word "fat" instead of letting it offend her. 

"Suddenly, I went from being this insecure little bird to being this ferocious eagle of confidence," she said. "When it comes to my personal appearance, the only person's opinion I really care about is myself. Now, when I walk in front of the mirror, I think: 'I look amazing... look at that roll.'"

Finals week makes us feel so busy that even finding time for the fun end-of-semester events on campus is stressful. So, looking cute while studying and trying to de-stress gets put on the back-burner. But it doesn't have to be that way! Instead of waking up like that during finals, try the half-bun. It's so easy, but also v chic. Here's some inspiration:

1. Wear it with long, wavy hair

Ariana Grande looks amazing and relaxed in this trendy hair style.

2. Or, with super straight hair

You can count on Gwen to make any style look edgy.

3. Wear your half-bun a little lower

Wearing it this way makes the style look a little more casual.

4. Tease the hair for something a little more glam

Wearing it this way is a great way to dress up the look!

5. Do a single loop for an extra easy look

Perfect for lazy days.

6. Let it take center stage

Make a statement without making an effort!

7. Do it up with braids

Look at that volume—SO good.

8. Rock it with pastels

Equal parts feminine and edgy.

9. Get creative!

Got a little time and lots of bobby pins? This style will make it look like you tried—no shower required.

10. Take advantage of your ombré

Your dual-toned hair looks even cooler in a half-bun!

We all get tired of the same old dorm space—those bare, cement walls, the awful furniture and the beds that are a pain to loft. That's where redecorating comes in. But as broke college students, it's not exactly easy to find the funds to do a dorm decor overhaul.

That's why we rounded up 10 ways to redecorate your dorm room at essentially no cost. It's time to get creative and money savvy, ladies.

1. Create Your Own Gallery Wall

Changing up the wall space in your dorm room makes all the difference. Gallery walls are very trendy and are a blast to curate! Personalize your wall any way you want, but follow these tips to make sure your gallery wall doesn't break the bank. Use frames you already have; just repaint them to fit your aesthetic. Find prints at thrift stores or yard sales. You can even print pictures directly from your phone. Above all else, make sure your gallery wall is totally you!

2. Download and Frame Free Printables

Free printables that you can download and frame will make the perfect addition to your gallery wall. Or display them around your room for an entirely different feel. The Bold Abode has a great collection to choose from.

3. Make Your Own Wall Art

Not only can you thrift for things to go on your wall and print them from online, but you can also make your own individual works of art. Pinterest has a plethora of ideas for canvas art, including this colorful masterpiece.

4. Create Homemade Pennants

Pennant garlands act as lovely accents to any area of your room. However, don't go out and buy an expensive pre-made version. You can just as easily pick up a cheap yard of fabric and some ribbon to make your own!

5. Make a Temporary Headboard

We bet you'll be the only girl in your dorm with a super chic DIY headboard. It's unexpected and totally original. The best part is that it looks expensive but it's not! Cover anything from cardboard to plywood in the fabric of your choice, and you are good to go.

Related: How to Decorate Your Dorm Room, Based on Your Zodiac Sign

6. Use Mason Jars for Everything

Paint mason jars and use them for pretty much anything! They can be flower pots, pencil holders, makeup brush holders, candle holders, etc. These fab accessories will ensure your room is organized and cute at the same time!

7. Craft with Paper

Crafting with paper is cheap and easy, and your options are limitless for what you can create. We love these tissue paper tassels—they are super adorable and cost next to nothing to make.

8. Repurpose Drawers

Paint those old drawers that have been lying around your parents' garage forever or pick some up at the flea market. Hang the finished product on the wall for storage that doubles as decor.

9. Hang Old Windows

Using old windows as decoration is so vintage and totally in right now. If you are patient and consistently check thrift stores and flea markets, you are likely to find an old vintage window to refurbish for little to no money. 

10. Rearrange Your Furniture

The best way to change things up in your dorm room is also the one that will cost you nothing at all. Simply move your furniture around. Recruit all of your strongest friends, try some different layouts, and have fun with it!

In a win for the LGBTQ+ community, Merriam-Webster just added two new words to the dictionary, Vox reports.

The two words, added to Merriam-Webster's unabridged dictionary in an announcement Wednesday, are "cisgender" and "genderqueer.""Cisgender," considered the opposite of "transgender," refers to someone who identfies with the sex they were biologically labeled at birth, while "genderqueer" refers to someone who does not identitfy as solely male or female. The prefix "cis" comes from the Latin meaning "on this side," according to Merriam-Webster.

You may have been hearing these words for a while by now, and they've actually been around for even longer than you probably realized—Both "cisgender" and "genderqueer" have been in use for over twenty years, dating back to the mid-90s, according to Mic. Their official inclusion in the dictionary hopefully means even more people will be exposed to a greater diversity of language around gender, expanding people's understanding and making our society more inclusive.

With how busy we are, the daunting task of saving the planet isn’t exactly high up on a collegiette’s list of priorities. Let’s face it: some days, the Three-Minute Shower Challenge just doesn’t seem that enticing. However, with more and more universities going green with innovative programs and initiatives, saving the planet never seemed like a more fitting quest to conquer. Lindsey Lyons, the assistant director of Dickinson College’s Center for Sustainability Education, provided some tips to help every collegiette adapt her on-campus lifestyle to go green just in time for Earth Day!

1. Do your laundry smartly

Simple, everyday tasks such as washing clothes and charging appliances can instantly be upgraded to become eco-friendly habits! For laundry, opt for cold water instead of hot water to use less energy. Lyons also suggests investing in a drying rack, which saves loads (pun intended) of energy when used in lieu of a drying machine.

2. Get rid of your mini fridge

Another appliance that should be tossed? A dormitory favorite: the mini fridge.  According to Lyons, mini fridges use more electricity than all the other electric equipment in your dorm room combined. Instead, make use of the common room’s fridge to store your food. If you can’t quite say adieu to your beloved mini fridge, share it with others and keep it full. A full fridge uses less energy than an empty one!

3. Buy green products

Lyons says us to look out for products that are recyclable, biodegradable and compostable. One way collegiettes can take the first step toward buying green products is to invest in some high-quality, all-natural beauty products. Celebrated green brands like Burt’s Bees offer a wide selection of products from makeup to skin care with natural ingredients like beeswax and willow bark, both of which promote glowing, healthy skin.

4. Calculate your carbon footprint

Calculating your carbon footprint can help you keep track of your daily activities that may be contributing more to greenhouse gas emissions than you thought. “Learn the footprints of the college and your community,” Lyons says. “Reflect on how you can target these activities to reduce your personal footprint and the footprints of your surroundings.”

To calculate your carbon footprint, check out this website!

5. Eat less meat

Ever heard of the trend “Meatless Monday?” It’s an international campaign to encourage and demonstrate the benefits of decreasing our overall meat consumption. Not only can a low-meat or vegetarian diet be healthier for you, but it can also reduce your carbon footprint. “Meat production, particularly from conventionally raised livestock, is more energy- and carbon-intensive than production of other types of food,” Lyons says.

With one simple vegetarian meal per week, you’re playing your part in decreasing the emission of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

As we celebrate Earth Day, keep these simple tips in mind! It’s the repeated small actions that will make a meaningful impact in the end.