College Being

You’ve met your roommate. You’ve said goodbye to your high school friends. You’ve packed the moving truck and you can’t wait for freshman year to begin. Once you get to college, however, it’s not all dining halls and dorm parties. Navigating the world of higher education can be tough sometimes. Luckily, there’s every college student’s greatest resource: the Internet. Here are some of the most useful websites around for college students.

RateMyProfessor.com

RateMyProfessor.com is definitely one of the most useful sites on the Internet for college students. The site is a professor review portal that works the way Urbanspoon or Yelp work for restaurants. Let’s say you’ve got to take a basic math class this fall and there are two classes that fit into your schedule. Head to RateMyProfessor.com and check out the reviews for each professor to see which one sounds like a better match for you. Some professors are notoriously easy, some are notoriously tough. You’ll learn which have plentiful extra credit opportunities and which professors never use the expensive textbooks. Your professors will make or break your academic experience: choose them wisely.

Half.com

Forget about your overpriced college bookstore. Half.com is a division of eBay that specializes in college textbooks. You’ll find the exact same textbook your teacher requires on sale for severely discounted prices. You’ll pay shipping and handling, of course, but the prices are usually drastically different than even your college bookstore’s used books. Vendors range from college students to massive bookseller companies, so be sure to check out a seller’s rating before you buy. Amazon also sells used textbooks, so check both sites to make sure you’re getting the best prices.

BibMe.org

Bibme.org is the best thing to happen for students since Facebook. No more fighting with Microsoft Word to format your bibliography – simply go to BibMe.org, enter in your source’s information when prompted and watch BibMe format it for you. Either copy and paste the completed bibliography or download it to your computer.

Project Gutenberg

You may be able to skip purchasing that heavy Norton Anthology or Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Thousands upon thousands of free e-books are available online for you to download to your laptop or e-reader. Browse through over 36,000 online titles. Project Gutenberg also has a long list of affiliates and partners that expands the site’s library to over 100,000 titles.

There you have it: five websites to help make your life as a college student a little easier- there are tons of other online student resources out there though (especially in the online learning avenue) Don’t forget about online resources to help make your social life a little easier too- Facebook, Twitter and your student email are great tools to help you connect with your classmates.

Elysabeth Teeko is the Martha Stewart of online. She enjoys writing about anything and everything, and you can find her tweeting and sharing at Twitter.com/Elysateek