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Ease the Stress of Your Fall Semester with These 8 Helpful Websites
By Meghen Jones
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School is scheduled to amp back up again, and soon, your typical college lifestyle will fall back into place. Even though you may be excited for the upcoming semester, it can be overwhelming to think about getting back into the swing of things after a long, relaxing summer break. There is so much to accomplish each day as you return to your routine, from waking up early for morning lectures to maintaining your budget and cultivating somewhat of a social life.
With so many things bound to pile on your plate, it doesn’t hurt to have a little help to ease the stress of the fall semester. Thanks to the internet, you can easily manage everything from your semester course load to future career prospects. Here are uCribs’ 8 Most Useful Websites to Help You through the Fall Semester.
Alarmy
With school just weeks away, it’s about that time you readjusted your sleeping patterns. No more 3 am Netflix benders for you; it’s time to be alert and productive. In the same vein, if you spent a lot of your summer socializing or partying with friends, it’s the perfect time to get serious and get your head back into “the game” of academia. But—this is always harder than you might anticipate.
Alarmy forces you wake up. You may be scratching your head wondering how, but it’s actually quite simple. Alarmy will ask you to participate in various mindful activities to get you up and at ‘em. Well, what’s the catch? You can ignore it like any traditional alarm, right? Wrong. Alarmy doesn’t snooze, and you can only stop the alarm by responding to Alarmy’s requests—and we all know you’re going to want to do that as soon as possible.
Google Drive
With everything being digital, it isn’t necessarily weird to not have a flash drive. Plus, we’ve all had that “mini heart attack” when you misplace it right before a presentation or equally important due date.
Google Drive is the ultimate lifesaver when it comes to saving all of your spreadsheets, presentations, and papers. The best aspect of Google Drive is its cloud-based system, which means you will never lose your files, and better yet, they will follow you wherever you go. And what’s more comforting than knowing your assignments are always available whenever you need them?
Ice Cream Apps
Living in an internet-based world, we are pretty used to resorting to the ever-powerful web to help us complete the most unexpected of tasks. Known as a “free and tasty” software, Icecream Apps is your one-stop spot for fast solutions in little time.
Icecream Apps is a software-based website that provides students with the ability to maintain multiple tasks in a central dashboard including screen recording for grabbing vital info when you need it most, slideshow creation for your next in-class presentation, PDF conversion for reading documents your professors upload online, and so many more student must-haves. We admit, we were a little hesitant of the descriptor, “tasty,” but with all it does, Icecream Apps is just that.
Khan Academy
There is always that one class that you can attend every single day of the semester, but sometimes important concepts, theories, or ideas just don’t click. And if you’re short on time and money, then tutoring sessions may be completely out of question.
That’s why you need to take advantage of Khan Academy— an online resource that allows you to watch numerous educational videos, explaining an array of subjects. Whether you need help with history, computer programming, finance, or physics, Khan Academy helps you understand the most complex subjects at your own pace.
Are you thinking about all of the ways you can present your professional appeal to potential employers? LinkedIn is the perfect website to help you build your online portfolio while searching for jobs and browsing a variety of companies that relate to your field of interest.
As you add to your polished skillset throughout your college career, you can highlight each newfound skill or area of expertise on your LinkedIn profile, which is very likely to be regularly viewed by job recruiters from all over the country. (Pro Tip: There’s a signal you can turn on in your account settings to notify hiring managers that you’re open to job opportunities.) Plus, it’s a seamless way to network with thousands of professionals—so, 21st century, we know.
Mint
We all know how inconvenient it can be—surviving on a student budget. That’s adulthood in general, though—it can be difficult to navigate the intricacies of balancing what you want with what you need. And when you’re not actively tracking your funds, it should come as no surprise that your expendable cash will drain more quickly than anticipated. This is why every college student needs Mint!
Mint helps you track your spending, map out your budget, and monitor your debt so that you never question yourself when it comes to splurging on that new pair of shoes or extra appetizer again. Plus, it includes a cool feature that allows you to keep up with your credit score!
Purdue Online Writing Lab
Writing a paper can be overwhelming in general, but when you’re trying to separate the rules of Chicago Style from those of MLA—yes, most professors prefer one over the other—you may start to downright panic. When it comes to those days of much-needed writing assistance, Purdue Online Writing Lab is an excellent go-to resource.
From academic writing to graduate school applications, Purdue Online Writing Lab has you covered with all things English. Despite the level of difficulty of the writing at hand, you will have access to all the information you need including a research and citation guide.
TED
Inspiration and education can go hand-in-hand when it comes to being a college student. With all of the assignments and exams, extracurricular activities, and attempts at maintaining a social life, at some point, you are going to need to feel inspired. I mean, that’s kind of part of this whole adulting thing.
Add some inspiration to your day by checking out TED—an online platform that has a variety of lectures and discussions on almost any topic that you can think of. And it could very well be that a TED lecture is the start of an idea for your next paper topic or presentation.
No matter the issue you’re currently facing in your studies, there’s always some type of online resource that is bound to make all college-related tasks easier. With our 8 helpful website suggestions, you will never have to worry about sleeping in too late, struggling with homework help, or tormenting yourself over monthly budgets again!
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